RPG's and RPG Soundtracks

Excuse the bluntness that follows but regardless of how I write the following it's going to come off as a rant.

It just may be me, but when it comes to the music in RPGs today it seems so much harder to dig in, especially when you're presented with huge 4+ disc set. In the past I use to believe in the idea that more =s better but this is ideology is deeply flawed if anything and I come to acknowledge it. If anything, more usually =s more filler. Anyway, sry for repeating what everybody probably already knows.

Boy, do I miss being able to see

Pardon me as I lean into my monitor while I type this. I couldn't find my glasses yesterday morning - I always leave them in one of three or so places before I go to bed, and if they're not in one of those spots when I wake up, they're as lost as can be. Going onto my third day without glasses now, and I can tell my eyes are tired of not being able to focus. It doesn't really hamper my ability to get around all that much, but trying to read anything a professor writes on a chalkboard is much tougher work than it should be.

Anyways, to cut to the chase this time, I'm gonna link you all to an AMV. (EDIT: That's "anime music video" for those of you who don't dabble in the same spheres of nerdery that I do) Most of you probably don't know this, but AMVs have been a hobby of mine for about four years now. Over this time, I've noticed that the amount of overlap between this hobby and video game music is pretty rare. Other than the occasional Final Fantasy vocal song (ugh), VGM just doesn't find its way into AMVs too often. Probably because VGM is kind of a niche to begin with, so making a cross-product with another niche hobby isn't gonna get you much, period.

Anyways, you can find the video here.* The music featured is Battle Hymn of the Soul from the Persona 3 soundtrack (or so I'm told, as I don't follow Persona music), and the featured video source is one of the .hack games (which I also don't follow for reasons I alluded to in my previous post). Unless I'm missing something due to not having played the games, it's nothing incredibly deep, just a straightforward action video. It's not legendary material by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a worthwhile watch and might strike home for those of you particularly attached to either source.

Besides, I always feel obligated to educate the audience whose only AMV experience is the trash that so pervasively litters YouTube.

On a slightly related and more personal note, I think I may have an idea for a video involving the Secret of Evermore soundtrack. But I'll keep that one under wraps for now.

* If you have trouble figuring out how to get the video, just scroll down to where it says "DIRECT" in big green letters and click to download.

Castlevania!

I've been bitten buy the Castlevania bug recently... it all started when I picked up a copy of Akumajo Dracula Best last month and has continued into this month with the purchase of Best 2 and a Lament of Innocence Sampler.

The Lament of Innocence Sampler may seem like an odd purchase, especially considering the soundtrack was in my possession early last year but with two discs it seemed heavy with material/tracks I really didn't want - especially the second disc. The sampler contains the majority of the compositions I found enjoyable - if "Statue Enchanted by the Darkness" was there it be prefect but 7 out of 8 isn't bad at all. I don't want the whole soundtrack again but want to have access to certain tracks like "Melancholy Joachim," the main stage themes and "Lament of Innocence (Leon's Theme)." In this case the sampler will do just fine.

This brings us to the other soundtrack with which Lament shares space on the sampler: Symphony of the Night. Now, don't get me wrong - Nocturne has a great score and it really stood out to me when first playing the game years ago but I can't help but feel like some off the allure has dulled over the years. Thinking about it on a deeper level, the vast array of styles presented is often seen as one of the soundtracks strengths' but now seems to be somewhat of a weakness. I don't know... the right mood has to strike to listen to it and that isn't as often as one would expect.

The recently released soundtrack for the Dracula X Chronicles is more or less in the same boat. What is presented is enjoyable but those endless questions of if the appeal meant to last or if it's only a personal fad is a tad irksome. Still, all is well as the score for Super Castlevania IV has me in its dark and moody clutches. Can't. Stop. Listening. A new personal favorite if anything and even the gameboy scores from Best 2 are starting to sink into my subconscious - damn you "New Messiah (Glass Castle BGM)!"

Regardless, the fight against the legions of darkness is one hell of an auditory ride! Definately need to check out some more scores.

A first impression for the ages

So I have this problem with compulsive spending. I'll be browsing the used game rack at the local Gamestop, and I'll see a game with anime art on the cover and something looking vaguely like an RPG in the screenshots on the back. If it's twenty bucks or less, guaranteed I'm walking out of the store with it. This is the story of how I've acquired many games, some of them unpopular gems like Unlimited SaGa. On the other end of the spectrum, though, we have Forever Kingdom.

Now, in my last post here I ragged on some choice music, namely Dancing Mad and the KoF01 OST. Much to my own surprise, I'm going to have to say those compositions sound like masterpieces in comparison to the music for the opening FMV for Forever Kingdom. I mean, the song has several lines of music going on at once, but none of them are in time with each other. My ears have never been so confused where it's felt like it was being yanked by three different chains going in three completely separate directions. It was like the world's laziest mash-up, or something like that. And of course, the in-game music is no better. This is seriously the only game (other than, of course, the dreaded KoF01) where the music has been so bad, it's distracted me from playing the game.

But hey, the bad first impression doesn't end there. Start the game, and we get a boring narration from a voice actor stiff as a statue. Cut to the actual game, and you're greeted by three characters with some of the worst designs I've ever seen. The two males are as generic as can be, with the only remarkable differences being hair color and a scarf. The female isn't much different, only she's wearing a god damn net over her clothes. Like the designers made her and said, "Oh crap, we need to make her more unique. Uh, throw a net over her and we'll call it a day." I know people will rag on designs like FFX's Tidus, calling him outlandish, asymmetrical, and clowny, but at least there's some sense of direction there. In Forever Kingdom, we just have a net thrown on top of the normal clothes. And no, it's not the sexy fishnet that Naruto author Kishimoto seems to like so much, it's just sitting there on top of the clothes.

But hey, it's just not an RPG of the current generation if I can't play until I've been bored out of my mind first, right? The opening cut-scene (which looks absolutely atrocious, might I add) takes another good two or three minutes, rife with voice acting ranging from bored to flat. To give credit where it's due, it's not quite as bad as Magna Carta, but I definitely wish I could turn it off. When I finally get the play the game, I realize that the developers couldn't even make walking a non-painful experience. For those of you who ever played Jedi Outcast or Jedi Academy online and remembered what it was like to watch yourself lag while running, it's just like that. The characters don't take steps, they teleport two inches in front of them while kind of moving their legs.

And combat? I never thought I'd run into a system inherently worse than the .hack system (seriously, I have to go into a menu to do anything other than a basic attack?), but here we go. Mash X until you build meter to do your special move. Switch characters, repeat. Once all three character have their moves, you can chain them together, except for the fact that the two characters you aren't controlling are guaranteed to get stuck behind fences, doghouses, or you. Almost a novel idea, but Valkyrie Profile beat them to the punch, and they actually made it good.

Forever Kingdom is seriously the first game I've ever played where I shut off my system after just ten minutes of playing it. I tried again for another half hour, but I realized I was just banging my head against a brick wall. I'm really bad with years, so I'm not sure what other RPGs came out in the same time, but a quick run to GameFAQs tells me this game was the same year as Final Fantasy X. I'm not saying FFX is a masterpiece or anything, but using it as a bar to be measured against, it's like Forever Kingdom intentionally dug a pit for itself and jumped right in.

But this is a weblog about video game music right? I tried to see if there was a soundtrack for this game, and unsurprisingly enough, there isn't one that either Chudah's Corner or GMR has listed. Unfortunately, this probably means I'll never figure out who the composer is, so I can never personally fly to his place of residence and slap him into next week.

Not every cloud has a silver lining, it seems.

Soundtracks I'd like to see (but probably won't)

The start of a new year brings about new possibilities. This also goes for VGM as well, but what about those games with great music that don't have official soundtrack releases or those that do but are half-baked? Well, one can dream can't they? Anyway, here are some efforts I'd like to see get an official release even though in most cases they aren't going to happen:

Ninja Gaiden & Ninja Gaiden Part II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (NES)
While part one did receive a soundtrack release in 1989 with Tecmo's G.S.M. series the lack of reasonable looping structure for the smaller tracks – of which there are many – somewhat robs some of the enjoyment that can be found in this music - even with the various sound enhancements. Really, 40 seconds of a song like "Reflection" and 10 seconds of something like "Like a Hurricane" is hardly what I'd call giving this wonderful score justice. As powerful as part one's music was - tracks like "Tagic Fate" and "Dilemma - The Battle of Ordeals" being so poignant its scary - part II's music was great as well. Playing both games for the first time years ago on the NES it amazed me how well Tecmo and the composers were able to drive the story in these classic side scrollers with the combination of music and story scenes; I still get goosebumps from the opening intro piece to this day when Asthar receives word of Jaquio's defeat from one of his henchmen and declares his evil intentions. I could really care less about part III though.

Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles (Genesis)
Seriously, this is long overdue considering Rockman has done much since his last two anniversaries to bring fans up to speed. Coupled this with Sega's track record releasing more recent Sonic music and there is little excuse. Sure, the 10th Anniversary/Sonic 3 soundtracks are out there - if you can find them - but nothing says "sorry for the wait" like a nice big box set.

Tomb Raider (PSX, Saturn)
Okay, there "technically" is a "soundtrack" for Tomb Raider since the game uses redbook audio (outside the music for the FMV's and the ending) but I would seriously shell out for a separate soundtrack release. Last year's Tomb Raider Anniversary revisits many of Nathan McCree's original compositions while adding a lot of new material but for the most part it's that overdone orchestral stuff that's a bit too dramatic and commonplace today - I'd take the simplistic in comparison touch the original had any day of the week despite its short length and reserved in-game usage. My advice: make a soundtrack containing both scores - it would be really nice to have official names for the tracks in the original score even though there is already a nice fan concocted tracklisting out there for it. Unfortunately, PC users missed out in 1996 as most of the music was absent due to CD-ROM access issues that would have caused the game to freeze while loading the music.

Goldeneye (N64)
I'm not a big first person shooter fan, probably because I'm terrible at them (me in multiplayer always ='s being pwned) but along with the soundtrack for Doom (especially the music from the SNES version) this is one of the soundtracks from the genre I'd love to have/see. A track like "Severnaya Installation (Day)" is so beautiful it just beyond words... it's just that freakin’ great. No offense against Perfect Dark but it gets a soundtrack and Goldeneye doesn't? That's a raw deal if anything.

Mega Man Anniversary Collection (PS2, XBox)
Take Rockman: The Power Battle, Rockman 2: The Power Fighters and the remainder of the remixed music for Rockman 4 through 6 and make a box out of it. Yeah, this isn't going to happen but the music from Complete Works is definitely worthy of being pressed on disc - I only wish Capcom would have taken the time to remix the remaining music from Rockman 1~3 to make the music in those games flush in the collection – having regular and remixed music within the same game took the presentation down a notch.

Those are my "big five" - or at least the ones I can think of off hand. The most likely of any of those happening is the Sonic one which most would definately welcome. Anyway, what scores would you like to see if the bodies of the cosmos amazingly lined up in your favor?

Happy New Year!

Hello friends! I hope all your holidays went well. Since it's the last day of the year I figured I had better do this now or never. So, I present a bit of a wrap up of my December purchases in VGM. I doubt anyone's family got them game music (and if they did, you're pretty lucky!), so like me you may have had to take it upon yourself. I ended up with 2 orders in December; a careful observer can probably pick them out actually.... So in no particular order here we go.

Rockman 7 and 8 soundtracks - I suppose I should thank Team Entertainment for finally releasing these, even though it would have been better if Suleputer had made another box where they were included... or made the set Rockman 1~8 to begin with. Despite any issues I'm still satisfied and happy to have 7, and while there are some themes from 8 that remain memorable it's not nearly as many or as much as 7. One thing that definitely irked me about 8 was with all the extra space on the CD that they couldn't bother to include the Sega Saturn version of Tenguman's stage nor the Aquaman's arrange (I haven't actually heard this one, so I'm not sure if it's just different synth or a true arrange). While throwing around some blame, why in the world wouldn't they have released the Rockman & Forte soundtrack along with these two? I shouldn't hold my breath but it would be even nicer for Capcom to release the Rockman 1~6 PSX arranges. Despite all gripes they are classic Megaman and any fan will have to own these (unless Capcom takes suggestions and puts out a new box ;P ).

Then we get to Team Entertainment's other Rockman releases: the Rock and Techno arranges. Highly anticipated by every Megaman fan I should think, but were they worth it? Yes and no. Even though some of the initial appeal has dwindled since getting them I still enjoy most of the songs. They really did select a lot of picks I made before tracklists were revealed, which is good, but the latter 3 games are particularly looked over. Diveman, Dustman, Skullman, Napalmman, Darkman for Rock arrange anyone? Flashman, Sparkman, Brightman, Knightman for Techno? Apparently not, and it wouldn't be such a big deal another song I wanted wasn't included except for the fact that there was so much room to include more. That the even padded the run time with the original songs is even more of an affront; as if the fans didn't already have those! At $30 a cd they pretty much exploited our fandom, they could have made it a two disc set for the same price. So my suggestion, try to get it secondhand and save money if you can... you can buy it new if you want it bad but there'll probably be a bad aftertaste from the price and quantity (not the quality, though your opinions could differ from mine).

Next we have Kira★Kira, the single to the game of the same name; the newest Lantis offering. Chudah had turned me onto some songs from Green Green and I enjoyed milktub's music for that (girl's pop rock as opposed to the usual jpop in bishojo and hentai), so when I found they did this I picked it up. Short and sweet I would recommend getting it, especially if you like their previous stuff. Actually, Dai2BungeibuBand have a new album, Love, out today, more bang for your buck I would assume, but if you want these songs then you need to get the single as they aren't listed on the album's tracklist.

Detective Saburo Jinguji DS is the 11th console version of the series and I hesitant going into this purchase. Before ordering I looked all over and couldn't find any indication of why it spanned 4 discs, but I figured there would be an original version disc like Portrait of Ruin. Well I was wrong, 2 discs for the new game and 2 discs for the soundtracks to the first 4 games from Famicom. Gone is the laid back club jazz of the PS2 offerings served up by Katsuhiko Nakamichi and Hasemi Daichi... now whether or not they were involved with any of these I wouldn't know since it's only credited as WorkJam so I'm just assuming they're not. Granted there are jazzy tracks, but right now I'm not getting past the synth. I think it's something you just need to have played and have in your memory, so perhaps I'm not giving it a fair shake... I really haven't digested it yet. I'll just warn not to buy this expecting Innocent Black or Kind of Blue. Oh, and as a note I edited End of Dreams a little when I did the translation for this.

Pop'n music 15 was a purchase I kept putting off for whatever reason but I finally picked it up and again I really haven't sat down and digested it all. Like 13 and 14 I think some tracks that don't stand out now will become staples when I actually play the game but right overall it's seeming a bit weak and lazy. Disc 2 is almost all remixes and returning songs from other games (why do nothing but have Tomoka Hino be the third and worst vocalist for Prince on a Star without arranging the song a bit? Why change the name from "Get the Funk Out Mix" to SKACORE MIX?) Even some new songs sound intentionally or not like old ones, but at least songs like "A Swinging Hawaii One!" and "World Spider Web" have captured my interest. Unless you're a pop'n music freak like me avoid this; a casual pop'n music fan or first time buyer would do much better to start with 8, 9 and/or 10.

Outside of VGM both Genesis of Aquarion soundtracks were in an order. I can't believe I missed out of getting them sooner, but they are definitely worth it!

Closing out the year it seems 2007 was a good year for techno as some of my favorites this past year were all techno: beatmania IIDX 14, Granado Espada, milestone, and Wangan Midnight 3. So, here's wishing you all a happy new year 2008! Look forward to more new translations and fixed old ones, and much more from all the staff here at Chudah's Corner!

Reviews update. Also, meow.

After an entire weekend of playing Guitar Hero III, Zane can barely lift his arms up, never mind type a blog post about the new reviews that Chudah's Corner just posted. He is currently laying on the ground, telling me what to type in between spats of whimpering and imitating the click from the strum bar on his GH controller, so don't be surprised if some of the post gets lost in translation.

I'm pleased to say that our staff here at CC is bringing in the new year with a hefty buffet of new reviews. Our newest staff member, Ashley Winchester, digs deep into the two new Rockman soundtrack releases with his Rockman 7 Fateful Showdown and Rockman 8 Metal Heroes reviews, shedding some light on the quality and the justice (or lack thereof) that these two releases have given the franchise. Ashley has been a frequent contributor to the site for the past several months now, and I'm really happy to welcome him on board as a permanent staff member.

inthesto dusts off Symphonic Suite Shining Force II, spreads some Naganuma love with his write-up of the DS's Sonic Rush soundtrack, and delivers an excellent review for Masashi Hamauzu's half-original, half-pseudo-arrange album, Vielen Dank. Great work, inthesto - or should I say, gute arbeit, mein freund.

I managed to scrounge up a little inspiration and spout off a bit about the short but really bizarre Trash 004 and the disappointing Gyakuten Saiban 3 OST. So, enjoy those.

Last, but surely not least, is Jormungand's in-depth overview of the massive Breath of Fire Soundtrack Box. Be sure to check out Jorm's other BoF reviews that are on-site while you're at it - he has written reviews for each individual BoF release as well. The links to the albums are at the bottom of his review.

So, I hope everyone enjoys reading the new reviews as much as I did. I want to thank everyone for stopping by and supporting the site, and for continuing to read the reviews that we've all worked really hard on.

Happy new year! Also, click clickclickclick click click.

- Zane's cat

Reviews:

Breath of Fire OST Special Box
Gyakuten Saiban 3
Rockman 7 The Fateful Showdown!
Rockman 8 Metal Heroes
SONIC RUSH Original Groove Rush.
Symphonic Suite Shining Force II
Trash 004
Vielen Dank