MIDI Week Singles: "Overworld Battle" - Paladin's Quest (SNES)

"Overworld Battle" from Paladin's Quest on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1993).

Released by Future Land in 1992.

Composer: Kohei Tanaka

Game Developer: Enix

Paladin's Quest, or Lennus: Memories of an Ancient Machine as it was titled in Japan, was a fairly obscure JRPG that was released in late 1993 in the US (about five months before Final Fantasy III on the SNES), but it was a fun looking game that I knew nothing about, and was being released by Enix, who I knew had released the Dragon Warrior series and ActRaiser, so I figured that it might a good investment.

The music was composed by Kohei Tanaka, whom I currently know nothing about (until just now), which was his second score for a video game; the first being Wizardry V: Hearts of the Maelstrom.  Like music for the overworld, battle music is something that has to be catchy enough to stand hearing it over-and-over again throughout a 40+ hour RPG.  Kohei Tanaka's "Overworld Battle" does just that in a somewhat unconventional way for an epic JRPG about preventing the destruction of the world; standard fair really.

What I find odd about this piece is how bouncy the song feels somewhat akin to a swing beat.  The melody is also pretty light hearted, but taking into account that this is for a brightly colored JRPG, the style is fitting.  The overall tone of the song is also fitting when compared with the rest of the soundtrack, so it doesn't come across as jarring every 30 seconds you get pulled into a random monster encounter.

If this song has interested you to check out the rest of the soundtrack or even locate the game (emulated or otherwise), I highly suggest it as the game was never even covered in Nintendo Power  (I even wrote them to find out why and was told something along the lines of not having enough time to dedicate to the game) despite receiving a North American release.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

It's All Around Me

MIDI Week Singles: "Ceremony" - Secret of Mana (SNES)

"Ceremony" from Secret of Mana on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1993)

Record Label: Square

Composer: Hiroki Kikuta

Developer: Square

The first time I heard this song, it was between midnight and two in the morning way back in 1994 or '95.  It was the first major temple/dungeon in the Secret of Mana and it creeped me the fuck out.  I recall feeling very uncomfortable, but not in the sense that something big and evil was about to jump out at me, just that I was in a place I wasn't supposed to be; that something was happening that I was not supposed to be bearing witness to.

This is what good music does.  Sure there are music cues that make you feel excited or afraid, but the really good ones, make you feel something specific within those wide ranges of emotion.  And this is what "Ceremony" did to me.  There's even those two seconds of the initial gong before the chimes/bells come in that you're pretty sure something is just a bit off and you're not quite sure what.  That's when the bells kick in and you just know that you're not in a good place.  It's at about the same time too that the tenor flute starts playing, but it seems like it's playing at a different time signature than the people playing the bells.  Maybe someone told them the notes to play, but didn't give them the sheet music?  It's all very unsettling.

Whenever I think of music that is supposed to make me feel uncomfortable as I approach a temple of somekind, this is the music that I want playing.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

This Landscape Is Not Without A Sense of Epic Wonder

Emulator Hour: 3D Classics: Kirby's Adventure (NES/3DS)

I have a confession to make.

With the exception of playing the the first couple of levels in Stage 1 of Kirby's Dream Land and the demo for Kirby's Epic Yarn back at PAX2010, I have never played through any of the games in the Kirby franchise.  Until recently that is, which is why today I am bringing to you:

Kirby's Adventure was first released on the Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1993, near the end of the NES' life, which was two years into the SNES' release into North America.  All of that backstory aside, Kirby's Adventure is a lot of fun!

Now that I think about it, I cannot remember m/any of my friends either playing any of the Kirby games or recommending Kirby.  Actually, that is not entirely true and I did play, as previously mentioned, Kirby's Dream Land on the Gameboy that belonged to my cousin, probably back in 1993/94.  I have known about Kirby, but just never got around to playing any of the games in the series.  I probably just convinced myself that I was too old for that kind of a game.

I know that a lot of you already know this and that I am just late to the proverbial party, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy playing the game.  It is a very simple platformer when you want to run and other times you can intake a body-full of air and simply fly around.  You can swallow almost every enemy and about half of those you can gain a special ability (spit fire, shoot lasers, emit sparks, wield a Donkey-Kong-esque hammer, et cetera).  Even when falling, Kirby takes a diving pose whereby he causes damage to enemies in his way.  However, the game is not a pushover as I do die on occasion and there have been a couple of bosses that have given me a run for my um, something-or-other. There is challenge to this game, but it is a fun and entertaining challenge.  Maybe if there was not a save feature then this game would fall from what it is to the difficulty level of games such as Super Mario Bros. 3.

My biggest critique about the game is that the color palette seems to be muted when compared to other platformers like Super Mario Bros. 3 and Mega Man 4, which is probably why at first I thought I was playing a Super Game Boy version of Kirby's Dream Land and not the NES release, which Dr. Potts kindly pointed out.  This is not true though for all levels/stages, but it was the "first impression" that I got when first playing.  Maybe if the fire that Kirby spat was red or if the ice he emitted had been blue instead of the yellow/orange tint that all of his abilities seem to have I would "feel better"?  And yes, I realize that I am making requests of an NES game that can now legally drink alcohol.

One of my favorite aspects of the game is that there does not seem to be one power that overpowers all the others.  Sure one power might be better than another in a specific situation, but I have yet to come across an ability, even one absorbed from a boss that singularly outweighs any other ability.  Sure, the laser is a fast long range attack, but it does not seem to do as much damage as other attacks, especially against those pesky bosses.  That is one of the best things about Kirby's  Adventure is figuring out what power would work best against a certain enemy or boss or how a given power is beneficial in a particular circumstance.

The 3D effect is pretty subtle as it pulls the background back in a single layer keeping Kirby, the platforms and enemies in the foreground.  I have noticed that most of the time I have the 3D effect either turned down low or off completely, but that is simply me wanting to conserve battery life.  The effects are nothing to write home to dear old Ma about, but considering that it is a 3D port of an NES game, I feel like whomever did the conversion did a good job without sacrificing gameplay or the now often mentioned "frame rate"; as in there is no lag between 2D and 3D modes.

After having played the game for just over three hours, I am 53% of the way through, which is nice to know that there is still plenty of game for me to come back to when I need a break from Donkey Kong Country Returns and all the annoyances that come with dying 38+ times in a single level.  I think that is one of the things that remains endearing (but not disarming) about Kirby's Adventure, is that I can pick up a 21 year old platformer and have a lot of fun.  I would not be surprised if I decide to go back through levels just to see what it is like with a different array of weapons choices or without powers at all.  

Big thank you to HAL Laboratory for their fun creation.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

A World Full of Secrets and Magic

Monthly Update: December

http://motherfuckingwebsite.com

Here is a funny link all about simple web design.  The last time I designed a website, it was in HTML 5, it was a Ryouga Hibiki Shrine on angelfire and was WAY too image intensive.  Granted, I was accessing with a 14.4k modem, but this taught me to design to my access speed.  I learned the basic lessons so hilariously described in the above link, and have occasionally remarked with incredulity at the super complicated websites of today.  Even though my access speed is now, something like 1000 times faster, website designers have managed to make things load almost as slow as the giant pile of P-chans that was my first website.  

Anyhow, that background helped make this silly link a lot funnier.  That and all the swearing.  Man, I'm surprised it took me this long to talk about Ranma 1/2 on this blog.

I just found out that Hiroo Isono, visual artist for the Seiken Densetsu series passed away this year.  Just about one year ago, I found out who he was, when I did cursory research for the Secret of Mana box art (possibly my favorite box art of all time).  His name has been very nearly the most popular search term bringing people to this blog.  And his art was really cool!

Links:
http://www.art-licensing.com/artists/Hiroo-Isono-Forests-and-Landscapes/biography.html
Official-seeming-site

http://www.realmofgaming.com/news/Hiroo-Isono-1945-2013/1811.html
brief eulogy

http://shinigamilist.com/2013/06/13/illustrator-hiroo-isono-passed-away/
another brief eulogy

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/hiroo-isono
lots and lots of art

I recently read an article arguing that the Mario Bros movie 'wasn't that bad.'  Well, I decided to finally watch it.  It's pretty bad, but it's a kids movie, afterall.  And they do a great job of putting in a bunch of game references in a movie that is, visually, radically different from the games.  Look out for snifits, fireballs, and an allusion to the last fight in Super Mario World.  And frankly, the acting is fantastic, Dennis Hopper, in particular. The sum total is a mediocre movie, not a terrible one. 

http://www.destructoid.com/why-the-super-mario-movie-is-an-underappreciated-masterpiece-29694.phtml

destructoid does a pretty good job of laying it out.

http://bottomlesswit.com/in-defense-of-the-super-mario-bros-movie/

this one's pretty good too, though I still don't think it's the one I read.

I'm between games, so nothing to talk about there.  I'm reading Haruki Murikami's book 'Wild Sheep Chase.'  I really like it.  The flow can be very strange, moving quick at times, slow at times, but I really like the lead character/narrator, and when this book is good, it's really good!  

The job search isn't going all that great, but it might help if I had any idea what I want to do with the rest of my life.  Except write for this blog.  Masters Degree?  Teach?  Desk Job?  Who knows.  Eventually I'm going to be tired of staying on couches, that's for sure.  Which reminds me, hey Jaconian and Conklederp...

Alright well, I hope I've wasted enough of your time.  Have a wonderful December!

-D

P.S.  Secret of Mana and the Mario Bros movie both came out in 1993.  But I wasn't making websites until '95, I think.

P.P.S. I almost forgot!  The Humble Story Bundle!  13 days left! Yeah, I bought it.  8 bucks.  I sometimes think I might like to talk about video games more than play them.  And this collection is just perfect for that tendency.  I'm pretty excited about it, but I wish they were physical copies, and not digital downloads.  Maybe if I owned a kindle I could split the difference, but alas, I do not.