PlayStation

Chrono Trigger

Such a brilliant soundtrack for this game, but I found this similarity both fascinating and profoundly disturbing. :-D

Robo's Theme

The horror, the cheesy 80's horror!

No, I don't think it's the case of plagiarism. The harmony is undoubtedly the same, but, I believe, as in many other pop songs. I guess the choice of synths may be considered suspicious, but that's all.

I wouldn't stick up for that. The melody is too much alike to be by chance.

The melodies are different, the harmony (as a chord progression) makes it seem otherwise but they are. There isn't that big amount number of chord progressions used in pop songs. Hell, I am the enormous fan of the music genre which is based on three chords progression and two and a half scales.

A formulaic approach to songwriting will always result in something generic and already covered. Neither of these tunes are original enough, to be considered plagiarisable (sorry for the neologism).

There are plenty of original tunes in Chrono Trigger though. I am particularly fond of 600 A.D.

It's one of my favorite RPG soundtracks of all time. And, as you say, there are lots of weird coincidences in pop music that are not necessarily evidence of plagiarism.

I particularly dig Crono's theme (both parts) for its melodic sweep and bombast--not exactly innovative, but it's a great bit of scoring that evokes the "adventure!" feeling perfectly. Here's an orchestral rendering of it with a few other themes, starting at 1:47.

Oh boy, this PLAY! concert is really something I would have loved to attend.

Obviously I don't know if it's plagiarism (direct or otherwise), but harmonically and rhythmically the first few chords are almost exactly the same. Maybe Rick Astley gave Yasunori Mitsuda those stomach ulcers he had when working on the game!

What do you mean by horror? It's one of my most favorite songs of all times.