GYM LEADER BATTLE (Pokemon R/B/Y)

I've covered this one before... like 5 years ago; figured it could use a makeover.

I really like this track. Gen 1's OST is my favorite after Gen 3; the battle themes are mostly Junichi Masuda cramming as many notes and chromatic runs and dumb little melodic lines as he can into speedy, fast paced jigs (without making it pure nonsense) and I kinda sorta adore it.

Fortunately, the R/B/Y OST also works pretty well in my case since a lot of thrash and power metal genres are arranged similarly: fast, loud, lots of unnecessary notes and showoffy garbage... It makes for a really fun time, specifically when you're battling someone in a virtual game environment, for example.

tbh I kinda miss when Pokemon music was less pillowy and orchestrated and more closely  resembled the older OSTs. I love Gen 3's OST since it walks the line between the two approaches perfectly - orchestrated and clean, but still with plenty of edge and memorable, fast, silly tunes. Pokemon benefits from having a hype soundtrack during the battle segments, and Gen1 - Gen3 all perfectly accommodate that. The rest of the games' OSTs aren't bad by any means - they're just not really the same.

I'm not sure if any of you have heard it yet, but ya boy™ Toby Fox was asked to contribute a track to Pokemon SW/SH - honestly, he did a great job of accomplishing exactly what I was just describing. It's energetic, catchy, hype, and just the right amount of silly with a dash of Toby's personal flair sprinkled throughout. It's fuckin great

You can check it out the demo of his track here: https://youtu.be/1NXN1FMpO-o

Anyway yeah idk, lemme know your thoughts. I'm not really holding my breath for SW/SH, but from what I've seen so far it looks like there's a lot of potential. I'll be picking it up in any case.

Seeya all next week, got something a bit special lined up!
-Rich

P.S. oh ya and ofc im 10000% covering that battle theme I linked up there, I'm just waiting on the game and full version to be released first.