MMORPG

Game Music

Jesper Kyd on his Music, Gear, and MU Online

July 21, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Jesper Kyd on his Music, Gear, and MU Online Share this

Webzen has just released the first extensive preview of Jesper Kyd’s soundtrack for their upcoming action MMO, MU Legend. The follow-up to MU Online, one of South Korea’s long standing MMOs, MU Legend has itself been in the works for quite some time. But with a global Beta Test planned for September the marketing machine is spinning up and Webzen has chosen to kick it into gear by focusing on the music.

Along with three new preview tracks Webzen has released a short interview with Kyd that’s more about his composition style and history with game music than it is about MU Legend. From the demoscene to his array of keyboards and equipment from the 60’s, I think I learned more about Kyd in this five minute video than I have in the last five years.

Take a look at the playlist above to see the interview, the new preview tracks, and a couple of teasers I added that highlight some additional battle anthems. There are also two more tracks on JesperKyd.com if you’d like to hear more of the game’s softer side.

With their “first look” focusing almost entirely on Kyd himself we can expect to hear a lot more from MU Online in the months leading up to its Beta Test and then towards its release, whenever that may finally be.
Game Music

Check out Hundreds of MMO Soundtracks in One Place

October 3, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | 1 Comment Share this

Back in September I asked the video game music community “What Game has the most Music?” and quickly realized that MMOs are the juggernauts in this category. With updates and expansions spread out over several years, though, it’s never easy to keep track of all that music but MMOs.com is doing an admirable job. The site has been around since January and aims to cover every kind of MMO out there — from free-to-play RPGs all the way down to mobile puzzlers — including their soundtracks.

The Music section of their site currently represents nearly 200 games with curated SoundCloud playlists. This covers the heavy hitters like Guild Wars 2 and Final Fantasy XIV as well as DOTA, League of Legends and smaller/older titles like Pangya, Dofus, Trove, and many more. Each game also has a nice little wiki hub so you can read an overview with development details or MMOs’ content while listening. In most cases their playlists aren’t comprehensive but it’s turned out to be a a great place to start if you’ve got a specific MMO soundtrack in mind or — in my case — are just curious about what some of these games are.
Game Music

Monarch: Heroes of a New Age OST Released

February 22, 2014 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

If you’re a fan of MMORPGs and the music associated with them, this might just tickle your fancy. The Korean game Monarch: Heroes of a New Age features a gorgeous orchestral soundtrack and an accompanying arrangement album that is sure to please fans of sweeping score and memorable melodies.

Korean composer Goomin “Nauts” Nam, who composed for games like the drink mixing sim game Bar Oasis, has put together a fantastic and diverse assortment of music to accompany the fantasy MMORPG. If that’s not enough, the arrangement album, Monarch: Heroes of a New Age Arrangements & Variations, features an equally diverse cast of guest arrangers including Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater composer Norihiko Hibino and pianist AYAKI, as well as arrangements from Dale North and Joshua Morse. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Fifth Time’s The Charm? FFXI: Seekers of Adoulin OST (Review)

July 10, 2013 | Richard McDonald | 3 Comments Share this

Seekers of Adoulin is the latest expansion for the long-running MMORPG Final Fantasy XI; the music, as with the four previous expansions, is composed by Naoshi Mizuta. I have to admit, Naoshi Mizuta is relatively unknown to me. Looking though his discography, I realize that I’ve not played any games where he is the sole composer (Street Fighter Alpha, Parasite Eve II, etc) and he hasn’t stood out for me when collaborating with Final Fantasy veterans Nobuo Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu. So this review will be based entirely on the soundtrack, without any context of how the music worked in the game.

More, after the jump. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Hide It Under A Bushel? TERA OST Part 1 (Review)

May 16, 2012 | Patrick Gann | 1 Comment Share this

Trying to make a profit off an MMORPG is risky business in today’s saturated market. Hence, I can’t help but find it a little pretentious that the US version of the game’s soundtrack includes “Part 1” in the title. Unless “Part 2” has already been written, they’re just assuming this MMORPG has a long life.

And, as I am currently playing TERA: The Exiled Realm of Arborea, I certainly hope the game has a long life. It certainly looks beautiful and plays nicely. Furthermore, I hope it has a long life because I appreciate the work of the composers (Inon Zur and Rod Abernethy). However, it is worth noting that all other versions of the soundtrack were simply entitled “Original Soundtrack” without the “Part 1.” Those 3 versions (the Japanese, EU physical, and EU digital) were all the same album, with exactly 26 tracks.

The US CD version is a fair bit different. For starters, while the soundtrack appears on a CD, it’s not an audio CD. Instead, it’s a data disc with some images and 50 total songs in high-quality mp3 format (320k). So, after the jump, we’re going to talk about this huge collection of music, all 90 minutes of it, and ponder whether or not Atari / En Masse should release this as a digital release to the public. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Inon Zur’s RIFT Original Soundtrack (Review)

September 6, 2011 | Gideon Dabi | Comments Off on Inon Zur’s RIFT Original Soundtrack (Review) Share this

Like open-world games, scoring an MMORPG is tricky business. The player is often in the same areas for several hours at a time, essentially forcing the composer to neuter his score of being too melodic – as an overly melodic score can grow tiring to the ear after many hours of gameplay. Inon Zur is a composer who is no stranger to fantasy RPG’s tackles RIFT with a slightly different plan of attack than either of his Dragon Age scores. In this score, Zur chooses not just to rely on typical fantasy tropes, but to give it a distinctly modern feel, as well. This is no easy feat within the confines of the already-boxed-in criteria of an MMO score. What is especially refreshing about Zur’s score in that it is all new music whose only similarity to other fantasy scores is some orchestration and voices.

But did it work out as well as advertised? Does the score of RIFT grow tiring? Does it create the proper feeling for the world? Most importantly, does it adequately silence the voices of newbs who are constantly asking where to turn in quests? Read on to find out! (more…)
Game Music

TalesWeaver Composer JeeHoon “JIMMie” Park Talks Game Music

March 15, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 1 Comment Share this

In case you haven’t heard the news, Korean MMORPG TalesWeaver is finally coming to the United States. With its highly stylized graphics that are reminiscent of Ragnarok Online, and an amazing pop-oriented soundtrack composed by ESTi, Nauts, and JIMMie, a few of us here at OSV were ecstatic when we heard the news.

While ESTi and Nauts have since moved on, JeeHoon “JIMMie” Park has remained on the team handling all of the music for “Episode 2,” the latest update to the game. We’ve fortunately been given some time to speak with him about his work on the game, his background in the game industry, and his musical influences, which include numerous Japanese and Western composers.

Hit the jump for an interesting read. (more…)