User:Aid1043/Sandbox

The  series features an extensive array of music that contributes greatly to the identity of the series as a whole. With over 500 unique music tracks, ten original soundtracks, numerous compilation and arrangement albums, and several live concert performances, the Kingdom Hearts series has a rich musical history that plays an important role in the franchise.

is the primary composer for the series, with and  joining for later entries. created the theme songs, while a number of other artists have made arrangements and orchestrations for the series.

Terminology
Certain types of music tracks in the Kingdom Hearts series are divided into categories. "Field themes" are played when exploring a specific world outside of battle. "Battle themes" are songs played during combat – "boss themes" are a special type of battle theme used in boss battles, while "world battle themes" are used for standard enemies in a given world. Together, field themes and and world battle themes comprise "world themes".

Some specific characters have their own music theme used outside of battle, called "character themes", which almost always use the name of the character as the title of the track. Special tracks played during scripted events, such as cutscenes or mandatory encounters, may be referred to as "event themes". Additionally, some songs may fall into multiple categories under different contexts, while others may not belong to any of these groups.

Kingdom Hearts
The soundtrack for  was composed entirely by Yoko Shimomura. Nearly 100 original tracks were made for the game. The international release of Kingdom Hearts featured two additional tracks, and Kingdom Hearts Final Mix included a further two more. A small handful of tracks were arrangements of existing Disney, Final Fantasy, or classical pieces, but the majority of the soundtrack was wholly original. Hikaru Utada composed the theme song pair, "Simple and Clean" and "Hikari".

Shimomura composed the soundtrack with the idea of having short, contained musical phrases that would connect different pieces together. Several tracks near the game's climax incorporated the melody of the title theme, "Dearly Beloved"; songs relating to the Gummi Ship all share a two-measure melody; numerous songs relating to darkness are connected by a three-note motif: shared phrases such as these tie the soundtrack together.

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories
The Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories score consists of nearly 50 compositions, all by Yoko Shimomura. Just over half of the soundtrack is new arrangements of pieces from Kingdom Hearts, while the rest are new compositions. The original Game Boy Advance versions of these tracks have never been released on an album.

Due to the limitations of the Game Boy Advance, sound compression was a more important issue than it was for the first game on the PlayStation 2; as such, returning world themes were given new simplified arrangements. Very few tracks other than world themes are carried over from Kingdom Hearts, allowing the game to form a distinct musical identity. While short themed phrases are still implemented in the game – for instance, tracks relating to Organization XIII share a similar descending chromatic pattern – the soundtrack is not built around these common phrases in the same manner as Kingdom Hearts. Rather, similarities in instrumentation give the Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories soundtrack structure.

GAME TITLE
First paragraph: Information Second paragraph: The music itself
 * Main composers, arrangers, orchestrators
 * Development notes (e.g. differing releases)
 * Theme song (where applicable)
 * Released in an album?
 * Musical analysis (where applicable)
 * Hardware limitations?
 * Common instruments/techniques?
 * Reusing tracks, or original arrangements?

Kingdom Hearts V CAST
Because Kingdom Hearts V CAST was produced independently of Square Enix's development process, Yoko Shimomura did not return to compose the score. Instead, the soundtrack was created by, his only contribution to the Kingdom Hearts series. The soundtrack is only ten songs long, with four of those being five-second jingles. According to Livingstone, the entire score was likely created in the span of one month. None of the tracks have ever been released on an official album.

The hardware limitations of Verizon phones severely restricted the scope of the soundtrack. Each world has only a single theme, and each theme loops in under 30 seconds – the Wonderland theme, for instance, is only 14 measures long. Although the soundtrack is devoid of any explicit motivic material from Kingdom Hearts, Livingstone took style and instrumentation cues from that game's soundtrack: the use of a descending piano pattern in several tracks was inspired by "Dearly Beloved", and Livingstone made stylistic decisions in the themes of returning worlds Wonderland and Agrabah that evoke similar tones to Shimomura's existing field themes.

Other games
The spin-offs Kingdom Hearts Mobile, Kingdom Hearts Magical Puzzle Clash, Kingdom Hearts Digital Painter, Kingdom Hearts Re:coded Gummiship Studio, Kingdom Hearts Collaboration: Gummi Ship Campaign, and Kingdom Hearts VR Experience do not feature any original music. These promotional and companion releases may borrow tracks from full Kingdom Hearts titles – for instance, Kingdom Hearts Mobile offered ringtones from Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, while Kingdom Hearts Magical Puzzle Clash used two songs from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days – but they do not contribute to the discography of the Kingdom Hearts series.

Arrangements and orchestrations

 * Short blurb about piano collections, orchestral concerts, etc.