All photos courtesy of Derek Brad
The Legend of Zelda hit its 25th anniversary in 2011. To celebrate, the first three “Symphony of the Goddesses” concerts were performed: one in LA, one in London, and one in Tokyo.
In 2012, “Symphony of the Goddesses” has been expanded in terms of content and gone on a North American tour. Recently, OSV contributor Haroon Piracha gave his impression of the E3 2012 show in LA, and he also conducted an interview with SotG’s music arranger, Chad Seiter.
On Wednesday, July 25 2012, I finally got to witness for myself the concert about which Haroon and others had been cheering for. Better still, I got to take my wife with me to make it a (very rare) evening without the kids, and we also got the opportunity to speak with the concert’s creative lead / producer, Jeron Moore.
After the jump, I’m going to tell you the story behind the story. How it all got started, what it means to work with this creative team, possible plans for the future, as well as my own impressions of the show interspersed. Get ready, it’s going to be a wild ride. (more…)
I nearly lost it when Theatrhythm was announced for the Nintendo 3DS. I was already excited about the 3D visuals offered up by the platform, and a dream game combining the music of Final Fantasy with rhythmic elements was not only completely unexpected, but was seemingly too good to be true. But true it was, and I watched the game closely leading up to its release.
Now it’s here, and I’ve had a lot of time to play it. Complaints are already flying that the game is built as a DLC platform, but is the game a whole lot more than that, and does it pave the way for other exciting Theatrhythm games encompassing other Square Enix franchises?
Check out our review after the jump. (more…)
It seems like it was only yesterday I was lamenting the lack of a full retail release of a game music album I really enjoyed.
Oh wait, that *was* yesterday.
Right now, I hold in my hands the full orchestral soundtrack for a game that’s not even out yet. And while I assume the full soundtrack will have, at least, a retail digital release (if not a physical release as well), right now the soundtrack exists in the form of about 100 CDs Runic Games had printed. Of this small lot, 25 were given away to fans of the first game via Facebook, and the rest were distributed at E3 (and perhaps some other conventions since E3) by Uelmen and the Runic team themselves.
I personally missed E3, but Jayson was able to snag a handful from Uelmen so that he (representing Destructoid) *and* we at OSV could provide early coverage of Uelmen’s groundbreaking soundtrack.
Is it really *that* good? Does it exceed Uelmen’s work on the Diablo series? Or am I just adding to the hype? I’ll defend my stance after the jump, and then you can leave comments to let me know whether or not I’m crazy. (more…)
Editor’s Note: earlier this month, Haroon brought you an interview with Symphony of the Goddesses arranger Chad Seiter. Today we have Haroon’s review of the concert event where he met Seiter, which took place during E3 2012 in Los Angeles. Later this week, Patrick will be attending a Symphony of the Goddesses performance in Philadelphia, and will be providing his own perspective on that show, as well as an interview with show producer Jeron Moore.
Zelda fans were everywhere! As I entered The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, E3 season blossomed the theatre with fans of The Legend of Zelda: from hardcore gamers to casual gamers, from an older generation to a younger generation. Some in the crowd dressed like Link, some dressed up like Zelda, others were wearing ironic hipster T-shirts that had sayings on them like “Will cut grass for Rupies.” I felt at home.
Before the show was about to start, you could just smell the excitement. When I went to Video Games Live, I looked back before the show started and felt a slight discomfort as you could see an array of empty seats at the theatre. I take great pride at going to video game concerts, but the lack of audiences only frightens me into believing that no one cares about video game music. So as I looked back before this concert was about to start, I smiled to see a full house behind me. You have to understand – not even More Friends: Music from Final Fantasy had a full house when it first premiered in LA. I was there, I remember the empty seats. The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses may have a chance at impressing its audience way differently than any concert have in the past.
Was the audience impressed? Was I impressed? Find out after the jump! (more…)
As much as I love the simplicity of a piano solo track, there’s something to be said for decorating a piano solo track with other instruments to help it stand in stark relief. Sometimes, to portray loneliness, you need a few props, not just an empty stage.
So it is with the soundtrack to the new indie platformer Thomas Was Alone, an emotionally evocative game with an equally evocative soundtrack.
After the jump, my thoughts on the game’s soundtrack, composed by David Housden. And, of course, a bandcamp player is included. (more…)
To us, Andrew Aversa is one of the few people who really represents what game music is all about. That’s because, even in the past year, Andrew has shown himself as a force to be reckoned with on all fronts: AAA game music, indie game music, and fan-made arrangements.
In this episode, Brenna Wilkes and I talk with Andrew for a solid hour about his work on Globulous (which Brenna recently reviewed), on Soul Calibur V, and the super-funded Kickstarter campaign for the OCRemix album under his direction: Final Fantasy VI: Balance and Ruin. This last topic takes up over half of the episode, and it should! At the time we recorded this (Saturday), the campaign was at $60,000, 400% of the $15,000 goal. As I’m writing this post, they’re now at $75,000. I also got *this* in a Kickstarter Backer’s email:
What does that mean? Well, everyone who’s getting a physical copy of “Balance and Ruin” will also get a newly-printed, *all 4 disc* version of Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream as well. That’s good stuff.
Anyway, listen to the episode to learn about everything zircon’s up to. And if you want even more podcast-delivered info on the Balance and Ruin project, please check out this great Nitro Game Injection “after-show” recording with Larry “Liontamer” Oji, which was just recorded on Sunday.
Download: Original SoundCAST Episode #014
If you want to know what BGM we have behind all that talk-talk-talk, click the “more” button. (more…)
In the past couple of months, there have been a surge of concerts that have blown audiences away. This concert series is not a mixed bag of video game music like Video Games Live or PLAY! A Video Game Symphony, but focuses on one game series – The Legend of Zelda. Having been to many video game concerts myself, I have not run into an official video game concert where the music director actually arranged the music specifically for a 100+ piece orchestra. Not even the Final Fantasy concerts (“Dear Friends” “More Friends” “Distant Worlds”) hit that mark as they were (mostly) just live performances of arrangements made for previous albums. The music was always there, they just brought together musicians and perform the pieces live. But this is where The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of The Goddesses hits an entirely new realm of concerts for Americans: instead of ripping the music from the video game, or old work being replayed, why not arrange an entirely new piece for the audience?
Recently, I had a chance to talk with the man who arranged the music for these Zelda concerts, Chad Seiter, a man who has put a lot of hard work into the arrangements. I sat down with him at his concert at E3, he was nice enough to share his passion and love for what he called The legend of Zelda: Symphony of The Goddesses.
Read the interview after the Jump. (more…)
After Brenna posted her timely review of the Scythian Steppes remix album for Sword & Sworcery, I did a quick investigation into the OSV archives to see what else we’d reviewed related to the game and to Jim Guthrie.
Turns out, this was it.
For the rest of the week, we’ll be rectifying that problem. It’s Jim Guthrie week, ladies and gentlemen! And we’re starting with a new release: the soundtrack for “Indie Game: The Movie,” a documentary which chronicles the development of a few high-profile indie games, including FEZ, Braid, and Super Meat Boy.
Did Guthrie do justice to these film-makers and their timely subject of indie games? All that, and more, after the jump. (more…)
Last year, an indie adventure game was released for iOS called Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP that ended up being an underground hit amongst indie gamers. It ended up winning Independent Games Festival Mobile Achievement in Art award, and gained more notoriety by being included on the Humble Indie Bundle V pack last month. It was also ported to PC and is now available on Steam.
Not a bad go of it for Capybara Games or game composer Jim Guthrie by any means.
Now that Sword & Sworcery is about to be released in Japan for gamers in the land of the rising sun to enjoy (with big thanks to the two-way localization house 8-4), some of their local and best-known composers have decided to put their particular spin on the game’s music for the localized debut with the arranged album The Scythian Steppes. The names of these composers should ring a bell with some: Yamane, Yamaoka, & Suzuki are just a few of them.
Take a listen to the new spin on Guthrie’s “Thrillmarillion” soundtrack after the jump.
3 years ago, I sat anxiously waiting for the orchestra to appear from the sidelines. With a curious gaze towards the stage and the many surrounding me, the shared excitement was palpable, and whispers echoed in the Philharmonic Hall as the seated audience prepared to experience game music evolved. I was at Symphonic Fantasies in the Cologne Philharmonic Hall on September 12th, 2009, and on that night, with tears in my eyes, I experienced what is the greatest video game music symphony ever produced.
Since that day, many shows have come and gone, many concerts have been set up around the world, but the impact that Symphonic Fantasies had on the industry is undeniable; it changed the playing field entirely. Audiences wanted more, deeper arrangements, pure production designs, greater stories. Simple medleys did no longer suffice; Symphonic Fantasies proved that game music, like any music, can become something much greater by understanding its message, its intentions, its soul. But even with a subsequent CD release, the demand was high from the eager fans to experience the concert for themselves. It was therefore that Thomas Böcker took his production and team to Japan at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, and returned home to the birthplace of the orchestral game music concert and the Square Enix video games, to show that the concept had evolved, and the music which so many hold dear, has grown up to become something much larger. The result was 2 sold out shows in Japan, heralded in the press and by its peers as a true achievement not easily matched. It was due to this success, that the decision was made to once again provide fans around the world the opportunity to hear Symphonic Fantasies in the form of an album release.
But is it worth the purchase a second time around? Find out after the jump! (more…)
If you own a PS Vita, lucky you! The game that looks to be this summer’s “killer app” is out, and you should be playing it. It’s called Gravity Rush, though its original Japanese title is Gravity Daze. I don’t own a Vita (yet), so I’m unable to play it.
However, I do have basic audio peripherals and ears, so I was able to fully experience the game’s soundtrack, by veteran composer Kouhei Tanaka (also spelled Kohei, the debate is never-ending). If you don’t know that name, then I recommend you spend the $6 to download a lovely little game called Alundra, or grab Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (wii, PS2), or even Resonance of Fate for PS3/360 (though on that, note that Tanaka writes the scene music, Sakuraba is on for battles!).
I’m a huge Kouhei Tanaka fan; I’ve loved him since the first day I played Alundra and took in some of his brilliant music. After the jump, my thoughts on the soundtrack for Gravity Rush! And yes, the usual suspects (CDJapan, Play-Asia) all stock it. (more…)
Back in the hay-day of video gaming, there was a genre of game that was coined the “platformer” — in reality a 2D game where your main objective is traversing over the screen and through levels that consisted of many obstacles; most of which were platforms and the like. It was a popular type of game through the 90s that, within the past few years, has really been making a comeback in grand retro-style. Downloadable games seem to be leading the charge recently, with games like Braid and ‘Splosion Man becoming hits in their own right, enticing players with oldschool finger-twitching gameplay.
One of the more overlooked games for the Xbox Live Indie Arcade was a release earlier this year titled Astroman: a platform side-scrolling game featuring an adorable little spaceman romping through the solar system trying to repair his ship as he blasts aliens to bits as he goes. It’s a short, cute game that goes for about $3 on XBLA. However, what really shines about the game isn’t it’s nostalgic gameplay, but rather the music, which has gotten some well-deserved attention due to the recent release of the Indie Game Music Bundle 3.
A short but sweet original soundtrack crafted by composer Jeff Ball, known for his composition and violin work on games such Mass Effect 3 and Monkey Island 2: Special Edition, he has delivered some fantastic work for the little indie title and really makes the game shine. Journey with us into the star-stricken foray of music that is the Astroman Original Soundtrack. (more…)