Other Game Music

[Ken Hisuag]

Been waitin' for this.

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[Ken Hisuag]

There are three soundtracks I will reference as being my all-time favorite, the first being Touhou, which I consider to be a classification of its own due to its unique and expansive style. The other two are more properly contending for #1, both being exemplary productions of melody, style and creativity, while contrasting each other in tone; these are A Hat in Time and Octopath Traveler. This year, the latter series received its third entry, being the second proper installment; my anticipation for this release was immense, and it did not disappoint.

The expectations of a sequel are for the qualities of the original to be expanded and improved upon, whatever those qualities may be. This does not always mean "better" or "more," but often must be one of those things to some degree to be considered successful; the alternatives are usually "different," in the better case, or "worse" in the lesser case. Octopath Traveler was a masterpiece of clear motifs with strong structure, full of memorable pieces that, sufficiently composed to stand on their own, collectively created an unforgettable experience. If it was to live up to its predecessor, Octopath Traveler II needed to either refine these qualities and add depth to them, or introduce a new element of some sort, ideally compatible with the original's style. Nishiki did both.

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The gimmick of Octopath Traveler II is its day-night cycle; while there is a gameplay component to this, our focus is more concerned with the musical aspect to this addition. Major areas and towns have unique music for their night cycles, with the melodies of their standard themes often being completely rearranged. To highlight this contrast, Nishiki employed a vocal element that is unique to these night themes.

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Aside from this, the soundtrack's motifs are more dynamically integrated into the arrangements compared to the previous entry, especially the character themes; I'll expound upon this a bit more later.

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There is also some limited reuse of old motifs, occasionally in full rearrangement (such as Unshakeable Resolve), but more often as brief reference to an indirect correlation (as with some of the battle themes). In my opinion, these are done very well, and help to link the productions together.

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All this barely scratches the surface of what this soundtrack contains. Needless to say, I am thoroughly pleased, and I look forward to returning to this series in the future.

[Ken Hisuag]

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of Octopath's soundtrack was its character specific battle intros, allowing the same boss battle themes to be unique for each character's story; these battle intros were characterized by the instrumentation and tone related to each character. This was the extent of dynamic composition in the game.

For Octopath II, a similar process was employed; each character has a boss battle intro theme unique to them. However, this time these tracks, called Pursuit themes, are arrangements of their respective character themes, with mood adjusted accordingly. This adds somewhat to the dynamic quality of the motifs by expanding on their utilization.

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The dynamic utilization does not end there, however. The end-game boss has two phases; the first, as shown above, utilizes the Pursuit structure, similar to the first game's handling of the same scenario. The second phase does not; instead, the character theme is integrated directly into the boss theme. This admittedly simple technique has a marvelous effect, creating a semi-unique piece for every character . . .

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. . . with one exception.

Part of me considers this a spoiler. I've probably done enough to sell the soundtrack by now, so for those who would prefer to experience it the way it was intended, I would recommend against finishing this feature. It's not currently very practical to secure the soundtrack, but I believe it's well worth it.

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While seven of the eight characters follow this format, the process is adjusted for one of the final boss's second phase to be a direct arrangement of the associated character's theme into a completely unique battle theme. For me, this was the highlight of the soundtrack; having traveled through the album in order, arriving at this piece felt akin to a victorious culmination.

 

That will have to do; I could happily post Octopath music for the rest of the month, but this should be sufficient to showcase why I consider the sequel to be a worthy successor and a masterpiece in its own right.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Ken Hisuag

[Ken Hisuag]

Also here's the playlist (one track is missing; guess which?):

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[Ken Hisuag]

I came across a piece from Killer Instinct that impressed me enough to seek out the rest of the soundtrack. Without knowing anything about the game itself, I recognized the intention of capturing different cultural styles within the general genre. This is accomplished with strong melodies and surprisingly complex progression for full-length performance. It wasn't until I'd listened to most of the soundtrack that I noticed Mick Gordon as composer; I haven't had much experience with him in the past, but this alone helped reaffirm to me his reputation.

That being said, a lot of these pieces have lyrics, and as is my custom I sought out their translations when necessary. I can't say I'm comfortable with a lot of what I found, to the point that this feature was put off for quite awhile. Nonetheless, I believe the musical expertise is worth highlighting; just remember that, as with all such things, music carries with it a communicative aspect, implicit or otherwise, and it is wise to exercise prudence in what one engages with.

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Edited July 19, 2023 by Ken Hisuag

[Ken Hisuag]

I don't usually listen to SilvaGunner mashups, but this popped up on my recommended, and I was intrigued enough to check it out. I was pleasantly surprised to find a quality collab project with a well-executed gimmick; ultimately unique enough to have its own feature. The video speaks for itself, so I'll leave it at that.

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[Ken Hisuag]

This week I decided to finally cover the iconic OST of DuchTales for the NES. Few have not heard something about this legendary soundtrack, which in many ways serves as a standard for what 8-bit music can be. While not pushing the technology like the work of Tim Follin, it nonetheless features complex melody interwoven with its accompaniment in such a way as to "fill" the channels, resulting in tracks that remain impressive to this day.

Some may disagree with me, but as far as I'm concerned the highlight is, and always will be, Moon Theme. The intro and build-up is perfectly suited to the medium, the melody is beautifully transmitted, and every channel is balanced between each other to craft the perfect 8-bit arrangement. It is one of the only classical chiptune pieces I've never heard a remix for that seemed to me an "improvement," simply because the original does so well at accomplishing its goal.

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[Ken Hisuag]

Cutting it close, but in case it wasn't obvious from the missed Saturday post, time is of limited availability at the moment.

Perhaps this follow-up to last week was predictable, but that does not make it less relevant. DuckTales: Remastered was the perfect example of a passion project; everything came together so as to revitalize and improve upon the original elements, resulting in a product that does everything it needs to. For me, the most important aspect is obviously the music. The original soundtrack received a complete recovering, featuring full instrumentation and expanded arrangement which did justice to the best and helped justify the lesser. There's also an element of leitmotif added to the collection, though it seems mostly for nostalgia's sake than for anything relevant to the game's progression (I could be wrong on that, though).

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However, the devs did not stop at remastering the old music. New original compositions were also added in, mainly for what I presume to be cutscenes by their cinematic progression. Potentially there were new levels as well, and music was composed for these. The quality of these pieces is well on par with the rest of the album, fitting seamlessly in and elevating the project as a whole.

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[Ken Hisuag]

Early on in my developing hobby of VGM, I would seek out recommendations for soundtracks with noteworthy reputation independent of the associated game. A few titles stood out for repeated features, giving me the impression of a general consensus concerning their quality and reputation. Many of these titles formed the basis of my expectations thereafter, even when they didn't strongly appeal to me. One of these was FTL: Faster Than Light.

FTL is a difficult soundtrack to feature. It's an impressive production with exemplary style and tone, but features an interesting gimmick that splits the album in two. For each theme, there are two versions: "explore," which is meant to be the calmer base, and "battle," a more upbeat take on the same piece. In some cases, the difference is not extreme, merely including an extra percussion layer to the base piece. With many tracks, however, the battle tracks function as unique arrangements, sometimes feature entire motifs not present in the alternate version. A proper appreciation for this requires listening to both versions of each track, which I considered too much for the feature. So instead, I was left to decide between each version of each track set forth, with the failsafe of some brief explanation for each.

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Though not one of my favorite pieces, Mantis (Explore) is a good example of the overall tone in the explore tracks; atmospheric, light but active melody, limited layering, etc..

Deepspace (Explore), interestingly, is possibly the most ambient piece in the soundtrack. For this reason, its battle counterpart is particularly fascinating, essentially expounding upon a pattern of background noise into a properly progressing track.

Cosmos is one of the more divergent pieces, with both version having their own unique characteristics that don't necessarily coordinate with each other. The battle version is especially unique in its progression, both compared to its counterpart and to the rest of the soundtrack.

There isn't anything particularly important about MilkyWay, aside from having a strong motif which serves to characterize the soundtrack's personality, which can be unique to the tone. Both versions are fairly similar, but I slightly prefer the explore version's progression.

 

 

[Jaz:3]

@Ken Hisuag The links to the ost of "Ducktales: Remastered" that you want to share are no longer available. Could you replace the links for those who might be interested in the music (like me), please?

[Jaz:3]

A couple years ago, I played a bunch of games, mainly fighting games through Fightcade and one of them was the King of Fighters series. I played KOF 98 the most because that's where there are more players to play online with. I sucked at KOF 98, so I went to Youtube to watch some guides to get better, but when I was watching it, I noticed the background music sounds pretty cool! So I went to the description and a little more research to find the music. It turns out to be the Ost from KOF 2000. The music in that game is a bop. Here are a couple of my favorites:

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This song here is hands down the best one imo, it was so good I actually bop my head when I'm listening to it. This is one of the song that I genuinely enjoy and I think it's one of the best soundtrack in a fighting game ost. 

Now this one to me sounded more like a song to a finale more than a theme song, imagine if it was like an ending song when you beat the final boss or something like that. I think it's pretty cool that the song can make you feel that way. There are also some comments on Youtube telling the backstory behind this song and why it sounded a bit sad. I'm going to quote some of them down here if someone is interested in reading them.

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"This song sounds like so melancholy: like the composers knew SNK was going down and there was nothing they could do about it."

"So much feelings on this one. Whe you remember, SNK was in the edge of bankrupting in 2000... and they did. They put everything they had in this one. Thank God SNK has been back for some time, but, for a while, this really was their goodbye. "Goodbye Esaka" isn't just goodbye, but also a "Thank You Esaka", for the players that have been with them since KOF 94, or even Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Psycho Soldiers, Ikari... and thank you, SNK, for making great memories for me and other passionate players around the world"

"This feels like the last song a band would play at a concert, getting the crowd hyped up and making them want more as they prepare to leave. The perfect sendoff."

 

Okay, next one! I noticed how the song just lets you listen along like a straight line for awhile like nothing is happening yet, then comes out of nowhere another melody plays but it wasn't too sudden like a boom. Was it hard to understand? I don't really know how to describe it but I imagine it's like when you're sparring in real life right? You and the opponent are standing in front of each other, waiting to see who makes the move first, then the opponent punch you in the face or body, but you didn't felt hurt or distracted because you are Focus on the opponent. The song really makes it like you're fighting someone when in actuality you're playing a game and it really keeps the hype/fighting spirit going when you're playing. That's how I feel when I listened to it or at least what I interpreted. I think every track is played out like this too, which I think is easy to loop when you're playing the game. 

At the beginning of this song I thought It was sounded funny, like a fun little melody. But after the percussion was added and a cool piano transition, this is where the song really shines, it went from fun to sounding cool. A little adventure prepared to go to a big adventure. 

Somehow I like the rearranged version more (I'll talk about the rearranged stuff a bit, later). I don't have much to say about this song aside from it sounding pretty relaxing.

Final song! There are a lot of versions to this one, depending on what characters you chose to form a team, I think you have to choose the characters that are related to each other in order to play that team's theme like Fatal Fury Team Theme for example. Yeah other than that I think the song is a nice ending song.

Before writing this I was considering to put in the original Ost or the rearranged version. I decided to choose to original one because I want you guys to listen to it raw so you know what it sounded like before the enhanced version, think about it and appreciate it. Of course, I think the rearranged version is also equally awesome as the original, actually I think the rearranged version made the original sounds even BETTER! And that is amazing. Anyways, I think the the Ost to KOF 2000 is really fun and makes you want to keep playing or keep trying because of the hard bosses that SNK is famous for .

If you want to listen to the rearranged version because of how amazing the original sounds then here it is. The rearranged version really made the Ost sound even better.

 

Edited August 19, 2023 by Jaz:3

[KorosKoros]

This track is a real head banger!

Game: 壊漢 -KAIKAN

Stage 1 theme

[Ken Hisuag]

@Jaz:3 The videos are still available for me, so I suspect its a regional limitation. Your best bet would be to look up the soundtrack on your own, since anything I find would have to be tested against your private location. That being said, here is a different playlist than the one I used: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvNp0Boas721k5FYiicCFoifRvtDpAEx_

The tracks featured were Boss Battle ("Boss Theme"), Scrooge's Office, Transylvania, I've Got a Bad Feeling About This ("Ominous"), Money Bin, and Mount Vesuvius. Sorry I can't be of more help.

[Jaz:3]

1 hour ago, Ken Hisuag said:

Sorry I can't be of more help.

No worries! Thank you for the explanation and your help!

[d34thkvm]

this isnt necessarily *from* a game afaik but it is in one (vampire the masquerade bloodlines) (i've yet to play it myself but seems cool and i would like to) 

 

[d34thkvm]

oh and i just remembered the sheer volume of good music in umineko, such as

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[d34thkvm]

been listening to this on loop for like an hour, the bgm for snow whites castle in black souls 

 

[Ken Hisuag]

I was on vacation last week; normally that wouldn't prevent me from doing features, but reception was unusually poor, making access to these threads impossible.

Expectations can significantly impact one's experiences in strangely inverse ways; poor expectations can result in better impressions, and high expectations may lead to disappointment (I refer specifically to situations where expectations are subverted). I believe I started into the soundtrack of VA-11 HALL-A with slightly higher expectations then I should have; I knew the album sold well, although I hadn't heard much reference to it beyond that. What I got was a good selection of synthwave pieces, with a fair variety of moods in a fairly stable energy level. "Fair" is the best word I can think of; I found nothing extraordinary about the collection, but I also accepted that it didn't need to be extraordinary. It is pleasant to listen to, and despite the relatively large number of tracks, stays fresh and doesn't stagnate.

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[Ken Hisuag]

It's time for another feature series. This month I'll be looking into the Pokemon franchise; even though I've covered a couple of the more recent titles before, I've not really heard any of the older soundtracks that set their reputation. As usual, I'm not even sure yet which titles are the best to go to for the best exposure, but hopefully I'll figure it out as I go.

The first one is easy, though. Pokemon Red & Blue (and Yellow (and apparently Green?)) was the game to launch the franchise. As a GameBoy title, its music is the 8-bit chiptune that defined the earliest days of VGM. The music was initially composed on different hardware, and converted over afterwards; I'm not sure whether this had any effect on the arrangements. The composer, Junichi Masuda, utilized a surprising degree of baroque style into the music, especially in the calmer tracks. I appreciated this; baroque seems to be especially well suited to 8-bit limitations.

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Let's get these two tracks out of the way; anyone who knows anything about this soundtrack knew they'd have to be here.

 

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That being done, here are my choices for the coverage of this soundtrack.

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Ken Hisuag

[Ken Hisuag]

Next up is Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire (and Emerald, kinda). While not a SNES title, I note a similarity in the soundfonts utilized, in that they appear to simulate real instruments without fully accomplishing the recreation. I'm not usually a fan of this style, and this didn't change that, but there does seem to be a balance of more self-aware arrangements that utilize the sounds more freely, and I appreciated these more. The tracks are extremely short, meaning even the longer ones tend to lack variety in progression, but they accomplish their jobs well enough, and are dynamic enough to remain appealing after multiple loops.

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[Ken Hisuag]

I got sick last week, and was unable to accomplish the necessary prerequisites for a feature (mainly, listening to the soundtrack in question). Rather unfortunate for this to occur in the middle of a series, but there's not much I can do about it now.

We're finishing up the month with Pokemon Black & White, a title I've often heard about but never had direct acknowledged contact with. I was surprised at the number of tracks I recognized from other sources, such as memes and Youtube bgms; this made the music seem overall more familiar to me than it technically was.

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Since the second "generation," it has been fairly standard for the music to be composed by a team, with each individual often given responsibility for specific types of tracks. This seemed especially noteworthy to me for this collection. Most tracks were composed by either Shota Kageyama or Go Ichinose. The former has a more standard progression style, but with a tendency to experiment with jazz in the melodies. His tracks consistently impressed me, standing out from the rest of the album.

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Ichinose, on the other hand, has a unique harmonization style that lends itself to tension in his music. Most of the game's combat music was composed by him, making his style that of the game's more tense moments. However, he is also able to apply this style in less high-energy pieces, contrasting against Kageyama's to give the game a more varied musical character.

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While there were other composers involved, I didn't notice significant divergences of style from them compared to these first two. This is not to say their compositions were not noteworthy contributions, but I only managed to fit one into this feature.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Ken Hisuag

[Ken Hisuag]

Deceive Inc., which I did a feature for earlier in the year, finally received an official soundtrack release. Quite a few tracks I was previously unfamiliar with became available, and the various "phases" of the level themes were compiled into single tracks. Given the circumstances, I've decided to feature the soundtrack again, as a contrast to the unofficial recreations initially available.

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This first track is ten minutes long, and I'm not entirely sure why. The nature of the piece makes it difficult for me to determine where the loop point is, but while the track fades out properly, ten minutes exactly seems a bit suspicious. Regardless, this is the equivalent of the earlier feature's Extraction Phase 1, and I would recommend comparing the two for a proper comprehension.

My personal favorite: the perfect unusual elevator music.

A more happy piece; I'm not sure what it's used for, but it stands out from the Operation tracks. Abrupt ending, though.

Finally, one of the main level themes. I would again recommend comparing an official track to its separated segments as featured previously, as doing so gives an appreciation for the intricacies of the arrangement.

 

 

[Ken Hisuag]

Since the completion of the Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove collection, there have been a couple spin-off titles for the series focusing on expanding the franchise into other styles and genres. Thus far, the one that's interested me most has been Shovel Knight Dig, which features a similar musical style to the original game with a different kind of chiptune.

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My one significant complaint with Shovel Knight's soundtrack has always been its methodology concerning boss battle themes; Kaufman would usually arrange the motifs of the stage theme into a more chaotic progression lacking resolution. While this successfully simulates the necessary tension the situation calls for, it often doesn't make for the most engaging casual listen. Ultimately it's a personal preference, but I'd appreciate some more climactic or character-themed tracks from this series; either way, the rest of the music makes up for it more often then not.

[Ken Hisuag]

I have a lot to say about Sea of Stars. I've been anticipating its release for a few years now; between Eric W. Brown of The Messenger and Yasunori Mitsuda of Chrono Trigger, I had ever reason to expect an amazing soundtrack. A few tracks were released around the initial announcement, and their quality reaffirmed my hopes. Thus commenced the long wait, culminating in the release two months ago.

Unfortunately for me, the soundtrack released as a Steam exclusive. While I've bought soundtracks through Steam before, they're usually lacking proper metadata, making them a pain to organize; I also appreciate being able to listen to my purchases through streaming, which Steam does not offer. I decided to put off buying the OST in hopes of it being published through other services, and instead listen through it on Youtube. This turned out to be rather difficult; the soundtrack is large, there has not been an official posting yet, and Youtube isn't really designed for the kind of listening I like to do.

I initially intended to feature this last week, but had not managed to "finish" it by that time. At this point, I believe it's going to take me a while to feel satisfied with my own comprehension of the collection, and I want to be able to do so at my own leisure, without having to think about what I'm including in a feature. I do, however, believe I've grasped enough to recommend and provide example tracks for the soundtrack.

As The Messenger was meant to be reminiscent of Ninja Gaiden, Sea of Stars is very strongly inspired (if that is the right word) by Chrono Trigger, both in gameplay and music. Melodies are less punchy, though no less strong, and a greater range of tones and moods are covered across the collective. Main area themes (I assume) have "day" and "night" variations, though of yet I haven't recognized a specific gimmick that consistently distinguishes them from each other. Motifs from the first game also make an appearance in altered form, though I personally think some aren't altered enough, clashing in style from the rest of the soundtrack (Frozen Peak especially). Finally, there are also bardcore versions of several songs, identified as "pirate versions." Altogether, this is a much fuller and more balanced soundtrack then I had expected (especially with Mitsuda's contributions), for which I'm ultimately glad. There is still, however, just enough of The Messenger's style left to reinforce what I loved about it; as of now, I'm more than satisfied.

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[Ken Hisuag]

I need time, so this week is a fracture feature.

First up, every name I'm familiar with in the metal remixing community (and then some) collaborating on possibly the most iconic metal-esque piece in all VGM.

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When I first found this next track, I thought I'd eventually find the rest of the soundtrack and do a feature for it. But the little research I did seemed to indicate the piece to be unique to its collection, so I'll use it for this instead (some might guess as to what put it into my mind recently).

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To round off, I realize I've not mentioned the Octopath Traveler arrangement albums before. IMO they're a bit hit-or-miss, but there are several tracks I'm especially impressed with, especially this one.

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