• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
  • Furukawa Speaks! We discuss the announcement of the Nintendo Switch Successor and our June Direct Predictions on the new episode of the Famiboards Discussion Club! Check it out here!

Discussion As we approach the reveal for Switch 2, what are your thoughts on EPD's soundtracks during the Switch era?

What are your thoughts on EPD's music output during the Switch?

  • My favorite gen of Nintendo OST output

  • Very satisfied, but not my favorite when compared to other Nintendo consoles

  • Mixed bag, some surprises and disappointments

  • Unsatisfied, on the lower end of the tier list

  • Least favorite generation of EPD soundtracks

Results are only viewable after voting.
Truno

Truno

Koopa
Pronouns
He/Him
With the Direct looming over the horizon, the expectations seem that the first party surprises might be:

  • New 2D Donkey Kong game
  • New 2D Zelda game
  • Metroid Prime 4
  • Mario Party

However, many believe that these titles will be reserved for the Switch 2 whilst Switch receives mostly remakes/remasters to pad out its lifecycle.

Disregarding potential new releases, what are your overall thoughts on EPD's musical output during this era?
 
0
It's been an absolute rip of a generation for soundtracks from EPD. I love the emphasis on vocalized theme songs, with Jump Up Superstar as a standout.

But I especially go away from this gen with one of my favourite game soundtracks ever in Tears of the Kingdom.



I mean, listen to this. The instrumentation, the arrangement, the energy at display, the quintet harmonies, the Wind Waker callback, it's all just aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh
 
The Zeldas are the crown jewel this gen. I think the risks paid off, with my only complaint being TotK specifically could’ve used more new music. I think they’ll age incredibly well. They’re just very sophisticated, rich and varied and integrated so perfectly into the game.

Mario has fallen from grace a bit with Odyssey and Wonder. The former has some highlights (and Jump Up Superstar is amazing) but can’t touch 3D World and especially the Galaxies in terms of consistency. Wonder is just kinda meh all around, though certainly better than NSMB, I’d like to hold it to a higher standard than that.

Dread may be MS but composers are still EPD and that soundtrack is incredibly disappointing and worrying for the future.

ARMS soundtrack is small but has an incredible main theme.

I guess overall a mixed bag personally, we’ve gotten some highlights, but specifically I don’t think we’ve gotten as many memorable and instantly iconic melodies from Nintendo this gen the way we have in previous ones.

Thankfully Monolith picked up the slack. Xenoblade 2 and 3 are all timer soundtracks. 3 especially gets better every day to me. Mitsuda’s magnum opus.
 
Last edited:
Don't really have a strong opinion in this matter, but I will say that I do think New Horizon's OST is overhated. It has a few of my favorite songs from the entire series:



 
It has felt weaker to me, in comparison to previous games, but I would say no game suffers from having a bad soundtrack. Super Mario Odyssey doesn’t get anywhere near Galaxy or 3D World for me (though Jump Up Superstar and New Donk City are some major highlights that are fantastic imo).

Pikmin 4 is another one that felt weaker, though it was likely a deliberate choice. However, some tracks like Leafy Showdown or Serene Shores (Shipwreck Tale) are easily some of my favorites in the series as well.

I think every game has some stuff to like in terms of music, but for the most part I have been very… whelmed by the 1st-Party music offerings on Switch.
 
Phendrift said:
The Zeldas are the crown jewel this gen.
Click to expand...
Hmmm really? I'm asking because I don't know. I've only played Breath of the Wild and I thought one of things missing from the game was music. When you transverse across different parts of the map I don't remember any music themes playing like in previous Zeldas. That's something I was dissapointed about for sure.
 
Truno said:
Don't really have a strong opinion in this matter, but I will say that I do think New Horizon's OST is overhated. It has a few of my favorite songs from the entire series
Click to expand...
Totally agree! These two are bangers lol




ACNH has definitely one of my favourite EPD's soundtracks
 
An issue that we might see with 3D Mario moving forward, especially if speculation about it being open world is true, is that most of Mario's adventures were level based. In games like 3D World or Galaxy, the soundtracks saw a wide variety of motifs and themes as they had a large array of levels to play with.

In Odyssey there are only 16 Kingdoms and there's only so much you can do. The approach moving forward might be dynamic soundtracks ala BotW or TotK, but even then the motifs would remain the same in each respective kingdom or zone
 
Last edited:
0
Outside of a couple misses (PIkmin 4's OST jumps out as the weakest link imo, and while Wonder's music was an improvement over NSMB that was a very low bar), I'm pretty happy with it

Not my favorite generation for their soundtracks, but I'd say it's easily a top 3
 
  • Zelda (BOTW & TOTK) - Good for what they were going for, but the minimalist style isn't as memorable as previous OSTs. 7/10
  • Mario (Odyssey & Wonder) - Solid. Wonder beats NSMB. Odyssey doesn't reach the highs of Galaxy, but it's still great. 8.5/10
  • Pikmin 4 - Another series that got hit with the minimalism craving. Didn't come together like Zelda did, resulting in a OST worse than every previous game. 5/10.
  • Splatoon 2/3 - Keeping up the quality since the 1st game. 9/10.
  • Animal Crossing - Some good tunes but the weakest in the entire series. Most hourly themes are too minimalist. 4/10
  • Metroid Dread - What the fuck. Incredibly disappointing for a series with such a great musical legacy. 1/10
Overall, probably the weakest OST lineup since the NES-era? That sounds harsh, but I can't think of any major Nintendo series that had a bad OST prior to this generation. Now, I can name several. And no series improved this generation either.
 
Last edited:
HotelSyrup said:
Hmmm really? I'm asking because I don't know. I've only played Breath of the Wild and I thought one of things missing from the game was music. When you transverse across different parts of the map I don't remember any music themes playing like in previous Zeldas. That's something I was dissapointed about for sure.
Click to expand...

Although this is true, an aspect of the new 3D Zelda's that doesn't get complemented enough is the how improved the dungeon themes are. We went from this:



To this:

 
Someone tell Nintendo people want to buy music digitally and stream it.

Mario Odyssey is amazing.
 
The big standout for me right here. A final battle on an epic scale, but the music really elevated it.

 
Honestly? Weak. Odyssey, Animal Crossing are great.

I'm not a fan of Splatoon's music, and Zelda's are weak, with a couple standouts, but not enough.
 
Odyssey's soundtrack is so great, I feel like some people think it's just a step down because it's not an orchestra. Not every game needs one! But of course if you prefer them that's your opinion.

I also think ACNH is the worst soundtrack in the series but it's far from bad. The hourly songs seemed to be more similar this time but maybe I just played the game more.
Zelda is fantastic and I think one of the GOATs even if TotK has a lot of carryover from Botw. It works perfectly for the game that it is and also has some bangers.

Outside of these I embarassingly struggle to think of EPD games I have played. ARMS was ass I thought, but I don't like the game at all so I may be biased.
 
Ryo Nagamatsu absolutely killed it on his tracks for Splatoon 2 and 3, and I'll be bummed if Nintendo doesn't contract him for the fourth game.

 
Good but not amazing

All the best Nintendo soundtracks this gen were things like Paper Mario, Kirby and Pokémon (if you can even count Pokémon). There isn't an EPD soundtrack in an original Switch game that's particularly amazing except BotW ironically enou—wait that's a Wii U game. Uhh Bowser's Fury

Anyway Mario Wonder in particular has one of the weakest Mario soundtracks yet. The boss themes are not very good which is a shame as Mario always has great and memorable boss themes, and most of the level themes sound like something that's meant to be played in coffee shops. It's obvious not a lot of the budget went into the music.

The Odyssey soundtrack is fine but I hope they bring back the 3D World composers for the next game. Mahito Yokota and Toru Minegishi are some of my goats. Unfortunately the former has been absent for the whole Switch era. He hasn't composed anything since 3D World/Captain Toad back in 2013

I do not remember a single Pikmin 4 track except the title theme and that really awful track that plays when that giant enemy appears in a cave

I haven't played enough of New Horizons to judge the music

Splatoon 2 especially the octo expansion had great music. Splatoon 3's soundtrack is good

Mario Kart DLC is just old songs but they're alright. Some good stuff, some pretty weird remixes. Overall a fine soundtrack

Mario Maker 2's soundtrack isn't big but all the new level themes were fantastic. Much better than Wonder in that regard

TotK's soundtrack is good...cuz it's just BotW's soundtrack again. I don't remember any of the new stuff except the wind temple boss and the sludge like boss theme

Thinking about it I think Zelda, Bowser's Fury and Splatoon are the highlights for EPD soundtracks this gen. It's a shame Ryo Nagamatsu left Nintendo. He was the best EPD composer that was actively composing music.
 
Last edited:
I picked “best ever” but mostly because I can’t decide. EPD has so many great tracks throughout their history.

I liked what we got this generation, though. Mario was solid as ever, Zelda went for something new and it worked and was wonderful, Animal Crossing nailed the vibes I was looking for, and Splatoon is absolutely fantastic.

Pop ‘n’ Schlock from Splatoon 3 might be one of my favorite video game songs in years. It fills me with that weird anemoia feeling. (I don’t even want to admit the amount of time I’ve spent in the lobby, where the song sounds best, making my Inkling dance/shuffle back-and-forth to it!)

 
Out of the EPD games I've played:

  • BOTW and TOTK: were phenomenal, just wanted more 9/10
  • Mario Wonder: best palette cleanser for the types of games I played last year 8.5/10
  • Splatoon 3: One of the most unique ost, specially in the story mode 10/10
  • Metroid Dread: Was ok, nothing to memorable that I recall, I also pretty new to Metroid so 7/10

I assume if a game was made by another studio but had a nintendo composer that counts right?

- Famicom Detective Club Games (MAGES/EPD) but the composer was Kenji Yamamoto. Its cheating cause its a remake but still had a fantastic ost.

My favorite soundtracks from nintendo aren't from epd but I think they did a phenomenal job.
 
0
Haven’t listened to everything of course, but I’ve been pretty happy with most of what I’ve heard outside of a dud or 2 (Metroid Dread unfortunately).

Off the top of my head:
BOTW and TOTK takes Zelda to imo successful new directions and have given me some of my favorite Zelda tracks. Everything about TOTK’s finale is just….GAH.

Odyssey’s fantastic even if a symphony doesn’t make up the majority of its sound. I appreciate its genre variety, and the vocal tracks are fun ear worms. Bowser’s Fury brings back more of that, I guess “power” of the Galaxies, and makes me hope Daisuke Matsuoka has a continued presence in future 3D Mario games.

Paper Mario continues to top itself, with a wonderful remade OST in TTYD, and TOK’s just being one of my favorite Mario OSTs.

I liked Wonder’s music, far better than the NSMB series. I think time will be good to this one.

Loved Splatoon 3 vibes. Had the story mode music on rotation for a good clip.

Kirby’s HAL, but sure I’ll throw that in too. Kirby tends to be great, and Forgotten Land is no exception. Particularly, Roche Limit and Burning, Churning Power Plant are favs.
 
Started off strong but I have been underwhelmed by quite a few soundtracks recently. Not really confident what is and isn't EPD so I'm just talking about whatever.

Mario Odyssey, Splatoon 2, Xenoblade 2, all bangers. Breath of the Wild took a bit to grow on me, but I really appreciate it and TOTK's soundtrack. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is just as good as ever, Star Allies was... fine. Don't remember it much. Mario Maker 2 worked wel for what it was.

Splatoon 3 and Xenoblade 3 were good but not as good as the 2nd games. Haven't played Dread.

Wonder was solid, I remember really liking the Swamp theme. I didn't like the Elephant changes to the music, ever, which is a shame.

I think New Horizons and Pikmin 4 were really underwhelming - and New Leaf and Pikmin 3 have some of my all-time favorite soundtracks. They both tried to be more ambient a la BOTW (more so Pikmin) and I think failed at that. I've grown on New Horizons a little bit, I think everything aside from the hourly music is what I'd expect, but the hourly music is just not good sometimes, and sometimes felt out of place.

I haven't loved the new paper mario themes. I think the orchestra is doing a little too much and many of the TTYD updated tracks were worse. The diversity in the game was great, with the dynamic battle themes, but the original soundtrack just had a spunk to it that was lost. TOK isn't really memorable to me at all.

I was let down by a lot of the Mario Kart DLC remixes, while the original game has such a perfect soundtrack.

Pokemon OSTs kinda started blending together for me post-Gen 5. There were some solid themes but nowhere near the series' peaks.

I would say overall Xenoblade 2 had my favorite Switch soundtrack, then maybe Splatoon 2 (with Octo Expansion of course)
 
jazzyartist said:
Odyssey’s fantastic even if a symphony doesn’t make up the majority of its sound. I appreciate its genre variety, and the vocal tracks are fun ear worms. Bowser’s Fury brings back more of that, I guess “power” of the Galaxies, and makes me hope Daisuke Matsuoka has a continued presence in future 3D Mario games.
Click to expand...
jirou said:
Odyssey's soundtrack is so great, I feel like some people think it's just a step down because it's not an orchestra. Not every game needs one! But of course if you prefer them that's your opinion.
Click to expand...
I’m not sure where the “Odyssey’s soundtrack gets hate because it’s not orchestral” is coming from.

Honestly, Odyssey’s soundtrack is at its best when it’s NOT doing that. Wooded Kingdom comes to mind.

It’s when it DOES lean into it (Cascade Kingdom) that it fails to live up to Galaxy. Same for leaning into the big band style with New Donk City not really matching up to 3D World.
 
Solidly ok imo. I don't think I could point to any particular release and say "yes this is the best this series has been musically" or even top 3 for a number of them, but most are good. Mario Kart 8 is top tier, but that's a WiiU game. EPD fallen off in this regard a bit to me. And no, I don't like the BotW method of having minimal/no music for 80% of the game. Particularly when what tracks that are there are actually very good. TotK was a step up at least, but similar problems.

Main outright stinker that sticks out to me though is Dread.

Xenoblade 2 and Future Connected are peak for their respective franchises, and probably for Monolith as a whole, but not EPD obviously.
 
Easily their best era of music since the SNES. Every single game from EPD is just banger after banger, and if Xenoblade 2/3 count as EPD games, no prior era comes even close to the Switch in terms of Nintendo music, although I would say every era has fantastic music. The only system from Nintendo I would say was a huge miss almost across the board for Nintendo and has several bad Nintendo soundtracks is the GameCube (although GBA still had great music so it kept that generation from being a disaster).
 
0
Phendrift said:
I’m not sure where the “Odyssey’s soundtrack gets hate because it’s not orchestral” is coming from.

Honestly, Odyssey’s soundtrack is at its best when it’s NOT doing that. Wooded Kingdom comes to mind.

It’s when it DOES lean into it (Cascade Kingdom) that it fails to live up to Galaxy. Same for leaning into the big band style with New Donk City not really matching up to 3D World.
Click to expand...
Steam gardens in the Wooded kingdom is the best Odyssey song period
 
Mixed bag.

3D Mario is fantastic with both Odyssey and the Bowser Fury tracks.
Wonder is just ok, better than the 2D games after the original NSMB at least.
BotW and TotK has some really great tracks when is being more melodic but the more ambiance tracks aren't particularly good. The remixed score for Link's Awakening is amazing tho.
ARMS is pretty good overall.
Splatoon 2 and 3 besides a handful of tracks don't really compare to the original.
Pikmin 4 is pretty bad, a significant downgrade over the previous games in terms of range and mood, only ocasionally capturing the more silly side of the series in its minigames and the extra mode tracks.
Metroid Dread is also a step down, only remember the Raven Beak theme.
 
Pretty good specially for Super Mario Odyssey.

I love listening to Deep Cut on YouTube but only have Splatoon 2, not 3.
 
Twilight said:
Mixed bag.

3D Mario is fantastic with both Odyssey and the Bowser Fury tracks.
Wonder is just ok, better than the 2D games after the original NSMB at least.
BotW and TotK has some really great tracks when is being more melodic but the more ambiance tracks aren't particularly good. The remixed score for Link's Awakening is amazing tho.
ARMS is pretty good overall.
Splatoon 2 and 3 besides a handful of tracks don't really compare to the original.
Pikmin 4 is pretty bad, a significant downgrade over the previous games in terms of range and mood, only ocasionally capturing the more silly side of the series in its minigames and the extra mode tracks.
Metroid Dread is also a step down, only remember the Raven Beak theme.
Click to expand...
How did I forget about Link's Awakening?

It is a remake but it was arranged by a single EPD composer and it's an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack so I will count it. Definitely one of the best soundtracks to come from Nintendo themselves this gen.
 
IMO many of the best Nintendo-published game OSTs this gen were from non-EPD studios:

  • Xenoblade 2/3
  • Kirby and the Forgotten Land
  • Pokémon SS/SV/Arceus
  • Fire Emblem Three Houses
  • Paper Mario TOK
  • Smash Ultimate
For EPD specifically, the music has honestly been a little lacking this gen. Mario Odyssey, Bowsers Fury, and Splatoon 2/3 are the only standouts to me.
 
I only didn't vote "least favorite" because the highs probably outweigh what they were doing in the NES days by volume.

MASSIVE fall from grace after how amazing they were in their early 2010's live era. The shift towards a "background noise" direction has been catastrophic, and with the exception of BotW it also coincides with much less talented composers leading the new entries. Splatoon remains the main exception to all this and still has a really heavy emphasis on more traditional game music, but unfortunately trying to listen to Splatoon music makes me feel physically ill so that's a no-go.

Special mention goes to Mario Wonder though for just being kind of sad. They didn't change direction or anything, they just barely tried any harder than they did with NSMB. It's like, fine I guess. The Donkey Kong Country Returns soundtrack is known for being "the worst one" and failing to live up to expectations for the series with its low quality instruments and heavy reliance on recycled material, but it still utterly stomps Wonder.

ARMS, Link's Awakening, and Bowser's Fury feel like throwbacks to the Wii U era scores and are the only ones I really liked this gen, though the former is hurt by being one of those stupid "same theme remixed over and over" soundtracks and Link's Awakening is a remake.
 
Mario Odyssey and Wonder were solid, has some standouts for sure. Breath and Tears were both surprisingly mid overall, some absolute classics yeah, but not nearly enough to make up for the lackluster bulk of the music. Splatoon music I never really liked, New Horizons wasn’t bad but definitely took a massive step down from New Leaf, and Metroid…. let’s not talk about Metroid
Actually I just remembered the booster course pass exists and the switch era just shot way up
 
0
dolpic said:
Hey now, I know Nintendo forgot to put music in Zelda and Pikmin and Metroid but let's not forget about Splatoon!
Click to expand...
Splatoon music isn't really my thing, I liked some of 1's OST a lot mainly because the instrumental rock themes are so iconic, but aside from a few tracks here and there the later games have much worse OSTs especially with the focus on obnoxious vocals, I do remember 3 being a step up from 2 but can't remember any of it
 
0


Painfully underrated game with a painfully underrated soundtrack. Outside of ARMS and Odyssey, however, EPD's soundtracks were a pretty big miss for me this gen. Wonder in particular was a massive disappointment, especially compared to Retro's DKC games and Yoshi's Woolly World.
 
It's common to see Metroid Dread's music being bashed but I thought it was actually mostly quite good. Maybe a 8/10 if Super Metroid is 10/10. I like Artaria's music, the EMMI zones and chase music, Burenia and Ghavoran. The ones I didn't like were Ferenia and Hanubia, Cataris and Dairon. So about half-half. What I thought Dread excelled at was the variety of sound effects and the overall audio balance. It sounds so cool and everything has its own place in the mix.
 
0
VegiHam said:
Unpopular take: I don't like the steam gardens theme. I don't like it when it's the background music to your YouTube videos
Click to expand...
Steam Gardens is weird because it's like the one track from Odyssey I really enjoyed the first time it played, but I was already totally sick of hearing it long before I finished the game. It's too repetitive to support being played on loop for the main body of such a large level. Most of the soundtrack is something more like Lethal Lava Land or Big Boo's Haunt for a reason.
 
Professor Chops said:
Outside of ARMS and Odyssey, however, EPD's soundtracks were a pretty big miss for me this gen.
Click to expand...
Stilt Village said:
ARMS, Link's Awakening, and Bowser's Fury feel like throwbacks to the Wii U era scores and are the only ones I really liked this gen, though the former is hurt by being one of those stupid "same theme remixed over and over" soundtracks and Link's Awakening is a remake.
Click to expand...
What about the mario kart 8 deluxe booster course pass DLC soundtrack
 
Last edited:
I think they have some work to do with Metroid, Pikmin, and Zelda. Those unfortunately felt a bit lacking. Other than that it was solid.
 
0
There's some good standout tracks, but I don't think anything comes close to previous generations. I'm an avid BotW/TotK soundtrack defender but I would be lying if I said that on the whole it was as memorable as previous Zelda soundtracks. Ever notice the only track people ever post to defend TotK's soundtrack is Colgera and none of the other bosses? Mario Kart 8 booster course pass had really good tracks but a lot of the remixes felt noticeably short compared to 8 where you might not even loop by the time you get to lap 3. Mario Odyssey is probably their most consistently good soundtrack. Mario Wonder's was sadly largely forgettable aside from a handful of songs, personally.
Splatoon music is good but it's not always my cup of tea, though I do appreciate how experimental it gets.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top Bottom