Game info: HG101
Listening: YouTube (missing jingles), extracted audio
Credits
Sound: Matajuro Minakaze (as MATAJUUROU)
Sound Effect: Yu-ki Osabisi
Info
Meikyuujou Hydra, unofficially translated as Hydra Castle Labyrinth, is a freeware Metroidvania mostly made by one person, E. Hashimoto (or Buster). I just learned about it a couple of months ago when I was watching some video and someone described it as an “entry level Maze of Galious-like,” and I was like yup, you got me, “Galious” is my activation codeword and you have said it out loud. It’s alright, there’s nothing particularly fancy in the mechanics, level design, or abilities, but it’s very much a solid game if you want to play a Metroidvania and don’t want to pay money for it. Except for the part where the third boss repeatedly despawned on me before I could defeat it, but that might just be a problem with the unofficial port I played or the framerate tweaking I did to the code.
The composer is Matajuro Minakaze, who seems to consider themself a pixel artist first and a composer second. In addition to this game, they also composed the soundtracks to two other games by the same developer, Ousama Crisis for PC and Sora Neko and Android, as well as Mystic Balloon and its sequel by developer mimizk. For Meikyuujou Hydra, they went with a pretty straightforward style for a heroic fantasy action game: a mix of energetic orchestral and synths with a bit of jazzy flavor in the stage themes and prog rock flavor in the boss themes, a bit of a Castlevania-ish mix (though without any creepiness or overt gothicisms). Some of the dungeon themes bring in some extra instrumentation like tuned metallic percussion, clavinet, and drumkit, those last two obviously enhancing some of the jazzier tracks.
I wasn’t super taken by the early music from the first hour I played it, nothing offensive but nothing super interesting besides a couple of nice chord changes. But then the third dungeon dropped a really incredible piece of music, and then the remaining three dungeon themes after that were all also very good, and then the final boss theme was also good, and just like that that’s half the soundtrack that kicks ass. From that point on the tracks get more adventurous with harmony or tonality, throw in some interesting programming, or just get bit jazzier or more ambient in a way I appreciate more than the intro styles. The music was actually the part of the game that impressed me the most, this is legitimately one of the best MIDI game soundtracks I’ve heard in a while. Even a couple of the jingles are really nice!
Recommended tracks:
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“Dungeon 03” has a pretty striking transition at 0:48 into dead silence, re-entering on a small rhythmic trick (the pipes and drums are offset by a half beat—the actual downbeat is on the cymbal crash) before getting insane with the addition of frenetic drum writing and wtf is 1:29 ahhhh this track rules so much holy hell
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“Dungeon 05” is simultaneously a bit folky and also the jazz fusioniest the soundtrack gets
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“Dungeon 06” was my favorite of the more orchestral tracks and is the one that messes the most with tonality
(track titles are unofficial translations by me of titles from the metadata)
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