2D Archives - Page 2 of 2

#WeeklyGameMusic: Peper Steak (OFF)

Posted on October 19, 2020 by Taro Omiya

We’ve highlighted Mortis Ghost’s OFF in the #WeeklyGameMusic before…over five years ago. Since I consider that a long enough time to return back to the topic, let’s talk about the most memorable track in the game, Peper Steak by Alias Conrad Coldwood. It’s perhaps the most bizarre JRPG battle music I’ve heard to date.

OFF is a freeware RPG Maker game that takes the popular turn-based JRPG narrative and completely deconstructs it. The nefarious plot starts with you, the “puppeteer,” to take control of the Batter and “purify” the world. After all, if the game tells you specters are evil, then surely eradicating them is the right thing to do, right? So begins the Batter and your journey as you explore a universe composed of four basic elements: metal, meat, gas, and plastic. With it to (not) assist you are some of the most pathetic and scared NPCs to grace text on-screen, as you and the Batter takes down each guardian of this universe.

OFF uses a time-based battle system where the party attacks after their cooldown time is over, obviously taking inspirations from older Final Fantasy games. Since enemies can attack your party while you are making decisions, naturally, the game encourages you to make quick decisions. Otherwise, the usual RPG Maker fare applies: exploration is largely grid based in a stark, minimalist world. Objectives frequently involve the usual RPG tropes, including finding keys, trading items, entering codes, etc. Oddly enough, the game does feature an overworld…but mysteriously, is only one screen large. While purely there for aesthetics case, it does make the player start to question the intentions of Batter’s journey…

OFF is a free PC game that was originally written in French. A translated version is freely available at Starmen.net.

Leave a Comment | Categories: #WeeklyGameMusic

#WeeklyGameMusic: Discothéque Rouge, After Hours (Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine)

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Taro Omiya

Need a little more chiptune in your life? The absolutely talented Chipzel has you covered with this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic. Her remix of Discothéque Rouge, After Hours, from Pocketwatch Games’s multiplayer heist game, Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine is some of the tastiest gems out their to savior. Enjoy it…while it lasts…

They can’t keep us locked in! Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine begins with a group of criminals breaking out of prison, and sneaking out. The triumph is short-lived, however, when the company realizes they’re penniless and wanted. After much deliberation, the party comes to a decision: escape to Monaco, by every means possible. Thus begins their long journey of gathering more criminal connections to assist their freedom.

Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine is an award-winning cooperative heist game. You and three other skilled thieves infiltrate heavily guarded buildings to — what else? — steal everything valuable. The innovation kicks in when every player realizes they’ll need to share information between each other as they deal with each character’s limited vision and hyper-specialized abilities. It’s pretty normal for something to go wrong during the heist: alarms triggering, guards taking notice, etc. After all, much of the fun is trying to figure out how to deal with the escalating situation amongst your group of friends.

Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine is released on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Switch. It’s also available on Steam.

Leave a Comment | Categories: #WeeklyGameMusic

#WeeklyGameMusic: Heavenly Star (Lumines II)

Posted on September 14, 2020 by Taro Omiya

The next #WeeklyGameMusic is a popular track that has appeared in quite a lot of games, ranging from No More Heroes to Child of Eden. As far as this writer can tell, though, it originated from Q? Entertainment’s block-based puzzle game, Lumines II. Sung by Genki Rockets, it tells a story of “an artificial space girl” and her rather optimistic understanding of what Earth (which, in lore, she has yet to visit) is like.

Lumines II is the second game in the Lumines series: a color-block-based puzzle game where one drops blocks to create a 2×2 same-colored square to score points. The innovation comes from how the game calculates combos: the 2×2 same-colored squares doesn’t get eliminated until after the Time Line — a vertical line which swipes from the left of the screen to the right in regular intervals — passes over it. In other words, clever players can rapidly drop a ton of blocks to create more 2×2 squares before the Time Line makes a full pass over their formation, thus aggregating to a larger score.

While the basic premise of Lumines is simple, the game excels on presentation, and in particular, it’s dynamic music generation. Much like Tetris Effect, each and every action the player takes creates a sound effect and instrumental that affects both the background music and visuals. As a consequence, playing Lumines often feels like sketching music on the fly, just as much as thinking through the puzzle that you’ve created for yourself.

Lumines II was originally released on the Playstation Portable. While this sequel is no longer in print, its predecessor, Lumines Remastered is available for PC on Steam and Microsoft Store.

Leave a Comment | Categories: #WeeklyGameMusic

#WeeklyGameMusic: Curiosity (Frog Fractions)

Posted on September 7, 2020 by Taro Omiya

How do you compose an intelligent-sounding music for a comedy game that’s anything but? Indie game studio, Twinbeard might have an answer for you in this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic with Curiosity, composed by…Twinbeard. Let’s pretend to be smart by listening to this calming music from the parody edutainment Flash game, Frog Fractions, where it recounts the completely ridiculous “history” of boxing.

Hmm, how to describe Frog Fractions? Well, as one would expect, it features a frog, and a bunch of “fractional” insects trying to eat at its precious apples. By clicking on the insects, the frog will slurp it up, keeping the apples preserved. The frog earns points when it collects an apple that has dropped from a tree. Later, an upgrade allows the frog to swim right and left across the pond, as well as quite oddly, down. Swimming down will̷͇̈́.̵̢̉.̶̦͌.̶̣̀ḋ̷̘ő̷̤ ̶͈̐ṡ̸̭o̴̭͂m̷̜͝e̸͙͋t̸̮̃h̵̬̍ǐ̶̤n̵̠͆g̴̢̒.̵̪̽

Frog Fractions is available for free on PC via Steam.

Leave a Comment | Categories: #WeeklyGameMusic

#WeeklyGameMusic: Honkey Tonkey Fantasy (半熟英雄対3D)

Posted on August 31, 2020 by Taro Omiya

Ever wondered what would happen if you threw the infamous Final Fantasy music composers, Nobuo Uematsu, to write music for a comedic, nonsensical real-time strategy game? Wonder no more, fellow readers who ask such bizarrely specific questions: this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic has your answer! Here’s Honkey Tonkey Fantasy, from the Japan-only game, 半熟英雄対3D (Hanjuku Hero VS 3D, roughly translates to half-boiled hero), created by none other than Square Enix.

Prince Almamoon’s kingdom is under attack by extra-dimensional beings from the 3D world! They…they’re even voice acted!! With this newfound threat, the “great” prince orders his silent, text-only 2D army to fight back.

The battle system in Hanjuku Hero is broadly divided into two modes: real-time strategy phase, and the Pikmin-like battle phase. The former involves ordering groups of armies to move towards a way-point. When either two groups of opposing armies collide on the map, or your army runs into a fort, the battle phase begins, where both armies are thrown into an isolated stage to fight. The player moves the general, and with it, the armies that follow said general, charging into the opposing forces. To turn the tides in their favor, at any point, the player may use a limited number of “trump cards,” who’s effect can vary from spreading out the opposing army, to reviving fallen soldiers.

半熟英雄対3D was released in Japan on the Playstation 2. Outside of potentially South Korea, it has not been published elsewhere, or ported to any other console.

Leave a Comment | Categories: #WeeklyGameMusic