The feudal-Japan Dark Souls-like action game Nioh releases today for the Playstation 4, and you can also now order the game’s full soundtrack through import retailers.
Composed by Yugo Kanno (Rain, anime JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable), the game’s 15th century aesthetics as accented by Kanno in a blend of eastern and western traditional-style music to bring out the character of the game. Developed by Team Ninja, a demo of the game was release last year to mixed review though features stunning visuals and audio.
“Nue” – Nioh Original Soundtrack (Yugo Kanno)
The 45-track Nioh original soundtrack is currently available for pre-order through import retails such as Play Asia and CD Baby for around $29.99 USD and is marked as releasing for shipping between February 15-16th.
Although 2016 will be remembered as a year that the world lost so much, for me one positive thing that I can say about this year was that it was an incredible year for video game music. I did not play a lot of games in 2016, but I did listen to a lot of video game music, and arranged albums.
What I sincerely enjoy about Original Sound Version’s Ost of the year is that all the authors for this site have different choices. I am a huge film score fan, and love sweeping symphonic scores which led to my choice for Ost of the year. I also highlight some arranged and inspirational albums too.
This year was not a very good one for me in terms of a whole lot of gaming. I couldn’t tell you if it was the drudgery of the year in general or what, but the cloud of 2016 hung over me a fair amount and as such I didn’t get too much under my belt in terms of playing anything. Fortunately I did get some exposure to awesome video game music overall; enough so to cast my votes on what I think stood out this year in terms of original game soundtracks and VGM arrangement albums.
It’s short and sweet, but I think they’re worthy of their titles.
Gather ‘round, video game music nerds—I’m not going to let you sleep on what I’m calling right now as my favorite video game score of the year: the Owlboy OST.
After a lengthy development process, D-Pad Studios released Owlboy earlier this month to wildly positive reviews. I sat down to play the game the literal minute I got home from work, and was instantly enraptured—not because the gameplay blew me away, but because of the sheer beauty of the score.
Who doesn’t appreciate a good viking story? How about one that’s a little less on the fantastic side and a bit more realistic? Well, that’s what you get with Burly Men at Sea.
Burly Men at Sea, developed by husband-and-wife team Brain&Brain, is described as “A folktale about a trio of large, bearded fishermen who step away from the ordinary to seek adventure.”
The indie adventure game isn’t your typical viking romp, however. It’s a tale you craft from the story choices presented to you, or rather the Beard Brothers, based on something as simple as a chart stuffed in a bottle you happen across that starts the whole thing in motion. The game surrounds itself with stylist art and a subtle soundtrack that appeals to the wayfarer in all of us.
The music, done by Chicago studio Plied Sound, is simplistic yet appropriate for the equally simple and charming construction of the game. Plied, whose work includes commercials and sound design for companies like Apple and Google, make their first foray into game music composition and uses their previous experience with stylistic sound design to bring the story of the Bearded Bros to life.
“Adventurous Deeds” – Burly Men at Sea (Plied Sound)
Brian&Brian along with Plied Sound went the way of making it so all of the sound effects in the game is comprised of vocalizations. While sound effects are emphasized over the background music, the soundtrack is no less captivating in its creativity. Acoustic guitar and individual flute work highlight a good amount of the music featured in the game, with other more native-sounding instrumentation being featured to bring about a sense of an adventure on the not-so-high seas. While a good portion of the music features a unique classical take on northern European music, some of the more creative sounds featured in the game’s music invoked the slightest bit of a Scandinavian twist on some of the sound from Katamari Damacy with a bit of a Disney cartoon flavor thrown in for good measure. This is a compliment to Plied Sound, as in a world of indie music, it’s never a bad thing to be a bit different.
“Maelstrom!” – Burly Men at Sea (Plied Sound)
The vocalizations woven within the game’s sound to help emphasize the music truly help to bring a folklorish-tint to the overall sound of the soundtrack as a whole. It captivates the player as they venture through the storybook settings and basic gameplay without getting too heavy or clashing with the feel of the game.
Burly Men at Sea is currently available on Steam and the Humble Store, as well as for mobile platforms, with the Maestro Beard Edition netting you the game’s soundtrack alongside the game. You can also pick up the soundtrack separate on Bandcamp.
I personally love it when games of long-past systems make news decades after their time. In this case, the soundtrack to the Game Boy Color RPG, Infinity, has now received a proper soundtrack release thanks to the efforts of the Materia Collective and composer Eric Hache with sound engineer Mathew Valente.
The game itself was only recently released after years of being in development hell, as developer Affinix continued to struggle to release the game despite the GBC being long past its prime and the company going defunct. Last month, the ROM for the game was released to the public, and now sees its soundtrack available for the first time through Bandcamp, iTunes and soon to be released on Spotify.
“We would like to thank our team at Affinix Software foremost for their efforts in developing this special game. We would also like to thank our families, friends, and Materia Collective for making this release possible! We are excited to bring this soundtrack to RPG fans everywhere and hope you all enjoy it!” – Eric Hache & Mathew Valente
Infinity is currently open source and 90% done, with Affinix stating it has plans to finish the game but encourages fans to build upon the game themselves. You can learn more about the soundtrack itself on the Materia Collective website.
Iam8bit is taking the vinyl arms race to a whole new level for the release of Rez Infinite — the HD remake of the original Rez for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR — this October. Along with releasing a physical copy of the game on disc (and plenty of swag), iam8bit is offering two vinyl packages that commemorate the cultural touchstone of the original Sega Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 title.
Both versions feature two 180-gram, full sized LPs of the original game’s soundtrack, remastered for vinyl, and a bonus 7-inch record of Rez Infinite’s new “Area X” level. Inside is a 48 page art book with huge imagery from the game and retrospective interviews from the original team. Written by Nick Hurwitch, the book includes new discussions with Rez producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi, art director Katsumi Yokota, programmer Osamu Kodera, artist Jake Kazdal, and Takashi Ishihara, the artist behind the new “Area X”.
The only difference between the $75 and $85 editions are the “Player Form” images stamped into both sides of the three records, and the limited quantity of 1,000 copies for the fancier set.
Pre-orders for the soundtrack collection and the physical copy of the game begin August 19th at 9am PDT exclusively at iam8bit.com. Shipping is expected in October for the $75 version of the soundtrack and December for the fancy printed edition.
The feudal-Japan Dark Souls-like action game Nioh releases today for the Playstation 4, and you can also now order the game’s full soundtrack through import retailers.
