Game Scores: The Elder Scrolls Online (PC)

Just to get this out of the way beforehand, yes I enjoy this soundtrack and yes, I believe that it fits in very well with the music from the rest of the Elder Scroll series.

Now that that's out of the way, we can get down to brass tacks.

Jeremy Soule, the composer of the scores from the other games in the Elder Scroll series composed only the main theme, "For Blood, For Glory, For Honor."  This theme does not contain any semblance of the "Nerevar Rising" theme that has become the theme that most people know from The Elder Scroll series.  I feel like Jeremy Soule's contribution is to get the player into the mood to play an Elder Scrolls game in the 2nd Era, that this will be an epic adventure in a familiar world during an unfamiliar period of history.  It's basically an overture in the perfect sense of the word.  

The rest of the 47 soundtrack is broken up between three other artists. 

Brad Derrick, who wrote 43 of the 47 tracks is the most obscure composer on this soundtrack.  By "obscure" I do not mean that his music does not fit in with the overall tone of the game or with the setting that Jeremy Soule set with the main theme, but that there is very little information that I could find about him.  His last.fm profile is pretty stark while what looks to be the right Brad Derrick's website simply has "meep."  I was unable find a listing on IMDb.  All the obscurity aside, what Brad Derrick has composed fits very well within the Elder Scrolls universe.  Simply listening to his music, and not knowing that it is him, you might easily assume that you were listening to a Jeremy Soule score.  Similar to how if you listen to the score from Speed or Transformers you might assume that you were listening to Hans Zimmer and not Mark Mancina and Steve Jablonksy, respectively. 

Back to Brad Derrick, sorry for the diversion.  While I do feel that what Mr. Derrick has composed fits very well within the world, what he has written is not overly memorable.  That is not to say that the music is not any good, but I could not hum you one theme from any of the songs.  Now when a particular song comes on, say "Y'ffre in Every Leaf" or "The Tower Casts Long Shadows," I'll recognize certain elements and be able to hum/sing/whisper parts of the song.  But, but, BUT, there are a few songs that move beyond the usual "atmospheres" such as "Weapons Drawn" and "A Peril Upon the Sands," which sound more action oriented.

Rik Schaffer, the second composer wrote only two songs that appear on the album.  Rik Schaffer on the other hand has a bit more of a discoverable background when compared to Brad Derrick.  That fact aside, his contributions to The Elder Scrolls Online soundtrack is no less because of only two songs being included.  Both "The Heart of Nirn" and "Northern Nocturne" compliment both the Elder Scrolls as a whole and the music that Brad Derrick wrote.  I would almost go so far to say that their two styles are so very similar hear that they are practically indistinguishable, but maybe I just haven't listened to the soundtrack as much as previous soundtracks.

The final artist included on the soundtrack is also the final track on the album.  The song "Beauty of Dawn" was composed and performed by Malukah, a Mexican musician known online for her guitar and vocal covers of video game music from series such as The Elder Scrolls, Halo,  Mass Effect and more.  She posted a video back in November 2011 of a cover she did of "The Dragonborn Comes" from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which, to date, has 12,009,584 views.  Apparently she attracted the attention of Zenimax Online Studios and was hired (?) to write an original song for The Elder Scrolls Online.  "Beauty of Dawn," while itself is a pretty song, I do nott feel that it has the *oomph* that her covers of "The Dragonborn Comes" or even "The Age of Aggression," both from Skyrim.  I have heard both this song and another (not included on the soundtrack) sung by a bard in-game while wandering around one of the various towns/villages in TESO, but a stripped down version that doesn't include the vocal layering that Malukah often includes in her compositions.

As a whole, I really enjoy the soundtrack and am very happy having purchased it from the store that sold it to me.  I first saw the album advertised through one of Bethesda/Zenimax's newsletters as being on sale through the iTunes store which had it (and still does) priced at $15.99.  I then thought I would check Amazon and they have the exact same album, all 47 tracks for only $8.99.  While I refrain from pandering to one storefront over another, I will not say were I bought the soundtrack, but as previously stated, I am very glad that I did and am satisfied with the price that I paid.

I will say that the soundtrack falls very heavily into the atmospheric category.  Maybe with the exception of the main theme, most of the tracks work well as background music for adventuring and exploring the landscapes of Tamriel, so I do not think that many people will be blasting the music during a backyard barbeque with the bros.  Maybe I'm wrong though.

If you are looking for a rollicking soundtrack that's akin to Hans Zimmer's King Arthur score, then you should and go and buy that album because that is an awesome soundtrack.  However, if you are looking for beautiful background music to put you near 950 years in the past before your 250+ hour video game, then this will probably be perfect for your collection.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental

Game Scores: Castlevania 64 (N64)

Since 1986, Castlevania has been a staple for great baroque-esque music despite have different composers in almost every game until Michiru Yamane came on board with the franchise in 1994 with Castlevania: Bloodlines.  1999's N64 release of Castlevania 64 was no different in the franchise however with regards to the composers.  This time around, Konami went with three composers, Masahiko Kimura (who later worked on Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow), Motoaki Furukawa (who had previously worked on Castlevania X: Rondo of Blood) and Mariko Egawa (whose only work on work in the Castlevania series would be this title).

I had been in love with the games and music of the Castlevania series since I first played and Castlevania 64 was no exception.  I remember on my first run through of the game, I chose the "Easy" difficulty which turned out to stop about halfway through the game  which then required me to restart on the normal difficulty setting to finish the game.  Although on my second pass through the game I did not receive the "good ending" until I re-replayed through the game again for a third time using Reinhardt Schneider, (I was never able to get past the Tower of Sorcery's disappearing platforms with Carrie Fernandez).

It wasn't until after I bought the soundtrack that I realized how good the music for Castlevania 64 was.  I obviously liked it enough to purchase the soundtrack, but listening to the music outside of the game environment is a different experience.  I remember after listening to the CD for the first time that I felt that I had listened to a film soundtrack.  While the CD did not contain all of the tracks and some of the incidental music that I had enjoyed in the game, there was so much music that I did like.

For the entirety of this review, I will not be able to say specifically which of the composers wrote which piece.  And being a Castlevania game, Castlevania 64 does reuse themes from previous games in the series and despite the fact that the staple "Vampire Killer" is not present anywhere on the soundtrack, I do not find that this detracts from the overall quality and enjoyment of the album.

The opening track is entitled Introduction/Opening or more majestically, "Sign of Blood Relationship," and also uses the theme from Castlevania: Bloodlines' "Bloodlines."  The song not only fits perfectly into the existing Castlevania universe, but is a great introduction into this Castlevania game.

That amazing violin solo in the second half of the piece was performed by Tomokuni Katayama, and even being surrounded by a MIDI score, the track sounds amazing.

The track "Lamented Rose" is both a beautiful yet ominous piece that really surprised me both in-game and upon hearing it in the soundtrack.  In the game, the music happens when your character enters a room and looks upon a flower vase and is confronted (I think) by the first vampire you meet in the game that isn't Count Dracula.  The scene plays out really well as a cut-scene, but we're focusing on music here.

One of my favorite tracks, both in-game as well as on the soundtrack is the "Dungeon - Main Theme."  Like a lot of the music from the game it is fairly subdued compared to other musical cues from the Castlevania franchise, but it works for this game and the world that was created.  The music creates the feeling that you need to keep plodding onward and that you may actually survive and not be turned into a vampire.

Lastly, I wanted to highlight one of the liturgical sounding songs, which almost seems required for a Castlevania game.  "Stairway to the Clouds" happens on your approach to Dracula's tower while going up flight after flight of stairs.  How many games can you think of that have something this dramatic, just to walk up a flight of stairs?

If any/all of these tracks have interested you into either playing Castlevania 64 on that N64 gathering dust in the garage or perhaps to pop on over to eBay to purchase the soundtrack, then you've made my Friday or whatever day it is that you are reading this.  Happy weekend.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

While Capturing the Stench of Devine

BIT.TRIP.RUNNER: Game Music vs. Original Soundtrack

As I've recently said, I've been playing a lot of BIT.TRIP.RUNNER in an attempt to finish the one game in the BIT.TRIP series that I feel I actually can beat.  I'm not holding out at all that I'll beat VOID or CORE, so RUNNER it is.  With so many hours spent on the last two levels of the third world (Triumph), I've had a lot of time to think about how the music changes subtly each time you start back at the beginning and how that can change the music experience for each person.  Tack onto that the then difficulty of making a soundtrack for a game where the player can ultimately decide how they want the song to develop.

Especially in the third world, you are offered multiple paths, some lead to more gold bars which have their own musical tone/cue while others might lead to jumping a gap and sliding under a flying chunk of rock, which again, has their own musical tone.  Add onto all of that if you picked up the + which further develops the music.  In 3-10 "The Beginning of the End," I started to intentionally miss the first + because I preferred the way the song developed after the long hallway with the triple beats-from-hell.  I was basically creating a song while playing a video game.  That my friends, is pretty awesome.

Let's get back to the official soundtrack now (which you can listen to in it's entirety over on Gaijin Games' bandcamp page).  Aside from Anamanaguchi's title track "Blackout City," and "Mermaid" which plays over the credits track, the remainder of the music is a reimagining of sorts of the music heard in each of the worlds.  There are elements from the main song in each world, but they don't seem to be as developed as the songs are in-game.  The songs do progress along a similar path though, from rough/basic beats to full on melody to finish with the calming tones of the EXTRA level of Commander Video.

Upon first listening to the soundtrack, I admit that I was a little disappointed that the music I was hearing reminded me of the game, but I didn't feel the same excitement as when I was playing.  I wanted to hear the music that I had created while playing.  What I could do is find a "walkthrough" on youtube (where there's no bloody talking!) and just rip the audio and boom, I've got a copy of the music straight from the game.  But, where's the fun in that?

Part of the experience of B.T.R. is creating entertaining and catchy music while playing a very challenging rail-platformer.  The music from the soundtrack is just foreplay to me sitting down and playing the game, which I just put down after 20 minutes on 3-11 "Rusty Warren."  This is something that is very much apart from most other music/rhythm games which punish you if you don't play the song exactly as it is supposed to be played.  Yes, B.T.R. is very much a challenging game that is ripe with punishment, but it only punishes your lack of reflexes, not your desire to create and develop.  And again my friends, that is awesome.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental


P.S.  Precursor Games started

Game Scores: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)

Composer: Pseudo-Check
Emulator Hour Review: Check
Music: Checking

The music, composed by whomever it was that actually did it, is very good, considering it came out of  an 1989 era NES music chip, although other note worthy games with great soundtracks were Mega Man 2 and Dragon Warrior (1989 being their North American release).

The three tracks that I want to highlight are the "Overworld," "Mini-Boss Battle" and the "Title" themes.

Overworld:

Aside from the title music, this is the first in game music you hear, but unless you're there to listen to the music, you're only going to hear snip its of it in the first level as you're mainly in the sewers and not above ground a lot until the third level.  It's a great little ditty that got stuck in my head when I first played the game.  I've always wanted to drive around town in a van with this blaring.  It doesn't have to be in New York or with three other dudes (mutated or not), just a van and this music, because that doesn't sound shady at all.  Although Conklederp has a pseudo-van, so we might have to make this happen.

Mini-Boss Battle:

I actually like this piece of music better than the "Main Boss" music.  There's just something more driving about it.  And even though the song itself is only 20 seconds long, I feel it's one of those songs that can be repeated indefinitely and I just don't care.  And I think it's an easy song to sing/hum/whistle.  However, due to Youtube not wanting to allow me to embed the video I want, I will then just have to link it here: TMNT Mini-Boss Battle Music

Title:

Just listen to that MIDI electric guitar wail!!  I've heard some people (youtube "let's plays" mostly) complain about the music not being directly related to the cartoon, but if the cartoon music had been anything like this intro music, damn that'd be hot.  But, like I said, there's a riff that sounds an awful lot like the main riff to Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy."  That's one of the reasons why I wanted to know who the composer was to see if I could find out if they were influenced by Queen to properly attribute that one riff during the beginning of both songs to Queen.

With all of that in mind, I leave you with only three of 15 sound clips and songs from Konami's (pain in the ass) 1989 release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  However, because I like all of you who read our blog, I leave you with the best cover of the music that I've found.  It's by the NESkimos off their album "NESkimo Bloodshed" and the track is simply titled, TMNT.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Now Go And Scoop Your Brains Back Up.

Full Review: The World Ends With You (DS) / Part II: Music

So once again, I've finally gotten off my ass and now I'm at it.  Finishing up watching The Oscars.  I've told The Kid and I'll stand by it, the 2013 Oscars have been fairly lackluster and ". . .eh. . ."  Seth McFarlane has been not that great of a host of a show that hasn't been all that great, although far be if from me to critique a job that I would never be able to do, nor want to do.  I don't even like talking on the phone, let alone to a group (more than one) of people.

On that note, finally finishing this review.  It's been an odd challenge that I can't fully explain.  But this time, I'm hear to talk about the music from The World Ends With You, primarily composed by Takeharu Ishimoto.

Madd 'shoppin' skills yo!

I'm going to try and not make this sound like the Wikipedia article or like an article on Wikipedia and will probably be more like some of the other Game Scores articles that I've written, except that this has a corresponding article about the content of the game.  So why does TWEWY deserve it's own full article for the music?  For one, there are four separate releases.  There's the The World Ends With You Original Soundtrack, the Subarashiki Konosekai + The World Ends With You EP and full length album and The World Ends With You - Crossover.  The fact that Square Enix had enough faith in both the game and the music to warrant this kind of a musical release for a stand alone original game, that wasn't part of a franchise is pretty awesome.

Granted Takeharu Ishimoto had previously worked with Square Enix before as both a synth programmer and composer since the 1999 release of The Legend of Mana.  That being said, I am only familiar with Ishimoto's compositions for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Dissidia: Final Fantasy, both of which I have very much enjoyed.

In my Initial Review I said that the music was somewhat remeniscent of the music that you might find in Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei Persona series and, now having listened to the TWEWY soundtrack more extensively, I feel that that initial compassion was made because I was not very familiar with contemporary music in an RPG, let alone in a game from Square Enix.  It was very much welcome and I am very glad that the music remained the same from the Japan release to the North American release as it very easily could have been inundated or ever replaced with current popular artists from North America or other English speaking countries.  I do not really care that I can't understand seven eighths of what is beings sung since the majority of the the "sung" music is played during battles which last maybe 30 seconds.  The game even makes it a point to award higher points the faster you can complete a battle, so the music you do hear is only a very brief snip-it.  It wets your pallet for more and I often found myself letting the post battle score screen play for an extra minute to listen to the songs.

So the music.  The music is a very eclectic mix of hip hop, electronica, rock, hip rock hop, and a half dozen other genres that I don't think I'm very familiar with.  J-Pop most likely.  I don't really know, but that's not the point.  The point is, is that the majority of the music is very good and even if I wouldn't normally listen to Japanese hip hop, I like to listen to this soundtrack.  And like almost any soundtrack or compilation album, I don't like every song, but I don't hate any of them.

So now let me highlight a couple of my favorite songs off of the various soundtracks.

Déjà Vu (feat. Joanna Koike) from Subarashiki Konosekai + The World Ends With You full length album & EP:

This is one of the songs that plays while you're not in a battle, although like the battle music, you'll only hear snip-its of it unless you don't progress to another area and thus, another song.  

Hybrid from The World Ends With You Original Soundtrack:

Battle music and if you're lucky (or slow), you'll get to at least the first chorus by the end of the scoring screen after a battle, if it's the song that's playing during your last battle that is.

Transformation [Feat. Andy from Sixpin] from Subarashiki Konosekai + The World Ends With You full length album & EP:

This was probably my favorite battle music and although I have no idea who Andy or Sixpin is (although after an iminint Google search, I kind of now know), it's one of the tracks that falls more in a pseudo-rock genre than some of other songs on the both the album and the in-game soundtrack.

Some other songs that I won't link to, but that I really like are: 
"Calling"
"Someday"
"No Name [Secret Track]"
"Someday (Unplugged) Feat. Sawa"
"Twister Gang-Mix [Bonus Track]"
"Three Minutes Clapping Feat. J.D. Camaro"

I'm sure it will come as no surprise that I highly recommend the original soundtrack as well as the Subarashiki Konosekai + The World Ends With You full length album, the two which I have.  You don't even have to have played the game, the music is great on it's own.  Just peruse youtube for a while if you like what I've posted here.  I would recommend purchasing from the iTunes store as buying physical copies from Amazon will put you back ~$60-70 and there aren't any MP3 albums available.  I don't often endorse iTunes, but in this case, I couldn't justify to my bank account the expense to own the physical copy rather than the MP3 downloads.  I know, to some people I'm a very bad person, but that doesn't make the music any less awesome.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Any Earlier And It'd Be Too Late

Game Scores: Batman (NES)

I first played Batman on the original Nintendo Entertainment System sometime during the summer of 1990, courtesy of my Grandmother renting the game for me (I was 10 at the time).  I managed to make my way through a good portion of the game, and after looking at youtube videos that didn't have annoying commentary, I figured out I made it to somewhere in the 3rd Stage.  I never beat the game but could say that it was a fun game and somewhat difficult.

A couple of years ago, probably around autumn 2010, I managed to get a hold of the "score" for Batman.  Holy damn that game had some great music in it.  And to back up my statement, here're two citations:

and

Since the score to Batman, composed by Naoki Kodaka and Noboyuki Hara, was never released in a soundtrack form, I hadn't heard any of this music in nearly 20 years.  Remember, this was 1990, when the only video game soundtracks being released were in Japan and were most likely associated with either the Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy franchise.  So when I went looking for NES soundtracks from games I remember liking, I was very happy to find out that the score to Sunsoft's Batman was pretty damn good.

So, if you like what you hear, and have interest in listening to the entire score again, it's available from any number of sites, but McAfee SiteAdvisor tells me that PlayTheNES is a safe site to visit and download the soundtrack.  And don't feel at all guilty about downloading this score as it was never released on it's own and the only other "official" way would be to have an NES and a copy of the game to play, which I wouldn't mind doing myself either if my TV weren't so damn "new" and could accept/interpret the older NES/SNES and N64 signals.

This post will probably/hopefully be the first in a line of posts where I talk about and bring up soundtracks from older consoles that did not receive a proper score/soundtrack release.  Until next time then.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Doo-Doo-Dee-Doo, Doo-Dee-Doo-Bee-Doo-Boo-Doo-Doo-Doop!