J is for Just Released
There are few game characters that amass a huge cult following without having to do anything. The most recent, and one of my favorite (non)characters is simply a box. More specifically, it’s a Weighted Companion Cube. For fans of the game Portal –released as one of the many titles included in Valve’s recent Orange Box– the Weighted Companion Cube is more than just another ordinary cube. It is something to love and cherish. Aside from my beloved, though, there are many things that have happened since my last post.
The biggest news for the site is the new look. I decided to take the site away from a template and build a new look for it. I’m still working out a lot of the bugs for it, so bear with it for a while longer. Also, in site news, I’m looking for writers who are willing to contribute weekly to VGMe. If you are interested, drop me a line at dastafarin@gmail.com using the subject “Writing for VGMe” so that I can find it amongst all the spam.
Now, on a completely random note, I want to bring up something that I was talking about today and that is the complete impatience I find in other players online. Recently I’ve been playing a lot of Gunbound again, after having been away from it since the original version entitled “Thor’s Hammer.” After going back, I’ve found a lot of people on the game are anywhere between somewhat impatient to extremely impatient. It’s disturbing and extremely annoying. As soon as I log into a room, it’s almost guaranteed that at least one person will spam my username about 50 times and tell me to ready up within the first 10 seconds. Now this game is a lot worse than many other online games in those regards, but the same still holds up in some capacity for many online titles. Sometimes telling a person to “Ready up” is warranted and necessary, but 99% of the time it’s simply irritating. I know to get ready, I’ve played the game before. I don’t need someone “yelling” at me to hurry things up and forgo any preparations I may wish to make before entering into a match.
MUSIC
Jet Set Radio garnered a good amount of press and recognition back during its release for its (then) cutting edge use of cel-shading, its unique gameplay and its soundtrack. The game was originally released for Dreamcast, but also made appearances on the Gameboy Advance and the Xbox.
The track selected is the title track from the game. The artist behind the song, Hideki Naganuma also did many of the other tracks for the game along with a collection of licensed music. The song uses a sample from the old BBC Radio comedy Hancock's Half Hour (wikipedia). It is house electronica and is very enjoyable. Although the style is one that garners either love or hate, it is a definite winner for most who enjoy the genre.
Jack Wall - Anthem of the Tyrant Jade Empire Original Soundtrack
While I've used Jade Empire in a previous post (What about the yankees?), it is one more the better soundtracks on the Xbox, and in the J category quite simply.
Unlike the previous song posted, "Anthem of the Tyrant" has almost no Asian influence on the composition. It is fairly straight forward Western Classical, but still quite good. As can be inferred from the name of the song, it is one of the darker, more “epic” tracks from the album. It uses a lot of deep, guttural horns along with almost-screeching strings.
H is for Holy Crap, more Kingdom Hearts!
Today was the first day of the Tokyo Game Show and Square Enix came out swinging with the announcement of not one, but three new Kingdom Hearts titles. All the games are hand-held, covering the range of major platforms (DS, PSP, Mobile) and the time-line as well. The DS title, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (read as 358 over 2 days) takes place during Kingdom Hearts II. It features Roxas and Axel, two major fangirl fodder from the second game and will have a co-op mode similar to Crystal Chronicles (according to Kotaku). It will also be a lot darker in terms of the atmosphere created by the game. That in itself makes me want to play it.
The second title, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (what the fuck is with these titles?) is going to appear on the PSP. Birth of Sleep will be a prequel to the series, occurring before the events of Kingdom Hearts and will center around earlier Keyblade masters; namely Xehanort. Fans of the series will know Xehanort as the fake Ansem who was the main villain (at least his alternate forms were) in both PS2 games.
The third and final game, Kingdom Hearts: Coded is going to be on the mobile platform. There’s not as much info about this title as there are the first two, but from what is known it seems to take place parallel to the PS2 games. It will feature Sora as the main character and be a basic dungeon crawler.
While I’m a fan of the Kingdom Hearts series, I’m not really too excited two more hand-held titles for the series (don’t expect Coded to ever be released here). Though I’m interested in playing 358/2 Days, I really want to find out the history of Xehanort, but of course it’s on the hand-held I don’t have. The chances of me picking up a PSP in the future, even with some titles I want to play, is very slim. If they did something like the Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix + release with the two titles included in Kingdom Hearts III, that would make me very happy. Of course, there’s no guarentee that the game would come out in America should they do that.
MUSIC
Hitman 2 was released in 2002 and almost immediately found itself mixed up in controversy over the content. Even with the controversy, though, the game was received well amongst gamers and helped establish the Hitman franchise. The soundtrack, composed by Jesper Kyd and performed by the Budapest Symphonic Orchestra, was nominated for multiple awards honoring the best soundtrack including GameSpot's Soundtrack of the Year and multiple Game Audio Network Guild awards.
"Waiting for Action" is the second track of the soundtrack and occurs early on in the game. Featuring a strong orchestral score, the track has an almost Eastern-European feel to it. The brooding feel of the song only intensifies as the drums, though short, make their appearance near the end of the composition.
Kelly Bailey - Black Mesa Inbound Half-Life 2 Original Soundtrack
There isn't much need to detail the pedigree of the Half-Life series. Being the sequel to one of the most influential FPS titles to ever grace a PC, Half-Life 2 was an excellent follow up and the soundtrack was no slouch either. Kelly Bailey returned to score Half-Life 2 which helped maintain a sense of continuity from the first title to the second which was released almost exactly six years later.
The track Black Mesa Inbound is actually a remix of a track from the original Half-Life soundtrack which was entitled "Vague voices." By itself, this extremely atmospheric track is almost forgettable, but in a good way. It does it's job of making your forget you are listening to a piece of music and instead evokes the basic emotions it was set out to. The arrangement is extremely minimal, with a few electronic sounds heard throughout. The sound is almost metallic with a soft organic undertone as the sound pads fluctuate in and out.
Nobuo Uematsu - First Moon Event Hanjuku Hero Original Soundtrack
Originally released in 1988 in Japan, Hanjuku Hero was “[a] real time strategy game, Hanjuku Hero lets you command monsters and troops in a land-based battle for supremacy. Humor and strategy mix in this unique game. The fate of your kingdom is on this battle!” (RPGamer.com) The composer Nobuo Uematsu had just come off his first Final Fantasy composition when he scored this game.
“First Moon Event” falls in line well with Uematsu’s style. The strong melody and solid use of simple harmonics through the old Famicom system shows his ability to make a memorable song from anything. Though the song isn’t as impactful or epic as his Final Fantasy tracks, it’s the light-hearted feel that makes it an enjoyable listen. Even without having played the game, listening to the song makes one imagine the kind of enjoyment young Japanese kids probably felt in the early days of Squaresoft.
What about the Yankees?
Though many of the songs posted on this blog have been from Japanese games, that doesn’t mean that only the Japanese can produce a great soundtrack. Here are a few tracks from American titles that I have loved since I first heard them.
Martin O’Donnell & Michael Salvatori - Opening Suite Halo Original Soundtrack You’d be hard-pressed to find an American gamer who hasn’t at least heard of Halo. Though opinions over the game vary greatly, I can say that I loved the soundtrack. A more atmospheric arrangement than many Japanese titles, this song not only is a beautiful piece, but can evoke a lot of emotion in those who have played the game.
Stan Lepard, Northwest Sinfonia - Vendetta Suite Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge Original Soundtrack This piece has epic written all over it. The minute it starts, you are thrown back to the classic air-battles of hollywood, with bi-planes and dogfights. You can almost feel the cold sting on your face as you picture yourself in the open cockpit of a fighter plane, maneuvering around an enemy, trying desperately to get a good shot at him.
Jack Wall - Dawn Star Theme Jade Empire Original Soundtrack While the game was very hit or miss for most gamers out there, the soundtrack did a wonderful job of capturing the atmosphere by using classic Chinese instruments and arrangements. This song in particular is one of the more upbeat pieces and is quite enjoyable to listen to. Though the game’s soundtrack didn’t quite have the masterful sound that movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were able to produce (Thanks to the amazing talents of Yoyo Ma), Jack Wall still was able to produce one that was not only bearable, but actually worth listening to. It’s more than can be said for other American composers who venture into the realm of Chinese classical.
It’s only a fiddle in the south.
One of the best things about video game music is when it’s redone. One way of redoing it is with a full-blown orchestra. It adds something special to the original composition, especially for older games or ones on systems who’s musical capabilities are very limited.
Noriyuki Iwadare - Gyakuten Saiban - Courtroom Suite Gyakuten Saiban Orchestra Album ~Gyakuten Saiban Meets Orchestra~ From the Gyakuten Saiban series (Phoenix Wright in America), this orchestral version of the soundtrack is amazing to say the least. The music takes on a whole new persona with the full-bodied sound that only an orchestra can provide. This song in particular becomes an epic masterpiece by itself. You can just imagine yourself in a courtroom as the drama unfolds before your eyes.
Yoshihiro Arita With His Band, Seiko - The Song of Epona Mario & Zelda Big Band Live CD This interpretation of the Epona theme from Ocarina of Time does such a good job of recreating the feel of the song. The performance throws the song heavily into the Country genre, but that’s where it belongs to begin with. Even those who aren’t fans of the style might enjoy this track.
London Symphony Orchestra - LILIA Symphonic Suite Falcom Neo Classic From Studios in London City Whether you’ve played a Ys game or have even heard of Falcom is not important here. What is important is that the music to their games is generally in the higher end of the spectrum, and this piece helps prove that. This 10+ minute suite is beautiful to say the least. It’s almost hard to imagine that it came from a game, but it did.
First of probably a couple
I’ve decided since I have a vast VGM collection and a lot of disc space/bandwidth, I should try my hand at a music blog. So to start out, I’ll give you a couple of my favorites and one that I’ve really enjoyed from a soundtrack not to many people think about.
Yasunori Mitsuda - One Who Bears Fangs at God (Xenogears) Being from one of my favorite soundtracks and favorite VGM composers of all time, this track is wonderful. The quick-tempo mixed with some creepy digital-sounding choir sets the mood well for the piece. Because of the age of the music (PSX era), it does have a very synth sound to it, but that really doesn’t detract from it at all. The melody’s tone sounds similar to his later work on Xenosaga, and is a clear example of where it began to form.
Norihiko Hibino, Cynthia Harrell - Snake Eater -abstracted camouflage- (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater) As the original version of the theme song to Snake Eater released, I found this version to be much better (I quickly bought the single after it was released). It has more of a Bond/70’s feel to it, and creates an excellent atmosphere. You can almost see the female sillouettes dancing around as Naked Snake points his PP7 at you.
Chris Vrenna - Flying on the Wings of Steam (American McGee’s Alice) Formerly of Nine Inch Nails, Chris Vrenna was commissioned to create the soundtrack to this game, and it has become an “underground” classic, if you will. A wonderfully composed piece, this creepy composition gives a very distinct feeling of a world a couple notches off, giving the world of Wonderland a feeling that was lost in the Disney movie, and so beautifully restored through music.