As I replay through Xenogears and Chrono Cros, a thought occurs to me. It's something that occurred to me all the way back when I was playing the Xenosaga Trilogy but expanding my horizons a bit has kinda confirmed it.

Mitsuda is a legend, no questions asked. His world map themes, character themes and various other music are some of the best ever. I personally can't think of a better World Map Theme than Cross' " Dream of the Shore Bordering Another World" and Xenogears' "Faraway Promise" is just beyond beautiful. These and so many others are fantastic and have virtually no competition.

But his one flaw is battle music. Cross' normal battle theme is an infamous black mark on an otherwise wildly regarded soundtrack. Both Xenogears and Xenosaga Episode 1 have little in the way of battle music variety and while what they do have is decent, I have to say it doesn't quite measure up to his other music. Moreover, I would never say it is the greatest of all time like some stuff I've heard from Meguro, Uematsu, Kajiura or Sakuraba.

I love Mitsuda but nobody is perfect and I just feel this is his one flaw.