Which Pokémon game has the best soundtrack?

It's definitely not gen 6 or gen 7 in my opinion. They dropped the ball with those. Which is a shame because each have one or two tracks that really stand out.

Nostalgia makes me prefer Gold Silver followed by RBY. Can't help it, I know those by heart.

Gen 5 with its dynamic tracks. The songs change based on it you're walking, if it's winter, when the gym leader is at their last Pokemon, if you're standing next to a musician, etc. On top of great music in general like N's castle and the PWC.

Guess I'll post an example. Here's a nice little town song:



When you walk by some kids dancing (feel free to join in!) it changes a bit:

Red Blue Yellow. It helps that the TV anime remade them so we'll and kept using them for years.

Sinnoh.

Everything is so relaxed in that game, and the jazz vibe from the soundtrack conveys the snowy regions atmosphere greatly.

It's also pretty experimentive, and relys on more than a few nice notes string together. It has some instruments you'd never expect on the background but yet all meshes to create that chilled out beat.

I can just imagine traveling the snowy fields on the back of my Torterra. It makes the game really immersive.

They're all great though, it's really really close. Music is one of Pokemons greatest strength. They all create unique atmospheres, I'm just more partial to Sinnohs. Hoenns got a great adventure vibe going on though so id say that was my second.

Heartgold/Soulsilver is the best, it takes the already great soundtrack of GSC and makes it even better IMO:

God and Silver.

Heart gold or gen 1. The remixes of the old stuff is amazing.

Black and White 2.

You already have the great themes of Black and White like Nimbasa City and Driftviel City (along with a killer main theme remix when you get to the final pokemon against a gym leader)

Add remixes of every Gym Leader and Champion theme from every other region thanks to the Pokemon World Tournament.

And then add great new themes on top of that like Colress's battle theme and the Pokemon World Tournament Finals and you have yourself the grand winner.

Gen 5 for sure.
The first couple gens have nostalgia going for them but this is quality enough to beat that out in my mind.

My favourite is from GSC

R/S/E and D/P/Plt had amazing music as well.

Gold/Silver still have my favourite soundtracks.
I love the Route themes with Route 27 having an awesome theme that perfectly captures the epic feeling of making your way to the Pokémon League.
Ecruteak City is one of my favourite town themes that fits the historical nature of the city.
The battle themes are awesome with the Rival and Champion battle themes being amongst the best in the series.
And to top it all off you get amazing remixes of every single Kanto theme as well.

Edit: I forgot about the beautiful National Park theme and the awesome Dark Cave theme.

As a whole I'd probably say Gold and Silver too, but each generation did a specific thing better than others. Sinnoh has the best Route themes, Unova has the best story-related themes (i.e. N's Castle, N's Bridge, N's Farewell, etc), Hoenn the best City themes, Johto the best Battle themes, Alola the best Character themes, and so on.
(Gen 6 doesn't win on any front.)

But of course there are some exceptions, there are too many OST to just pick one.

Heart Gold and Soul Silver followed by Ruby and Sapphire

Choose any of the DS games, those sound fonts are so good. My personal fav of the 9 is HG/SS because of the compositions from G/S/C were really good, but the sound font just raises them up another level.

Gen 5.

and whoever say otherwise is WRONG.

Gen 5 easily.

Gale of darkness cuz of the mirror b track.

Gen 5 by far.

Gen 5 at a canter, with the additions putting BW2 over the top.

Gold/Silver/Crystal.

No contest.

Pokémon G/S/C/HG/SS

Love everything about Johto

Gen 4 hands down. The mix of upbeat, plucky tunes and mellow arrangements really enhance the whole experience to another level.

Hell, even all of Team Galactic's themes are great.

G/S/C and R/S/E for me.

I fucking love those trumpets man.

Waluigilicious said:

It's definitely not gen 6 or gen 7 in my opinion. They dropped the ball with those. Which is a shame because each have one or two tracks that really stand out.

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Agreed. Some good tracks but while the improvements in technology seem to have put to good use, the underlying melodies are just not as strong as they once were.

Gen 1-5 were all great in the music department. Very hard to choose but I'd probably go for Gen 3.

Aleh said:

As a whole I'd probably say Gold and Silver too, but each generation did a specific thing better than others. Sinnoh has the best Route themes, Unova has the best story-related themes (i.e. N's Castle, N's Bridge, N's Farewell, etc), Hoenn the best City themes, Johto the best Battle themes, Alola the best Character themes, and so on.
(Gen 6 doesn't win on any front.)

But of course there are some exceptions, there are too many OST to just pick one.

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it's like you broke down my opinion of the Pokemon music in its entirety. Explained it in a way I wouldn't have.

Though I feel I like ruby and sapphire the most. Cause of the city themes.

I really Love Haoli city day theme, gladions theme and summit battle theme from sun/moon. Gen six deserves nothing.

Nostalgia would say first two gens had the best music but taking off nostalgia goggles one would see gen 5 has the superior music.

Gen 5 for me. Only game in the series that made the main series theme a battle theme in the coolest way possible.

Gen 3 or Gen 5

Anything but Gen 3

Gen 5 easily for me.



Oh and of course the best credits theme

Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon

Had the mix of hawaiian style music and creepy sci-fi b-movie music

Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald has the most memorable and diverse soundtrack IMO. Route 113, the desert, Mt. Pyre, all of the battle themes, I could go on and on. Personally there's not a song I don't like.

Gold, Silver and Crystal has a soundtrack that captures the bleak atmosphere perfectly, and has a really "classic Pokemon" feel overall. HGSS butchered it, sadly.

Black and White's soundtrack has a lot of experimentation and dynamic music that makes it fun to listen to.

I've been going back to the Diamond/Pearl route themes and they're just beyond killer. So adventurous, triumphant, jazzy. I see everyone mentioning Black/White here but I feel like it doesn't compare.

between gen 3 and 4 gen 4 had the best battle themes to me, and the best bike theme.

Black and White for me personally, it also has my favourite track in the whole series.

This is a very hard question for me. But overall (imo) Hoenn has the best tracks in the series, soooooooo Emerald and ORAS. Gen 7 has the weakest routes music, but some of the strongest City/Town songs for me. Hauoli City (night) is freaking amazing.

There was a point in time where I would've said HG/SS without hesitation, and it's still top tier, but Diamond & Pearl's jazzier soundtrack wins out for me in the end. The standouts being:

Route 216
Route 228

And probably the best Pokemon Center and Mart themes in the entire series:

Gold? You've got two great rival themes, and rock cave.

Too hard to say as nostalgia plays a massive part, massive. I'd have to say Gen 1, Gen 2 as a close second (lmao, I realize how dumb that sounds after what I had just said).

It's not just about the nostalgia though, the songs are memorable as fuck, and to be honest I've always loved the chiptune sound of the music. So many people prefer the DS remakes of Gen 2, and I just couldn't get into them because of the music. I hated how it sounded. I also just love the simple graphics of the original games, but hey that's a different convo.

Hoping the music sounds great in the new Let's Go games.

ORAS. Those remixes and newer themes...

Soooo good.

Like a bunch of others have said, gen 5. Gen 5 was the peak of so many things in the series, including music. Especially bw2.

The princess has the best champion theme

I keep being asked to make a music medley with Pokemon music, but the only ones I know by heart are the ones in Super Smash Bros... I was never attached to this series.

It's really hard to boil down which songs are the most iconic/best ones from each generation, as an outsider. I kind of feel like none of them have songs as well-liked as stuff from Mario and Zelda, or am I wrong?

Anyway, maybe someone in this thread could name 3-4 musts from each gen for me to choose from? :D

It has to be gen VII for me, Ultra Necrozma is hype, Lusamine is creepy/sci fi, the Tapus rocks.
Close second gen III because of nostalgia.

Give me that Sinnoh Piano:





I also love a lot of Sinnoh's other songs, such as Route 209, Route 225, and Jubilife City's night theme.

Does Colosseum count? Because if so it's definitely that one.

Pokemon Black 2 sounds like edgy modern Sonic music. Gross.

It's Gold or Heart Gold. Followed by Red and I really like Pokemon Sun music too. It's happy.

Sea lion said:

Sinnoh.

Everything is so relaxed in that game, and the jazz vibe from the soundtrack conveys the snowy regions atmosphere greatly.

It's also pretty experimentive, and relys on more than a few nice notes string together. It has some instruments you'd never expect on the background but yet all meshes to create that chilled out beat.

I can just imagine traveling the snowy fields on the back of my Torterra. It makes the game really immersive.

They're all great though, it's really really close. Music is one of Pokemons greatest strength. They all create unique atmospheres, I'm just more partial to Sinnohs. Hoenns got a great adventure vibe going on though so id say that was my second.

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Yep, came in here to say Sinnoh. Even the route themes are incredible and so chill and relaxing. Really enjoy the soundtrack of Sinnoh.

Hoenn and Johto share second place. Love the trumpets of Hoenn!

EDIT Oh man, BW/2 is incredible too!! The BW2 champion theme is one of the absolute greats of them all!