WARNING: Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies to Awesome Music pages. All spoilers will be unmarked.
Main Game
True to form for Utada Hikaru, the Japanese version of the main theme, Don't Think Twice, is a heavenly feast for the ears. And the English version is just as amazing too.
While for a vocal minority it's proven divisive, most can agree that "Face My Fears" is a great track, the combination of Utada Hikaru and Skrillex working even better than anticipated. Some feel it's even better than "Don't Think Twice"!
As is tradition for the series, the series' real theme song, Dearly Beloved returns with a new rendition. With the piano building into something grand, alongside intersecting major and minor keys, it gives the feeling of a journey coming to a close.
It sadly only plays twice, in the Rock Troll fight in Olympus and the Metal Troll fight in San Fransokyo, but the new version of "The Encounter", like all the other versions, kicks huge amounts of ass.
The Attraction Flow music, Hand in Hand, is an improved and bombastic version of the original battle theme of Traverse Town. Some people have been activating Attraction Flow only to hear this theme.
"The Deep End", a battle theme from the first game, returns in an amazing modern form for the clash against the Rock Titan at the top of a sheer cliff on Mt. Olympus beneath a raging thunderstorm.
The end of Olympus (as well as the Kraken Fight in the Caribbean) gives you a piece of God of War-like ear candy known only as Titanic Clash. It almost makes it seem like a Final Boss fight - and this is only the tutorial world in the case of the Titans.
Continuing the tradition of borrowing classic Disney music, KH3 introduces "You've Got a Friend In Me" as Toy Box's field theme. Additionally, the battle theme, Toy Box Jam, would not sound out of place in a Toy Story video game at all. Shimomura is required to understand a world's tone and atmosphere in order to craft the perfect battle themes for each, and this song definitely shows it off.
The classic boss battle theme dating all the way back to the first Kingdom Hearts, "Shrouding Dark Cloud", returns in full force with a modern remix for when Sora is sucked into the Verum Rex minigame. It is wonderful to hear again.
The somewhat somber theme that plays against the King of Toys as well as about half of the battlegates, Skyward Striker, highlights, in the context of the Toy Box, how even a world like Toy Story won't prevent a series like Kingdom Hearts from inserting the kind of outside-context epicness associated with the boss fight in question. It's telling that Kingdom Hearts 3 takes place between one of the lightest Toy Story movies ever made and the absolute darkest Toy Story movie ever made that the music team really needed to keep the scale of the franchise up before the series' next big journey.
Happy Hair Day is pure, distilled joy and wonder in musical form.
In addition to numerous remixes for several of the bosses (including the return of "Unforgettable" for the final boss of Monstropolis in the game), we also get a brand-new piece that is very foreboding and emotional in tone, Anger Unchained, used for fights against a few particularly huge, powerful, and emotionally meaningful climactic foes: Mother Gothel's Heartless "Grim Guardianess", and Hans Westegaard's Heartless "Sköll".
The developers are clearly Frozen fans, and didn't resist the urge to include the entirety of "Let It Go"in the game, unedited, and completely re-animated in their own FMV style. And perhaps deservingly.
The theme that plays against Dark Baymax, Davy Jones, and the other half of the battlegates, Eye of the Storm, is a treat to listen to. Obviously using an orchestration.
For the battle against Dark Aqua in the Realm of Darkness, the music, Aqua ~Dark Dive~ is a fittingly haunting remix of Aqua's theme, mixed with "Fate of the Unknown".
The theme for Aqua vs. Vanitas, a remake of Vanitas' theme "Enter the Darkness". Ishimoto took clear inspiration from his work on Final Fantasy Type 0 and Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, turning one of his best works into one of the best in series history.
The remix of Thermosphere from Einhänder, used for the Gummi Superboss fight with the Schwarzgeist. Much like the fight itself, it's an updated version of the original track that still keeps the original's spirit, with the slow segment before the loop being as beautiful as the original version.
When Ephemer summons the Keyblades of fallen Dandelions to aid Sora against the Demon Tide, a truly epic rendition of "Dearly Beloved" and "The Keys of Light" called Rise of the Union, accompanies the following battle.
When the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness meet the Seven Guardians of Light for the climactic final battle at the crossroads, a haunting, powerful remix of the Organization's theme plays as if to underscore that after years and years of speculation and delays, this is it: this is the start of the Keyblade War.
The fight against Saïx is accompanied by Hearts as One, a remix of "Vector to the Heavens" and "The Other Promise", the themes of your party members for the fight: Xion and Roxas. But while the original versions of these themes were slow and sad, this is a Triumphant Reprise, given great weight and power, and it's played tempo and key of "Sora", which is also liberally sprinkled in there. The end result is like He's Back! in musical form, underscoring the awesomeness of Roxas' return and the ass-kicking he and Xion are about to dish out on Saïx.
Forza Finale, the penultimate boss theme, is a breathtaking medley of Ansem, Seeker of Darkness's, Xemnas's, and Young Xehanort's battle themes from past games. A fitting tune for their final battle and it's astonishingly Yasunori Nishiki'ssole contribution to the OST, which is an amazing way to make his mark on the series and its musical history.
It starts off with the intro to "Dark Impetus", reflecting how it all started with Young Xehanort and how his time-traveling was what brought the Xehanort's together as a unit.
It then moves into "Forze de Male", befitting how Ansem was the first Final Boss of the franchise. It then transitions back into the violin solo for "Dark Impetus", once again showing how vital Young Xehanort was in binding the Seekers of Darkness together before moving into "Darkness of the Unknown" with its' chaotic, epic strings section.
Towards the end, we hear the iconic tune that was first heard all the way back in "Another Side" which carried into the Organization's theme, before it spirals into an absolutely merciless rendition of the climax of "Darkness of the Unknown". The violin in this section is ferocious and yet also sounds bittersweet, since while this is the end of the line for these iconic villains, they're not without their own personal tragedies (Ansem's Despair Event Horizon, Xemnas's loneliness, and Young Xehanort's estrangement from Eraqus (even if he "dies" taunting Sora to the end), and we now have to say goodbye to them.
Squandered in the main game due to how easily and quickly it can be beaten, but the first part of the final battle medley, Replicas, played against the Xehanort Replicas, gets better justice in Re:Mind when the remaining Guardians of Light have their turn against them in a long Wolfpack Boss vs Back-to-Back BadassesWolfpack Party battle sequence.
The final boss theme, Dark Domination is a mix of "Guardando Nel Buio", calling all the way back to the very first fight against Xehanort from the first game and "Rage Awakened", a theme that's all about unending hatred and rage for the man that has built up over an entire series. Putting them together sums up the nostalgia, catharsis and sense of finality that this game has to the Dark Seeker Saga and wanting to stop Xehanort once and for all. Destati is also mixed in there for good measure.
The music that plays through the secret ending, titled "Secrets of the Night", is really something else. Sora and Riku try to find their bearings in an unfamiliar city, accompanied by a haunting arrangement of The Final World's solemn leitmotif that transitions into a hard remix of "Another Side", the theme of the first game's secret ending. As the cityscape view fades out and we see Yozora, the music changes to a quiet piano piece that takes cues from Final Fantasy XV's "Somnus"; this could well be a fragment of Yozora's own theme.
Re:Mind
There's an unnamed track (aptly nicknamed 'Vessels Emerge' by fans) that appears when the Xehanort Vessels emerge from Kingdom Hearts to face the remaining Guardians of Light. The music itself sounds unlike any soundtrack heard before in Kingdom Hearts, sounding more akin to a cinematic film OST or trailer music for a blockbuster movie. It just sounds incredibly epic in addition to encapsulating the feeling of 'This is it…!' the Guardians must be feeling.
The rendition of 'Link to All' that plays when Sora is connecting the Keyholes. Starting out softly, it just gets louder with additional instruments the more Keyholes are connected. By the end, a full orchestra is playing, building up the moment perfectly in an aspiring tone sure to make you tear up and get goosebumps.
The Datascape True Organization XIII battles all (aside from Vanitas's Enter the Darkness) have new battle themes that are remixes of their themes from past games. A very welcome addition after some bossesnote Xigbar, Riku Replica, Luxord, Marluxia and Larxene in the base game reused their old themes.
The 13th Dilemma, Data Xigbar ver., and his (Face-Off ver.). Both are surprisingly desperate considering his laid back attitude, yet fitting for the constant background changes and the screen filled with the Freeshooter's bullets. Data Saïx ver. is epic piece of guitar-shredding metal, fitting his berserker personality.
For the 13th Struggle, Data Larxene ver. sounds almost like the original, but with a greater sense of urgency due to the Savage Nymph splitting into five, while the Data Luxord ver. takes a turn for the sinister, fitting for the Gambler of Fate's card games, and (Luxord's Gambit ver.) is one epic case of Needle in a Stack of Needles.
L'Eminenza Oscura, Data Ansem ver. takes away the choir but replaces it with a grandiose orchestra and brass instrumentals reminiscent of a score set in the climax in a Disney film, which is fitting for the original Seeker of Darkness that started this whole series.
Dismiss, Data Terra-Xehanort ver. A faithful remaster of the theme in Birth By Sleep, except with a heavier emphasis placed on Terra's Leitmotif once the violins start kicking in representing Terra's struggles to regain control of his body as the Guardian.
Forze De Male, Data Dark Riku ver. is an orchestral rendition of the original that features brass instruments to magnify the tension you'll inevitably feel when you face off against Dark Riku's nonstop onslaught of attacks.
Vector to the Heavens, Data Xion ver. is somehow even more epic than the remix against Saïx, with Xion taking cues from both Roxas and Saïx to create a very epic yet desperate theme.
Forze dell'Oscurita, Data Master Xehanort ver. Another returning theme from Birth By Sleep given an orchestral remastering. What it lacks in sheer force and tension compared to the original, it makes up for with a more sophisticated yet chilling instrumentation that perfectly encapsulates Master Xehanort's cunning and power despite his elderly appearance.
The opening music to the Secret Episode is...really, unlike anything heard in the series before. Quiet, solemn, haunting and beautiful at the same time, it feels like something straight out of NieR rather than Kingdom Hearts.
Nachtflügel, which plays during the battle with Yozora, gives us one of Shimomura's finest compositions yet. Incredibly fast-paced and frantic, and yet extremely minimalist with instruments and synths, it's primarily a purely piano-solo theme. A possible preview of What Could Have Been with Versus XIII, and what may still be in wherever the series goes next.
And to cap it off, the beautiful rearrangement of Yozora's theme that plays if Sora loses the battle. It really makes you wonder what the hell Square-Enix and Tetsuya Nomura are planning for the future of the series with such a drastic change in atmosphere and tone.
is a heavenly feast for the ears. And the English version