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Game Music

Drunken Mayhem with Otoya #2 on NicoNico Live

April 27, 2010 | Chris Ling | 5 Comments Share this

It was only a matter of time before Hideki Sakamoto and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi teamed up to wreck havoc across the Internet landscape again. On the heels of the success of the first Otoya event on NicoNico Live as reported previously, the duo were back with even more guests for the second Otoya event, Otoya Dai-ikkai ~Kimi no Tame Nara Namaiki da.~ (Music House Second Round ~I would be sassy for you.~) As was the first live event, the title of the event is a play on the Sega DS title, Kimi no Tame Nara Shineru or Feel the Magic: XY/XX as it was known in the West.

Along with Sakamoto and Mitsuyoshi, Nobuyoshi “Sanodg” Sano, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Michiko Naruke return as commentators. A new addition to the lineup is composer Yoko Shimomura*, famous for her work on titles such as Street Fighter II, Legend of Mana, and Kingdom Hearts. A host of new guests in the industry also come on throughout the live event to talk about anything and everything about game music.

Though the event has come and gone, all is not lost for viewers outside of Japan who might not have been able to get up in the wee hours of the morning to catch the event. Recently, the first round of Otoya has been made available in its entirety on NicoNico Douga (Registration required). Chances are the second round will be available soon after. Until that happens though, you can hit the jump to get the run down on some of the topics and off-topic antics that happened this time around. (more…)
Featured, Game Music

Game Composer Nico Nico Douga Event: Event Summary and Photo Gallery

March 4, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 2 Comments Share this

Noisycroak’s Hideki Sakamoto is at it again. Chris Ling informed us of a special event in Japan a few weeks ago hosted by Sakamoto, who you may recall from our 100 Million Ton No Bara Bara coverage and his previous Noisycroak panel in Japan. This time, however, the event featured a different group of composers, included live performances, and biggest of all, it was broadcasted live on Japan’s Internet video service, Nico Nico Douga. Composers Hideki Sakamoto, Takenobuo Mitsuyoshi, Michiko Naruke, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Nobuyoshi Sano were available for questions, while others joined them for the evening’s various performances.

We’ve been fortunate enough to receive a small summary along with an enormous number of photos of the event from participants Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and Hideki Sakamoto himself, and we’re very thankful to them for providing us with this opportunity.

Hit the jump for our summary and for a photo gallery from the event. (more…)
Game Music

Hideki Sakamoto And Takenobu Mitsuyoshi Host On Niconico Live

February 12, 2010 | Chris Ling | 2 Comments Share this

Though most readers may know NicoNico Douga as the Japanese equivalent of YouTube, not everyone may know about the many streaming live events on the site. Of interest, Otoya Dai-ikkai ~Ai ga 100man Ton Tarinaize!~ (Music House First Round ~Love is 1 Million Tons Short!~) is an upcoming live event that focuses on the impact of videogame music.

The event boasts some top tier talent with Hideki Sakamoto (Noisycroak) and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (SEGA) as the hosts, Nobuyoshi “Sanodg” Sano (AQ Interactive) and Yasunori Mitsuda (Procyon Studio) as the commentators, and Michiko Naruke (Composer for the Wild ARMs series) as a guest. In addition to a talk, the site also mentions a live performance of some sort to come afterward.

Similar to the Noisycroak round-table, users can submit questions via the entrance page. If selected, the questions will be used to structure the theme of the event. The event is scheduled to start on Feb. 13 at 7:30 PM JST. Users may begin queuing up for the available slots at 7:20 PM JST. Also, as there is no cut off listed for sending questions to the composers, it is not too late to submit any burning questions you may have.

What questions would you ask the composers involved in this event?

[via NicoNico Douga]
Game Music

“100 Million Ton no Bara Bara” Sound Interview with Hideki Sakamoto

December 22, 2009 | Carl Larson | 2 Comments Share this

Want to spice up your list of New Years’ Resolutions with activities like rock climbing, torch welding, and ripping apart huge flying airships? Come February, you’ll be able to do all that on your PSP, thanks to SCEJ & Acquire’s latest collaboration. Your team needs to climb aboard an invading airship and start cutting away at that metal monstrosity, piece by piece, to send it crashing to the ground.

So what would this sky high adventure sound like? We watched the trailer video and then asked Hideki Sakamoto what that catchy song is all about. His company Noisycroak was hired to work on the game’s audio, and being the CEO has it’s benefits, like getting to pick which projects to work on himself!

Read our interview to find out how Hideki envisions the sound of 100 Million Tons. (more…)
Game Music

Noisycroak’s First Game Composer Roundtable Discussion -Complete English Transcript-

August 15, 2009 | Jayson Napolitano | 8 Comments Share this

While many of you may have missed the news, the guys over at Noisycroak in Japan (who you may recall from our coverage of Castlevania Judgment) recently hosted a composer roundtable to answer fan-submitted questions and discuss a wide range of topics involving the game music industry in Japan. Composer and studio head Hideki Sakamoto hosted the unprecedented event, which our own Chris Ling attended along with a number of Famitsu staff, and the results were pretty amazing.

What we have here is Chris’s English translation of the massive transcript that Noisycroak posted in to their website (in Japanese) a few weeks ago. Yes, a complete English transcript of all 17,000+ words! I’m definitely grateful to Chris for doing this for us, as well as to Sakamoto-san at Noisycroak for putting this together, Mitsuyoshi-san for coordinating Chris’s attendance, and to all the participants for taking part in this event and for letting us post the English-language transcript here for your reading pleasure.

While it’s quite long, there’s a lot of great stuff here. Nobuyoshi Sano is particularly hilarious, and it’s funny reading how Sakamoto-san was constantly trying to keep everyone on track (with mixed results). I found some of the discussion towards the end about game music concerts and “young” heroes to be interesting, but let us know what you think!

Read the entire transcript of the event after the jump. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Repel the Heroes!! Protect the Demon Lord!! Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida 1&2 Giant Recital (Review)

December 30, 2008 | Carl Larson | 2 Comments Share this

[Editor’s Note: Many of you out there know Carl Larson as one of the oldest VGM community members who’s active in numerous forums and has a massive CD collection that is flat out silly. With so much music under his belt, I trust his opinion, and am pleased to have him as an occasional contributor on OSV. Check out his review of this Japanese-only release below.]

This PSP game series by Acquire has already built up a reputation for being a cult classic, although it hasn’t debuted outside of Japan yet. Instead of being the heroes, your job is to beef up the monsters’ defenses and protect the demon lord’s cave from the heroes who venture inside to explore it.

I was busy scoping out the new releases on Amazon.co.jpwhen I came across this long-titled album and figured I’d take a chance on it. Any OST with pixelated cover art already has promising chances of being awesome, and I’m happy to report that the blind purchase paid off BIG TIME!

Find out why after the jump. (more…)