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Other Game Music

On vacation right now, so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to post this week, but the page is loading, so we’re good to go.

With limited info on what’s considered the best of the Metroid franchise (as usual with these series features), my odd-one-out this time is Metroid Fusion. Minako Hamono returns, joined by Akira Fujiwara for a GBA soundtrack, which platform I am less familiar with as to its music capabilities. Compared to the previous two entries I’ve covered, there’s a stronger sense of ambience throughout, and not just in the various “Environmental Sounds” tracks. Melody and progression are in short supply, and I wasn’t initially too impressed as a result; however, as I acclimated to the overarching tone, I came to appreciate its effectiveness. This is less action-adventure music, and more a sci-fi-horror soundtrack. Knowing this going in may improve perspective, resulting in a better listening experience.

Spoiler and quote functions still don’t seem to be available for mobile, so y’all get it direct this week (at least until I can edit it later).






EDIT: Enough preserving the original format; the spoiler box is much better for my intentions, and I doubt anyone cares anyway.
 
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Going into this series, I was under the impression that Metroid was a franchise focused on action-adventure with a sci-fi theme. As I've listened to its music, however, I've come to realize it's far more focused on suspenseful atmosphere, which it has accomplished quite well. Where my expectation initially caused me confusion with Fusion (heh), my adjusted perspective enabled me to fully appreciate the soundtrack of Metroid Prime.

Interestingly, Kenji Yamamoto from Super Metroid seems primarily responsible for this soundtrack, assisted by Kouichi Kyuma (I find this intriguing given how the other composer for Super Metroid worked on Fusion instead). While there is a strong focus on ambience, the music is not without progression and melody, albeit in subdued capacity. The balance is delicately maintained, and defines the soundtrack's identity in establishing the atmosphere. Higher-energy combat tracks do not betray this focus, being composed dynamically and otherwise in keeping with the general tone. Despite not having very many noteworthy motifs overall, I can recognize the quality of this soundtrack, and appreciate having experienced it with the proper expectations.






Addendum: Upon further reflection, I realized how similar this music was to that of Subnautica, both installments. While clearly ambient, melodic progression is still central to the compositions, being able to fall into the background or provide satisfactory accompaniment according to the situation. I can't help but wonder if Chylinski and Prunty took inspiration from Metroid Prime, not necessarily for Subnautica directly, but perhaps as part of the development of their respective styles.
 
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All cards on the table, I chose this soundtrack for listening solely for the alpaca/llama (how does one tell?) on the cover art. After a couple tracks, I determined it was worth planning a feature for, and here we are.

Accredited to one José Ramón "Bibiki" García (quite the title), Arco is what I would describe as "western" in style, although I'm aware that the term is a bit out of date. The instrumentation for all but the high-energy tracks (presumably combat) is primarily that form of folk blending Spanish and American styles. I find it strange how I've not previously reflected on the ambiguity of distinct origin for this genre, and I wonder how much history lies behind it. Almost every piece relies heavily on acoustic guitar, though there is a notable presence of oboe in some tracks.

On the other hand, the aforementioned high-energy pieces are tonally distinct from the rest of the OST, consisting of heavy rock with electronic elements. While these compositions exhibit the same degree of quality as the rest, I question the cohesiveness of the collection; some pieces integrate suitably, but others seem to contrast rather sharply with their surroundings. It may be that they work better in-game, but I'm not particularly interested in checking.

On a final note, there is a selection of Spanish vocal songs scattered through the soundtrack. My habit is to seek translations of songs I can't understand, but I was unable to find a proper source for any of these. I'm including one anyway, as representative of the OST, but be aware of my lacking awareness thereof.



 
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Randomly found a cool ost from a demo game




Having played it before, it became one of my favorite games. It's so terrifying man...the music and ambience are the only things that makes you feel safe but sometimes when it cuts out the music, it leaves with background noises in-game. When you wander to a certain place in Subnautica and there are only silence... it's very scary, lol. But that's part of the charm of the game tho.

So yeah, Metroid Prime is kind of like that too but I haven't played it tho, so I don't know what the atmosphere is like. I might give a try given you featured it here...I've played Fusion before on an emulator on my old once working tablet but I didn't finish it so I have an idea of what the game's like.

By the way, Ken (can I call you Ken? for short? Or that's a no no), are you planning to do something like a special post or anything like that? Because your 1000th post is coming along sooner or later and it seems you're one of the users that has a big number of posts. It's not like I'm asking you to do it, but I'm just wandering, you know, cus I wanna know, if that's ok, or you can just not tell me. Wait, maybe I shouldn't have asked? Might ruin the surprise but I wouldn't know if there's a surprise anyways.

 
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Jaz:3 said:
special post
Click to expand...
Wasn't on my mind; I'm fairly casual about my postings, so there isn't much precedence for anything. Maybe a SMYL favorites post? Depends what else is going on when we get there, I guess.

For this week, I find myself compelled to feature a game that I'm not entirely comfortable with. Thank Goodness You're Here! is a masterfully designed comedy game, built on the satirizing of British subculture and supplemented by more general subversion humor. While I was extremely impressed with the manner of progression, the degree of crassness prevalent throughout was more than I could consider excusable. Thus I was conflicted over whether this was a game I wanted to make reference to, even just for its music. Granted, it's hardly the first instance of such a situation (Rabi-Ribi being a prominent example), but I still want to be careful about my potential influence. Ultimately, I want to remember the better aspects of this project, in hope of further implementation thereof in less compromising setting.

The music itself is endearingly simple. I wouldn't consider it "atmospheric," but it is suitably reserved for the background, much in the way atmospheric music usually is. It's hard to pinpoint the specific inspiration for its style, though this could just as well be a result of my own lacking familiarity as a quality of the music itself. The composer was one of the game's designers, James Carbutt, with some additional songs incorporated from other sources. Most notably, I was introduced to "On Ilkla Moor Baht'at," reportedly a culturally significant song for the Yorkshire area. While technically not part of the soundtrack proper, I'm including it anyway as a curiosity :).



 
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With the release of Astro Bot sending waves out through the internet, I thought I'd casually investigate the soundtrack thereof. Three tracks in was enough to realize I'd missed something in being previously unfamiliar with the series. I remember discovering Boneworks some years ago, and being shocked that I hadn't heard anything about its music previously; this felt similar, in that there was a depth of quality to this that I would have expected better acclaim for. I determined to backtrack and find out just how much I'd missed.

Based on my research, the foundation of the franchise exists in a tech-demo game called The Playroom. However, the soundtrack for this unfortunately turned out too difficult to pin down, as was that of its technical sequel The Playroom VR. The first properly available OST is from the more official start of the series, Astro Bot Rescue Mission. Even this soundtrack is lacking proper distribution, but is at least available on Youtube in official format. Composer Kenneth C M Young (without punctuation for some reason) is responsible for the modestly-sized album, making excellent use of leitmotif variance in several pieces (specifically boss themes and "caves") and showcasing a versatile style favoring techno/disco, consistently upbeat and unique. It's an unabashedly happy soundtrack, even as it plays at other tones, instilling an excellent degree of characterization. I anticipate a continuation of these qualities as I progress through the series, as I intend to do in the coming months.




 
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The Finals somehow got on my to-do list, though I can't remember the reasoning; I've limited familiarity with the game, and hardly any previous experience with the music. Nonetheless, I hunted down the three different albums that the soundtrack is currently split between and listened through the lot of them. The division reflects what I assume to be season passes, but also indicate the different composers involved: the first season had "Sailor & I" as lead, while the second and third seasons were headed by Carl Strandberg with assistance from Olof Strömqvist and Alexander Sjödin. Each season also favors a specific genre leaning; heavy synthwave is prevalent throughout, but the second season incorporated chiptune elements, and the third had something of an Eastern influence.

As for subjective impressions, I can't say I was especially engaged. The tracks are arranged well with decent structure, and the stylistic theming adds some degree of distinctiveness. However, there is a general lack of central motifs, specifically in the initial seasons, progression being carried by layer fluctuations instead. I enjoyed listening to this part of the soundtrack overall, but only a few tracks stood out to me. On the other hand, the third season seemed stronger in this regard, so perhaps it's moving in that direction (although, if I consider the perspective of a player, I might start to question the conceptual continuity within context of the gameplay). Overall, I want to emphasize my perception that these are all quality compositions, just that some of them are closer to what I'm looking for than others; context of presentation is important.



 
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Fracture Feature! Instigation related to this week's feature proper:
The day after I do a feature on The Finals, they release another album to the soundtrack. Based on the included pieces, I can confidently say they're trending toward more motif-focused structure, which bodes well for further musical expansions. FTR, there's also a new name attached, being one Andreas Almström. I hesitate to identify the joint-genre theme for this season; some tracks seem to have an orchestral bent, and others notably feature background vocals, but neither is consistent enough for me to be sure of the intention.

For Undertale's 9th anniversary, Toby Fox released some more scrapped music tracks. Most are unfinished betas, but the one that particularly stands out is an expanded arrangement of "Power of Neo," which is given several unique motifs that provide actual progression to the piece.

Speaking of Undertale, I found this original composition by FaceImplosion shortly after completing Undertale Yellow. I love finding arrangements that fill in the gaps of a soundtrack (such as original themes for Touhou characters otherwise lacking), so the concept alone appealed to me here, but I dare say it's well executed as well. A piano-solo version preceded this one, but I get the impression this is meant to be the complete piece.
 
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The Bloons Tower Defense franchise has justifiably seen the highest success in its most current entry, being the sixth iteration. However, I could not feature the soundtrack thereof in good conscience without first addressing the history, specifically the entries I grew up with. The primary leitmotif of the series finds its origin in Bloons Tower Defense 4 with a stock music track ostensibly titled "Volcano Party," and while I can't find sufficient evidence of this to satisfy myself, the story does match up with the standards of the time. It was with BTD5 that the series received a proper composer in Tim Haywood, who adapted the original piece into a handful of new tracks. The later expansion, BTD5 Deluxe, heralded further compositions with less direct ties to "Volcano Party," but these never achieved the degree of iconic status that the initial pieces did.



 
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Returning to the Astro Bot franchise to feature its [technically] fourth entry, Astro's Playroom. Essentially a tech-demo for the PS5, the game has an even shorter soundtrack than its predecessor, and features less re-use of motifs as a result; whether this is a beneficial change or not is difficult to quantify. The new melodies are as high quality as ever, and while there's a bit of a gimmicky theme going on, I didn't find it too distracting. A couple of motifs are brought forward, specifically the credits theme (not featured here) and the boss fight motif, which help tie the soundtracks together a bit aside from the stylistic similarity. Kenneth C M Young is again the composer, and his consistency across these two projects incites my interest in seeking out his other works (apparently he worked on Little Big Planet, which I have no familiarity with whatsoever, but maybe I'll check it out some time soon).





I'm officially set to check back with this year's release, though it'll be a bit before I feature it here; lot of plans for the remainder of the year already, hopefully I can fit everything in.
 
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The plan was to listen through Echoes of Wisdom's soundtrack for this week's feature; but when I tried pulling it up, I was reminded of what a hassle it always is to find clean and consistent organization of recently (un)released Nintendo music. It'll likely be a few months before everything's standardized, and I decided I can't be bothered. Meanwhile Gestalt: Steam and Cinder's OST seems to be Steam exclusive, and I'm hesitant to invest at the moment. Year's getting on, though . . .

In the meantime, might as well do that Hi-Fi Rush refeature I'd planned for back when the b-side album came out. Admittedly I'm using it more as an excuse to feature some extra tracks from the base release, but I'd argue the soundtrack is worth it. As before, there's a lot of names associated connected to the collection, notably Shuichi Kobori, Masatoshi Yanagi, and Reo Uratani (I think I sufficiently covered The Glass Pyramids previously). Since acquiring the OST back in March of last year, it's been a consistent part of my listening playlist, and I foresee that will remain the case for some time to come.



 
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Hey there, I said that I'd write an upcoming post but I didn't because school works were getting in the way... Wow... that was a long time, it's like I....  Kept you waiting, huh? Omg, that sounded kinda corny or smth, lol. I have not check in with this site for awhile now so there are so much posts to go through that I want to read!!! ahhhh.

Anyways, the game that I'm going to talk about today is !!!!! Metal gear solid 3: Snake Eater. I've played every MGS games except for some of the ones in chronological order (yes I decided to play through the series this way, the plot i actually kinda easy to understand too). I like every MGS games, well actually this is one of my favorite series, I've played through every game except for MGS3 and the ones I haven't played yet. But I do have a feeling that if I play MGS3 again, I'd like it.

Did you know MGS Delta is coming out? (I know, great timing to make this post) It's a remake of MGS3, but I do think they should have remade other games that need to be remade (like the 1st 2 games of the series), but hey, whatever makes the most money in the easiest way for Konami right? They reused the engine from MGSV too, but there's is definitely more work put into this new game tho... plus the game isn't out yet so I can't really say anything much.

The original MGS3 felt like a james bond movie of some sorts, but I don't want to compare the 2 like that because I haven't watched any 007 movies and MGS is unique on it's own. I don't know if it's Hideo Kojima (creator of the series) or not, but they really bought a lot of licenses for some of these songs! Uhm.... actually I think it's only one song (the song Way to Fall) but it's just a guess tho, cus I don't really know. 


Spoiler

Snake Eater by Norihiko Hibino (vocals by Cynthia Harrell)





I hope you're a bit familiar with this game now if you haven't heard of it before! This game, chronologically, is the 1st game in the series (and the 1st game that I played), but I won't go any further than that! Some of the songs I listed here are OSTs that I like, so if you feel like there aren't a lot of "in-game" related OSTs, then this is why, hope you understand haha.

Stay tuned for the next one! The first song is totally gonna be cool... I really should make time for reading and posting man... Also, I'm going to post alot more music from this series, but please don't think that I'm "MILKING" this series to write many many posts, I really do like the OSTs of the series! I just post what I like on here.

 
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I planned a Fracture Feature for today specifically, on behalf of a friend who enjoys Skyrim music. I've posted about the base game and Beyond Skyrim mod soundtracks, but haven't touched on any other fan contributions, some of which are absolutely worth knowing about.
Legacy of the Dragonborn is among the most famous expansions to the game in existence, and absolutely deserving of all commendation. Musically, my favorite tracks are actually stock-music from earlier versions (especially "Skymning" by Vindsvept), but the pieces composed by Trent Moriarty for more recent forms are still excellent, perfectly instilling the unique atmosphere of the mod while fitting in perfectly with the base-game soundtrack.

Obscure's College of Winterhold isn't the largest or most popular mod for the location, but it is close, and more importantly seems the only one to add custom music to the area. Matness has made several albums worth of unattached contributions to the game's soundtrack, but this composition for someone else's mod is thus far my favorite. That being said, I recommend checking out those aforementioned albums, which can be found through Bandcamp.

Finally, the most impressive music mod I've yet come across is undoubtedly Nir Shor's Musical Lore; while it only adds three tracks, they each rival Soule's work for melody and atmosphere, and I consider them indispensable at this point. "Stonewall District" is a masterpiece of an audio journey, with a strong melody that carries the listener through the struggles and hopes of a foreign land, not as the midst of a great adventure but simply as the day to day determination of those whose part it is to continue living well.
 
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Animal Well's soundtrack has not received official release, and is not likely to, given it technically does not exist. I've had previous opportunity to explore the boundary between music and ambience, or more accurately speaking the overlap between the two, distinguishing between ambient music and "true" ambience. Animal Well uses true ambience, with little to no tonal shift or progression in its background soundscapes. As such, it may be incorrect to reference these as a soundtrack at all, as there is little to distinguish them from sound effects in some cases. Nonetheless, an argument could be made in either direction, and the concept of where the definition begins intrigues me. Perhaps by featuring this "soundtrack," I may incite others to the consideration of what does and doesn't count.

BTW, credits are somewhat lacking for this game, but it seems safe to presume Billy Basso as responsible for the sound design along with everything else.



 
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I am wasting no time on featuring Rivals of Aether II; I've been anticipating this release for much of the year, and now it's finally here!

The soundtrack is divided between two albums, each composed by a different team of musicians. Returning studio RESOFORCE, which includes the original game's composer "flashygoodness," has updated several of the existent motifs to match the new aesthetic. Some of these pieces were already expanded for Definitive Edition, but have still received a fresh arrangement, while several pieces lacking this earlier treatment have been fully reworked to match their quality to the rest. Meanwhile, the Moonsailor studio has composed several new tracks for the game, expanding the soundtrack's range in genre and style. The main name behind these pieces seems to be Rafael Langoni; additionally, raphaelgoulart is credited with arrangement assistance for both albums. Overall, the new tracks fit in perfectly with the old, together forming a collection more than worthy of its predecessor.




 
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The first Monster Hunter game released in 2004 on the PS2 with approximately thirty-four officially recognized music tracks. Normally I don't bother with such details, but in the case of this franchise they can help mitigate confusion as to where specific tracks actually originate from; due to frequent re-use of older themes in newer titles, regular expansions and ports, and an inconsistent soundtrack publication system, it can be an ordeal tracking down the proper origin of a given piece. Yet I consider the effort to be worthwhile, because this series has consistently turned out some of the best non-jrpg orchestral soundtracks in the video game industry.

The major name for this feature is Masato Kouda, who composed most of the music, but deserves particular credit for the franchise's main theme "Proof of a Hero." Not only is this track the best composition of this collection, it has also stood the test of time as the series has grown with surprisingly little alteration to its arrangement. That being said, there are two other names associated with the volume, these being Tetsuya Shibata and Mitsuhiko Takano, and while I'm not completely sure which tracks these are responsible for, I have my suspicions; certain pieces are notably distinct in style from the rest, and I wouldn't be surprised if these more experimental contributions came from a different place than the main themes.

Overall, I'm surprised and impressed at how close to modern Monster Hunter this soundtrack still sounds. While this may bring into question the innovation across future entries, it also testifies to a strong start that set the tone for the series, and not many such long-lasting franchises claim as much. I was a bit disappointed with the lesser focus on melody in the monster themes themselves, but I also respect the intention thereof; besides, the town and activity themes make up for it well enough. Given the stronger melodies in X/Generations, I wonder if there was a change at some point between?





 
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This week's feature will be a bit shorter than usual, so I have a slightly bloated Fracture Feature to compensate, instigated by the previous feature.

While going through the Monster Hunter OST, one of the tracks that stood out was "Beyond the Fog," an atmospheric ambience piece that I presume served as an area theme. Several other tracks were similarly constructed, but this one was especially cohesive with its musical and ambient parts.


As I continued research for the feature, I came across comments alluding to similarities between this track and another piece from a completely different game: "Serenity" from Resident Evil 4. I looked up this piece out of curiosity, and was surprised to find it more than just similar.


It seemed obvious that both these pieces were using sampling for their compositions, and I started looking for further information. It didn't take long to track down "To Burble and Pine" by David Torn as the source. Interestingly, it seems unclear whether sampling was approved for the piece, yet it has been apparently been incorporated into a multitude of musical media.


The linking factor in most instances seems to be the company Capcom, which published both Monster Hunter and Resident Evil, as well as other franchises in which "To Burble and Pine" appears. The most intricate incorporation I came across was in "Ancient Castle" from Devil May Cry. Ultimately I'm just fascinated that a single sample had such widespread usage.
 
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Monster Hunter G, Monster Hunter Portable, and Monster Hunter Freedom are all technically the same game, being various iterations and ports of the original Monster Hunter. Additional tracks were added in one of these as an expansion, though it is not entirely clear to me which; whereas such tracks might be considered part and partial to the base release in most cases, publications of the music have made distinctions between them, calling into question the process by which I might cite their sources. I decided to make a distinct feature for them to highlight this confusion; technically the expansion isn't nearly big enough to justify it, but hopefully it will serve as clarification of the difficulties that arise from tracking down these compositions. For future features, I may simply look at the final form of an entry in the series, though recent releases seem to be reverting to a more standard format of DLCs.


 
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By the skin of my teeth (as the saying goes), I arrive to feature Monster Hunter 2(dos). This one was trouble; I couldn't initially find a playlist with all the tracks organized properly, and I got confused with a few pieces that may or may not have been from the game. Nonetheless, I believe I've tracked down the answers I sought. Masato Kouda returns from the first entry, this time joined by Yuko Komiyama, Akihiko Narita, Shinya Okada, and Hajime Hyakkoku. That's a lot of names, but it's for a lot of music! 2(dos)'s soundtrack is twice the size of Freedom's, and seemingly spread more evenly between the musicians involved than that title -- as is stylistic consistency. I mentioned for the first Monster Hunter that I anticipated a stronger melody focus at some point in the series' progression, but I little imagined it to be so early! To my ears, this soundtrack is indistinguishable from its modern followups in quality and direction; I dare say this is the definitive entry for the franchise's music, to which future titles are compared.

All that being said, it's really difficult to pick standout tracks to represent the whole here, not only for quality compositions but exemplary structure: The first town theme alone comes in several variations, each a fully realized piece of its own. The main theme of the game is a prevalent leitmotif throughout, and I'm not sure of which piece best presents it. There's also plenty of monster themes, with some returning creatures from the first game being given entirely new pieces. Honestly I could easily do two features on this soundtrack, but I've only got one week left for the month so I'm just stuffing this one instead.







 
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Another lesson in the confusing nature of this franchise; while Monster Hunter Freedom can be considered the final form of Monster Hunter [1], Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is considered a unique release from Monster Hunter 2(dos). Apparently Monster Hunter Portable 2nd was less of a port and more of a remake, with certain parts of 2(dos) being replaced, even as most of the latter's content was reused. I gather that much of the music was still present from the original iteration, but enough features were replaced that I can't be sure where the line between the two is; it seems safer to me to simply consider the newly introduced tracks as their own entity.

Portable 2nd features an entirely new main town (presumably replacing the town from 2(dos)), which comes with one of the more iconic themes in the series; I'm previously familiar with the motifs from their presence in X/Generations, but this is their first iteration. The primary motif of the theme is adapted into several other town-activity tracks, forming the majority of Portable 2nd's musical additions. Subsequent expansions culminating in Freedom Unite were more focused on new monsters, the themes of which are amongst the best the series had hitherto produced. To cap off the month, I'm including what I presume to be the credits medley, which contains this game's rendition of "Proof of a Hero."






I've thoroughly enjoyed finally digging into this series' origins; as frustrating as the investigation can be at times, the discoveries to be had in the undertaking more than justify it.

Also, Happy Thanksgiving!
 
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