Ken Hisuag

The first video is the official release, but the edited version includes additional parts and removes the unnecessary vocal lines.

I happened upon the recently released soundtrack for Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty this week. I had to do a bit of searching to determine if this was a video game soundtrack or not; from what I can tell, it isn't. However, a lot of the contributors are experienced VGM artists, and I believe this is evident in the music (and besides, it is technically still "game music"). The instrumental tracks (approximately half the album) are typically blends or oriental folk with some modern electric genre such as metal or dubstep. Said blends are unusually clean, though perhaps overly reliant upon the blending genre and not enough upon the folk. The notable exception is Neon Riverside, which is the track that caught my attention to begin with. The vocal tracks are mostly English, and none of the ones I listened to impressed me. Some may appreciate them, but they aren't apart of this feature.

A recent request from @Josecrist led me searching for a multilingual vocal arrangement of Doll of Misery. Ultimately I didn't find the desired piece before the inquirer rediscovered it, but I can still share some of the other things I came across.

Fracture feature number three! Because I have more! These might be stock musics, since they're from old Flash games. But maybe they aren't? I think I found this one through an actual typing program. It's not as long as it looks, that's just what the uploader extended it to. One of three RTS games I've actually played, despite once considering it a favorite genre. This one had surprising depth to it for what it was. I know this one is stock, and the sequel's main theme is original, but this is the track that I remember most vividly. This was the beginning of my platformer experience. I'd love to get a Steam release some day.

Fracture feature! Sometimes I find something that isn't quite worth its own feature, but I still want to share it. Deemo II came out last month. I'm not interested in perusing its soundtrack, but this piece popped up in my recommended, and it's exactly the kind of piece that I liked from the first game. FamilyJules apparently composed for a little VR game. Can't speak for the game, but the track he released is quite good. Finally, the workshop characters update finally released for Rivals of Aether! As one may expect, the new music is fantastic. That should do it. Till next week!

One last round, once again belated. I need to expand my repertoire of ZUNish composers; too many of my collected features are from the same people. Hopefully I'm better prepared next time.

A proper feature for this week. It was the title of Wargroove that got my attention some years ago, and to this day I know nothing about more of it than the music. It's good music, featuring a variety of genres for what I assume to be differently themed characters. The melodies are well designed to be complimented by the assigned instrumentation, allowing each piece to stand on its own merits.

This isn't technically a feature, as it isn't about a specific game. Nicolas Daoust has recently begun a series of short dialogues on various VGM related subjects. I've been appreciating them, and I believe they fit with the theme of this thread well enough. An introduction: Some examples:

Continuing to feature original works for now. These are from artists I'm less familiar with.

Consider this a bonus addendum, born out of a fascination that the Japanese and Western Hemisphere releases have different opening tracks.

The Yakuza series is a surprising blend of cheesy tone and deep story with quality character development, and one of the reasons I'm convinced the film industry isn't even trying anymore. The music of said series is a less surprising blend of funky rock and smooth jazz, with the added bonus of some high quality standalone vocal tracks. I've been aware of this series for quite a while, and it's about as different from the rest of this month's entries (or anything else for that matter) as I could ask for. This specific feature is for Yakuza 0, more because it was my first experience than for any special music related reason.

Against my better judgement . . .

I had taken to collecting original pieces for usage during tournaments. But now I have more tracks than I could possibly need, so this week will be a quick offload of some more familiar names in recent times. Also . . .

I'm trying for a wide variety of games this month. Why didn't anyone talk about the music for Boneworks? As much as was said about this game, I don't remember anyone talking about its soundtrack, and frankly I find that unacceptable. Its focused genre is synthwave, from retro to more experimental, but the net is stretched a bit at the edges to encompass some other styles. All of it is great, and this feature will not do it justice.

Saturday was busy, consider this makeup. Also RT7 is active, so focusing on original works for now.

Perhaps something unexpected? I have never had the inclination to look into the soundtrack for FNaF World before this week; I assumed it was mostly stock music. Surprisingly, this bizarre game has quite a competent OST to accompany its sharp mood changes. Underneath the initially cheery tracks, the music becomes darker and more sinister the further you go, yet retains its characteristically strong melodies.

I almost posted this one closer to New Years, but figured I'd save it for later. This isn't that much later . . . Best to be careful this close to a tournament.

First feature of the year ought to be something special. My opinions concerning Iconoclasts are complicated; I consider some of its design decisions to be poorly determined, yet it remains one of the most personally influential games I've played. It starts out simple and seemingly straightforward, and distracts from some of its initial darker implications with a cheery aesthetic and cheesy dialogue. As the story progresses, it becomes more convoluted, presenting its themes far more seriously. The ending disappointed me; I understand but disagree with some of the developer's intentions, and am completely baffled by others. If I ever did a in-depth review of a game, it would be this one. That's not what this place is for, but you may see something of my journey in the pieces I've selected if you're familiar with the game. The music itself is expertly and intentionally crafted to accompany the game; area themes sometimes change to reflect story progression, character themes may no longer play if they are no longer indicative of the character's progression, and boss themes remain focused on the action until late game when they become more emotional. It's not technically "dynamic," but the concept is there.

Happy New Year to all! I seek to start the year off strong, so this is one of those especially good arrangements I've been keeping saved for a while. I hope anyone seeing this is doing alright. It's felt rather quiet here of late. God be with us all in these times.

This is the OGM record for 2021. Let it be noted there was a Binding of Isaac feature from the late account of Garison DeCrick that I failed to record before it disappeared.

In what may be my final posts this year, I hereby commence the OGM 2021 round-up! I'll split it into two posts this year, simply because I dread potential formatting problems with the record. For this post, I'm focusing on my personal top five video game soundtracks of the year, though there's a few "honorable mentions" I'd like to address first. Friday Night Funkin' has managed to endure, and I'd be remiss not to commend it for the many uniquely styled pieces it has inspired. I didn't rank it mainly because most of my favorite songs are from outside the official game, and ultimately it doesn't quite measure up to some of my other options. I'd recommend Overwrite from the "X Event Mod," Manifest from the "Vs. Sky Mod," and Triple Trouble from the "Vs. Sonic.EXE Mod." Monster Hunter Rise was difficult not to rank, but I didn't feel I was capable of doing so properly. Ideally, a new entry in a well-established series should be estimated against its predecessors for innovation (dangerous word . . . oh well). Despite being far more familiar with Monster Hunter now than I was a year ago, I am certainly still lacking the experience necessary to do this justice. That being said, my limited dips into this soundtrack turned up Domain of Dust and Desolation, Where Wyverns Go to Die, and Stage of the Strong (also see buskerdog's four part feature from July). Finally, I'm sure everyone's aware that Deltarune Chapter 2 came out this year. The quality of Toby Fox's compositions need not be argued for, but I am conflicted over whether to consider this a 2021 release. As Deltarune is officially considered to be a single entity, each chapter may technically be viewed as some form of DLC or, perhaps more accurately, updates to an "early access" title. In any other situation, I would prefer to consider the earliest release date as the official year, thus disqualifying any music added in later years. However, Deltarune currently advertises itself as a demo, which might be considered a different category entirely. For now, it's more trouble than it's worth; nonetheless, A CYBER'S WORLD?, Pandora Palace, and BIG SHOT are all amazing pieces (as are Smart Race, Attack of the Killer Queen, Lost Girl, Cyber Battle . . .) That being said, my number five is an early access release. Also, I coincidentally haven't played any of these games, same as last year. Should I put all of them in one box, or separate them out? Now I feel obligated to put some text in between boxes to preserve the aesthetic. I always default to the main theme for these, even if I've used it in a previous feature. But what about games without main themes? . . . There y'all have it! If anyone else is interested in doing their own rankings, I'd love to see them!

It is the week of Christmas, and thus the final feature of the year (not counting the round up next week). The year started with Rivals of Aether, and with the recent finalization of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it seems fitting to end the year with that. There's a lot of music in SSBU; in addition to original pieces and remixes, many tracks are imported from other games. This includes tracks from previous titles in the Super Smash Bros. series, along with remixes from them. However, for the purposes of this feature, I am only considering tracks composed or remixed specifically for Ultimate. Time is short this week (for obvious reasons), so I can't go into the considerations behind these picks as I'd like to. There's quite a few of them, though; I've tried to pick out the best examples, both of the pervading style, and of the scope of representation accomplished.

I was hoping some circle or other would do a Christmas style Perpetual Snow remix, but it hasn't happened, so Imma settle for this. This one labels itself as Christmas themed, and it does seem to carry elements thereof despite being primarily a straightforward metal piece. This last one is a reshare, because I can't find anything else as suitable for the occasion.