What makes a good battle theme?

Well I'm composing an OST for a game, where I need to make a couple battle themes and I want to know, what makes a good battle theme? Like what seperates a REALLY good battle theme from the typical 2D RPG sounding battle themes? What makes a battle theme fit and not fit? I'd like to know what your opinions are on this.

Use some minor chords.

Well I don't know anything yet, but.......constant (probably fast) percussion/ostinato, minimal cadences and 'resting' points, electric guitar if possible. It's all objective though, especially concerning if it 'fits' or not. The best ones from a lot of games are the slow emotional ones. I'm listening to 'Testament' from Xenosaga III right now, perfect example. REALLY adagio, and instead of what I mentioned, it uses epic Latin choirs and string solos. Quiet intensity. o.O

Play with P5 intervals. It's so simple, but it really works.

kettle drums and relentless drive, a friend of mine did marry had a little lamb as a war theme, it actually made my inner child cringe, but it proved the point.

Trumpets for main melody, strings for harmony, bassons for bass, and many percussions. Minor mode is better.

Just an idea...

make a thread on hating jazz, then take the sum of the responses and you have the perfect battle theme :)

Use alot of dynamics. Piano Fortes. Tension building. Percussion. Brass

Marcato/spiccato strings and lots of bombastic drums for the accompaniment, piccolo glissandi, a huge loud choir, 8 fortissimo horns in unison for the theme (and maybe some staccato horns for more accompaniment), dancing trumpets in the background and banging trombones and tuba. There you go - battle theme a la cliche.

Thanks for the advice guys. But how would you compose a 'normal' battle theme? I don't want to take the orchestral approach for normal battles because it sounds like too much, then again I don't want to take the typical 2D approach. Problem is, whenever I make a battle theme and try to stray away from that 2D approach it doesn't fit.

How bout you ponder the question "What isn't a battle theme" and then you might start getting a few ideas?

okay, lets think about the emotions you would feel in a real battle: fear, excitement, adrenaline, etc.

How does one express those? You want your player to feel like he's in the game, right? Well, in general you'll probably want a fairly fast tempo to reflect the adrenaline. Of course, this can be compromised if you look at games like earthbound, but it helps. Minor always helps if you want to reflect that tinge of fear, and some cool syncopation will help reflect on the excite.

That being said, think about the context of your game. How is that themed? What elements are introduced in the battle? What kind of a battle is it? It's not going to be much more than translating human feelings into a human paradigm. Once you've done that, you can begin experimenting with purposely using the WRONG feeling for whatever effect you're going for, like in games like EarthBound and Chrono Cross.

that all being said, I'm assuming this is for a game. If not, sorry :)

Well I'm composing an OST for a game, where I need to make a couple battle themes and I want to know, what makes a good battle theme? Like what seperates a REALLY good battle theme from the typical 2D RPG sounding battle themes? What makes a battle theme fit and not fit? I'd like to know what your opinions are on this.

Why don't you listen to some other battle scores and see what makes them work? Watch battle scenes in films as well. See what they are made up of. Does it have ostinatos? Does it have pounding drums? Is there a melody? If so, what kind of melody is it? Is the piece even tonal? Ask yourselves these questions and try to find out as much as you can about the piece (even if it is only a few seconds long).

You'd want the music not only to reflect the moods inside the game, but to evoke those moods in the gamer. The gamer should feel the fear, adrenaline, etc. That's what seperates good battle music from average battle music (or any other music for that matter).