Wednesday, October 4, 2023

"The Moon Tower" - Vampire Hunter D (PSX)

 


"The Moon Tower" from Vampire Hunter D on the PlayStation 1 (2000)
Composer: Kazuya Tominaga & Yoshiaki Iwasawa
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Jaleco
Developer: Victor Interactive Software

I watched a bit of a playthrough of Vampire Hunter D, and I only found a couple of instances for this song with the first being during a cutscene between D and Leia, and the second in the titular Moon Tower.  The song itself, great, I love it.  I love a good solemn harpsichord piece that plays like a harpsichord (as in music that sounds like it was purposefully written for a harpsichord and not just generic music played on a harpsichord) but whatever limitations Victor Interactive Software was dealing with in the development of this video game really harmed the overall effect of the music.

Vampire Hunter D is a survival horror video game loosely based on the third book in the Vampire Hunter D series and shares a lot of art and assets from the 2000 film Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.  The game plays in a similar fashion to the Resident Evil series with D exploring a large castle/mansion/tower killing various enemies, picking up items to solve puzzles, and scattered keys to open locked doors.  I bring this up because if you're familiar with the RE series and you think about how often you pass through doors, which is about as common in Vampire Hunter D, then imagine the music stopping every time you open a door, and starting over from the beginning after the door animation (although not together uncommon as RE itself does this and often switches to a new song based on which room you are entering into).  If you know what you are doing in the Moon Tower, you are likely to hear maybe 10-15 seconds of the song at a time before you find another door to pass through and the song starts over.

That being said, the song itself is relatively short, only 40 seconds long before it repeats, so at least there is a chance to hear the entire song before you pass through another door.


~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Give Me Your Nasty Hands

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