“To Our Surprise” also does well with the new instrumentation, its bombastic rhythm and crashing percussion perfectly encapsulating the feel of rolling around on the Wonderland walls, whacking Heartless.

Tracks like “Bustin’ Up on the Beach” and “To Our Surprise” fare exceptionally well in their new forms, with the former benefitting from a wailing guitar underscoring the melody, which always captured a bit of Shimomura’s earlier work on Super Mario RPG. A few tracks here and there reveal their roots more than others, such as “Blast Away! -Gummi Ship II-,” but those are the exception, not the rule. The end result is music that retains the charm and simplicity of KH1 without sacrificing a live, orchestral sound. Rather than full-on reimaginings of the original material, which was produced via the PlayStation 2’s onboard audio hardware, the sound team (including string orchestra gaQdan) performed the music with live instruments, expanding the sound palette to make for a fuller, more natural sound than was possible when the game original released. That said, I consider Kingdom Hearts 1.5’s re-instrumentificated music to be an overall success. That’s not to say that I universally love the new music Final Fantasy X HD has its fair share of misfires in its reinterpretations, and even some aspects of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 are perhaps not as I would have imagined them. My philosophy has always been one of “well, if they’re going to make it look nicer, why not make it sound nicer, too?” As the years slide on, I know at least that my own memory has a tendency to upscale graphics and music and affect how I remember the games of yesterday, and so I’ve typically appreciated Square Enix’s “HD music” approach for helping the focus of my nostalgia keep up with the realities of modern tech and sound hardware. Some folks are always bound to swear by “how it used to be” and toss out declarations of “they ruined it!” no matter what changes are made, and certainly there’s some merit to keeping certain aspects of a classic the same (just ask George Lucas). Messing with the subject of many folks’ keen sense of nostalgia is never an easy thing, though. With their recent spate of remasters, Square Enix has taken to tossing in more than just a spitshine and some trophies - most of them also involve some degree of tinkering with the original music. 02 – Hikari -KINGDOM Orchestra Instrumental Version-Ģ3 – HIKARI -KINGDOM HEARTS Instrumental Version-Ģ5 – One-Winged Angel (from Final Fantasy VII)ģ2 – Hikari 33 – March Caprice for Piano and OrchestraĠ5 – Having a Wild Time -Previous Version-Ġ9 – Musique pour la tristesse de Xion -Bonus Track-ġ0 – At Dusk, I Will Think of You… -Bonus Track-ġ2 – Another Side -Battle Ver.-Bonus Track.

Kingdom hearts hd 1.5 remix soundtrack