Weekly Game Music: Setting Sail, Coming Home (Bastion)

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Taro Omiya

Third on my Christmas video game music rush has some lyrics! Set Sail, Coming Home is Darren Korb’s excellent combination of his 2 other music,Mother, I’m Here and Build That Wall, both featured prominently in the game,Bastion. In context, this song depicts the decision of taking on a new direction in life. It does a great job conveying a hopeful but mysterious and unnerving outlook on the future ahead.

Bastion begins right after a catastrophic event know as the Calamity, where every land is torn apart and nothing is held on solid ground. The player directs the Kid, while Rulf the engineer narrates every action he takes. They both work hard to get Rulf’s time-reverting machine, Bastion, back up and working.

Bastion plays like a top-down action RPG where the Kid switches between a variety of different weaponry, all with well-calculated pros and cons. At any one point, the Kid can carry two, along with 2 special attacks. The enemies you encounter are varied, and require different tactics to kill, thus requiring a lot of wit from the player to take out efficiently.

Bastion was released on 2011 for the Xbox 360. It’s also available on Google Chrome’s Webstore, PC, Mac, Linux, and Steam.

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Weekly Game Music: Reclaiming the Island (The Oil Blue)

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Taro Omiya

Second on my Christmas video game music rush is a much more mellow music from The Oil Blue. Reclaiming the Island by Jonathon Geer is a calming music for a game about digging oil, and retaining a level head as one operates a dangerous machinery.

The Oil Blue describes a plausible future where oil becomes scarcer, and people are making a mad dash at taking over islands and digging up for more oil. As an oil miner yourself, you have to keep track of where you’re going to dig, how you’re going to operate the machinery’s intricate buttons and levers, and finally deciding on the price for the liquid gold you’ve just mined. Money you make can be used to purchase new power-ups to increase the productivity of your mines.

The Oil Blue was released on the PC in 2012.

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Weekly Game Music: Mushrooms (Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP)

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Taro Omiya

Looks like I’ve missed 4 weeks from the massive crunch month I’ve had with developing SWARM! So it’s only fair I share 4 musics in quick succession. First one up is Mushrooms from a former indie rocker, Jim Guthrie. It plays when the Scythian eats — you guessed it — a mushroom in Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. A very hypnotic music, I assure you.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP tells a story of a warrior, only known as the Scythian, who accidentally awakens the evil spirit, Gogolithic Mass. Promising peace for the nearby citizens, the Girl, LogFella, and Dogfella (very creative names, there), the Scythian seeks for great mythical powers to seal it. Even if the it costs her own life…

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is a hybrid of two games: a point-and-click adventure, where one taps to navigate the character and observe interesting things, and a Punch-out style rhythmic combat system. Both work in harmony to create a puzzle game where the rules are vague, and the solutions are magical and nonsensical. Despite its shortcomings, however, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP stands tall as a bold experience, and an even bolder attempt to widen the iPad audience.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP was released on the iPad in 2011. It’s also available on Android, PC, Mac, Linux and even Steam.

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Weekly Game Music: Co-op (Magnetis)

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. More techno, now with 90% more jazz. Here’s a music from Magnetis, Co-op. It’s composed by Romain Gauthier, the same composer as Edge.

Magnetis is a Tetris-based puzzle game that involves dropping a pair of blocks to clear more blocks. Unlike Tetris, however, you clear blocks by creating a line segment where two like-colored magnet blocks faces towards each other. This eliminates any blocks in-between the two magnets. If, however, two magnets of different colors are matched together, everything in-between becomes garbage blocks, potentially blocking any other formations.

Magnetis was released on the Wii in 2009. It was later released on the PC via Steam.

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Weekly Game Music: The Gensokyo The Gods Loved (Touhou: Mountain of Faith)

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. Since I’ve already posted Cave Story before, it’s only natural that I post about another game series created by one amazing Japanese man: the Touhou project by Junya Ota. Here’s a remix of The Gensokyo The Gods Lovedfrom Touhou: Mountain of Faith. It’s yet another trance from the infamous zts.

Touhou: Mountain of Faith begins when Reimu Hakurei, the Hakurei shrine’s miko (Japanese shrine maiden), is informed by mysterious authority that the shrine must be closed. Asking why, the figure claims the shrine lacks faith from its local citizens of Gensokyo. Confused, Reimu informs her magician friend, Marisa Kirisame, addressing the terrible consequences of closing the shrine. Marisa, noting that something smells fishy, convinces Reimu to investigate on this authority.

Touhou: Mountain of Faith is a top-down shooter, much like the old arcades. Unlike those arcades, however, ships and aliens are replaced with magical girls, fairies, gods and Japanese monsters. Most important, however, is how this series defines the aptly-named sub-genre, bullet hell. The game literally tests your pattern recognition of screens and screens of lasers.

Touhou: Mountain of Faith was released on the PC in 2007.

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Weekly Game Music: mrs mushroom likes LCD soundsystem (Botanicula)

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. To celebrate Amanita Design again, here’s a playfully named music, mrs mushroom likes LCD soundsystem by DVA. It’s a nature-inspired, if a little trippy, collection of sounds and composition from the beautiful game, Botanicula.

Botanicula narrates a light-hearted adventure of 5 small friends, Mr. Lantern, Mrs. Mushroom, Mr. Poppy Head, Mr. Feather, and Mr. Twig. Mr. Lantern find himself taking on the duty of planting the last seed from the great tree that he and his friend inhabit. The seed, which gives Mr. Lantern a vision, describes how the mysterious black parasites had started infesting the tree. Quickly realizing the significance of this task, he gathers his loyal friends to help him trek down the large and complex home of theirs.

Botanicula is an unorthodox point-and-click adventure that involves directing the direction the group should go. The game has no inventory system, and most of the actions require assistance from the player rather than the in-game characters themselves. As an example, catapulting things off a twig is done through the player’s mouse instead of the character taking that action. Similar to their previous games, Botanicula is narrated entirely without text. Lastly, the game has numerous hidden secrets, which becomes a fun meta-game in-and-of-itself.

Botanicula was released on the PC, Mac, and Linux in 2012.