If you’re like me and you get a bit too sick of holiday and season music before the month of December even hits, even as it relates to video game music, then you’ll be in luck as of next week. Materia Collective and a slew of artists and musicians have created a huge tribute album to the music of one of Squaresoft’s most well-known Playstation games, Xenogears, just in time for us humbuggers to flock to.
OMEGA: A Tribute to Xenogears is a 44 track super album featuring a bevy of artists new and old contributing to the memory of Yasunori Mitsuda’s soundtrack to the Squaresoft RPG; artists including Dale Noth, zYko, Lauren the Flute, Videri String Quartet and a lot more (including former OSV editor Michael Hoffman). Xenogears Original Soundtrack was released on March 1st, 1998 spread across two discs. The music of Xenogears covers numerous styles, including Celtic, Arabic, folk, and religious and the new tribute album works to further that diversity courtesy of album producer Chris Porter.
For OMEGA: A Tribute to Xenogears, the Materia Collective community came together in full force to pay tribute to one of the finest RPG soundtracks ever made. Over 130 arrangers, musicians, vocalists, lyricsts, mixing engineers, mastering engineers, translators, and engravers worked together to cover all 44 tracks from the original soundtrack. OMEGA features a diverse range of instrumentation and styles, from solo piano to full orchestra; guitar and mandolin duet to an enormous choir just to name a few. We put our hearts and souls into this album, and we hope we have made a fitting tribute to a soundtrack that has meant so much to so many people since it was released twenty years ago.
OMEGA: A Tribute to Xenogears is currently available for pre-order on Bandcamp and will be fully released to the platform, as well as presumably iTunes, Spotify and more, on December 7th.
Video Games Live has just released their latest album, Level 6 after yet another successful Kickstarter campaign. If you missed our reviews of the previous two albums you can read the reviews for both Level 4 and Level 5, which both earned high praise for the calibre of their arrangements and production value.
The latest album boasts 12 tracks and includes an arrangement of the Classic Arcade Medley that’s been featured during live shows since the beginning. Read on for my full track by track review.
[Disclaimer: I received copies of both of these vinyls from Mondo specifically for review purposes.]
I’ve admittedly had a lot of opinions on the Mondo releases of the various Castlevania soundtracks on vinyl LP, but until now had not gotten the chance to do an in-depth review of any of them. Mostly I never reached out because I assumed my bias towards the franchise music would make my opinions too cynical, and it wouldn’t be fair. However, after four previous vinyl releases from Mondo for the series, and the announcement of both soundtracks to Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, I figured that perhaps now was the time to offer my critique.
The soundtracks from both games are held in high regard both with fans of the series and casual gamers alike. While far more have played through Castlevania Symphony of the Night than they have Rondo of Blood due to the latter’s limited release in the states via ports, the soundtracks for both offer different things while still bringing depth to the history of Castlevania music.
So, how do these releases stack up; both as individual offerings as well as compared to the other Mondo releases in the series?
The new indie game by Tate Multimedia, Steel Rats, recently released to Steam and consoles with positive reviews. Playing in a arcade-like 2.5D retro-future environment, the game is beating Devil May Cry 5 to the punch of motorcycle combat as you wreak havoc with the ultimate killing machine; your flame spewing, saw bladed bike. Given it’s almost cyber-punk aesthetics, composer Arkadiusz Reikowski was brought in to help to contribute to the atmosphere with a synth-heavy soundtrack.
Arkadiusz Reikowski, who has a knack with bringing out a certain flavor of aesthetics to the music of his past game works Layers of Fear and Kholat, continues with Steel Rats. Invoking a bit of a John Carpenter/Vangelis vibe with the soundtrack, Reikowski creates a synthwave soundscape that compliments the backdrop of futuristic robot-slaying.
Spanning 18 tracks, the game’s soundtrack offers an enjoyable retro sci-fi feel upon previewing it. The Steel Rats Original Soundtrack is currently available on Bandcamp and as DLC content on Steam.
The soundtrack to the latest release to the main Mega Man series, Mega Man 11 (aka: Rockman 11) will soon be available online through Japanese retailers. The two disc release features songs from the first game in the main Mega Man series in eight years, composed by Marika Suzuki. The album will have both songs from the game itself as well as several arrangements of boss themes featured exclusively for the CD release.
Mega Man 11 was released last month worldwide to positive reviews. Composer Marika Suzuki created a soundtrack that both forges its own path while also being well within the standards of past Mega Man music.
via NF Magazine Youtube
The Mega Man 11 Original Game Soundtrack is currently available for pre-order on PlayAsia and CDJapan for around $30-32USD and will release November 14th.
I’ve had my eyes on FFIV’s Guitar Collections for a long time, and I’m proud to make this my first purchase to Scarlet Moon Records after reading Jason’s articles for so long and thereby being inspired to become a VGM article writer like him. I only wish I wrote as much as he did!
Anyway, I am not familiar with William Reyes, and I’m not sure if I should be. But I really like what he’s done here; Scarlet Moon has surely picked the right man for the job. And what a great, fantastic job it is! In this review, I will cover tracks that stand out to me. (more…)
The realm of VR gaming is one that is still attempting to pick up traction, and composing for such games can be a daunting task when only a portion of gamers have the equipment to even play the game you are composing for. Fortunately thanks to Materia Collective, the soundtrack to the recent Steam release of VR Hero Sentry is now available through several distributors for a more widespread audience.
VR Hero Sentry is a VR ARPG that makes you take up arms and choose your hero, class and your own build as you fight off hordes and titanic bosses and offers you infinite gameplay and endless customization. Gregory Tan composed the game’s musical score, which works to accent the fantasy RPG elements of the game and create an immersive experience for the player.
The music required for VR Hero Sentry gave me the opportunity to experiment with various soundscapes mixed with instruments. ‘Whispers of The Land,’ for example, is a track that builds in many unexpected ways. That piece utilizes ethnic traditional instruments such as African percussion and pan flutes alongside modern ambient synthesizers, and was a composition that really pushed me out of my comfort zone, especially coming from a classical background. – Gregory Tan, composer
The soundtrack is a short one, comprised of only seven tracks total, but creates enough presence for the listener to get a true feel for the game’s methods and environments. The VR Hero Sentry (Original Game Soundtrack) is now available now on Bandcamp, iTunes and streaming on Spotify.
