Music of Xenosaga Episode I

The music of Xenosaga Episode I consists of 42 tracks used in-game as well as a number of tracks included on official releases which were not used in Xenosaga Episode I, all composed by Yasunori Mitsuda. The music has had two complete releases as well as several special releases of small subsets of the soundtrack.

Functionality in-game
The music of Xenosaga Episode I is notable for its very high proportion of cutscene themes (music that plays in cutscenes) as opposed to area themes (music that plays in the overworld) and battle themes (music that plays in battle). Out of the entire soundtrack, there are only 2 battle themes and 4 area themes, both numbers much lower than their equivalents in any other game in the series.

In particular, the standard battle theme plays for all battles except for the final boss. There are three area themes which play consistently in their respective areas: (part of), , and Inner Space. Life or Death plays as the area theme in other areas during certain story events.

There are also two themes that play in menus (three if one counts the Game Over screen).

Musical style
Xenosaga Episode I frequently employed orchestral instrumentation for many of its tracks; the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed several pieces of music on the soundtrack. Several tracks were written for solo piano, and others for choir, often performed by the METRO VOICES. The soundtrack also contains two vocal pieces with English lyrics, Pain and Kokoro, both performed by Joanne Hogg.

Use of motifs
Several melodies are used as motifs in multiple tracks. The following two are the most prominent:
 * The melody of, arguably the main theme of the game as a whole, is used in Kokoro, , Shion ~Memories of the Past~, Shion ~Emotion~, and Shion's Crisis. A variation of this melody is used in The Girl Who Closed Her Heart and.
 * The main melody from is used in Life or Death and Last Battle.

Track titles
Xenosaga Episode I's soundtracks were released in Japan and the titles never received an official translation into English. However, a large number of tracks were titled in romaji, and these have been widely adopted in the English-speaking world. On the other hand, there is no widespread unofficial translation of tracks titled without Latin characters. (For consistency, when a track's official title includes kana or kanji, this wiki uses the unofficial translations provided with the VGMdb article of the Xenosaga Original Soundtrack.)

On the whole, track titles in Xenosaga Episode I tend to be relatively short; the proportion of tracks with a single word as the title is much higher than in other soundtracks in the series, including those composed by Mitsuda. (There are certain exceptions, such as The Girl Who Closed Her Heart.)

Xenosaga Original Soundtrack
The Xenosaga Original Soundtrack is the most complete official release of the music of Xenosaga Episode I, consisting of all of the music used in that game as well as several unused tracks. It consists of 45 tracks split across 2 discs, released on the 6th of March 2002. The music is ordered roughly chronologically terms of when the tracks are first heard, with some exceptions (e.g. coming in disc 2 rather than disc 1, possibly representative of when it plays in cutscenes as opposed to in Pleroma).

The soundtrack was rereleased on the 19th of May, 2004 as  (possibly because the original publisher, DigiCube, went bankrupt). This rerelease featured new recordings of the tracks Warmth,, and Green Sleeves, as well as two new tracks, Pain -piano version-  and World to be Born. The ordering of the tracks was also changed substantially, with a great many tracks originally in the first disc moved to the second disc; according to Mitsuda, the intent was to order the tracks by style.

Xenosaga Original Soundtrack (bootleg)
Xenosaga Original Soundtrack is a bootleg of the Xenosaga Original Soundtrack released by Alion Records. It is mostly identical to the original released by DigiCube, but additionally features Pain instrumental at the end of the first disc, and Kokoro Piano Version and Kokoro instrumental at the end of the second.

DigiCube original Xenosaga music CD
The DigiCube original Xenosaga music CD was a limited preorder bonus for the game available in convenience stores, with three tracks on a single disc.

Track List

 * 1) Escape
 * 2) Pain Piano Version
 * 1) Pain Piano Version

Xenosaga ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK PREVIEW
The Xenosaga ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK PREVIEW was released on the 8th of July, 2001, given out at an event held by Namco at Ebisu Garden Hall to unveil Xenosaga Episode I. It consists of 2 tracks on a single disc.

Track List

 * 1) The Miracle

Kokoro / Joanne Hogg Theme from "Xenosaga Episode I"
Kokoro / Joanne Hogg Theme from "Xenosaga Episode I" is an album released on the 6th of February, 2002, consisting of 5 tracks on a single disc: the two vocal ending themes of Xenosaga Episode I (Pain and Kokoro) and several variations.

Track List

 * 1) Pain
 * 2) Kokoro
 * 3) Kokoro Piano Version
 * 4) Pain instrumental
 * 5) Kokoro instrumental

Playing with Bayer Xenosaga Original Soundtrack
' (') is a collection of piano arrangements of 21 tracks on the Xenosaga Original Soundtrack, published by DOREMI Music Publishing on the 20th of September 2002 (ISBN 4-8108-7196-7). All tracks were arranged by Asako Niwa. ('Playing with Bayer' is a reference to Ferdinand Bayer, whose introductory piano works are popular in Japan and provide a widely-accepted standard for piano-playing difficulty levels.)

Piece List

 * 1) Opening
 * 2) Relief
 * 3) Everyday
 * 4) The Girl Who Closed Her Heart
 * 5) Kookai Foundation
 * 6) Shion ~Memories of the Past~
 * 7) Warmth
 * 8) Green Sleeves
 * 9) Last Battle
 * 10) Escape
 * 11) Shion ~Emotion~
 * 12) Pain
 * 13) Kokoro
 * 1) Last Battle
 * 2) Escape
 * 3) Shion ~Emotion~
 * 4) Pain
 * 5) Kokoro
 * 1) Shion ~Emotion~
 * 2) Pain
 * 3) Kokoro

Partitura Originale Di XENOSAGA
Partitura Originale Di XENOSAGA is a collection of orchestral scores of pieces from the music of Xenosaga Episode I, published by PROCYON STUDIO on the 21st of January 2004. The collection contains the original scores used in the recording of the tracks by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and METRO VOICES.

In other media

 * Several tracks in the music of Xenosaga Episode II and the music of Xenosaga Episode III are based on, which has direct equivalents in both of the latter two games in the series, as well as several other tracks in Episode III which use the piece's melody as a motif.
 * was sampled for in Episode III.
 * Battle and Battling KOS-MOS were remixed for Namco X Capcom.
 * Pain and Kokoro were featured on Colours of Light, a compilation album of vocal pieces by Yasunori Mitsuda released in 2009.