Pokémon Legends: Z-A (#21087)

[Mentalo]

I haven't heard anything from the leaks but a few thougts on the (huge) composers list :

Wow, wasn't expecting Carlos Eiene of all things! I feel he's likely responsible for the live jazz arrangements of "Battle! (Wild Pokémon)" and "Lumiose City" that we heard in multiple trailers.
Go Ichinose follows him on twitter, so my guess is they had a similar story as the one for Toby Fox collaborating with Game Freak lol
But what an amazing thing it must have been for him to participate officially to a mainline game (he's done multiple Pokémon arrangements on his youtube channel, most notably from Diamond and Pearl)!!

I'm also really suprised by the presence of all these SuperSweep composers! I mean, it's not the first time Game Freak collaborates with them (and most notably with Teruo Taniguchi on the mainline games), but it's a first time for Hosoe and Eguchi on a mainline Pokémon game, and a first time ever Saso is collaborating with Game Freak.

Great news to see Kageyama on that list since he was X&Y's sound director and lead composer, though his positionning makes me think he musn't have made a lot of music. It also marks the first time time he's involved in a Pokémon mainline soundtrack along with other Game Freak staff members (not counting Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl's weird Masuda credit since Kageyama is basically confirmed to have done pretty much every music for it), since Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

Adachi and Sato aren't very surprising since some of the trailer music sounded like them.
I guess Maeba will have mainly done cutscenes music as with Arceus and Scarlet/Violet.
And it looks like I was wrong thinking Ichinose would do music for ZA...

[Jacinta]

Both Hosoe and Saso had previously worked on Arika's games, such as Technictix and Technic Beat, the Street Fighter EX and Fighting Layer games, and the Tetris: The Grand Master series among other games before Legends Z-A.

Some of the game's music could give Arika-style vibes to players. Not sure if Legends Z-A could get a Tetris 99 Maximus Cup event soon after it's been released...

[chiefonpop]

Originally Posted by Mentalo

Great news to see Kageyama on that list since he was X&Y's sound director and lead composer, though his positionning makes me think he musn't have made a lot of music.

Yoshiyuki Watanabe is specifically credited here for "KISEKI" Sound Recording Engineer. Watanabe really only works with Kageyama, so it sort of indicates that he only worked on 1 track.

Originally Posted by Mentalo

It also marks the first time time he's involved in a Pokémon mainline soundtrack along with other Game Freak staff members (not counting Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl's weird Masuda credit since Kageyama is basically confirmed to have done pretty much every music for it), since Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

It's not much, but Masuda did compose two (intentionally?) unused pieces for BDSP. They're still in the game files, but all the accessible in-game music is Kageyama.

[Mac_Tear]

Originally Posted by Mentalo

And it looks like I was wrong thinking Ichinose would do music for ZA...

Personally, I think it's a good thing he is not on board for composing this time and that other new artists can bring some fresh air into the music. Nothing against him or Masuda, they're both iconic, but while I'm playing Sword/Shield currently, his compositions are beyond great. To be honest, this game has some of the most uninteresting battle themes (Wild Pokémon/Trainer, etc.) as well as most of the early BGM he composed (I just started the game, so please don't hate me lol). Most of the music I really enjoyed was composed by the other staff members, like the infamous gym leader theme.

[Jacinta]

Does the Mega Dimension DLC for the game have any new music?

[RBM95]

Originally Posted by Jacinta

Does the Mega Dimension DLC for the game have any new music?

I haven't checked properly but the DLC adds a new credits section with some of the sound staff of the base game, so it does seem to be the case.