30 - AL 8b - Soundtrack Review

With 115 of the 218 track under his name, Masami Ueda can easily be called the principal composer for Okami. But is he?

Though I’ve never worked on a soundtrack with multiple composers all contributing, I can only imagine it being difficult. Though they are professionals, every composer has their own style and creative process, and these don’t necessarily meld. And lets look at the soundtrack this way:

Masami Ueda – 115 songs

Hiroshi Yamaguchi – 65 songs (2 overlap with Ueda)

Rei Kondoh – 35 songs

Akari Groves – 4 songs

Ayaka Hirahara – Composed “Reset”

So surely one can attribute the soundtrack’s overall direction to Ueda. But if we looked at Ueda’s past work, such as the first three Resident Evil games, and other Clover Studio games, we know that the soundtracks he composes to have a distinct style to each one. And we can also a few stylistic notes that are common to each one, they are often very strings centric, and the backing instruments have very similar combinations per soundtrack. In Okami, there is a lot of very string centric compositions, and the combination of backing instruments is very similar for each track. Another trait of Udea’s music is the use of 3+ note letimofs. Right from Resident Evil 2 with the three note horn theme that appeared through the whole game, and now here, these letimofs are all through the soundtrack. Issun’s theme, Amaterasu’s theme, Ushiwaka’s theme, Susano’s theme and the destiny theme that appears in very different forms through the game are all Udean contributions.

And with a strong leader who has a fantastic creative direction for a soundtrack, we get… a fantastic soundtrack. The maths isn’t hard here, Ueda set out the musical style for the game, which was versatile enough for several composers to come in and use, and together they created this. This majestic, sweeping, grand accompaniment to one of my favorite games.

The instrumentation fits the Feudal Japanese settings with the flutes, and harps, and harpsichords and wooden percussion and beautiful string elements. And for a synthesized soundtrack, it is incredibly well sampled. The music is sharp and clear, and every element is hearable and well mixed into the fray. A lot of care and attention went into this soundtrack, and it shows. All of the composers music blends together, it compliments the game perfectly, and the sheer quantity of memorable music here is staggering. Ueda is absolutely among the Japanese composers elite group, and this soundtrack is all he needs on his resume.

R. A., Dan, I’ll hear from you next week.

Also, I think I’m coming down with an anime/ation addiction. I’ll get back to you.

Andrew Lyons.

29 - DL 10b - Soundtrack Review

‘Okami,’ 2006 from Clover Studios (bu-bu-ba-bo) is an outstanding game in nearly every way that I loved, and is among my all time favorites.

The soundtrack, composed by a very talented team of composers, mostly from previous Capcom projects, is an integral part of the immersion and experience of the game, and it’s hard to imagine the game without every single track and music cue that it has.

The soundtrack features and broad and cultured range of styles, and covers a huge amount of emotional ground. Sad and happy and everything in between, this soundtrack features everything from honor and loyalty, to sacrifice and duty, having fun, witnessing despair, quiet times, busy times, royalty and nobility, and every flavor of adventure there is.

Shinshuu Plains is an absolute standout, particularly when it explodes into its second half. Northern Country Kamui is very similar, and Ryoshima and slightly further behind third place on the world map themes.

Tranquil calms like Hansaki Valley, and Harami Lake, and Agata Forest sound beautiful, and serene with their strings and harps.

Kamiki village sounds grand and humble, Kusanngi Village bustling and windy (you know what I mean,) Seiankyou city sound noble for the nobles, and charming for the commoners. My favorite of the village music is Uepeker, a beautiful, charming, sprawling theme that captures the tragic nature but fighting spirit that that village possesses.

And not forgetting about the battle music, some of the best of all adventure games can be found here. The regular battle music is only meant to be heard in 30 second or so incriments, so it is made up of little buildups and action bangs. But the boss music… that’s where it heats up. Ushiwaka, the smarmy French fortune telling, light saber has some fantastic music, tense and complete with Ushiwaka’s theme. My favorite one, though they are great all round the board, is the Demon Lord Nine Tails Extermination. Emotional, impactful, and with fantastic build up. It is one of my favorite boss tunes of all time.

An all round fantastic and memorable soundtrack to an all round fantastic and memorable game.

Brothers, till next week.

Daniel Lyons.

28 - RAL 9b - Soundtrack Review

Hello brothers and welcome to our collective review of:

Drum roll

Cymbal crashes

Audience drawing breath in anticipation

A sound track that I’m sure will surprise no-one

A soundtrack so long it comes across five discs

This is:

Buh-da-da-dah

2006’s

‘Okami’

Yes, I’m sure it’s a shock to everyone reading that the soundtrack that we eventually decided to review is the very same one that we’ve been reviewing in bits for the last month and a half. But it’s a soundtrack that is worth it.

Not letting our collective rabid fanboyism for beautiful adventure games cloud our objective reasoning, this is an outstanding soundtrack.

As ‘Okami’ is a Japanese game set in feudal Japan, the orchestration and instrumentation is exactly what you might think. Lots of strings, and flutes and those Japanese style voices that go (heuah… sort of.) There’s not much brass instruments involved except in battle music. It gives the soundtrack and light and energetic feeling just like the game as you roam the landscapes.

The themes in the soundtrack are almost all great, Issun’s Theme perfectly fits his character, the Shinshuu Plains music is rousing and adventurous, the themes for the different maps and areas blend so perfectly with the areas that they gain a kind of equilibrium and the tow are inseparable. I’ll listen to the particular music and I instantly know where it’s from.

My favorites are the Shinshuu Plains theme, Tamaya’s Theme, Hansaki Valley, Ushiwaka’s Theme (which I whistle frequently) and More Digging Here Bow-Wow.

Overall, a fantastic soundtrack, very long, but endlessly enjoyable and an outstanding component of the game.

R. A. Lyons.

27 - AL 8 - Getting Parenthetic

Morning brothers. Today, I’d like to talk about how we have false interpretations of human nature.

Now before you both fall asleep, don’t worry, I’m going to make it interesting.

A couple of days ago, I was sitting with a few co-workers, (cause of course I don’t have any friends) watching one of Adele’s concerts on youtube. Now one of the nicest things, I think, about Adele is that she’s really a very raw, down to earth kind of person, at least in interviews and things. In this particular concert, she walks out on stage, and the first thing she says is ‘Albert (I think) f**king Hall!’ Not only is this hilarious, but quite endearing. She is still just as surprised and amazed by her success as anyone else, and isn’t being Justin Beiber about it.

But here’s where my topic for the day comes in. One of my coworkers, who to be fair I never had a great liking for, says, and this is a verbatim quote from immediately after this line:

“Wow. And here I though she [Adele] was a respectable, intelligent person. Geez. Is there a single famous person whose actually a decent person?”

Now I could list all the surface problems with this statement… So I will.

You can’t judge someone’s whole personality from three words they say while performing a highly public concert at a prolific hall. That’s just stupid.

You also can’t form such a powerful opinion on someone you’ve never met, and likely never will. It takes many meetings to truly know someone.

You also can’t judge people based on a public persona. A public persona is carefully thought out way of presenting yourself to the people. Famous people may be the polar opposite of who they seem to be.

But what I thought most curious about this is the underlying tone that was being put forth here.

This person believed that human beings were simple, that they fell neatly into categories, and he had a preset inclination that he liked this category, and didn’t like this other one. And it seemed that the categories that he had were very limited; respectful, intelligent people, and then the entire rest of the world.

Now I hope that I’m not the one to tell whoever might be reading this as well as you two, Dan and R. A., but human beings are complicated. Really complicated. You just can’t believe how unbelievably, indescribably complicated they are. There are layers upon layers of psychology and backstory behind every action and every decision people make, and there are so many variations thereupon that any attempt to categorise or order people will utterly fail both in the nature of the task, and any system you come up with the achieve it.

I’ve seen the nicest people burst into sweary, gesticulation heavy fits of rage. I’ve seen the angriest, grumpiest people never swear or even raise their voices above a good level of projection. There are people who go from angelic to demonic in a heartbeat over any sort of trigger. Cynical pessimists might become heartfelt do gooders at the sight of puppies (remember Jake, anyone… anyone? Just me then.) So when my colleague give this shallow, generalised, categorical statement about Adele, it is important to understand exactly why it is incorrect. There is niceness and anger in everyone, five syllable vocabularies, and some old fashioned emotive swearing. And denying or refusing this in any way is to be completely ignorant of the truth of human nature.

That’s my blog for this week. I’ll post up my review of our chosen soundtrack tomorrow.

(Parenthetically speaking: Suck it Dan.)

Brothers, I’ll read from you then.

Andrew Lyons.

26 - DL 10 - Bracketing It

Guess what R. A., you are now not the only one who is playing ‘Okami.’

After surfing around on Ebay for a while, I found a PS2 and Okami relatively cheap (considering how old the one is and how rare and popular is the other (grammar!)) I’ve tried to avoid getting any game consoles since leaving home cause I feel like if I got them, then my games collection would start to grow and I’d soon find myself falling behind on UNI work and not getting a job and going broke and ending up destitute and alone, with only my video games for comfort.

Or something like that….

Anywho(m)

I’m currently on the train home and I’m falling asleep out of sheer exhaustion (as opposed to say, being drugged or druknedness) and my stop is coming up, so writing this blog is what’s keeping me awake. Luckily, I now have some time to grow through the last couple of weeks of blogs (argghhh) and proof read them. And before either of you suggest just handing over the password to you, I don’t trust you, and am not going to, so don’t even ask. But yeah, that’ll be an exhaustive and boring exercise, but I will get that done. And I’m also hoping that’ll get me reprieve on my latest short film. I’m now two behind, and am kinda devoid of inspiration. I know that they’re not meant to be inspired pieces of cinema, or even very good, but that they’re just meant to make sure that I’m getting writing done, but I am seriously burnt out right now. Plus, I think the five (or six?) short films I’ve done so far are enough to digest.

Also, now that free time is heading my way, I’ll finally get our uploading work situation dealt with. So basically, as far as the blog goes, things are looking up. What I am hoping I can do is start running by feature film ideas I’m having with you. However small and unambitious my short films, my features are exactly the same. They are very small, usually in a single location, with a small cast, and based pretty much on two things. Visually looking great, and being well written. So when I’m putting the ideas up, keep that in mind. That way you won’t come back to me complaining about them being unspeakably boring and uncinematic.

Favorite Song Of The Moment:

            ‘Stardust Road’ from Super Mario Galaxy. Andrew, since I heard it last week, I has not gotten out of my head. In fact, I went and got the Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack just for that track. There is, of course, a lot of other fantastic music in there, that makes me want to actually play the game (which I haven’t done.) Other close contenders are:

            ‘Pretty much every other world music in the entire soundtrack.’ This is a beautiful soundtrack, and Andrew, if you learn more music from it on the piano, you will never hear me complain.

PRESENT TIME!

R. A., I would love to read the first chapter of that book of yours. If that sounds general, it’s because the last I heard of any of your books was years ago, and I know from experience that stories completely change in that time. So yes, I am looking forward to that chapter. If it seems like you’re hitting dead ends, just keep writing. It is better to edit something that exists, than trying to imagine it.

Andrew. Great work, looking forward to more.

Well, my stop is coming up and somehow I’m still awake, so I guess I should go home.

Andrew, till tomorrow. R. A., till Friday.

(I patent the bracket in regards to this blog, if you want to use it, you must pay me royalties)

Daniel Lyons.