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Other Game Music

To finish off the month, I bring you the soundtrack to Kirby: Planet Robobot. I don't have any particular reason to feature this game over other entries, but I'm committed to it nonetheless. After the overwhelming volume and variety of Return to Dreamland, this entry seemed refreshingly straightforward, though no less innovative. More mechanical sounding instruments are emphasized in these arrangements as part of the game's theming, possibly contributing to an ever-so-slightly more serious tone overall (it's still Kirby, though). Leitmotif work is also very strong here, this time for actual thematic purposes, which I appreciate very much. Especially noteworthy are the final boss tracks; the modern series has a reputation for dramatic finishes, and the music lives up to this.

Relating to this, it's interesting to note the split between Ishikawa and Ando; while the former is responsible for most of the series' iconic longstanding motifs, the latter seems to have composed the leitmotifs for this particular entry, and is also responsible for the more climactic tracks. Maybe this is more common than I'm aware, but I appreciate that both composers seem to be equally skilled and relevant to the musical development.





 
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For something more relaxed this week, I'm going with Superliminal, a perspective puzzle game. I'm rather fond of these sorts of experiences (e.g. The Witness and Manifold Garden), and this is probably my favorite take on the genre so far, primarily because there's an actual thematic direction resembling a story. The music is mostly minimalist jazz composed by Matt Christensen, establishing a relatively calm (but not always comforting) mood throughout, even for the more tense moments.


 
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It isn't often I can say I know literally nothing about the game from which a feature's music originates, simply because to find the music I must usually learn something about the game itself. In this rare intense, I discovered the soundtrack to Viscerafest through GeoffPlaysGuitar/Geoffrey Day, a heavy metal remix artist who specialized in adapting various pieces to sound like Doom Eternal. By checking his Bandcamp, I found the Viscerafest: Chapter 2 OST, which in turn sent me seeking the Chapter 1 OST by Markie Music/Michael Markie. I was impressed by both, not least because there was a definite distinction between the two while still maintaining a similar style (although there's an inexplicably prevalent oriental influence in the Chapter 2 album that I assume is thematic to the game). For all I know the game is finished, but if it isn't I wonder if they'll get a third person to compose for the next part?



 
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Posts in the general music thread put me in mind to re-feature Mad Rat Dead. I remember finding this soundtrack back in 2021, and it was the most memorable OST I heard that year. At the time, only one of the names among the collaborating composers was familiar to me, being that of Camellia, who also worked on Dweller's Empty Path. I've since become more acquainted with the work of DYES IWASAKI of TOPHAMHAT-KYO and FAKE TYPE. (why is it all caps?). Other significant contributors were a_hisa, Yo Oyama, and Kazuya Takasu, although I've yet to recognize them elsewhere. There is a strong influence of electro-swing throughout the soundtrack, but several tracks stand out from the rest with contrasting styles mixed in, including folk, orchestral, and other electronic forms. I used some of the best tracks for the first feature, but there's still plenty of high-quality options to work with here.





This last one is a bonus track, being a rap cover of the main theme.
 
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Finally, I am prepared to feature Undertale Yellow. I'm still haven't fully completed this masterpiece, but I believe I've sufficiently progressed to provide an informed selection of tracks. Most of the music was composed and arranged by team lead MasterSwordRemix and MyNewSoundtrack (very inconvenient titles, but they don't often use their real names so I'm hesitant to favor them myself). A selection of additional tracks were done by NoteBlock and Figburn, with some notable contributions from emBer (other names in the credits had minimal involvement).

Stylistically, the music is very faithful to its inspiration; not Undertale only, but also Deltarune, as the release of that game took place mid-development and subsequently influenced the project. Leitmotif usage isn't quite as prevalent, but certainly isn't absent either, especially regarding the "Justice" motif that features in the game over screen. Character motifs are usually introduced early and then expanded upon (although I suspect they were usually composed in reverse order). Energy is balanced well (with one exception that I've noticed so far), and many themes are given variations for changes in setting, which I always appreciate.

Normally, when featuring a soundtrack with multiple composers, I try not to only use tracks from one contributor. In this case, however, I'm hard pressed to do so for several reasons. First, some tracks are simply too spoiler associated, however much I may enjoy them. Second, I already featured some tracks back before the game released, and I don't want to reuse them. Finally, the spread is anything but even, and I can't afford to go out of my way to ignore some of the best tracks in the game without severely shortchanging the feature. Maybe I'll come back to this soundtrack at a later date, when I'm less concerned about providing a superior impression.





I put this as the third best soundtrack of 2023. Now I wonder if I should have put it higher; ultimately I'm happy with the ranking, but I want it on record how impressed I was with this as I experienced more of it.
 
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I got sick, and it was bad. Over a week later I still haven't fully recovered, but I should be able to get back to business.

Despite knowing that Penny's Big Breakaway was being made by the team behind Sonic Mania, I did not assume Tee Lopes was part of the project until I saw his name on the soundtrack, and I was very excited. He is accompanied by Sean Bialo, whose role seems to have primarily been boss music, but that's purely conjecture on my part based upon the way his pieces sound in comparison.

Coinciding with the game's bright and colorful aesthetic, the music is overall light, bouncy, and full of happy energy; even pieces that otherwise differ in tone maintain this spirit in context. Instrumentation varies a bit between zany sounds and more typical electronic rock, but always arranged in strong melodies. The soundtrack is of good length, and I had plenty of options for this feature (I could do a second easily); I've tried to avoid a few end-game tracks that seemed potentially spoiler-inclined, while including some of my personal favorites and favoring the game's primary leitmotif.



 
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Almost forgot (it's been a while, after all); I intended to link this thread for posterity's sake, same way I link some Touhou music threads to Musical Discoveries. I prefer to have things organized and consolidated for ease of reference.

Kriartt

Thread 'Video Game OST'

Hey there shrine members! I was curious about what kinda of game OST do people like here, i like talking about music (although the topic does get a little out of hand at times) but that's beside the point.

I've recently been listening to two OSTs the most, that being the Trepang2 and Postal redux OST.

Here are the links to one song i like from each OST:



If you would like to show OSTs you like, feel free to send them here!

  • Like
 
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I don't normally post out-of-schedule here, but given the missed week and future plans, I want to avoid wasting a regular slot on a Fracture Feature, and I'm trying to get these tracks off the to-do list.
Noteblock's compositions for Danza include several interludes for attacks that, in theory, add up to a fuller piece. In reality, they don't fit together too well, mostly due to tempo fluctuations. Nonetheless, a few attempts have been made to rectify them to each other, and this is so far the best version I've found. Ideally, someone would make a remix incorporating all the parts with the freedom of custom arrangement.

A recent update to Crypt of the Necrodancer added Hatsune Miku as a playable character, and more importantly featured an curated playlist of songs for the levels. While not technically a proper soundtrack expansion the way the Danganrompa crossover was, Baranowsky did compose two new pieces for it.

Finally, Celeste team produced a short spinoff game earlier this year in the N64 style, appropriately titled Celeste 64. Raine returned as composer, and as expected the resulting tracks are masterful. While the highlight is certainly Next Steps, I think it's more appropriate to feature Cassettappella for the novelty.
 
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A few names hold an unofficial honor in indie game music for their work in the emergent times of the industry, back when indie developers were considered more amateur. I got used to seeing Ben Prunty, Austin Wintory, and Laura Shigihara high up on lists of the most important people in the development of indie game music, and I took this as an indication that I ought to seek out their work. My expectations were set by a different stage of the industry, however, and it took me some time to understand what made these soundtracks special apart from other projects. The one that confused me most was Plants vs. Zombies.

This is a relatively simple soundtrack, with limited instrumentation, lesser quality VSTs, and little variance in style. On the other hand, the melodies are competently constructed, and the leitmotif usage is excellent. While not [initially] a mobile game, the sound is similar to mobile game projects; few mobile games of similar size would put this much effort into their music, however. I'm left wondering about the significance of this title when it released, and whether it incentivized a greater degree of effort in the wider indie game industry.



 
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Doki Doki Literature Club is one of my favorite games. It belongs to the meta horror genre (thank you that video for letting me know what genre these games belong to), basically just 4th wall breaking stuff. You think I'm gonna share DDLC ost right? WRONG. This is gonna be about Irisu Syndrome, which is a game that the creator of DDLC even said to be his inspiration while making DDLC.

Irisu Syndrome is also one of my favorite game, the deep layered story (how I feel) makes me relate to it. It's a puzzle game with falling blocks that you shoot at, and the music accompany with it is relaxing AND very good....and sad? Sometimes sad I guess.

But yeah this game is apparently the first meta horror game. The whole soundtrack is awesome.


Spoiler



Kinda wanna add the last song with the last timestamp from the vid tho, but it kinda spoils a bit because of the theme and whatnot.

Oh well....too much trouble....whatever... (reference from the game lol)

 
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^

I don't usually have anything significant to say about other features, but just this once I want to emphasize how much I appreciated this. Granted I come across quite the variety of things in my searchings, but there's still plenty of soundtracks I'm unlikely to ever encounter normally, specifically with less propagated titles and especially in game genres that I'm less engaged with. I don't imagine I'd ever have heard of Irisu Syndrome on my own, and I really enjoyed it; so thank you!

 
Randomly coming across a piece of music from a game I've never heard of has consistently led to some of my most memorable findings. Nonetheless, I was some reluctant to follow up on the piece I found from Melty Blood: Type Lumina, due both to the odd name and my past relatively disappointing experiences with other fighting games (much as I loved specific pieces from Killer Instinct and Guilty Gear, subsequent investigation didn't turn up as much as hoped for). I finally decided to bite the bullet though, and for once I was blown away.

Despite the games apparent aesthetic, the music favors a variety of dynamic jazz tunes with creative instrumentation and fair progression, with an overall mood I'd describe as "energetic chill." This doesn't mean the soundtrack is strictly limited to one style though; rock, electronic, and orchestral compositions are scattered through, all maintaining the tone while still being unique. I wasn't able to find much information on the composers for this title, other than the lead composer being someone named Raito; given the cohesiveness of the collection, I wouldn't be surprised to hear he did most of the work himself.

This was one of the times I enjoyed a soundtrack so much that I went looking for its distribution. Surprisingly this is one of those situations where the soundtrack never got officially released, and by now it's unlikely to ever be. As an odd consequence, I had a harder time deciding which tracks not to include, given that I wouldn't be able to hear them much going forward without actively looking for them. Hopefully no one minds the larger feature.








Next month is another series theme. I'm locked in now, whatever my reservations.
 
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Ken Hisuag said:
^

I don't usually have anything significant to say about other features, but just this once I want to emphasize how much I appreciated this. Granted I come across quite the variety of things in my searchings, but there's still plenty of soundtracks I'm unlikely to ever encounter normally, specifically with less propagated titles and especially in game genres that I'm less engaged with. I don't imagine I'd ever have heard of Irisu Syndrome on my own, and I really enjoyed it; so thank you!
Click to expand...


I'm glad you enjoyed it so much that you wrote to thank me! I'm doing my part on making this game and the music more known to other people cuz I like da game. It's nice to see someone enjoy something as much as I do. omg... I had an impact on someone's life! (even if it is very small). Just like how I get to know some music thx to people sharing it out of their passion? I think that's what it is.

Ken Hisuag said:
and my past relatively disappointing experiences with other fighting games (much as I loved specific pieces from Killer Instinct and Guilty Gear
Click to expand...


Ain't no way you play fighting game tooooo!!! AND you know/listen to guilty gear? Didn't expect to see an FGC person here...wait...idek if u play fighting games that often, oh well, but I think I saw somewhere that u did a feature on guilty gear already tho...I think it was Xrd (haven't listened to the osts yet).

Ken Hisuag said:
Next month is another series theme. I'm locked in now, whatever my reservations.
Click to expand...


U know what? I'm calling it Right NOW! the next series is definitely, will be, absolutely, no way mistaking, can't be wrong, must be, have to be GUILTY GEAR!!!! STRIVE (cus u did killer instinct already if im correct, somehow i remembered)

Im sorry if I couldn't hold my thoughts, it's too much and now it's overflowing.

 
I appreciate the speculations, they're fun interactions. I don't want to mislead, though; I play very few of the games I feature soundtracks for, and since my focus is the often the music regardless, I tend to refer to the production as a whole in both contexts. I'm pretty sure the only proper fighting game I've even touched is Touhou 15.5, assuming that even counts; I am a fan of Rivals of Aether, though.

I've done two features on Guilty Gear: Guilty Gear XX on 04/14/21 (14/04/21) and Guilty Gear Strive on 04/12/22 (12/04/22). The latter was what I was referring to in the latest post, in addition to the Killer Instinct feature from 07/19/23 (19/07/23). The linking factor was vocal tracks; you can figure out the rest.

The month-long series features of late have been an opportunity to force myself into becoming familiar with iconic franchise soundtracks that I just wasn't around to discover when they first came out. It's one thing to look into a single soundtrack, but something else entirely to choose from several related soundtracks that somewhat depend upon familiarity with each other for full appreciation. Last year I did Legend of Zelda, Mega Man, and Pokemon, and thus far this year I've done Kirby; in future I hope to cover Castlevania and Sonic (since I'm only familiar with select entries of those series), as well as Metroid and potentially Fire Emblem. But none of those are the plan for next month. I've mentioned in the past my struggle with SNES soundtracks, and this is especially true for one of the most iconic soundtracks from that era. I'll leave it at that.

 
Saw fighting games were mentioned and decided to share some Eyes of Heaven soundtracks I think slap (One or so for each part). Kind of sad the game is pretty much dead at this point but hope a remaster like ASBR comes for this one. One of my favorite things about EOH and ASB is the direct song and stylistic references that are based of the name or stand of a character. Quick example of what I mean: Fugo's theme mimics Jimi Hendrix's style (mainly Purple Haze}


Spoiler



Might do a ASBR one later.

 
^
I keep record of every feature on this thread, as a way of assisting myself and others in tracking down discoveries. This means I will always do a bit of research into any soundtrack someone else posts, with special attention to track names (Monster Hunter has given us an unusual amount of trouble with this). Eyes of Heaven doesn't seem to have official track names, likely stemming from its lack of an official soundtrack release. I wonder if the composer had names for the tracks, or if she only thought of them by their usage in game as they seem to be labeled here?

 
For as long as I've been following VGM as a hobby, I have remained intimidated by the Final Fantasy series. Nobuo Uematsu is possibly the second biggest name in the industry (next to Koji Kondo), yet when I initially went hunting for examples of his work, I wasn't initially appreciative of it. With the passing of time, I've come to the conclusion that this first impression had little to do with the quality of compositions themselves, and were more caused by my lack of familiarity with the hardware limitations and arrangement styles of the times; more specifically, I was told to start with FFVI & FFVII, and subsequently lacked some of the background knowledge I should have had. Nonetheless, this initial experience has kept me distant from the series, and it remains one of the most major blind spots in my VGM repertoire. So this month, I'm going to try and remedy that.

We start with the very first entry of the series, understandably but retrospectively ambiguously titled Final Fantasy (commonly clarified today as Final Fantasy I). As an NES game, this first soundtrack was composed in early chiptune form (I think it's 8-bit, but that term suffers from its own ambiguity; also it only seems to be three-channel, and I thought NES could handle four-channel?). Each piece features a melody line, harmony line, and base line; while relatively simple, these tracks remain memorable through their imaginative progression and carefully curated tone. I was surprised to realize I recognized the motif of Opening, though I couldn't say where I knew it from. Despite not hearing much about this particular entry in the past, it seems to me that several significant leitmotifs originated from it, making it indispensable context to the evolution of the series' music.



 
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While it may seem hasty to follow up FFI with Final Fantasy VI, I only get five features total for this month, and there's a lot of ground to cover. Uematsu returns, this time composing for the SNES (though not for the first time), the sound system of which supported instrument sampling. I've had difficulty in the past appreciating the style of music made for this system; many composers would attempt to replicate an orchestral sound, but fail to balance the layers, seeming to prioritize instrumentation over tone. I suspect this was a consequence of system limitations being better than ever before while still unable to match ambition. In my opinion, the best soundtracks composed according to their limitations, adopting a unique style for the system.

That being said, FFVI has surprised me in that it seems to do both. Many parts of the soundtrack are clearly inspired by cinematic orchestral arrangement, but succeed where other attempts have failed by keeping the melody clear and the atmosphere consistent. At other times, arrangements utilize a wider range of options for the system, incorporating and even relying on sounds that are very un-orchestral to achieve their tone. Perhaps in the several years it's been since I last tried this soundtrack I've become more acclimated to its sounds; regardless of the reason, I appreciated it much more this time around.

I should also note the strong usage of leitmotif throughout the soundtrack. I don't claim to be especially skilled at recognizing leitmotifs, but there were enough obvious ones here to alert my attention. Every main character has a unique theme, and many of these motifs are integrated into other pieces, presumably for the relation of events to character arcs. I don't normally hear the technique used on this scale, and I'm not sure I'm capable of representing it here, but it impressed me nonetheless.







 
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Final Fantasy VII remains one of, if not the, most legendary video game releases of all time. I say "legendary," because while other titles may be more iconic, influential, or even prolific, I can't think of any that are held in such high esteem outside their general fandom. Well beyond the playerbase, there is an almost reverent familiarity with the characters, important moments, and music of this game.

Uematsu was once again in charge of this soundtrack, which was adapted for the PlayStation system, but may have begun composition with the SNES still in mind. While the instrument sampling is more clear, it still retains an artificial sound that must be worked around to achieve the desired effect. Genre variety is more obvious, either because of the aforementioned sound improvements or possibly due to further experimentation by Uematsu. This works in the game's favor, allowing better tone and mood capturing through the music, but also weakens the soundtrack's cohesiveness as a collective work. For this reason, I think I prefer FFVI's OST, even as I acknowledge FFVII's as being the more technically superior production.







 
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Before this week's Musical Discoveries post, I have a few miscellaneous VGM tracks I want to share. I'm thinking giving Fracture Features a more off-schedule function, so that I can share the little discoveries without needing to wait for an available slot.
A fun video about tweaking number data in game programing featured a clip from this in-production game called Sushi Ben. No idea what it's about, but the music caught my attention, so I looked it up later. So far this seems to be the only track released for it. It's a bit short, but still pleasantly bouncy. By the channel name, I presume Ian Navarro Silver is responsible for the piece.

Expect a full feature for Chambers when it releases, because this track snippet tells me everything I need to be invested. As of yet I don't know who the composer is, which seems somewhat fitting given I don't even have the full piece to feature.

Since I couldn't find anything better than a 10-minute extended video for this track, I thought it best to place it after the 1-minute short, even if it does a disservice to the audio quality by comparison. What the Fog is set up to be an extremely forgettable release overall, but I personally want to remember this track. As it lacks an official release, I can only speculate as to the composer; previous work in the franchise has been handled by Michel April, but is not usually in this style.
EDIT: A day later someone posted a proper length video, so I'm fixing the link but leaving the order the same.
EDIT: Glad I downloaded the audio to that video, 'cause all instances of the composition are missing now outside of the trailer and gameplay videos.
 
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