Game info: Nintendo
Listening: soundtrack album
Info
Here’s a licensed game based on some anime I’ve never heard of except in relation to this video game, which is a prequel to the series. The game was developed by G.rev, a company that mostly makes shmups (and shmup hybrids), though this is a ninja action platformer, with first-person shooting gallery segments???
The soundtrack is by Keishi Yonao, a guy who’s been here writing the video game music since 1989. I’ve never done a deep dive into his works, but I’ve heard a decent amount of his more modern music because he has his fingers in a lot of projects—soundtracks, arrange albums, and original compilations—and I’m a fan. He does a lot of chiptunes and tracks using Korg mobile/handheld synthesizers, and even when he’s not chipping he still likes to use more dated sounds in his music. You can usually count on his modern works to have good chords in a lot of the tracks, which is always a plus in my book.
This is an action game, and the soundtrack is in a pretty standard style Yonao uses for action music: energetic synthy electronica with guitars, FM bass, and fusion chords that sounds like it could be in a shmup. Owing to the ninja setting, a few tracks include some Japanese instruments like shamisen in with everything else, but aside from one piece that sounds like gagaku or Noh theater ambience (“BOSS ‘A’”), the soundtrack mostly doesn’t otherwise dip into Japanese classical music traditions. It’s pretty good! I find that Yonao tends to sound a bit samey to me if I listen to a lot of his stuff in a row, or the same soundtrack repeatedly as is the case while I’m writing this post, but his chords go a long way to keep me grooving.
Recommended tracks:
-
“Organized Violence” might fake you out with the chant vocals before it activates Yonao Mode
-
“Storm” is one of the more overtly jazz fusiony tracks in the game
-
“Yashiki” gets a bit further compositionally into Japanese traditional music than most of the soundtrack does with the little flute and shamisen interlude
-
“BOSS ‘D’” slips a little 7 in there
-
“Realm of Hades” is a percussive ambient track with a slow build
Leave a Reply