PS2 Archives - Taro Omiya

#WeeklyGameMusic: Blue Sky Town – Dol Dona (.hack//G.U.)

Posted on March 30, 2020 by Taro Omiya

#WeeklyGameMusic: New week, new music. Today’s track is Blue Sky Town – Dol Dona, composed by Chikayo Fukuda. It’s a pleasant town music from Bandai Namco’s mega-long multi-media series, .hack, specifically, the .hack//G.U. trilogy.

Before there was Sword Art Online (SAO), there was .hack. That’s right, this game, manga, and anime series all takes place in the fictional MMO Action-RPG, The World. Dull naming aside, much like SAO, players start falling into a comatose state, both in-game and in real-life. Unlike SAO, the devs blame it to a computer virus, presumably spread by malicious players. The G.U. trilogy stars Haseo, who seeks for revenge after his close friend catches this comatose spell.

.hack//G.U. is a single-player action-JRPG series. Unlike, you know, real MMORPGs, .hack//G.U. is a story-driven game with no character customization, and A.I.-controlled party members. The party explores randomly-generated dungeons: battle initiates when a monster gets close to the party, constraining them into a tight circle. Perhaps the more unique side of the game is how narrative plays: there are email logs, marriage simulation, and other MMORPG-like communication methods to suck the player into its universe.

.hack//G.U. is available on PC via Steam, PS4, and PS2.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Ryoshima Coast (Okami)

Posted on September 20, 2014 by Taro Omiya

#WeeklyGameMusic: New week, new music.

This time, we visit ancient Japan from this brilliant piece from Okami. Make way for the epic music, Ryoshima Coast by Hiroshi Yamaguchi! It’s a wonderful composition most fitting for a game that re-tells numerous Japanese fairy tales.

Okami starts with feudal Nippon (“Japan” in Japanese) getting swarmed by monsters and other evil spirits. With the country in peril, the guardians summon the sun goddess, Amaterasu, to rid of all evil. The problem? She’s a lazy wolf, and since the citizens of Nippon doesn’t have faith in their gods, she’s also very weak. Alas, it’s up to (?) the one-inch-tall Issun to wake her up, and encourage her to beat up monster to save the day!

Okami is an action-adventure game, frequently compared to the Legend of Zelda series, that not only manages to stand on its own, but even excel beyond its original inspiration. The game features tight combat system and dungeons with puzzles that even left a Zelda veteran like myself scratching his head. Special to this game is the brush power-ups: “items” are spawned by literally drawing them into the world. Not only does this make puzzle quick to resolve once a solution is found, it also makes the said powers convenient for use on combat. A lot of experimentation is possible in this vast, oriental fairy-tale world.

Okami was originally developed for the Playstation 2. It was also ported on the Wii, complete with wand-based drawing controls. Lastly, a HD remix is downloadable on the Playstation 3.

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Weekly Game Music: moony [advanced] (Futari No FantaVision)

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. Since the holidays is just around the corner, here’s a little festive trance music from the Japan-only puzzle game, Futari No FantaVision. Introducing moony [advanced] by Soichi Terada.

Futari No FantaVision is actually just a 2-player version of a game that was released in the US, FantaVision. In FantaVision, you control a ray that can detonate rising fireworks if you’ve successfully aimed at three or more like-colored fireballs. The game becomes a sort of rhythmic puzzle game, where you attempt to detonate as many fireworks as possible.

Futari No FantaVision was released only in Japan on the PS2 in 2002. It’s “prequel,” FantaVision was released in the US on 2000.

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Weekly Game Music: Inugami Village (Shadow Hearts: Covenant)

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. Don’t have a good turkey day music, but I will break the electric trend and go with a relaxing piano solo. Here’s Inugami Village(better translated, Village of the Dog God), composed by Yasunori Mitsuda. It’s from the JRPG, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, which has a strange retelling of World War I with demons and monsters.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant starts where its prequel left off: the former game’s hero, Yuri Hyuga, stays within the town of Domremy, defending it from German invaders. Unfortunately for Yuri, an Inquistor from the Vatican (Nicolas Conrad) breaks through his defense, and worse, curses him to an incredibly weak state. It turns out the so-called Inquistor is actually a sorcerous from an evil clan, Sapientes Gladio. Before the sorcerer finishes him, though, Karin Koenig and the villagers saves Yuri. Once they’ve both gathered some strength, they devise a plan to get their revenge back on Nicloas.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant is a turn-based, random encounter JRPG. The player can have up to 3 characters in its party, placed on a 3-by-3 grid. The farther away the character is placed from the enemies, the less likely they’re going to get hurt at a cost of diminishing their attack power. To spice up the old formula, Shadow Hearts adds a Sanity Meter per character. If it reaches 0, the player loses control of that character. Lastly, most attacks and magics uses the Judgement Ring, a spinning dial where one must stop its spinning needle to a colored area to execute damage. The smaller the area, typically the better the attack.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant was released on the PS2 in 2004.

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Weekly Game Music: Morning, Thinker (Armored Core series)

Posted on September 9, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. Lets explore yet another genre I haven’t explored yet: mecha combat. Here’s a remix of Silent Line: Armored Core and Armored Core 4 music, Morning, Thinker by Mattias Häggström Gerdt and Deia Vengen. It’s an aggressive techno, best depicting the chaotic, yet strategical nature of piloting a bipedal tank.

The Armored Core series revolves around power-hungry corporations frequently throwing war at each other. It seems only natural, then, that Silent Line: Armored Core begins after much destruction of the human population. While humanity is slowly regaining its former glory, scouts discover a portion of the globe where seemingly all communications are lost. You’re tasked to investigate this mysterious location, the Silent Line.

All Armored Core games revolves around customizing and experimenting with your mech, and putting your construction into practice. As expected from a future war game, the walking tanks you create must gun through numerous vehicles, artillery, and other mechs. Special in Silent Core, parts can be damaged individually, and retains its damage between sessions. This requires the player to constantly replace its weapons and upgrades per session.

Silent Line: Armored Core was released on Playstation 2 in 2003. It was later ported to the PSP in 2010. Armored Core 4 was released on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2007.
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Weekly Game Music: Some Like it Red Hot (Viewtiful Joe)

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. This week’s music is Some Like it Red Hot, baby! Two cool dudes, Masakazu Sugimori and Masami Ueda, manage to capture the exciting and flashy nature of a city. It best fits the rad superhero action game, Viewtiful Joe.

Viewtiful Joe, is, like, an action game about a stupid nobody named Joe. The loser is such a hopeless fanboy of Captain Blue, man! Even ends up being the only audience in a movie re-run, with his, you know, hot girlfriend Silvia. Poor girl. Anyway, Silvia totally gets kidnapped into the movie world, and Joe gets sucked into it by force. But wait, it gets better! Joe gets this rad V-Watch, turning him into a red-suited action hero. Man, those pants are tight!

Anyhoo, Viewtiful Joe is this action-packed 2.5D beat’em-up all the cool kids are talking about. To spice up his action, Joe can make time run slower or faster, allowing him to solve puzzles, cream enemies, or just look plain wicked. On top of that, the game has this sweet cell-shaded graphics that totally makes it look like a cartoon. It’s just how Joe rolls.

Viewtiful Joe was originally released on the Gamecube in 2009. It has also been ported to the PS2 as well. It’s hardcore, dude!
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