RPG title screens bear a heavy burden. They're one of the first things we see in a game, making them one of the best places to leave a strong first impression. And often, a key component of that is the music. Several years ago, we highlighted eight standout title screen tracks in episode 71, and today, with a new panel, we're highlighting eight more! Come in and enjoy the music of several games you may know and some you likely don't. Welcome Matt to his first episode, and learn why there's an Elvis song in our links below, in this jam-packed episode of, well, jams!

As a side note, this episode's publish date was moved back, so some of the info near the end about Random Encounter and Retro Encounter's schedule is accurate, if behind where the shows currently are.

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Gio Castillo, Tin Manuel, Matt Wardell; Edited by Mike Salbato

Links for this episode

• Rhythm Encounter 61 - A Very Yoko Shimomura January
• Rhythm Encounter 71 - Press Start: Title Screen Music
• Square Enix: KINGDOM HEARTS: Memories of Dearly Beloved with Yoko Shimomura
• YouTube: Elvis Presley - Unchained Melody (live)
• YouTube: Community Pom: Ending Theme

Tracklist
Peaceful Beginnings
0:11:20 - ‌Somnus (Instrumental Version) (Yoko Shimomura) - Final Fantasy XV
0:13:46 - Dearly Beloved -KINGDOM HEARTS III Version- (Yoko Shimomura) - Kingdom Hearts III

Cheerful Beginnings
0:32:30 - ‌Solramimi (Kazuki Yanagawa) - Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout
0:34:27 - Title (Hideki Tobeta) - Community Pom

Emotional Beginnings
0:56:01 - Dragon Age: Origins (Inon Zur) - Dragon Age: Origins
0:58:46 - ‌Off-Seer (Yasunori Mitsuda) - Xenoblade Chronicles 3

There's-no-time-for-backup Beginnings
1:20:49 - Metropolitan Edge (Akira Yamaoka) - The 25th Ward: The Silver Case
1:23:47 - Invitation to the Overworld‌ (Yukihide Takekawa) - Soul Blazer
1:53:10 - Matt's Bonus Track!

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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Continuing our new run of quarterly new music updates is our first episode for 2025, and it's a truly notable start. We have a range of new music today, from well composed soundtracks that play homage to earlier console generations to new projects from popular Minecraft composer C418. We also continue to take our definition of music from a certain timeframe liberally and even have music for a game that doesn't exist (anymore). May these episodes help you learn more about new game music releases, and we'll be ready for more next quarter!

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff; Edited by Mike Salbato

Links for this episode

• Extremely OK Games: Final Earthblade Update

Tracklist
0:04:58 - ‌Batten Down the Hatches (Winifred Phillips) - Flint: Treasure of Oblivion
0:12:08 - Child of the Earth (Lena Raine) - Earthblade ~ Across the Bounds of Fate
0:23:28 - ‌Acoustic: Main Theme of FFVII - Battle Edit (Nobuo Uematsu, arr. Takaaki Nakagawa) - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Acoustic Arrangements
0:34:00 - A Different Sun (Amos Roddy) - Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
0:43:22 - Truth (Ada-P) - Urban Myth Dissolution Center
0:52:08 - Main theme (Mili feat. Cassie Wei) - ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist
1:09:02 - Hilary's Bonus Track!

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It's visual novel day at Rhythm Encounter! Following one of the quickest sign-up processes ever for our show, four visual novel fans have come together to share thoughts on the music of eight visual novels, but they discuss so many more in the process. We all quickly learned that this topic will have to make an appearance again because the well of inspiration is so very deep. But for today, listen as our panel digs in to Suikogaiden, Ever17, YU-NO, and much more!

Featuring: Patrick Gann, Neal Chandran, Audra Bowling, Gio Castillo; Edited by Mike Salbato

Links for this episode

• Audra's Genso Manège Review
• "You Can't Hurry Love" - The Biscats Music Video (YouTube)
• Crystal Cola on Bandcamp
• PRIZM on Bandcamp

Tracklist
Don’t Go Away, We’re Just Getting Started!
0:24:17 - went away (Kazuya Takase, perf. KOTOKO) - Hourglass of Summer
0:30:58 - You Can’t Hurry Love (Kazuya Nishioka, perf. The Biscats) - Cupid Parasite

Feelin’ Indie
0:47:32 - Summer Night (Crystal Cola) - A Summer's End - Hong Kong 1986
0:50:45 - Bonds (Low) - Fatal Twelve

Names To Remember
1:04:40 - Impatience 1 (Ryu Umemoto, arr. Keishi Yonao) - YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world. Soundtrack [Remake Version]
1:08:19 - Karma (Takeshi Abo) - Ever17

PSOne VNs
1:28:35 - The Boundless Dream (Ending Theme) (Miki Higashino, perf. Yumiko Takahashi) - Genso Suikogaiden Vol.2: Last Duel at Crystal Valley
1:33:13 - Dreaming Robot (Multi) (Shinya Ishikawa, arr. Yaco) - To Heart (from the arrangement album Melty Kiss)
2:00:48 - Neal's Bonus Track!

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Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is almost here, so what better time to dive into this musically fascinating "side" tale from 2015? Many fans were surprised that the first Xenoblade Chronicles was not followed by a "2" (though that happened later), but by Xenoblade Chronicles X. The name and looks alone made it clear this was a different beast: XCX features some now-familiar Xenoblade components and scale, but the more "worldly" nature of its story outside of the "main" plot thread was almost as divisive as its soundtrack to some players.

When your first game features music by Yoko Shimomura, ACE+, Manami Kiyota, and Yasunori Mitsuda, pivoting soundtrack duties to "Attack on Titan guy," Hiroyuki Sawano, makes people take notice. The whole Xenoblade series is packed with unforgettable music, but there's no denying that none of them sound quite like the sometimes weird, often catchy, and above all, wholly unexpected, Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Wes Iliff, Stephanie Sybydlo, Sean Cabot; Edited by Mike Salbato

Tracklist
Uncontrollable Wes
0:08:25 - ‌Uncontrollable
0:11:05 - Don't worry

Z5 Sean
0:25:55 - ‌Black tar
0:29:55 - ‌Z5 Mira

Wir Stephegen
0:43:03 - ‌Wir fliegen
0:46:25 - Manon

Mike X
1:00:44 - Shiro no Tairiku
1:05:44 - ‌Theme X
1:32:44 - Everyone's Bonus Track

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It's time for more of 2024's best RPG music! In the last episode, we featured nine excellent songs from last year, and today we return with Part II, bringing nine more tracks! Look for some Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, Flowstone Saga, a double dose of Stellar Blade, and more! Scarlet Moon's Jayson Napolitano joins us to share some of his picks as well, so don't miss out.

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff, Michael Sollosi, Gio Castillo, Patrick Gann, Jayson Napolitano; Edited by Mike Salbato

Links for this episode

• Scarlet Moon Interview: Visions of Mana Music Team
• Scarlet Moon Merch on Bandcamp
• Scarlet Moon Discord

Tracklist
Gio's Picks
‌0:02:16 - Raven (Oliver Good) - Stellar Blade
0:04:56 - ‌Battle -no hypocrisy- (Ryota Kozuka) - Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
0:08:13 - Detective Theme (Takeshi Abo) - Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club

Mike Salbato's Picks
‌0:35:29 - The Climb (Andrew Luers) - Flowstone Saga
0:38:40‌ - A Turn of the Page (Failpositive) - Paper Perjury
0:40:58 - Sword Search (Minako Hamano, arr. The Deku Trio) - Zelda & Jazz II

Jayson's Picks
1:04:23 - Charred Passage (Tsuyoshi Sekito) - Visions of Mana
1:06:23 - Silent Street (Battle) (Hyunmin Cho, seibin, Youngkyoung Choi) - Stellar Blade
1:09:53 - Penny's in a Pinch (Sean Bialo) - Penny's Big Breakaway

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It's time for Music of the Year! 2024 was absolutely stacked with game releases. Some even felt it was one of the all-time best years in gaming. And the side effect of a year filled with excellent games means a year of excellent soundtracks. For this annual special, we let each panelist bring on three songs. Even so, how did we pick just nine today? It wasn't easy.

2024 being such a great year for RPG music meant that one episode could not contain our Music of the Year celebrations, so we have split it into two back-to-back episodes. Enjoy the likes of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Arco, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and much more today. Then come back next week for three more panelists' highlights of the year!

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff, Michael Sollosi, Gio Castillo, Patrick Gann; Edited by Mike Salbato

Links for this episode

• The End of Service: A NieR Re[in]carnation Postmortem Retrospective

Pat's Picks
0:02:58 - The World's Heartbeat (comp. Kenji Ito, arr. Tsutomu Narita) - SaGa Emerald Beyond
0:04:49 - Battle! (Terapagos - The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero) (comp. Toby Fox, Go Ichinose, Rei Murayama, arr. Go Ichinose) - Pokémon Scarlet & Violet
0:08:16 - Lantern&End (Keiichi Okabe) - SINoALICE

Hilary's Picks
‌0:39:58 - Renoir (Lorien Testard) - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
0:42:55 - Moiety Theme (Robyn Miller) - Riven (2024)
0:45:01 - Nadie Los Podrá Salvar (José Ramón "Bibiki" García) - Arco

Michael Sollosi's Picks
‌1:17:52 - Impregnable Triangle (Chihiro Aoki) - Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
1:20:59 - Coral Crown (Darren Korb, feat. Erin Yvette, Ashley Barret, Judy Alice Lee) - Hades II
1:25:04 - Queen's Blood - Prodigious Pedigree (Mitsuto Suzuki) - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

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Almost exactly a year ago, four panelists came together to build a soundtrack to an imaginary RPG out of 8 fragments of other RPGs. Today, we're doing it again, except our "Hard Mode" rules dictate that we must choose songs from our source games with different use cases. So our Town Theme could be anything except another game's town theme, and so on. What kind of RPG will we assemble this time? Find out with us!

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff, Gio Castillo, Lucas Greene; Edited by Mike Salbato

Links for this episode

• Rhythm Encounter 126 - Build Your Own RPG Soundtrack | RPGFan
• Retro Encounter 442 – The Legend of Zelda: Draft of Fantasy

Tracklist
0:16:41 - Title Theme: Hollow Charge (Chris Geehan, Dan-Byrne McCullough) - Cosmic Star Heroine
0:26:30 - Map/Overworld Theme: Vana'diel March #2 (Naoshi Mizuta) - Final Fantasy XI
0:39:33 - Town Theme: Title Screen (Tsuyoshi Tanaka) - Harvest Moon 64
0:47:29 - Battle Theme: communication breakdown (Yuki Kajiura) - Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse
0:58:03 - Dungeon Theme: One Small Step (Masayoshi Soken) - Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
1:10:20 - Sad/Emotional Theme: Bloom Outro (Mili)  - ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights
1:21:16 - Final Boss Theme: Touch It - FINAL FANTASY BRAVE EXVIUS Remix (Ariana Grande) - Final Fantasy Brave Exvius
1:36:02 - Ending Theme: Welcome to our Town (Motoaki Takenouchi) - Symphonic Suite Shining Force II ~ Ancient Sealing ~

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Between our recent milestone of 150 episodes and the start of a new year, we will have some fun changes coming to Rhythm Encounter, starting with this episode. New games and music release all the time that don't always fit with our episode themes. Starting today, we will release a "new music" episode every few months to spotlight the latest in RPG music. These episodes will typically be a shorter listen with a smaller panel, featuring 6–8 songs each. Today, Mike and Hilary highlight Metaphor: ReFantazio, Ys X: Nordics, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, and more!

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff; Edited by Jonathan Logan

Links for this episode

• Rhythm Encounter 53 - Feel the Burn!
• Rhythm Encounter 150 - Name That (RPG) Tune

Tracklist
0:00:47 - Warriors in Arms (Shoji Meguro) - Metaphor: ReFantazio
0:09:35 - Ceruleum Smoke at High Noon (Takafumi Imamura) - Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail
0:21:31 - Heroes in Training (Winifred Phillips) - Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (Remaster)
0:30:27 - Alefgard (Koichi Sugiyama) - Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
0:35:44 - Facing the Distant Horizon (Falcom Sound Team jdk) - Ys X: Nordics
0:41:34 - VS. The Rutile All-Stars (Lena Raine) - Beastieball
0:57:09 - Mike's Bonus Track!

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan. This post also contains a bonus listing of more recent music that were considered for this episode, so don't miss it!

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WARNING: This episode contains major spoilers for Slay the Princess, so listen at your own risk if you have not yet played the game!

Every now and again at Rhythm Encounter, we have the chance to bring on a special musical guest. For today’s episode, RPGFan Music editor Patrick Gann sits down with Brandon Boone, composer for the indie visual novel hit Slay the Princess. The interview includes Brandon’s insights and reflections on the process of building the game’s score from the ground up, then expanding the soundtrack for its newer form, The Pristine Cut. Brandon also provides some interesting background information on how he got his start in music, his ties to studio Black Tabby Games (Abby Howard & Tony Howard-Arias), and his recent win at the World Soundtrack Awards!

Featuring: Patrick Gann, Brandon Boone, Mike Salbato; Edited by Jonathan Logan

Tracklist
0:24:13 - The Princess (Brandon Boone) - Slay the Princess Original Soundtrack
0:40:44 - The Shifting Mound Movement V (Live) (Brandon Boone) - Slay the Princess Live
1:23:26 - Brandon’s Bonus Track! House of Woodcock (Johnny Greenwood) - Phantom Thread Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

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Retro Encounter can't be the only one making quiz show episodes. Rhythm Encounter had to get in on the action to celebrate our 150th episode milestone! Which of course means making our contestants identify songs, composers, and more across five themed rounds. Who will triumph? Feel free to play along too and see how you do! We had enough fun with this one that we don't want to wait another 150 episodes to bring it back. But for now, put your quiz show hats on (those are a thing, right?), make some guesses, and ring in 150 episodes with us!

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Patrick Gann, Hilary Andreff, Gio Castillo; Edited by Jonathan Logan

Rounds
0:05:31 - Round 1: Better Together
0:16:45 - Round 2: This One's for the Girls
0:35:35 - Round 3: This, That, or the Other: Sakuraba Edition
0:51:50 - Round 4: Final Fantasy Arrangements
1:13:10 - Round 5: Know Your Eras
1:31:06 - Round 6: Final Question

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