Memorable Music in Gaming - #61

This week, we're looking at some tunes that follow the convention of being named after a character from their respective games.

Saya no Uta | PC | Song of Saya II

This is the only VN I’ve played, and boy did it leave an impact on me. The concept is deeply upsetting and surreal—putting most modern horror stories to shame.

In a previous MM article—#31, to be exact—I talked about another track, Schizophrenia, a painful auditory experience unlike any other. Song of Saya II starts off cutesy and catchy but quickly spirals into distortion and audio glitches.

Nothing ever stays sane or safe in this VN, and the soundtrack reflects that.

Saya no Uta OST- Song of Saya II

 

Yoshi's Island | SNES | Big Bowser

I haven’t heard each and every Mario soundtrack, but rarely have any gone as hard and metal as this one. The opening 15 seconds are the audio equivalent of the “It Was At This Moment He Knew... He F***ed Up” meme.

What follows next is a prog rockin’ sequence that mimics the likes of Yes and Rush.

Yoshi's Island OST - Final Boss

 

Silent Hill 2 | PS2 | Theme of Laura

The story goes that Akira Yamaoka named this track after Laura because she was the first character he saw during the game’s development. Perhaps confusingly, this is the game’s main theme.

Theme of Laura showcases the more rock-heavy side of Mr. Yamaoka. That guitar work is lovely.

Theme of Laura

 

Dark Souls II | PC | King Vendrick

A dirge fit for a fallen king. The subject in question is Vendrick—a once-great ruler now reduced to a shambling husk.

What makes this track so haunting is how it blends sorrow with mockery. The soundtrack retains his title but when you confront him, the game only labels him Vendrick—no title, no ceremony—just another lost soul. The music’s bitter irony makes you question whether you're putting him out of his misery or simply desecrating what little dignity he has left.

Dark Souls II Soundtrack - King Vendrick [HQ]

 

Breath of Fire | SNES | Sara’s Theme

Melodious. That’s the only apt descriptor for this one. Of all the tunes mentioned here, this is the gentlest and warmest.

Breath of Fire OST - Sara's theme (Extended)

Article by: Hamza

 

 

Read More

Top 10 Beautiful Video Game Covers - Gaming Thoughts

We all like lists - top five or top ten on a variety of topics. Well, we have a new one to share. Selling this list is going to be a difficult job. Compiling it wasn't exactly a cinch, either. One should never give a graphic designer the job of compiling a top 10, or 50, of movie posters, game covers, or album sleeves, because they get easily offended by the thousands of tropes and cliches they have to sort through. I know this to be true because I got offended pretty fast, and also because I like to go around claiming to be a competent graphic designer. Great covers are a-plenty; bad ones even more so. Tackling either would've been laughably easy - in fact, PY and I even cracked our knuckles with the latter - but we like a good challenge once a-while; as such, PY and I decided to go with drop-dead beautiful covers that seem to exist in a league of their own. Imagine my surprise when more just an expected couple of strikingly gorgeous covers propped up left and right... and before I knew it I had quickly finished my top 10, with nearly 50 honorable mentions eating away at my conscious. What followed next was hours and hours of staring at covers and endless comparisons late into the night. My tea-stained shirt serves as proof - image upon request.

Read More

Memorable Music in Gaming #25

It is hard to believe we have done twenty five of these articles so far, but here we are. Given the recent release of the popular game Dark Souls III, I thought we would make this edition of Memorable Music in Gaming all about the Soulsborne (as Chris calls them) games. Let's go ahead and tackle these from newest to oldest.

Read More

Dark Souls II and Crown of the Sunken King - Xbox 360 Review

The darkness has been punishing, almost oppressive. Multiple tunnels led to murky shores, perilous cliffs and a host of strange, violent creatures. I dared to follow the nearby footprints near the beginning, and I was nearly slain for my curiosity. Caution is key because success is never guaranteed. However, there is quite literally light at the end of the tunnel. Upon reaching the end of said passage, there is an almost hauntingly beautiful expanse of land before me, stretching out to a village that is quiet and almost - but not completely empty. Still, there is a sun in the distance, fighting to get free of the clouds in the sky. It is a sign of hope, that perhaps my struggles will not end in vein.

I continue through the village and near a well that likely has no water. I have fought dozens of battles, cheated death multiple times along the way, and now I have some much deserved respite before setting back off onto my path.

At least, that was what I thought moments before these angry little mongrel creatures charged me, chasing me through what I thought was an otherwise safe village. I hacked at them repeatedly, but that just seemed to tick the rest of them off because before long all of my carefully planned strategies were ruined because I had forgotten two very simple rules of the Souls series:

1) You are never truly safe
2) You are going to die (a lot)

Yet I can never get enough of it.

Read More

Dark Souls II - PC Review

Dark Souls 2 is the sequel to 2011's incredibly difficult yet utterly fantastic Dark Souls, an action RPG that was the spiritual successor to 2009's Demons Souls. The developers of Dark Souls, From Software, has taken the action role playing game back to its roots. Over the years, games in general have been toned down in terms of difficulty and added features like auto-saving and the checkpoint system where twenty plus years ago we did not have checkpoints and when we entered a dungeon we may find one, at most two save points in the entire dungeon. In those old role-playing games you would need to manage your resources (read: items and magic points) and map the dungeon yourself, there were dungeons in the original Final Fantasy that I mapped myself using a pad of graph paper.

Read More