VGM of the Day #19: Ieyasu Tokugawa's Theme

Ever heard of Sengoku Basara? Great, me neither.

It wasn't until the third entry in the series (subtitled "Samurai Heroes" in the US) that I caught wind of its existence, taking place in feudal Japan. It's a lot like Koei's Samurai Warriors series, only hyped up to the eyeballs on crack; ridiculous moves and combos, off-the-wall characters, a convoluted storyline loosely based off of real events and a distinct style in telling it. Fun game.

The main plot seems to revolve around the famous warlords Ieyasu Tokugawa and Mitsunari Ishida. In Samurai Warriors, the direction they went in with the story made Mitsunari come off as a pretty likeable guy, with Ieyasu being kind of a jerk. That angle has taken a complete 180 in Capcom's Sengoku Basara, starring Ieyasu as the protagonist trying to unify Japan and bring with it an era of peace. Mitsunari is portrayed as an addled general hell-bent on getting revenge for the death of his ruler, Hideyoshi Toyotomi.

Ieyasu's theme embodies that burning drive to achieve his goals with flying colors, the dramatic air of the piece marking an end of an era when this finally plays in the final battle of his storyline. It's an all-or-nothing battle to determine the fate of the country, and this expresses the urgency of the situation very well. The brief guitar riff in the beginning let you know that shit's about to get real. It doesn't disappoint.

I wonder if the first two Sengoku Basara games were ever released Stateside. This game's got my interest piqued, and tracks like these keep me coming back for more.

The Verdict: Did my homework to this shit once. Got an A.

Psychotic Informer - 8/4/11

  
1. Great news today for Borderlands fans! Just announced, there is going to be a Borderlands 2! For the 360, PS3 and PC (I’m surprised no Wii U, since they said the game will be coming out in the 2012-2013 range), the game will continue right where Borderlands 1 left off. Adding new abilities and characters you will exploring the previously unexplored areas of the mysterious land of Pandora. Not a lot is known about this game yet, but in a few weeks the game will be featured at Gamescom in Germany, so stay tuned for information about Borderlands 2! I honestly know nothing about the series, but who knows? Maybe I’ll pick them both up someday! What do you think? Is Borderlands worthy of a sequel? Would you buy it? (For more information, read the full article)

2.  Since the recent Norway slaughter the Norwegians have been taking a lot of precautions, including taking video games off the store shelves. Not all video games, of course, just the ones Breivik used for his ‘training-simulations’. These games include: The Call of Duty series, World of Warcraft and other war FPSes. The officials say that the removal will only be temporary, but they might have to think twice about what games they let into the country. What do you think about this? I personally think that this is kind of wrong and people should be able to buy whatever games they want. It’s adding insult to injury, in my opinion. But I want to hear your opinions, because it’s a very interesting topic. (For more information, read the full article) 

3. Because everybody rips off of Nintendo, Sony is doing it again! Their new Playstation Vita will have the ability to double as a Playstation 3 controller. Sound similar to anything? How about the Wii U? Well, in Sony’s defense the Wii U controller is actually a controller, not doubling as a controller. But using a touchscreen to play games on a console and having the ability to stream the Vita games to the PS3 and vice-versa sounds oddly suspicious. But they couldn’t have possible copied Nintendo, because no one knew about the Wii U until a few weeks before E3. Unless they’re time travelers, but now I’m just being dumb. But what do you think? Is Sony copying Nintendo? (For more information, read the full article)

There, I did an entire post without mentioning the 3DS! ...crap.

VGM of the Day #18: Gluttony Fang

There comes along every so often, a character in a video game that's just that perfect kind of evil. Be it demented psychopaths like Kefka from FFVI (Suck it Sephiroth), or more direct evildoers like Bowser or Ganondorf, they find a way to weasel into our hearts, for better or worse. BlazBlue's got one of those guys. His name is Hazama.

Hazama, although having a generic plan to destroy all existence as we know it, has won fans over for a different reason - he's a complete dick.

Yep, he's a real silver-tongued bastard; always has the perfect thing to say to press the BlazBlue casts' buttons, and then laughing in their face about it. Quick with one-liners and even direct quotes from other popular media (WHY SO SERIOUS), it's easy to hate the guy, but easier to love. He's the closest thing to a video game troll we've seen in years, and he's captured the hearts of fans and other trolls alike with his outspoken antics.

With the introduction out of the way, we can talk about his theme song. Daisuke Ishiwatari's got his name written all over this track, going crazy with the guitar, complemented with fast-paced bass and the occasional death metal scream. My personal favorite bits are the piano bars, adding flashes of color to the piece no matter how brief they may be. I don't expect much else from Ishiwatari, but he's an expert in the craft, even if predictable. It fits Hazama quite well nonetheless; hardcore and a little crazy, but well planned out and one of the more memorable tracks in the game.

Playing every time Hazama enters the room, this track can grow on a guy pretty quickly. Hazama's much the same way himself, and if you disagree, umad.

The Verdict: Some of Ishiwatari's finer work, and one of the best songs in the game.

Don't forget to drop your VGM requests at vgmoftheday@yahoo.com , and your song might be chosen for my next blog post!

Psychotic Informer - 8/2/11

 

1. Remember last week when I said that Namco-Bandai’s new game ‘Pac-Man And Galaga Dimensions’ had save data that wasn’t erasable? Apparently they were being dumb that day, because they confirmed it there. But now it turns out you actually can! "There has been a miscommunication at our level. Thanks for understanding," said the company’s publisher. The way to remove the save data is to simply press all the face buttons and the triggers (XYBALR). Sounds simple enough. So how come everyone thought it was impossible? Because apparently everyone is out to destroy the 3DS for who knows what reason, so everyone thinks the worst possible thing. What do you think? Why did everyone think it was impossible to remove the save data? (For more information, read the full article)

2. Some sad news today. Chris Staniforth, a lovely 20-year-old chap from the good ol’ country of England died back in May. It’s been announced that he died of blood clots from playing too many video games. Apparently, he had 12 hour gaming sessions everyday and his blood started to clot. This type of blood clot usually occurs when you’re on long flights or car rides, but it happened to him because he played games for 12 hours. Usually when you play games for that long of time you get up to get food and go to the bathroom, so it shouldn’t happen. Chris, however, had suffered from former blood problems, so he clotted easily. What do you think? If the guy had former blood problems, do you think he should’ve been sitting down for 12 hours a day? (For more information, read the full article)

 

3. Some more sad news concerning Mega Man Legends 3. Their spokesman said that even with all the fan support they still have no plans to bring back MML3. This really makes me angry. The reason they closed the freakin’ project in the first place is because of lack of fan support, now they have tons and they’re not reopening it. That’s just dumb. They said they were aware of the 100,000 Strong petition I posted last week, but they didn’t even care. What is wrong with them? What do you think? Is this seriously dumb of them, to deny thousands of their fans a game they want? (For more information, read the full article)

VGM of the Day #17: Ice Scream

Ice Scream, you scream, we all- I'm not fucking making that reference, screw this.

Sega Genesis. Unlike an alarming amount of gamers in my generation, I grew up on this little number instead of the assuredly more renowned Nintendo and Super Nintendo. Sure, I've played Mario and Mega Man and all that good stuff as well, but the majority of my childhood memories reside in games like Sonic. Games like Beyond Oasis and Dynamite Headdy. Games like Comix Zone and Ristar.

Now you might be thinking "Well Dean, I haven't heard of any of those besides Sonic!", and that's okay. I'll help you out, but only a little bit.

Ristar was a cute little platformer starring a little yellow dude of the same name, grabbing objects and enemies alike with his stretchy arms and ramming into stuff with his star-shaped face. It drew a lot of comparisons to Sonic that to this day I don't understand. I guess they just mean the art style or something, I dunno. But anyways!

From Ristar comes this upbeat yet extremely chill number (get it? chill? hah) from the game's obligatory ice stage. The stage itself is no Ice Cap Zone, but the stage and its theme are not to be swept to the wayside. The bass almost reminds me of something out of Streets of Rage, and it's a pretty damn catchy tune overall. In fact, Ristar was full of memorable tunes, it's just too bad it's not as well-recognized as some other games.

The Verdict: I had this on repeat for like an hour as I wrote this. I'm not sick of it yet.

Don't forget to drop your song requests at vgmoftheday@yahoo.com, and it may be chosen to face the wrath of my critique!

Psychotic Informer - 8/1/11

 1. First up today is a way to earn money for playing games! Oh yeah, I got your attention now. Though it’s not about being a partner on a video streaming site or anything, this is a way to earn money just by playing Diablo III. Diablo III will include an auction house feature, where you can auction off rare in-game items for real money! So basically you win a dungeon or kill a rare beast and get a super rare item, which you then put up for auction for other people to buy with real money! There is a transaction fee, though, so you should make sure the item you will be putting up isn’t worth less than the transaction fee. But for people who don’t like getting money (I don’t know who that would be, but just in case) there’s also a separate auction house for selling items for game currency. What do you think about this feature? Would you do this to make money? (For more information, read the full article) 

2. Coming soon to the 3DS (yes, yes, I know, more 3DS news, sue me) and Wii U (when it comes out) is going to be paid downloadable content (DLC)! Though it was used for Mega Man 9, 10, and some Final Fantasy games, it will actually play a bigger role for 3DS and Wii U. Nintendo said that they won’t be having DLC for their games, but some third-party games for the 3DS and Wii U will include it. Basically it goes like this: Sony and Microsoft are obsessed with money so they release half-complete games for full price then make you pay even more money for the other portion of the game. Nintendo is so cool that they complete games 100% before sending them out. What do you think? Will 3DS and Wii U DLC be a cool feature or just another way to blow money? (For more information, read the full article)

VGM of the Day #16: Fight Against Mario...No, Doopliss!

EVO weekend was thrilling. The fierce competitors had all the strength of a raging fire, but they were a spineless, pale, pathetic lot. It was up to them to find their centers, for they were sure to win if they did. In the aftermath of such a great fighting game event, time is racing toward us to get down to business.

But get down to business I will not, bringing you a sort-of-silly boss battle theme from Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. This plays in Chapter 4 of the game, in which Doopliss the doppelganger steals Mario's identity, literally- like, took his body and name and everything, leaving Mario behind in nothing but a purple silhouette of himself- and Mario must fight his entire party and Doopliss to regain his former self. A pretty serious concept, but when paired with a clown like Doopliss it just comes off as comical.

There are traces of that silliness throughout the song (especially at the :40 mark), yet also has some elements that do well to remind you that it's a boss fight and an intense one at that. Both the joviality of the piece and the contrast in styles coming together suit a trickster like Doopliss, and it makes for one of the more memorable battles in the game. Well, that and you can finally jump on Goombella's face. Nobody likes a tattle tale.

Almost certainly the longest chapter in the game, the battle (actually 2 battles, but who's counting) with Doopliss is a great moment in the game with a great theme to add to the excitement. And speaking of excitement, with the hype of EVO weekend drifting off into the sunset, it's time to get back on track around here. Again. I'm really good at this.

The Verdict: A s_lendid _iece, one of my _ersonal faves in _aper Mario.

Don't forget that I now take requests at vgmoftheday@yahoo.com! Just send either an MP3 or a Youtube link to the song you'd like me to talk about, and I might do just that in an upcoming post!