I feel like I could have worked harder this week. Well, with an art show around the corner, a couple of illustrations on the way, another combat theme in development and the overly involving task of programming the combat routines for Bijoux Red, I suppose that I'll have plenty of opportunity to throw myself into my work this week...
And now (to quote a classic), here's something we hope you'll really like!
Super Mario RPG (SNES) Booster's Tower
Mega Man X (SNES) Energy Mine Ruins (Armored Armadillo's Stage Theme)
Earthbound (SNES) Battle Against an Unsettling Opponent
It's no mystery to anybody that I'm a huge fan of the Rhythm Heaven series (Rhythm Tengoku in Japan). The game is quirky in a way that's reminiscent of the Wario Ware series, which is appropriate since both games are produced by Yoshio Sakamoto (who you may also know as the director of most of the Metroid series after Return of Samus for the Game Boy).
In 'Wrestler', a track for the new Rhythm Heaven for Wii (which is currently available only in Japan), the player controls the titular wrestler as he answers questions and poses for photographers during an interview. The scene is hilarious and the song is catchy as hell. I can't wait to play this game!
Don't Look Back! Player Mission Theme - The newest soundtrack offering, this piece is heard when the player takes their turn during mission sequences.
There is more music available on our newest post at the Bijoux Red blog! You can also check out our Youtube channel to see our most recent updates! Coming soon: gameplay videos!
We've been listening to a lot of war themes at Revolver Games lately, as evidenced by Dice's extensive look at some of her favourite tracks. It could have something to do with the work we've been doing on our own tactical RPG, Bijoux Red. Whatever the reason, I just had to call some attention to these personal favourites.
Advance Wars: Dual Strike (NDS) Sasha's Theme Is this even a war theme? There's a certain 'get-up-and-go' hopefulness that drives this song while still maintaining the charm of Sasha's character. This is the kind of war theme that I love listening to!
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (NDS) For Liberty Another hopeful theme for the troops to rally around. The epic war tunes are great, but I've got a soft spots for the ones that kind of have that 'things are looking up' quality.
Ogre Battle : The March of The Black Queen Revolt The theme is called Revolt and, from the sound of things, the revolt is going well. What is that optimistic quality that draws me to these tunes? You really feel successful when you ride out and crush your enemies to a song like this (which helps me plenty, as I'm not all that great at strategy games!).
I'm looking forward to sharing some of our own war themes shortly. The setting may be quite different from these fantasy strategy games, or from the contemporary war setting of the Advance Wars series, but our goal of empowering the player's army with an exciting tune is all the same!
Nothing quite like having a game take place in the most basic "battlefield" there is: War. A few composers really seem to hit the niche for great tracks be it the "why, god, why?" war tunes, the "war is hell" war tunes, and last but not least, the "let's get those sons o' bitches!" war tunes. Anyways, let's look at some of my favorite composers; though you can probably guess who I think is the best of them (Hint: Just about every War-J-SRPG is scored by this guy).
#3) Yoko Shimomura
Her resume may not have too many war-based titles, but the few and far between have been great additions to an already impressive line of work. She tends to emphasize some amazing melodies, her ability to make songs flow, and her passion for tugging on your heart with beautiful piano pieces. Recently she proved herself once more with the OST for Radiant Historia:
Radiant Historia's "Edge of Green" is a track with a great beat and a great flow. This is a boss theme, and it uses a wide array of instruments to take you into every new part of the tune. We start with strings and drums, then we get violin and organ, and then we get a horn and piano. Each instrument pairing is sort of stuck against each other, and works well as a boss track. I can hear a sort of "tango" sound to it to, though that might just be me.
This is Heroes of Mana's opening theme. I linked the orchestra arranged version (it's better quality). The game may have been met with mixed reviews, but the music made up the difference thanks to Shimomura's contribution. We have another up-beat melody to start, but in a traditional Yoko way, she knows how to draw out a deeper sound to make the piece more complex and involving.
Other Shimomura recommendations:
Kingdom Hearts (the music is a series strong point), Legend of Mana. Also, a few Breath of Fire 1 and Xenoblade tracks are hers. Oh, and Little Nemo! :D
#2) Masako Oogami
You're probably thinking "who the fu-", and I don't blame you. But it's always fun to post a hidden gem who's other important work includes.... IdolM@aster.... hmm. Umm, I swear he's good!!
Oogami's major contributions are to the little known, and under-appreciated Seven and Venus & Braves series. These titles sported what is a clever mix throughout the soundtrack of jazz, waltz and, hell, even rag-time. He has an ability to get that "story book" feeling; you hear tunes that sound kinda medieval, kinda magical, kinda romantic, but still kinda strange.
But anyways, we're here for a battle theme:
The appropriately titled "battle" has your drummer boy kickin' it off but then goes to a deep sounding male choir to make things sound a bit darker and ominous (true to the fairy tale nature, your enemies were usually monsters). We got the army bells, the soft strings, and powerful horns to keep the spirit alive.
I hope you like this fella as much as I do, because he is certainly a different flavour, but I'll be happy if you found someone new to love today.
Some other amazing tracks from Venus & Braves I *completely* recommend are:
Waltz for Ariah (the main theme song), Cup of Story (jazz tune with Engrish title), and Theme of Seven (from the first game)
#1) Hitoshi Sakimoto
Saw it coming, right? I know this one was easy, but the man seems to have a penchant for doing war-esque titles, and quite frankly, why stop him? He does them really, really well. Not only does he know how to get your blood pumping with exciting tracks, but still finds a way to still fit in some emotional pieces too. If you don't know who he is, well, you probably do and just don't know it. Final Fantasy Tactics, FF12, Odin Sphere, Valkyria Chronicles, Vagrant Story, Ogre Battle. ...it goes on.
A few notables:
FF12's boss battle theme. The bells that come up at the main part of tune are beautiful and accompanied by a great drumline. Truly a rush, and the track gets built up really nicely.
And of course, the Tactics Ogre Overture. This track should send a tingle down your spine if you're really into that "war and glory"-like sound. We have something that sounds medieval, kinda Scottish, and damned empowering. Quite frankly, you'd fight for any side that had this tune as its anthem.
I would put Final Fantasy Tactics up here, but I'm sure you may have heard it plenty of times. Sakimoto is to "war-like" music as cheese is to pizza. And like pizza, his work is *consistently* satisfying, despite how long he's been around.
Other recommendations:
Breath of Fire V (atypical of his "genre", but still excellent), Opoona (more techno-type versions of his sound, yup, it's weird), and Riz-Zoawd (yeah, the um, JRPG version of Wizard of Oz. A more fairy-tale sound to it... but it works and is home a calmer side of the composer).
Today's Music Monday guest author Dice is clearly no stranger to JRPGs. Click here to check out Dice's artwork at her Deviant Art account.
Yeah, I've been playing a lot of Street Fighter III (Or more precisely, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Fight For The Future - Online Edition, because Japanese fighting games should never have easy names!)
Capcom made a smart move by giving us a more hip-hop/jazz inspired soundtrack for this game. At this point, they were certainly succeeding in giving each of their Street Fighter games a distinct and compelling direction musically. Revisiting all these tracks via the PS3 and 360's online edition remake has been an absolute musical paradise. Some of the remixes are pretty great too! That new menu song? Love it.
The Longshoreman Brazil - Sean & Oro Stage
Beats in my Head Kenya - Elena Stage
Jazzy NYC '99 America - Ken & Alex Stage
I'm always generally pretty wary when it comes to remixes, but the Online Edition of 3rd Strike includes some of my favourites. Because I absolutely just had to point it out, this is what I have set to my Menu Theme at the moment!
While listening to music for this post, it occurred to me that a lot of great city themes double as great first stage themes. There must be something about starting a game in a city that makes for a great prologue... Even though I didn't include it here, the intro stage to Star Fox 64 is like this too, isn't it? Hey, even our own Project Blue is going to start in a city at night!
Batman (NES) Stage 1 Theme - Streets of Desolation
Spawn (SNES) Stage 1 Theme - Roofs of New York
Mega Man X (SNES) Intro Stage Theme - Central Highway
It's no mystery that I a) love the Mega Man series and b) the music of the Mega Man series. Although I'm something of a purist when it comes to the classic soundtrack, the following remixes do a great job of bringing a lot of new character to the classic 8-bit NES tunes.
Needles Remixed from Needle Man's Stage Theme, Mega Man 3
Crystal Potion Remixed from Gemini Man's Stage Theme, Mega Man 3
Odyssey Beyond the Falls Remixed from Centaur Man's Stage Theme, Mega Man 6
I really gotta hand it to these guys. Remixing a classic soundtrack is something that I've always lacked the confidence to do. Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll submit a remix for Ring Man's stage, or something from Actraiser! Well, I could always just show it off here instead...
You can always catch more awesome video game soundtrack remixes over at OC Remixes.
Love has a cruel sense of fun, never plays by the rules It spins us both on our heads, turns us both into fools And leaves me on my own with tear stained eyes Oh what can I do?
They say that losing at love, breaking your heart It only makes you look even more beautiful I don't believe it's true but I see you and what can I do? Uh uh uh uh-uh! I wish that we could be close, Close enough to use our real names for once And you would say to me " Oh I love you sooo!", You say you won't let me go Oh yeah!
Rain falls on me, and now I'm walkin' away Tell me, do you find me more beautiful now? I'm not the kind to let you watch as I cry So I've got to leave, I've got to forget you! And so I hide myself away from the world Leave behind the sorrow of a sad little girl I thought that I had finally won at the game You told me it just was for fun I suppose that I was too young.
Say what you will about movie games - on the Super Nintendo, there were some pretty great ones! The second track (starting at 2:24) could have come straight from a catchy mid-90's hip hop album...
Audio work from a concept game that we've been developing on our free time and in between major projects. Hope you guys enjoy the soundtrack we've been working on! We're gonna start posting more audio, images and concept work from Project Blue as we lay down the finishing touches on our Bijoux Red Combat Prototype!
Over the course of the game, players will explore a large urban landscape that includes scenes such as an abandoned subway system, a congested chinatown street and more. Despite the modern theme however, the player will also be exploring locations such as seaside caves, a thick dark forest and a dry hot field of tall grass and dead trees.
That last description applies to the first area players will explore in Bijoux Red; the vast and merciless expanse of Freegrove.
Mario Paint is usually remembered these days for it's awesome music editor - but not remembered accurately. It's always kind of bugged me that the so-called Mario Paint music that people put together and show off on Youtube doesn't actually use the in-game music editor. If you remember what the music editor in Mario Paint was like, then you probably understand why I feel that way.
Mario Paint's musical legacy shouldn't end there though! The actual Mario Paint soundtrack is incredible! The music editing is fun and everything, but let's take the time to reminisce on the charming, sometimes trippy, music of Mario Paint.
The default BGM is my favourite theme from Mario Paint.
Although this one would have to be a close second.
A hallucinogenic coffee trip, a la Earthbound. Or just really trippy music to draw to.
My brother and I spent a lot of time in the stamp editor. It was the closest thing to making SNES sprites that we had at the time!
Does this theme remind anyone else of Super Mario RPG?
As a first post to kick off our Revolver Games blog, I thought it might be fun to revisit something new ... that is also sort of old.
What is this weird image?
Earlier in 2010, we were developing a visual novel that was intended to be multi-platform, available for both mobile phones and web browsers - we would refer to it as Project Blackroom during development. We've since shifted our focus to new projects, leaving Blackroom in an unclear state. (Although a release of the completed demo is probably going to happen soon, just so that we can share it with people).
But that's just all context.
I really just wanted to share the main theme from our mysterious visual novel.
I wrote this one almost a year ago, but I think it's still fairly chilling and mysterious.
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