Felthry's VGM Selection, long
Following on from yesterday's selection of Boktai music, a triple today:
Pile Driver / Purify / Death Rattle
Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand, Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django, and Boktai 3: Sabata's Counterattack (slight variations played in each game, but the same music underneath)
Kazuki Muraoka, Masashi Watanabe, Norihiko Hibino, Shuichi Kobori (soundtrack composers; individual credits unknown)
Pile Driver: https://youtu.be/k-_gdDzp_zE
Purify: https://youtu.be/wsT0STMCCvQ
Death Rattle: https://youtu.be/DkoEX-_Hen8
These three pieces have to be taken together in context: You've just defeated the boss, an Immortal, but unless you use concentrated sunlight to purify them, they'll just return in fairly short order.
Pile Driver plays when you've gotten the boss's remains in position in the Solar Pile Driver, a machine specifically made for purifying Immortals, but before you've turned it on. Its tense, repeating notes remind you that you're about to finish them off, but you can't relax yet.
Purify plays once you've started the pile driver. That Immortal won't just sit quiet while you try to destroy them! They're doing everything they can to kill you and to shut down the Pile Driver. This music has a driving feel to it, pushing you along to finish what you started.
Once you get their health down low enough, the frantic Death Rattle starts playing as your foe becomes desperate. They're not going down without a fight! But by the time they reach this point, it's already too late; the Pile Driver soon seals their fate... too soon, much of the time--this piece loops quickly but even still you may not hear a full loop if you're fighting well!
