MIDI Week Singles: "Marshes" - Aztec Adventure: The Golden Road to Paradise (SMD)

 

"Marshes" from Aztec Adventure: The Golden Road to Paradise on the SEGA Master System (1987/88)
Composer: Unknown*
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: SEGA of America, SEGA Enterprises, Ltd.
Developer: SEGA Enterprises, Ltd.

You know, I don't really hear anything in the first half of this song that makes me think of marshes.  The music is too peppy and upbeat for your typical romp through a seasonally low-lying and waterlogged wetland dominated by herbaceous plants and populated by horned turtles, biggs, chabuns, fukoro-togages, and watermen. Then, around 13 seconds, the song takes on a descending tone that fits in better with the marsh setting, but I don't think this would work entirely on its own for the six minutes Niño is trudging through Central Mexico (or northern South America if you're playing the original Nazca '88 released in Japan six month prior).  And even though the song doesn't loop perfectly, when that beginning melody comes in again around 0:27, the preceding 14 seconds make this opening so much better than it was the first time.

I have no nostalgia for this song or the game, and watching a longplay doesn't really make me any more interested in finding and playing a port/emulated version of it, but I just like how the second half of the song sounds and how it manages to improve the first half.  At least to me.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Maybe After All These Years

*P.S.  I was only able to find one source that listed Mikio Saito and "Strong" Shima as possible composers, but since I couldn't find any additional information that would put either Mikio Saito or "Strong" Shima as working with SEGA around 1987 I decided to leave this information blank, but at least mention it down here.

MIDI Week Singles: "Conclusion" - Wizardry VII: Gadeia no Houshu (PSX)

 

"Conclusion" from Wizardry VII: Gadeia no Houshu on the PlayStation (1995)
Composer: Takeshi Yasuda
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Sir-Tech Software

This one's a little interesting for a couple of reasons.  First, I decided on the PlayStation port of Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant, originally released on DOS in 1992 and ported to the PSX in Japan only in 1995.  From what I could find, the music for the PlayStation port was completely rewritten by Takeshi Yasuda and didn't use any of the previous music that was written by Steve Miller.  Next, is that I am 98.47% certain that Takeshi Yasuda is specifically referencing Trevor Jones' score from The Last of the Mohicans, specifically at 1:56 where it sounds a lot like the Main Theme/Prologue at 0:40.  Lastly, I'm only guessing on the title of the song being "Conclusion."  Because there's no official soundtrack, my two frequented online sources only list this song as MUSU, and is always listed as the third of four tracks from the game; to note, there are song titles for the DOS and PC/Mac versions of the game, but again, this is a new score.  Conveniently, "むす" translates to "conclusion" although I could also be missing some significant context as to what musu actually translates to, but "conclusion" works well in this context and I actually find fitting for this song*

Without knowing any additional context as to when the song is played (as I couldn't find a longplay specifically for the PlayStation port), I still feel that this would be a fitting song for the conclusion of a sci-fi fantasy adventure.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

But It's Not Gonna Change for Anybody

*P.S.  To note, none of the other file names, ANPA, DARK, TLAN are translatable in the same way, so it's likely  just a coincidence. DARK could just be music that plays during the dungeon crawling sections of the game (ie , when it's dark), and TLAN could be somehow related to the mission to defeat the T'Rang and just be mistranslated. I don't have any ideas about ANPA though.  Just theories of course. 

MIDI Week Singles: "Raptor Rap" - Jurassic Park (SNES)

 

"Raptor Rap" from Jurassic Park on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1993)
Composer: Jonathan Dunn
Album: Jurassic Park Vol. 1-2 LP Vinyl Soundtrack
Label: Limited Run Games
Publisher: Ocean Software, Ltd.
Developer: Ocean of America, Inc.

I have a very fond and visceral memory of the Jurassic Park release on the SNES.  The game was released in November 2013, and I received a copy of it about a month later during our family's Early Christmas (usually around the second week of December when my Dad's side of the family could get together in NorCal along with other close family friends, including Dr. Potts' family. 

So that evening, after all of the presents had been opened, I plunked myself down in front of our TV and began playing Jurassic Park.  Running around Isla Nublar as Alan Grant with an arsenal of weapons shooting dinosaurs left and right seemed rather bonkers, considering the source material, but the gameplay was still a lot of fun and the music, while nothing like John Williams' score, was a great accompaniment to what Ocean wanted this game to be.  "Raptor Rap" will always make me feel like I'm 13 years old again, scouring a bizarre island maze that doesn't make a lick of sense and coming across a massive industrial stone bunker in the middle of a jungle.  "Raptor Rap" isn't necessarily rap, but it is an alliteration, which is how most of the tracks by Jonathan Dunn are titled. I can respect that, and I can also appreciate the over-the-top dramaticness when the music goes full-on drama at 0:57 and with those James Bond-esque slapping MIDI orchestra hits.

I just love it.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Обернись назад, в отражении 

MIDI Week Singles: "Circuit Theme A" - Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing (NES)

 

"Circuit Theme A" from Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1990)
Composer: Masaaki Iwasaki, Shogo Sakai, Yuji Suzuki
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Data East
Developer: Data East

Believe it or not, I have fond memories of playing this game twice.  The first was while standing at our local G&G (don't bother looking them up, they haven't existed for decades, but just imagine an EB Games or a Game Stop) playing this at one of their TV/play stands.  I don't know how many 10-year-olds are going to be excited about an F-1 racing game, but this one sure was because I actually knew who Al Unser Jr. was from watching the Indy 500 almost nearly every year with my Dad.  So there was a game with a real life person I recognized on the cover and I played it, convinced that I was doing a damn good job.  Then, some time later, I had my parents rent the game from one of the stores in town (it might've been Placer TV/Video; don't bother looking them up, they haven't existed for a decade).  That was the last time I played Turbo Racing, but I apparently enjoyed it enough for this track to be somewhat reminiscent and to have embedded itself in my memory banks as something to keep a hold of.

So, there you go.  Some good music with a trip down memory lane.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Come Sit Here On My Knee

MIDI Week Singles: "BGM #9" - The Amazing Virtual Sea-Monkeys (PSX)

 

"BGM #9" from The Amazing Virtual Sea-Monkeys on the PlayStation (2002)
Composer: Stephan Reuleaux
Album: No Official Release
Publishers: Red Cap Software GmbH, Kotobuki System Co., Ltd., Swing! Entertainment Media AG
Developer: Creature Labs Ltd.

I tried to find additional information about "BGM #9" from the 2002 PlayStation release of The Amazing Virtual Sea-Monkeys, but all I was able to find was that this song seems to have been used on Levels 7, 16, 25, and every nine levels all the way up to Level 70.  From what I could tell from what I watched of a longplay, this was just the ninth track of the game and was used for the 7th level and every nine levels thereafter.  All of the songs in the game fit well with the side perspective solving action that was all the rage of the early 90s (e.g. Lemmings, The Humans, The Adventures of Lomax, etc).  It just fits well within the context of the game as well as out of it.  Which is why we're all here today.

What can I say other than I'm a sucker for a song in a minor key that resolves from descending notes down to the tonic.  I will also add, major kudos to Stephan Reuleaux for throwing the rarely-used key change around 1:24 along with the change up in the drum machine.  Great work there.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Countless Decomposing

MIDI Week Singles: "Deinne innere Welt" - Dark Trip (MQ2)

  [Disclaimer:  I received a review key for Dark Trip through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.] 

"Deinne innere Welt" from Dark Trip on the Meta Quest 2
Composer: iTales VR & Suno
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: iTales VR
Developer: iTales VR

I was legitimately questioning whether or not I should use this track for a MIDI Week Singles article.  First and foremost, the song is entirely AI-generated from the site Suno.com.  From what I can tell from the site, you put in a description prompt of the song you want created, just like any other AI platform, but here you specifically reference existing musical artists and genres.

For "Deinne innere Welt" the words were created by iTales VR with a nudge in the genre and style direction, but the music and the vocals were all created by Suno.  I didn't know this at the time I first heard the song in Room #4 and it actually reminded me a lot of the steampunk group, The Clockwork Quartet who only released three songs 12 years ago, although with a slightly kinkier edge and full of innuendo.  The quality of the music and the vocals sounded intentional in that slightly garbled way you would expect an old record to sound on a phonograph from 80+ years ago.  So I found that I was really enjoying the song in the game and hoped for a longer version after leaving the VR world.  And that was when I discovered the origin of the song.

On its own, outside of the game, it is more obvious that the vocals are not sung by a living person and they come across as somewhat stilted, even with the crescendo and greater inflection towards the end of the song.  But you know, I still like the song.  Maybe a live band will stumble upon this article and/or the song on Suno and decide that it needs to be covered.  That'd be cool.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Instrumental

MIDI Week Singles: "BGM #18" - Cardcaptor Sakura: Tomoeda Shougakkou Daiundoukai (GBC)

 

"BGM #18" from Cardcaptor Sakura: Tomoeda Shougakkou Daiundoukai on the Game Boy Color (2000)
Composer/Sound Team: Kiyohiro Sada
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: MTO
Developer: MTO(?)

No, I've never played Cardcaptor Sakura: Tomoeda Shougakkou Daiundoukai or any game in the Cardcaptor Sakura series, but something drew me to the penultimate track from this game.  I watched/sped-through a walkthrough of this game and didn't hear this tune anywhere, but the video did seem to skip the credits if there were credits and that was one of two thoughts as to where this track would go.  Considering the rest of the game is about challenging your classmates to various athletic activities during a sanctioned sports day at school, this track feels either a little out of place or perfectly in place as a victory march full of pomp and circumstance.

This could just be me, but I hear a lot of similarities between this and some of the music in Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II, specifically "Ending Theme - FFI" and "Finale - FFII."  So, you know, music that closes out a video game.  I wasn't able to find a lot of information about this game, let alone the specific composer, but I did find that Kiyohiro Sada worked on the sound team in the role of "Sound Driver."  Maybe he just worked on some aspect of the music in the game without being the actual composer, but we're going to list him as at least working on the Sound Team until I can find something more conclusive.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

No Escape From Reality

MIDI Week Singles: "Distant Journey" - Dragon Warrior I & II (GBC)

 

"Distant Journey" from Dragon Warrior I & II on the Game Boy Color (1999)
Composer: Koichi Sugiyama
Album: Dragon Quest Game Music Collection Vol. 3
Label: Sugi Label
Publisher: Enix Corporation
Developer: Tose Co., Ltd.

I'm not currently playing Dragon Quest II  or any game in the Dragon Quest franchise, this song just came up because I used The Squire as an RNG and this is where we landed.

"Distant Journey" is the song that plays when the Prince of Middenhall, a descendent of Erdrick leaves on his journey to stop Hargon from summoning the demon Malroth and destroying the world.  Pretty standard fantasy fare, but the music is what makes this moment so much better.  The first two notes are a direct callback to "Unknown World" from the first Dragon Quest, this being a rearrangement of an arrangement of the original 1987 song.  But I do love the music from this series and I do have a hard time reconciling the beauty of this music while also knowing that the composer was a horrible person.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Instrumental

MIDI Week Singles: "Grazelands Dawn (feat. Jeremy Soule)" - The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind (PC/VSD)

"Grazelands Dawn (feat. Jeremy Soule)" from The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind on Windows, MacOS, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/S/X, Linux (2017)
Composer: Brad Derrick, Jeremy Soule
Album: The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind (Original Game Soundtrack)
Label: Bethesda Softworks
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: ZeniMax Online Studios

Playing The Elder Scrolls Online DLC/expansion Morrowind has me frequently visiting Vivec City, primarily because it's the only city that I've found in the south (thereby starting area) that has both crafting tables, shops and banks all in a fairly confined space, all within short distance of a wayshrine.  That means any time I log in (so, daily), I'll usually spend 10-15 minutes in the often crowded area to fulfill equipment writs and deposit more consumables into the bank so my inventory isn't overflowing with ingredients, 50+ potions, and scrolls.

So with all of that in mind, I hear "Grazelands Dawn" a lot, which is wonderful because it's a gorgeous peace on its own, but one that also integrates "The Road Most Traveled"* from the original Morrowind soundtrack.  Yes, both the title of this song, and its integrated homage suits roaming the wilds of Vvardenfell more than it does running between crafting stations and the bank, but I don't really care.  Having that little motif crop up at 0:43 and 4:1 while blended seamlessly with the rest of Brad Derrick's composition here brings a little skip to my cockles.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

But Take Heart My Friend, You're Not Alone

MIDI Week Singles: "Mount Crystal" - Conquest of the Crystal Palace (NES)

 

"Mount Crystal" from Conquest of the Crystal Palace on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1990)
Composer: Tomohisa Mitsuyasu
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Asmik Corporation of America, Quest
Developer: Quest

There's just something about that driving drum beat that starts out the song that gets you pumped about getting ready to climb a mountain filled with aggressive golems, birds, slug-crab-things, piranha plants, and skeletons.  That's really all I know about "Mount Crystal" from Conquest of the Crystal Palace although I do recognize the cover from when I would visit Placer TV/Video in the NES era. 

I'm not even going to try to analyze the melody because I'll get most of it wrong.  So I'll just say that I really enjoy this song, be it for climbing a mountain early in your quest, or just as background while you plod away in QuickBooks hoping that your meeting that's supposed to happen in 20 minutes is canceled because you've already had one meeting today.  And then the song loops back to the beginning and you now have the sudden urge to drive out to the forest and climb a mountain; even if there aren't any crystals involved.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
You Drink Too Much Coffee, I Drink Too Much Stout

MIDI Week Singles: "Four Brave Champions" - Castle Crashers (PC)

 

"Four Brave Champions" from Castle Crashers on Xbox 360/One, PlayStation 3/4, Windows, OSX, Nintendo Switch (2008 - 2019)
Composer: David Orr
Album: No Official Release*
Publisher: The Behemoth
Developer: The Behemoth

Over the last several months, The Squire has wanted to play Castle Crashers in the morning before we leave to take him to preschool.  When I first booted up the game for him, I had forgotten how damn good the opening titles music was, but since I'm not usually able to listen to more than the first 10-15 seconds of the song before The Squire button mashes his way to the character select screen and to the map screen, I thought I'd find the music and put it up as a MIDI Week Single.

What's interesting about this song is that when it plays during the opening menus, there's only about the first minute and twenty seconds of the song before it repeats, which makes sense because you normally wouldn't have a grand four-minute epic while you cycle through menus.  I say "normally" because that is something that I would do and have done for various games when the title music goes particularly hard, and "Four Brave Champions" is no exception.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Instrumental

*While there appears to have been an unofficial soundtrack available through Newgrounds at one time, that page no longer exists, but there is a playlist of sorts with all of the music from Newgrounds musicians that I linked to up there at the top of the page.

MIDI Week Singles: "Lost Memories" - Fallout 4: Far Harbor

 

"Lost Memories" from Fallout 4: Far Harbor on Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One (2015-2016)

Composer: Inon Zur

Album: Fallout 4: Music from Far Harbor and Nuka World Original Game Soundtrack

Label: Bethesda Softworks

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios

Something that's interesting while researching this song, is that apart from the official soundtrack, the rest of the Internet has this song labeled as "Our Island."  I don't know if that's the name of the audio file or if someone came up with the title before the official soundtrack came out, but that's what crops up for everyone's video on YouTube except the Inon Zur YouTube page.  I get it though.  This is one of the main themes that plays while you're running around Far Harbor, or at least if you're not fast traveling at every chance you get because it's not like you're going to find something new every time you head out to either a new quest marker or a destination on your map that someone else marked, or just a blank part of the map that is likely to have something there because why would a map this large have anything blank on it?

I really love the cello (I think it's a cello, I can't really tell) that wails at the beginning of the song, and only after the one-minute mark, does it actually pick up any semblance of a melody.  Which is then picked up by that haunting flute-like instrument around 1:40 until it dies a quiet death shortly thereafter.

My guess is that the title could be a reference to the DiMA questline as you recover his memories from The Nucleus and then proceed to different areas of the island where those lost memories lead you to either side with the various factions that inhabit the island.  It's a very suiting theme that I enjoy listening to as I once again find myself over-encumbered trying to make my way up a hillside while avoiding another giant hermit crab or army of glowing gulpers.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

By the Stories that You Would Tell

MIDI Week Singles: "Freezeezy Peak (Christmas Bells) - Banjo-Kazooie (N64)

 

"Freezeezy Peak (Christmas Bells) from Banjo-Kazooie on the Nintendo 64 (1998)
Composer: Grant Kirkhope
Album: No Official Soundtrack Release
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Rare

Ok, yes.  There have been official soundtracks for Banjo Kazooie, but when I went looking for this specific variation on the original "Freezeezy Peak" I was unable to find it on any of the albums.  A lot of the music is the same, except that here some chimes/bells sound almost like they're playing a 1-3-5-3 chord progression, but I could be off and am just now embarrassing myself.  I had originally planned on playing through Banjo-Kazooie so I could at least say that I played up to Freezeezy Peak, but then life, time, and several other games got in the way and I still hadn't played from beyond the first level after the first playing the game back when the first game was released in '98.

Melody-wise, I can't really pinpoint anything that tells the player to enjoy this wintry wonderland of golden stars, music notes, and puzzle pieces. Still, almost everything else, like the jingle bells and chimes, is classic for what this song sets out to accomplish.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Can You See Me Fly?

MIDI Week Singles: "In A Snow-Bound Land (Clapper's Cavern)" - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES)

 

"In A Snow-Bound Land (Clapper's Cavern)" from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1995)

Composer: David Wise

Album: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest The Original Donkey Kong Country 2 Soundtrack

Label: Nintendo of America

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Rare

It's not often you get a snowy level in an ice-filled cave that takes predominantly underwater, but that's where Diddy and Dixie find themselves for the majority of their time in the first of two stages in DKC2, Arctic Abyss.  You can almost hear the feeling of "Aquatic Ambiance."  And then there's Clapper's Cavern, where you again find yourself in another ice cave, but this time you have to jump onto the seal Clapper's back so he'll turn the underground lake frozen to help you avoid the jaws of the ever-hunting Snapjaw.  The serenity of the music is a stark contrast to the anxiety of sliding across the ice hoping to make it to some semblance of land in order to jump on the next Clapper before the ice melts and you end up dead to Snapjaw's jaws.

There are still plenty of musical elements here to maintain that cold vibe, especially the glass-chime-like instrument and the whistle-like melody, which also contains an echo-y aspect consistent with the cave stage.  I know it's not particularly wintry, but I do love the electronic drum machine snare-hit-clap sound that plays throughout most of the song, and that just adds to the whole ambiance of the song.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
And Deep Inside He's Sad

MIDI Week Singles: "Winter" - Kelly Club: Clubhouse Fun (GBC)

 

"Winter" from Kelly Club: Clubhouse Fun on the Game Boy Color (2001)
Composer: Manfred Linzner
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing
Developer: Vicarious Visions Inc.

You know, for the life of me I can't find where this song plays in the game, and I watched two longplays to see if the music that plays during Snowball Run changes at all throughout the game, but it doesn't.  And from all of the soundtracks for Kelly Club: Clubhouse Fun and Shelly Club: Clubhouse Fun (the European title of the game), I couldn't find the music used in Snowball Run.  So I don't rightly know what is going on with either the soundtrack or the video game.  

My assumption is that Manfred Linzner wrote this particular track for the game and it was included in the game's audio files but it was never used.  But if this song wasn't used for Snowball Run, being the only winter-related activity in the game, then I don't know where the music for that mini-game came from.  I  didn't recognize it in any of the other songs from all of the collections of music from this game either; or supposedly from this game.

But as for the music, when I first heard it, I wouldn't've placed it in a wintry scene, at least for the first 15 seconds.  Then for some reason that I can't explain, from 0:16 through when the song repeats at 0:25, I could imagine some kind of kids playing in the snow.  Something to do with throwing snowballs, running among a forest of snowmen, and sledding down a hill, standard winter activities when you're seven years old.  That simple eight seconds is where this song clicked for me, even though it doesn't really have any of the hallmarks of classic wintry effects for video game music.  And for that simple reason is why I'm sharing it with y'all today.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

The Decision Was Mine, But They'll Never Know

MIDI Week Singles: "Snow" - Mario Kart 64 (N64)

 

"Snow" from Mario Kart 64 on the Nintendo 64 (1996)

Composer: Kenta Nagata

Album: Mario Kart 64 Original Soundtrack

Label: Nintendo 64 Sound Series/ Pony Canyon

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo EAD

"Snow" is the music that plays in the two wintry stages, Frappe Snowland and Sherbet Land. If I had to choose a favorite, it'd probably be Frappe Snowland simply because there aren't the annoying penguins skirting around and there are fewer caves to deal with.

As for how this theme, in particular, is offering wintry vibes, for me it's not so much the melody as it is the jingly bells/tamborine that start off the song.  The higher pitch of the melody though is pretty typical for themes that involve ice and/or snow, but apart from that, there really isn't much else about this song that screams, "Watch out how you skid on the ice so you don't fall into the frozen lake all the while avoiding those damnable penguins!"  Although, likely because I put so many hours into Mario Kart 64 back in the late 90s playing time trials over and over, that this song automatically sounds like it belongs in the middle of a snowy setting with bopping snowmen that are thankfully more forgiving than those in Slalom.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Instrumental

MIDI Week Singles: "Leela" - Classic Marathon (PC)

 

"Leela" from Classic Marathon on Classic Mac OS, Macintosh, Pippin, iOS, Windows, Linux (1994-2024)

Composer: Alexander Seropian

Album: Game CD, No Official Release

Publisher: Bungie, Aleph One Developer

Developer: Bungie, Aleph One Developer

I had thought about using the first song you hear in the first stage, Arrival: Arrival, being "Landing" but I might actually hold onto that one for an October MIDI Week Single next year.  So coincidentally, we move on to "Leela" which is the song that plays during the second stage, Arrival: Bigger Guns Nearby.  That's not to say that "Leela" doesn't have a little bit of creepiness to the song, but it's a bit more upbeat than "Landing."  By the second stage, you have an idea of what you're in for, with a ship full of aggressive aliens going around corrupting ship systems while you unravel the story of what happened from onboard AI, one of whose name is Leela.

I'm not really sure what's going on at 1:10 through the end of the song with the clicking sounds.  I haven't progressed far enough to know if that's a sound I'm supposed to recognize or be afraid of.  It is a little unnerving, which is kind of what it's like wandering around the halls of the UESC Marathon when you have no more than 10 feet of visibility and you hear multiple noises all around you.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Instrumental

P.S.  I do miss the days when the game CD doubled as a copy of the soundtrack.

MIDI Week Singles: "Track 29" - Metal Wolf REV (PS2)

 

"Track 29" from Metal Wolf REV on the PlayStation 2 (2004-2006)

Composer: Unknown

Album: No Official Release

Publisher: PrincessSoft

Developer: PrincessSoft

I'm not usually fond of releasing a MIDI Week Single article without what I feel is the basic information like the composer's name or at least someone in the sound department.  Apparently, Metal Wolf REV is a bit of a strange one in that there are multiple Metal Wolf titles across multiple systems, most of which seem to have only been released in Japan in the early 2000s.  There was a Metal Wolf released on the Dreamcast in 2004 that was an action game of some sort by PrincessSoft (although the few screenshots and videos I've found also title this Metal Wolf REV).  The same year saw the release of Metal Wolf Chaos by FromSoftware on the original Xbox (although it's also available on Steam) which was a third-person mech shooter with the President of the United States fighting off a coup attempt by his VP.  Then in 2006, there's Metal Wolf REV which came out on the PlayStation 2 which was a visual novel from PrincessSoft.

All of that to say, I'm not sure who wrote the music to Metal Wolf REV which was released on the PlayStation 2 in 2006.  I'm not even sure what the track is titled or the context in which the song is played in the game.  I'm not even 100% sure if this is in fact Track 29 because I've found different songs playing for "Track 24" on three different sites, which is a little frustrating because the psxdatacenter says that the limited edition PS2 Metal Wolf REV has a soundtrack (different from the two song CD here) and that there's an in-game music player with all of the track names.  Frustrating.

BUT!  All of that aside, whatever track this is, if it is indeed Track 29, is a hell of a banger.  Since the PS2 Metal Wolf REV says it's a visual novel, I could only imagine this to be played either during a final cutscene or during the first part of the credits before Track 30 comes in since that's actually a song with lyrics.  There's just a little bit too much energy in this song, which is all well and good for the song itself, for it to be played during a dialogue-heavy scene, but I could very much be wrong.  So I'll just enjoy this song, whatever its official name is, even if it isn't "Track 29."

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

The Beauty of Death it Represents

MIDI Week Singles: "Northpoint Nocturne" - The Elder Scrolls Online (PC)

 

"Northpoint Nocturne" from The Elder Scrolls Online on Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, XBox S/X, Linux
Composer: Brad Derrick
Album: The Elder Scrolls Online Original Game Soundtrack
Label: Bethesda Softworks
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: ZeniMax Online Studios

In the last month or so, I'd gotten back into The Elder Scrolls Online after finding out that it was working well enough on the Steam Deck to warrant a purchase when it was on sale.  During that time, I was playing in Vvardenfell, part of the Morrowind DLC, but then I accidentally started a quest that turned into what was originally the starting quest in Cold Harbor.  Following the journey through Cold Harbor, I found my character deposited in Bleakrock Isle since I had chosen to be part of the Ebonheart Pact, a location I had not revisited since I first explored this area nigh on 10 years ago when I created my first character.  

"Northpoint Nocturn" is one of the songs that plays in Bleakrock Isle. Being in that location, among snow-covered hills, with this music playing brought back heaps of nostalgia and good feelings all around as snow fell outside of the Bleakrock Trading Hall.  There was just something about this serene music with the mountains, the snow, and the forested hills and it being cold outside here in the real world makes me yearn for just over a month from now when I'll be in the snow-covered high desert of central Oregon and with any luck, sitting on a comfy couch drinking something hot and playing ESO while occasionally looking out at a snowy expanse of fir and juniper.

Just pure bliss.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Instrumental

MIDI Week Singles: "Unhidable Anxiety" - Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA)

 

"Unhidable Anxiety" from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the Game Boy Advance (2003)
Composer: Hitoshi Sakimoto
Album: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Original Soundtrack
Label: Square Enix
Publisher: Square
Developer: Square Product Development Division 4

I'll be honest with you, I don't know exactly where this song happens in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.  It's 9:42 PM on Tuesday November 5th and if you look in your history books at today's date, or if you're reading this between Wednesday, November 6th, 2024 and Wednesday, November 7, 2028, then you'll probably already know the meaning behind picking this song for today.  

The song is a lot more upbeat than you might expect considering the name of the track, so I might guess without looking it up just yet, that it might occur as you're picking which party members to send out into battle while taking into account the laws that will go into effect.  Although one comment on YouTube says that this is the song that plays after "any big story revelation" so I guess it is still relevant in more ways than one.  I don't know.  I feel kinda nauseous and not in the best of ways.

I do like this song though.  I'm just using our site and y'alls' attention as a coping mechanism and sounding board.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

To the Bowels of the Vast Decrepit Earth