A story was posted earlier this year (in April) on Siliconera that we overlooked, but remains just as relevant, especially with Saori Kobayashi’s new album arriving soon.
The article discusses how Panzer Dragoon Saga’s theme song was made, presumably referring to A Premonition of War, a theme reused in several parts of the game including the end credits song Sona Mi Areru Ec Sancitu. Spencer at Siliconera explains the story:
Saori Kobayashi experimented with several songs as the main theme of Panzer Dragoon Saga. One day, she had spent so much time thinking about it when a coworker invited her to go out drinking. The coworker advised her to be ready to leave in 30 minutes, and the song had to be done that day, so she ended up rushing through and writing it within those 30 minutes. And in that short time an icon song was made.
Extremely impressive if true, although I suspect further refinement would have been made after that. There is also a quote from Saori Kobayashi herself which reveals how she goes about making the music of Panzer Dragoon and Crimson Dragon worlds:
When making music for a game like Panzer Dragoon or Crimson Dragon, the first thing I must think about is the world of the game, which is developed, altered and elaborated on throughout development. I then come up with a few different ideas to match the game, but they are never 100% made to my own liking.
It makes a lot of sense that she would draw on the fictional worlds of these games to come up with final scores that fit very well into those worlds.