Other Game Music

[Ken Hisuag]

Tournament management has taken up a bit of time, so I'm returning momentarily to the Everhood OST, because it's still one of the best soundtracks of last year.

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Also I didn't mention in the original feature that the game utilized some pre-existing music from other sources.

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[Gou the frog]

Ken has already posted it but friday hype for me.

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[Tenkko]

I've been replaying Sonic Adventure 2 and I never realized how good some of Tails' themes are. Shame you can barely hear them in-game with all the beeping.

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[buskerdog]

It's been too long since my last Monster Hunter feature, since for a long time I've been wanting to mention the soundtrack of Monster Hunter Frontier - which can be described as the "dark pegasus horse" of MH games. But first, to understand that - what is Monster Hunter Frontier?

Frontier was essentially an MMO version of Monster Hunter that never made it over to western audiences - emphasis on the word "was" because although it had a long run, the online service was shut down in 2019, making the game now impossible to play except through private servers. It was developed by a different team to the usual MH games and differentiates itself from mainline Monster Hunter in a lot of ways - although it essentially just started out as "online Monster Hunter with some unique monsters", there was always something a little bit "extra" about the game, even by MH standards; and being a continually supported online service there had to be something to keep people interested in the game, leading to an extreme amount of power scaling for both players and enemies over time and culminating in progressively more and more outlandish monster (and weapon) designs. Seriously, MH has always been a little OTT but Frontier is just something else. Some monsters have a lot of fans who want to see them brought over to the main series, although most fans also agree that not every monster from the game would be suitable for mainline MH. Still, there are actually two monsters in mainline MH who did originate from Frontier, however they were brought over a long time ago, and Capcom seems to ignore the existence of the game outside of this...

...until now. With the latest trailer for Sunbreak finally confirming a new monster from that game becoming canon, and confirming the fact Capcom remembers the game exists, it's reminded me that I finally ought to show some of the music from this game.

The game's music is stylistically a bit different to typical Monster Hunter, which leads me to believe that not only the programming team but also the music team was different for this game. While the soundtrack is still orchestral, Frontier's tracks tend to have a more cinematic grandeur to them.

This is also the point where Ken becomes very glad he doesn't list expansions separately from the base game in his end-of-year roundup, because being an MMO, Frontier has countless expansions that are probably impossible to understand unless you actually played the game.

Also, I know I said I would get the track names but this a game that never left Asia and isn't even playable anymore we're talking about. Just don't even bother.

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Note: "Diorekkusu" (Diorex) is a variant of a mainline monster, Tigrex, and there's a part with the original Tigrex theme in this that I absolutely love.

 

 

 

To finish off, a medley someone helpfully put together of all phase themes for Shantien (plus a kind of bonus at the end).

 

 

 

[Ken Hisuag]

  

5 hours ago, buskerdog said:

Just don't even bother.

A challenge?

First, second and fifth tracks, respectively:
Javon Dance
The Rumbling Ultramarine Armour
The Silhouette's Transformation

The remaining three tracks are proving more difficult, but three out of six isn't to bad, eh?

Edited June 15 by Ken Hisuag

[Ken Hisuag]

After two years of near complete silence, we have finally been graced with an update on the development of Hollow Knight: Silksong, and I could not be more excited. As it is on my mind, I've noticed I never featured any of the boss themes in the previous Hollow Knight features. Now is as good a time as any:

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[buskerdog]

13 hours ago, Ken Hisuag said:

  

A challenge?

First, second and fifth tracks, respectively:
Javon Dance
The Rumbling Ultramarine Armour
The Silhouette's Transformation

The remaining three tracks are proving more difficult, but three out of six isn't to bad, eh?

I didn't want to leave you with an incomplete list, but since you've impressed me by managing to find some of the ones I didn't know, I'll tell you the other names I had happened to come across. 

Odibatorasu: Gigantic Castle of Vicious Sand - Odibatorasu

Shantien:

• phase 1: The Azure Dragon's Advent
• phase 2: The Azure Dragon Soars to the Heavens
• phase 3: Storm Preceding the Verge of Death
• phase 4: Imperial Wrath of the Azure Dragon

(idk about the website music)

I didn't have the Kuarusepusu / Highlands area theme name before, but did some digging and was able to run into it quite luckily here

Kuarusepusu / Highlands: Sanctuary in the Sky - Highlands

Can't believe we actually managed to find all of that...

[Ken Hisuag]

I'm on a re-feature streak lately, and I feel a bit guilty for it. Sonic Origins is coming out this week, and I was intending to do a Sonic CD feature for it, but I haven't reviewed the soundtrack in a while and I ran out of time. So I figured I'd do a Sonic Mania feature instead, as it's one of my favorite soundtracks and I did say I'd come back to it eventually. Coincidentally, Tee Lopes recently did the soundtrack for Shredder's Revenge, so I'll have to check that out soon.

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While I'm on the subject, a shoutout to Jahn Davis, one of the best Sonic-style musicians out there and composer for the Sonic Studio project.

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[Tenkko]

I just finished playing Furi, something I've been wanting to do for some time, and boy does it have a great soundtrack. Not only because it's enjoyable on its own but it complements the atmosphere and aesthetic of the game so well. Also in-game the boss themes only progress as you get further into the fight, which is always a neat touch.

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[Ken Hisuag]

A passive reference by SasaMisa put me on the trail of The Last Ninja, a Commodore 64 game with composers Ben Daglish and Anthony Lees. This soundtrack surprised me; my preferences in chiptune favour complex arrangement, but I rarely come across it in the retro era. Many of these tracks are composed in a progression of movements, seemingly multiple tracks transitioning one into another while retaining the features of one track.

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Additionally, in connection to this game is a rare instance of the composer having an opportunity to remix a chiptune piece into something resembling its instrumental inspiration. Not all (perhaps not even many) retro chiptune soundtracks were composed in enforced minimalist replication of "real" instruments, but when such is the case it's fascinating to be able to hear the comparison later on.

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