Soundtrack Saturday: Danganronpa

In this weekly feature, I recommend game soundtracks. I share a few of my favorite tracks, talk about why everyone should listen to the soundtrack, and a little bit about the composer. This week's choice is Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc by Spike Chunsoft.

Pokémon: Am I a Fan?

I'm sure everyone and their brother has been posting special blogs, videos, tweets, and streams to commemorate Pokémon Day, so I'm sharing my own perspective of the franchise: Am I a fan?

Wishlist Wednesday: The Wild Eternal

In this weekly feature, I share game titles from my various gaming wishlists. I share screenshots and video from the developer, talk about my expectations, and generally just ramble about why the title made it onto my list in the first place. This week's choice is The Wild Eternal by Ilsanjo.

Learning LOTRO: Lesson One - What Is It?

In this new series, I talk about various aspects of The Lord of the Rings Online. This series is meant for newcomers, but may also help veteran players find more to love about the game.

SO, WHAT IS LOTRO?

"It's a vidya game. Tell them that." -PrepareToIndie, aka my husband

While my husband's astute sense of observation isn't wrong, it also doesn't really capture the full picture of what a gamer is getting into when they venture into LOTRO for the first time. I'm hoping this entry will help people understand why so many gamers are still playing and enjoying a game that will be celebrating 13 years in April.

Soundtrack Saturday: Ecco the Dolphin

In this weekly feature, I recommend game soundtracks. I share a few of my favorite tracks, talk about why everyone should listen to the soundtrack, and (usually) a little bit about the composer. This week's choice is Ecco the Dolphin & Ecco: The Tides of Time.

IT'S COMPLICATED...

This entry is going to be a little different from previous Soundtrack Saturday installments because there are, in fact, four different soundtracks I will be discussing. There are five games in the Ecco series, but I will be focusing on just two of them. They had releases on both the Sega Genesis (also called Mega Drive) and the Sega Game Gear, and thus had different soundtracks due to the audio capability differences between the console and the handheld. The Genesis was 16-bit while the Game Gear was 8-bit. That's right, folks -- I'm about to drop some 8-bit music on your ears!

THE SERIES STATS

Name: Ecco the Dolphin
Creator: Ed Annunziata
Developer: Novotrade International
Publisher: Sega
Genres: Action-adventure

MY FAVORITE TRACKS

These are listed by order of my overall preference of soundtrack, then by favorite track.
(The titles link to YouTube videos... and I highly recommend some good headphones to best enjoy all of the subtle elements of the music!)

ECCO THE DOLPHIN (GAME GEAR)

Release date: 1993
Composer(s): Csaba Gigor, Gabor Foltan

Deep Water - The harmonies! It's epic and percussive!
Medusa Bay - Mysterious, then frantic! Panic!
The Ocean - Lilting and pirate-y?
Time Travel - I replayed parts of the game to death just to hear this.
Credits - Nice closure, classical-sounding, shows off more composition skill than some of the other tracks -- a reward in itself for finishing the game!

Click here for the full playlist.

ECCO: THE TIDES OF TIME (GENESIS)

Release date: 1994
Composer(s): Attila Dobos, Andras Magyari, Andy Armer

Title Theme - This is my all-time favorite track from all of the games.
Two Tides - This is my 2nd favorite. Transistor vibes, anyone?
Crystal Springs - Moving and fun... with a sense of danger?
Tube of Medusa - This is the most popular track/level of the game.
Fault Zone - This was a level I hated. Bad memories, man.

Click here for the full playlist.
...and click here for an awesome, faithful-to-the original cover of Tube of Medusa! (No, really. It's great. I promise.)

ECCO: THE TIDES OF TIME (GAME GEAR)

Release date: 1994
Composer(s): Csaba Gigor, Gabor Foltan, Laszlo Fazekas

Vents of Medusa - There's a repeated theme here that ends up elsewhere.
Vortex Future - I didn't like this track when I played the game, but I rather like it now. It's a percussive and melodic piece that would be amazing with today's gaming audio range.
Title Theme - This is nothing like the title theme from the Genesis version of the game, but I share it because it sets a good tone for the dire story of the game.

Click here for the full playlist.

ECCO THE DOLPHIN (GENESIS)

Release date: 1992
Composer(s): Spencer Nilsen, Brian Coburn, Andras Magyari

I don't actually recommend this soundtrack at all -- it's grating to listen to compared to the other three, even if it is on the Genesis. But if you want to listen for yourself, you can click here for the full playlist.

WHY I RECOMMEND THEM

If you are a child of the 80's or 90's, there's a good chance you enjoy a well-composed track from classic consoles and handhelds. And being the millennials that we are, we can compare these tracks to today's game music and find them downright impressive because of the level of technology the game developers had to work with. You probably won't listen to these tracks as part of any regular playlist, or in the car, or share them with your friends. They're mainly a great dose of nostalgia for those of us who remember when the Genesis and Game Gear first debuted, fighting to compete with Nintendo as a household staple of entertainment.

THE OTHER GAMES IN THE SERIES

Normally this is the place where I talk about composers, but there are a lot of names listed above and, well... [insert "Ain't nobody got time for that!" meme here]. So instead of gushing about how awesome people are, I thought I'd talk about the series itself.

In 1995, two more titles were released, but not a continuation of the story from the first two games. As it is, the Game Gear version of Tides of Time was heavily edited and shortened compared to the Genesis version because of the handheld's limitations. I don't know if this contributed to the decision not to pursue a third installment. The two titles they did release were Ecco Jr. and Ecco Jr. and the Great Ocean Treasure Hunt, both of them "edutainment" games. The first released on the Genesis, but the second released on the Sega Pico (which I only learned about when researching for this blog entry, probably because it was marketed for kids ages 3-7 and at the time I was almost 11).

The last title in the series was originally released in 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast. When the Dreamcast was discontinued in the US, the game was re-released in 2002 for the Playstation 2. This game was Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, and it has its own stand-alone universe and story, separate from the original games. I have it, and tried to play it when I was in my mid-20's to relive my enjoyment of the Ecco games from my childhood. Sadly, the controls were poor and the story is... pretty terrible. Your best bet for enjoying an Ecco game these days is to pick up the Genesis versions available as part of the Sega Mega Drive collection on PC. Plug in a controller and go save your pod!

Wishlist Wednesday: Katamari Damacy Reroll

In this weekly feature, I share game titles from my various gaming wishlists. I share screenshots and video from the developer, talk about my expectations, and generally just ramble about why the title made it onto my list in the first place. This week's choice is Katamari Damacy Reroll by Bandai Namco Entertainment.

THE STATS

Name: Katamari Damacy Reroll
Creator: Keita Takahashi
Developer: MONKEYCRAFT Co. Ltd
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Release Date: December 7, 2018
Genres: Puzzle, action
Wishlist Location: Humble Bundle

MEDIA FROM BANDAINAMCOENT.COM

(Newsletter subscribers click here to view embedded video.)

WHY I WANT IT

I have the original game for the PS2, and I absolutely loved it (even though I never finished it). This is the remake with updated graphics, basically. And I can play it on my PC.

If you never had the joy of playing any of the Katamari games, you don't know what you're missing. The basic premise is to ball stuff up and keep making bigger balls of stuff. Yes, it's kooky. Yes, the music will get stuck in your head. But that's what's great about it! (I should probably do a Soundtrack Saturday entry for it...)

Now, in doing my homework for this entry, I saw the... uh... worrisome list of Katamari game titles. If you pretend they're chapters in a dating sim game, then Reroll is clearly when you start the game over because you didn't like the ending you got the first time. (And seriously, who decided that Touch My Katamari was an acceptable title to put on the PS Vita?)

Weird and questionable titles aside, the game is addicting once you get rolling! (See what I did there? You see it, right? Rolling? Yeah, I'll stop there.)

If that isn't enough to pique your interest, then this probably isn't your genre -- and that's okay! Check back next week for another title and let me know what you think of my selection!

Soundtrack Saturday: Rakuen

In this weekly feature, I recommend game soundtracks. I share a few of my favorite tracks, talk about why everyone should listen to the soundtrack, and a little bit about the composer. This week's choice is Rakuen by Laura Shigihara.

THE STATS

Name: Rakuen
Developer: Laura Shigihara
Publisher: Laura Shigihara
Release Date: May 10, 2017
Genres: Adventure
Composer(s): Laura Shigihara

MY FAVORITE TRACKS

(The titles link to YouTube videos... and I highly recommend some good headphones to best enjoy all of the subtle elements of the music!)

Welcome to the Forest
(Length: 1:50) This sounds like something straight out of a Nintendo game. Something not quite Zelda and not quite Mario. There's less repetition and more personality. It's fun and bright, despite being short.

The Midnight Tea Shop
(Length: 1:46) I have a soft spot for this track because it's the first one I heard from the game. It was shared by Laura as a preview before the game's release. It's got a sort of ambient, chillout quality despite being somewhat upbeat.

Gemma and the River
(Length: 2:18) I enjoy the mysterious, haunting quality of this track -- and the waltzy feel gives it a flow and rhythm reminiscent of water (the river).

Kowareta Omoide
(Length: 2:30) If you ever wanted to know how to put feelings of anxiety and fear into music, this is it. Most of the track leaves your ears straining to hear a resolution in the chords, but there's perpetual motion in the notes that doesn't let it settle. It's wonderfully composed!

Build a Little World With Me
(Length: 3:50) "Once these walls were grey/ But you made stars and skies and snowflakes..."
I'm not crying, you're crying! ;__;

Jump/Ending Credits
(Length: 4:39) "Though we were without a map/ Without a plan, without a destination/ We knew where we were going..."

You can listen to the full soundtrack on YouTube: 

Rakuen Original Soundtrack

WHY I RECOMMEND IT

First of all, did you listen to the tracks I shared? If even one of those isn't enough to encourage you to listen to the rest, then I don't know why you're reading a blog entry about a soundtrack!

But really, I'm a huge fan of Laura Shigihara. I first learned about her after playing the game To The Moon, in which she sings the song "Everything's Alright." I started following her on YouTube and Facebook, and I soon heard she was making her own game called Rakuen. I haven't played much of the game, and it's seriously on my to-do list to play it sometime this year. I know it's full of feels and is an emotional roller coaster... but isn't that the best kind of game?

If you need a better recommendation than that, then maybe look up some of Laura's videos and get a better feel for her personality and music. You won't be disappointed.

THE COMPOSER: LAURA SHIGIHARA

You might know her on social media as Supershigi (and if not, you do now!). She's an insanely talented musician with a sweet voice. If you ever played the game Plants vs. Zombies, then you've heard her music. (Yep, that was her.) She's also worked on World of Warcraft, Deltarune, the 5th Anniversary Edition of Super Meat Boy, and even worked with Yasunori Mitsuda on the official Square Enix Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross 20th Anniversary Album. Overall, she's worked on over 30 published titles for over a decade.

Street cred established? Check. Now go follow Laura on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, or even her blog. You won't regret it!

If you stay right by my side
We'll make it through the night
And we'll never have to feel alone again
So before it's time to leave
Would you build a little world with me?

Wishlist Wednesday: Unforeseen Incidents

In this weekly feature, I share game titles from my various gaming wishlists. I share screenshots and video from the developer, talk about my expectations, and generally just ramble about why the title made it onto my list in the first place. This week's choice is Unforeseen Incidents by Backwoods Entertainment.

THE STATS

Name: Unforeseen Incidents
Developer: Backwoods Entertainment
Publisher: Application Systems Heidelberg
Release Date: May 24, 2019
Genres: Point-and-click adventure
Wishlist Location: Steam

MEDIA FROM BACKWOODS-ENTERTAINMENT.COM

(Newsletter subscribers click here to view embedded video.)

WHY I WANT IT

I will always love point-and-click games. Aside from some of the turn-based strategy games of the 90's, point-and-click was an early part of my journey into gaming. I borrowed games like King's Quest (I think it was II...) and Torin's Passage. I moved on to Atlantis: The Lost Tales and The Longest Journey.

This pretty little game was made by a small developer in Germany, and the artwork of the game is primarily what caught my attention. Not so much the character stylization, but the backdrops and landscape. It's clear that the developers want the player to feel pulled into the world, and the narrative only emphasizes it.

And yes -- those cupcakes in a stranger's car DO look amazing. I need to know if Harper takes one. Don't you?

If that isn't enough to pique your interest, then this probably isn't your genre -- and that's okay! Check back next week for another title and let me know what you think of my selection!

Soundtrack Saturday: NieR - Automata

In this weekly feature, I recommend game soundtracks. I share a few of my favorite tracks, talk about why everyone should listen to the soundtrack, and a little bit about the composer. This week's choice is NieR: Automata by PlatinumGames.

THE STATS

Name: NieR: Automata
Developer: PlatinumGames
Publisher: Square Enix
Release Date: February 23, 2017
Genres: Action role-playing, hack and slash
Composer(s): Keiichi Okabe

MY FAVORITE TRACKS

(The titles link to YouTube videos... and I highly recommend some good headphones to best enjoy all of the subtle elements of the music!)

An Important Note! The NieR: Automata soundtrack is over 3 1/2 hours of music on 3 discs, so I selected 3-5 tracks from each disc for this entry. There were a lot to choose from, so I hope you enjoy my selection!

City Ruins - Rays of Light
(Length: 6:23) Beginning with light piano and guitar, it eases into something lyrical with vocals and percussion after a minute. The piano maintains the same repeated theme, and along with the percussion keeps the track moving--running forward.

Amusement Park
(Length: 6:19) I selected this track because I tend to be a sucker for great use of minor keys and progressions. Various elements of it reminded me of the Eternal Poison soundtrack and snippets of The 7th Guest. There's a playfulness to the composition, but also a lamentation.

Voice of No Return - Guitar
(Length: 3:52) As the title suggests, this is vocals and guitar. Don't try to understand the words, because the "words" are simply based on French phonetics (and still other tracks use Japanese or English). The combination makes for something romantic and forlorn sounding.

Pascal
(Length: 4:47) Everyone loves a moving marimba line, right? Digitally-altered vocals remind us that the theme of the game involves androids and enemy robots. I selected this track because of the flowing rhythm. It's just a pleasure to listen to!

Dark Colossus - Kaiju
(Length: 6:06) My favorite track *would* have the word 'kaiju' in the title. This track is a fantastic musical sandwich. The first two minutes and last two minutes are percussive, punctuated with epic strings, singing brass, and operatic vocals. The middle two minutes are a sinister pipe organ carrying the melody with further emphatic vocals standing out brighter (and more desperately?) in this quieter span of time.

Mourning
(Length: 4:51) The power of this track is that it is almost entirely vocals layering upon one another, with mournful strings entering just after two full minutes to fill a gap where the voices go silent. A minute later, the voices rejoin the strings and take on a wider, sweeping flow. The last minute is a powerful combination of the voices and full strings pushing out the melody at the same time and then diminishing.

Fortress of Lies
(Length: 2:49) The shortest of my track selections, this is a simple one that manages to stand out. It begins with an ethereal sound and sustained chimes, then adds vocals and subtle digital distortions. It has a very chillhop kind of sound, and I can only wish it was a couple minutes longer.

Vague Hope - Spring Rain
(Length: 4:40) You have to be a fan of breathy vocals to appreciate this track. If you spend the first 30 seconds wishing the vocalist would push with her diaphragm already, you might just want to move on. The melody of the strings, however, reminds me a great deal of musical themes I have often heard in Studio Ghibli movies. That is redemptive enough for me to appreciate the balance between instruments and vocals.

Song of the Ancients - Atonement
(Length: 5:10) Right off the bat you can hear this is an epic piece with the percussion, strings and brass laying a foundation for the harmonizing vocals. Having not finished playing the game, I don't know what the atonement is for in the track title, but the chord progressions in this piece do a good job of conveying a mounting struggle and attempt to succeed at something. Given that they fade out the end rather than give it a conclusive end, I imagine this is probably a backdrop for an intense and climactic boss fight that is pivotal to the story.

Faltering Prayer - Starry Sky
(Length: 3:44) Music box? Yes, please. I will listen to just about anything played by a music box. It is my weakness. (Which may be part of my attraction to wanting a kalimba...) This track will make you sad if you listen to it for too long. It's one of those pieces. A minute and a half in, a breathy voice is added to the mix for 30 seconds. I still don't know if it adds or detracts -- I'll leave that to you. But the music box continues on in a slower, heartbreaking fashion -- as music boxes do when they run out of torque.

The Tower
(Length: 7:44) I'm a big fan of this track, even though I'm not entirely sure why. It's the longest in the bunch, and it starts off with almost 80's-sounding ethereal sounds and vocals for almost 3 minutes before some percussion and more 80's sounding digital elements are added. It's a fantastic combination and reminds me a lot of epic ending scenes from many animes. As a bonus, there's a bonus 8bit version that should excite chiptune fans.

You can listen to the full soundtrack on YouTube: 

NieR: Automata Official Soundtrack

WHY I RECOMMEND IT

This soundtrack was recommended as one I should cover, and I readily agreed since I have played the beginning of it on PS4. Further research on it has only convinced me that I need to play the rest of it, and that I also need to add some of the tracks into my regular rotation of music. This soundtrack also won the award for "Best Score/Music" at The Game Awards 2017. The quality of the soundtrack is up there with those of some of my favorite composers, and I can only urge you to listen to the rest of the tracks yourself... whenever you have 3 or so hours to spare. Better yet, go play the game.

THE COMPOSER: KEIICHI OKABE

This is a name I didn't know until I started working on this blog entry. Despite that, I am quite familiar with many of the works Okabe has contributed to over the years. His video game works include the Tekken series, Super Smash Bros., Final Fantasy XV: Episode Gladiolus, and the "City Ruins - SOUL" piece in SoulCalibur VI. His anime contributions include Sekirei, Black Butler and Assassins Pride. He's the founder of the music production studio Monaca which composes for a lot of video games and anime. I'm sure we'll continue to see more from him in the future!

Wishlist Wednesday: Druidstone - The Secret of the Menhir Forest

In this weekly feature, I share game titles from my various gaming wishlists. I share screenshots and video from the developer, talk about my expectations, and generally just ramble about why the title made it onto my list in the first place. This week's choice is Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest by Ctrl Alt Ninja.

THE STATS

Name: Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest
Developer: Ctrl Alt Ninja
Publisher: Ctrl Alt Ninja
Release Date: May 15, 2019
Genres: Tactical role-playing
Wishlist Location: GOG.com

MEDIA FROM DRUIDSTONE-GAME.COM

(Newsletter subscribers click here to view embedded video.)

WHY I WANT IT

This is a game lovingly crafted by a small team that has 100% personal investment in the success of the game (they literally took out a loan from the bank to cover expenses to finish the game, so they literally have to pay that back personally no matter how the game fares). That means they really care about quality and fixing any bugs that may pop up. Larger developers or publishers are more likely to tell customers to "just deal with it" because they're still going to make a killing in sales, so the smaller team aspect of this game's production immediately raises the bar for standards.

If you didn't know, the programmer/game designer/writer for Druidstone, Petri Häkkinen, is best known as the designer and programmer of the Legend of Grimrock games. Admittedly, I had a poor go of it when I tried Legend of Grimrock II at my husband's suggestion during a past Extra Life marathon, but I didn't think there was anything inherently wrong with the game. I was just really bad at it and not in a puzzle-solving mood in the middle of a 24-hour charity marathon. That said, the media offered by the indie company to promote this game is stunning -- and if you read my blog at all, you know I love me some eye candy in games.

I have a 50% satisfaction rate going with tactical RPGs, but it isn't deterring me from wanting this game in the slightest. The gameplay reminds me a bit of Pillars of Eternity (that's a huge compliment from me) crossed with a little Diablo, a pinch of King's Bounty, and some elements of Endless Legend and even Transistor with how the tactical element is implemented. Despite some of those similarities, it looks like its own unique game with some intriguing story and music. And did I mention how pretty it is? [Insert grabby hands here.]

If that isn't enough to pique your interest, then this probably isn't your genre -- and that's okay! Check back next week for another title and let me know what you think of my selection!

Soundtrack Saturday: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II

In this weekly feature, I recommend game soundtracks. I share a few of my favorite tracks, talk about why everyone should listen to the soundtrack, and a little bit about the composer. This week's choice is The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II by NeocoreGames.

THE STATS

Name: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II
Developer: NeocoreGames
Publisher: NeocoreGames
Release Date: May 22, 2014
Genres: Action role-playing
Composer(s): Gergely Buttinger

MY FAVORITE TRACKS

(The titles link to YouTube videos... and I highly recommend some good headphones to best enjoy all of the subtle elements of the music!)

Resistance
This track always makes me think of the opening to a Tim Burton/Danny Elfman movie. It has that in medias res sound quality that couples well with opening action sequences that tease some credits but is ultimately just showing off the backdrop and scenario to set the pace for the overall piece. The beginning of the second game is, in fact, a resistance movement and battle... so it fits very well.

The Hero and the Ghost Lady
This is the main musical theme for Van Helsing and his ghost companion, Lady Katarina. It's repeated a lot, but it never gets old.

The Winter Forest
There are subtle elements that make this track sound like it's forlorn on a winter breeze, isolated from warmth or civilization.

Prisoner Seven
This track gets more interesting after the 1-minute mark, and again after the 2-minute mark. So, if you're patient about figuring out who Prisoner Seven is in the game, this song complements Seven's personality quite well. He's a shady fellow you don't necessarily trust, despite being helpful.

The Ink
This is the best track. It breaks away from the tone of the rest of the soundtrack slightly, having some 80's synth playing around in the background, and I think that helps signify that Van Helsing is not in the normal world at this point. In the game, The Ink is a method of traveling through an otherworldly type of realm, and is also where he goes hunting for enemies sometimes. So not only does this track get a slightly more exciting sound, but it also has constant movement and an epic orchestral composition. I never get tired of listening to it!

Christmas Special (Bonus)
The main theme with a Christmas sort-of sound. For crazy people like me who like everything Christmas. Worth at least one listen, I promise!

You can listen to the full soundtrack on YouTube: 

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II OST

WHY I RECOMMEND IT

First and foremost, I was a Legendary-tier backer of this game because I loved the first game so much. This was the first game I ever invested extra money in simply because I wanted to be supportive. As a result, I received a lot of extra goodies in addition to the game -- one of which was the soundtrack on a CD in a leather case. I have been following Gergely Buttinger on social media ever since.

The trilogy of games follows the son of the infamous Van Helsing from Bram Stoker's Dracula (that is, the player plays as him), and has to fight all kinds of mythical monsters, crazy people and crazy devices, and more monsters. The music helps set the tone for monster-hunting across dark and scary landscapes full of danger, both in forbidden wildernesses and iron-laced urban jungles.

Forget, for a moment, that my name appears in the game credits. Give the soundtrack a listen. Enjoy it for its musical complexity, or queue it up for some great background music during your next tabletop game. You won't be disappointed.

P.S. The third game just (yesterday/today, depending on where you live) released on the PS4.

THE COMPOSER: GERGELY BUTTINGER

The guy posts pictures of food and pets on his social media in between posts nerding out about music. You can't help but like the guy. He's unafraid of trying new things and finding sounds he enjoys. Other projects in his repertoire include Warhammer 40K: Inquisitor, Deathtrap, King Arthur the Roleplaying Wargame, as well some animations and shorts. Give him a follow!

[Still recovering from the flu. Expect future entries to have a little more substance. -snarkqueen]