We all have origin stories about how we got into RPGs (several of us shared them almost six years ago in this feature!), so today our panel discusses music origins — what RPGs attuned us to the RPG music scene or otherwise elevated our senses and made us take notice. For some of us, this dates back to the days of the NES, and sometimes our awakening happened during the days of the GameCube. Whenever these songs hail from, they each hold a special place in our hearts.

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Wes Iliff, Gio Castillo, Rob White; Edited by Paul Dennis

Warm Beginnings
0:05:01 - Diddle's Organ (Yoko Shimomura) - Legend of Mana
0:05:53 - Godot - The Fragrance of Darkness; That is Coffee (Noriyuki Iwadare) - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials & Tribulations

16-Bit Vibes
0:25:35 - Kids Run Through the City (FFPR ver.) (Nobuo Uematsu) - Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster
0:28:11 - Frog's Theme (Yasunori Mitsuda) - Chrono Trigger

Round 3: Fight!
0:44:50 - Colosseum Round 3 (Tsukasa Tawada) - Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness
0:49:05 - Battlefield Without Light -War Theme 2- (Miki Higashino) - Suikoden II

Iconic Themes
1:11:11 - Tantagel Castle (Koichi Sugiyama) - Symphonic Suite Dragon Quest I
1:14:31 - Fear of the Heavens (Hiroki Kikuta) - Secret of Mana
1:46:22 - Gio's Bonus Track!

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

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149 - RPG Music Origin Stories