OST of the Day #15: Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal - Azalea Town

Hey Steempress!
If you're unfamiliar with this series, basically I share a soundtrack and my thoughts about it, and I highly recommend listening to the song while reading! 😊

Today we're taking a trip down memory lane to the Johto region!

 

 

 

Yes, it's about time I did a Pokémon game and I apologise for skipping over the first gen (Red/Blue/Yellow). Technically, the first Pokémon game I ever played was probably Yellow, but tbh I don't remember much since I had to share the GameBoy with my brothers. That meant I only got to play it if neither of them were playing, which was not often.

 

Anyway, the reason I chose this gen is because of nostalgia; I played this gen (specifically, Pokémon Silver) a whole lot of times when I was younger. I remember I tried all 3 starters on separate playthroughs, and I even played the same starter (Cyndaquil) multiple times.

If you're not familiar, Pokémon Silver, together with Pokémon Gold, are the second installments of the Pokémon series of role-playing video games, developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Color. They were released in Japan in 1999, Australia and North America in 2000, and Europe in 2001. Pokémon Crystal, a special edition, was released roughly a year later in each region.

Gold and Silver are independent of each other but feature largely the same plot and, while both can be played separately, it is necessary to trade between them and their backward compatible predecessors in order to fully complete the games' Pokédexes, which is the secondary aim of the game, the primary aim being becoming the Pokémon Champion.

 

 

Pokémon Gold and Silver were critically acclaimed upon release and they are considered by many to be the best games in the entire series. I think this is partly due to them introducing many new features that have since become a staple in the Pokémon series. For example, new items were added, with some designed to exploit a new mechanic: Pokémon being able to hold items. The Pokégear was also introduced, allowing the player to call other characters and vice versa, for rematches and such.

Today's song of the day is Azalea Town theme!

This song can only be heard in Azalea Town (pretty obvious), which is typically the third town you'll get to in the game. Curiously, the town slogan is "Where People and Pokémon Live in Happy Harmony!", which is pretty much Pokémon in a nutshell.

This specific theme always stuck with me for some reason. The higher pitched melody is just so catchy, and is perfectly complemented by the relatively lower pitched harmony and the bass. The 3 components of the song are fairly distinct but they just fit so well together like 3 puzzle pieces. Although the melody is leading the way throughout most of the song, it would sound astoundingly different if you removed 1 part, like something was missing. The pace of the song is not too fast even for a happy-go-lucky tune, so it gives off a cheerful yet relaxing feeling.

The composers, Junichi Masuda, Go Ichinose and Morikazu Aoki did a great job, especially considering the technological limitations of the GameBoy. I don't keep up with Pokemon much nowadays but every time I think of Pokemon and reminisce my good 'ol childhood days, I'll always have this song playing in my head. Well done, Game Freak.

Thanks for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://tacocat.vornix.blog/2018/09/17/ost-of-the-day-15-pokemon-gold-silver-crystal-azalea-town/

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