In the FFXII soundtrack, the Theme of the Empire appears on a lot of tracks. There are a handful of other leitmotifs that are weaved throughout the soundtrack as well.
This is unlike a lot of FF music, in that most FF soundtracks have themes for many different characters, locations, and organizations, but they don't often appear in each other's tracks. There are of course exceptions.
If you want to hear some classic leitmotif work, listen to the Star Wars soundtracks. The Force Theme appears in several tracks, as well as the Empire Theme, the Han and Leia theme, etc. They get their own tracks, but they're also layered into other places.
I'm taking a Film Music Appreciation class, so that's the only reason I knew what that meant. Other than that, I can't recall seeing the term used before lol. I've seen it twice since I learned it.
Came here to say this - thankfully the main theme is really strong, because listening to the OST straight through (great for studying) things can get a little samey. And then there's a rock down end-credits song!
Odd to think that that many games can have music without a strong theme that supports the game as well because they take too long on the soundtrack and try to make it more interesting.
Twilight Princess, if I'm understanding the term right.
The Ballad of Twilight, as it's called, pretty much plays throughout the game...for example in the main field music, when exploring the desert and snow areas, and throughout the various themes. It's actually a pretty neat melody, and I really enjoyed its use.
I'd say Nier had several leitmotifs that are prevalent throughout the entire story including variations of Song of the Ancients, Kaine, Dispossession, etc. It's a great soundtrack.
There is a fair bit of the nuance behind the term "leitmotif" missing in this thread.
A motif is generally defined as the shortest unit of music that is capable of having an identity. A leitmotif is far more specific and refers exclusively to motifs that are directly associated with a thing or mood. It isn't enough to have the same motif repeat throughout different pieces of music; a leitmotif has to actually suggest something about what's happening, like a setting, feeling, or whatever.
Wind Waker has examples of both. Many of the elements of the main Zelda theme appear in the soundtrack but its presence does not really suggest much, so these are merely transplanted motifs. However, the series of stacked fourths on C-C#-E-F# always suggests Ganondorf and is therefore a leitmotif.
There is a fair bit of the nuance behind the term "leitmotif" missing in this thread.
A motif is generally defined as the shortest unit of music that is capable of having an identity. A leitmotif is far more specific and refers exclusively to motifs that are directly associated with a thing or mood. It isn't enough to have the same motif repeat throughout different pieces of music; a leitmotif has to actually suggest something about what's happening, like a setting, feeling, or whatever.
Wind Waker has examples of both. Many of the elements of the main Zelda theme appear in the soundtrack but its presence does not really suggest much, so these are merely transplanted motifs. However, the series of stacked fourths on C-C#-E-F# always suggests Ganondorf and is therefore a leitmotif.
There's something to be said about the style of presentation the Atelier series has too. In a lot of western and/or AAA productions, music takes after film where it has to support the visual action on screen, which is the narrative delivery mechanism. For visual novels, on the other hand, music and art both support the narrative equally, which honestly is more of an audio book, as the visuals are often very abstract and symbolic rather than what-you-is-what-you-get visual storytelling. 2D busts, simplified animations, bright colors against still-image 2D backgrounds, and often exaggerated visual jokes/gags (cauldrons blowing up, Chaplin moments, slapstick humor, etc) basically ask that the audience interpolate a lot of the narrative themselves. In a sense, the visuals are symbolic rather than literal*. With that in mind, since the brain isn't being presented an information overload on the visual side, the music for Atelier (and visual novels in general) tend to do a lot more to convey mood and narrative.
Visual novels and many game franchises presented in a similar way (Persona, Disgaea, Fire Emblem, Hyperdimension Neptunia etc) sink or swim by how well the music can convey narrative and emotions. Leitmotif is also used to great effect and tracks with very distinct opening measures tend to get mentally linked to a certain mood, character, location or even used as foreshadowing. A great example that highlights how important the music is in narrative in these kinds of aesthetic is when the opposite happens - when music drops off to silence. This is often used for a very specific effect, whether for a mood change, setting up a gag, or increasing tension, in a way that is far more pronounced than WYSIWYG visuals.
*I'm one of the people that feel that for all its advances, the Dusk trilogy somewhat lost its way aesthetically with the shift to more storytelling via 3D compared to the busts of the previous games. It doesn't help that animations (and lip flapping holy shit) are kinda janky (by today's standards) and there isn't that impetus to mentally interpolate/extrapolate anymore since you're being presented with fully rendered scenes, rather than it being overlayed with an obviously symbolic 2D UI layer. Still, I guess considering it's the first foray into doing things this way, there's plenty of time to improve, and I don't think the series has forsaken music at all for the sake of the perspective shift.
tl;dr, visual novels continue to do this and specifically use music to its maximum advantage to convey a certain mood/tone/expectation since it's as much of a storytelling device as the busts or dialogue are.
Strangely some game series actually loose their main theme midway trough the series.
Mass Effect had a nice main theme in the first game which resurfaced throughout the game.
But i Mass Effect 2 and 3 we just got some random generic music.
Assuming I understand letimoff correctly then the majority of No More Heroes uses it. Travis whistles the main theme and then it transfer into all the battle themes, excluding bosses.
Which reminds me that I need to go vote for him for smash.
This is what I'm talking about; these are not leitmotifs. That's just a recurring motif, which is a much broader category than leitmotif.
Unless the motif is associated with a thing within the game, like a character or mood, it's not a leitmotif. It also doesn't count as a leitmotif if what is associated with the character stretches beyond the bounds of a motif, such as an entire piece (or section of a piece).
Leitmotifs are not common. Their integration into a score is rather serious work.
First thing that came to my mind to when I saw the thread. They really used the main theme quite a bit in 10. Also holy shit at some of those versions....they really gutted the Zanarkand theme, at least they knew not to mess with Suteki da ne and just kept with the originals.
Nier features a leitmotif with Yonah. It's not quite obvious but by your second or third playthrough you should have picked up on it. I'm not the biggest fan of the melody but it serves its purpose well, sort of a musical fullstop.
Well, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky is fresh on my mind after posting about Grovyle in the Smash character thread, so:
The main theme of the game crops up pretty often, but I wouldn't really consider it a leitmotif.
On the other hand, the Time Gear theme is a really good example. It's associated (and named after) the Time Gears, which are objects that control the flow of time - whenever the leitmotif crops up it's always something related to them or the theme of time in general.
the player realises he/she will disappear due to a temporal paradox if he/she succeeds in saving the future
.
Planet's Paralysis and In the Future have clear parallels to the Time Gear theme, as the songs associated with the ruined future the player tries to prevent.
The final dungeon theme, Temporal Tower, combines the Time Gear and Planet's Paralysis themes (goddamn this song is awesome). Temporal Spire is used for the last few floors of the dungeon, which is a different interpretation of the combination with a more sombre mood (I like the clock ticking in the background). Temporal Pinnacle, the top of the tower where you fight the final boss, is very similar to the opening of In the Future, except for using the actual Time Gear leitmotif rather than the 'broken' future version. It's not the Time Gear leitmotif, but I thought I should also mention that Down a Dark Path, played as Dialga struggles against its corruption, uses the same note progression as Planet's Paralysis (the inevitable result of said corruption).
The final boss theme, Dialga's Fight to the Finish, briefly opens with the Time Gear melody, goes off to do its own thing for a while, then launches into a triumphant Time Gear encore (a.k.a. the best way to do a final boss theme). Dialga is the legendary Pokémon of time, and created the Time Gears.
Time Restored played after you beat the final boss and restore the Time Gears, combines the Time Gear theme with a dungeon theme I can't remember off the top of my head.
