Here is the September 2022 G4F Records article on video game music releases. Enjoy!
This is a non-exhaustive list without any classification hierarchy. We invite you to discover new video game music releases that will brighten up your day! 🙂
It’s the return of video games! We begin the most prosperous period for releases, accompanied, as always, by many soundtracks. You know the drill, we listen to the new releases of the month and we share our favorites with you.
Before starting the recap of the month, we want to remind you that we also have a YouTube channel. It’s updated regularly with various video game music releases, but also making-of’s, interviews and more! Available HERE. And here is our latest release, happy listening!
It’s time for the recap of video game music releases in September 2022!
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – All Star Battle R, Muda Muda Muda Muda !
Composer: Chikayo Fukuda
Welcome to the fabulous world of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure! It’s hard to miss the many Jojo references that abound on the internet. Indeed, the work of Hirohiko Araki (first publication of the manga in 1987 and since then has been widely multiplied on other media) has been a great success in Japan, but also in the West. In addition, its popularity continues to grow, thanks in particular to the “JoJo’s Pose” published on social networks.
Already well established in popular culture, the manga arrives in video games this month with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – All Star Battle R. This is a remaster of the fighting game released in 2013 on PlayStation 3. This one returns with tons of new features and improvements, but we’ll obviously be focusing on the music!
This reissue includes, with a few exceptions, the same tracklist of fifty songs from the 2013 game. Though there’s a little less music and some title changes. We weren’t able to find precise explanations for these choices. The soundtrack was composed by Chikayo Fukuda (.hack, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja…).
A Totally Crazy Soundtrack
The game’s music is completely original (it doesn’t include the anime). However, we find the same whimsical and frenetic tone. “Opening”, the first track of the songlist, offers us a rather dynamic jazz and lounge style. We’ll find this style throughout the soundtrack.
As a fighting game, the majority of the soundtrack consists of each cast character’s theme songs. Fans will be able to recognize the specificities and personalities of the characters. However, overall it’s very largely dominated by a rock/metal dynamic, often associated with dance and electro sounds for a totally crazy final result!
The electric guitar on “How Feeble” (sometimes reminiscent of the music from Dragon Ball FighterZ) throws us deep into rock. While other songs have nuances of other styles: Dubstep in “KILL A” or a more country atmosphere in “Can’t Gate the Guy”. We’ll end by specifying that JoJo is not a manga for nothing and the soundtrack of course has this classic touch of 90’s anime, very well placed for all fans of the genre.
Finally, we have some bad news! The soundtrack isn’t officially available yet! Or at the very least, it’s difficult to access. The game features a jukebox that allows you to listen to most in-game music after unlocking it. It’s also possible to obtain the soundtrack in digital format by purchasing the collector’s version of the game, but only in Japan. Fans are obviously scrambling to make the soundtrack available. We hope that an official edition will eventually see the light of day (please :)).
Splatoon 3, Madness in Color!
Composers: Toshiyuki Sudo, Shu Tamura, Toru Minegishi
First and foremost, I have to admit that Splatoon is a series that I know very little about. However, the few musical excerpts I’ve heard here and there caught my interest. So let’s take advantage of the release of this third opus to find out more! What a discovery! Splatoon is THE multiplayer shooter for Nintendo Switch. It has found its place in the brand’s rich catalog. Thanks to an “easy to learn, difficult to master” gameplay, a perfect artistic direction, and rather unique music and sound atmosphere.
The music for Splatoon 3 was composed by Toru Minegishi (Splatoon 1 and 2, Super Mario Maker 2, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe…), Shu Tamura (Animal Crossing: New Horizons, ARMS…) and Toshiyuki Sudo (Nintendo Lab, Miitopia…).
As their previous work suggests, the 3 musicians are part of Nintendo’s sound team. If we look closely at the game’s credits, we realize that they’re listed under “Sound” with other members of the studio. An important note while thinking about the music, because the work on the game’s sound environment was definitely the work of a team.
Experimentation and Mixing Genres
The first words that come to mind after listening could be: experimental, adrenaline and mixing genres. Indeed as a whole, the soundtrack is a pool of good ideas and experiments of all kinds. When we first launch the game, we start with a light guitar riff, plunging us into the desert zone of departure. This riff becomes more and more rock, until the end of the introduction and the opening towards multiple musical horizons.
Splatoon‘s musical universe includes many hours of music and it’s very difficult to explain it all in these few lines. We will therefore highlight two main points about this soundtrack. FIrst, the multitude of genres. You’ll find Hip-Hop instrumentation, singing, electronic music, jazz… It includes a wide variety, and above all, it’s a pleasure for the ears.
The next point is madness. Quite simply. The songs very often go a thousand miles an hour and we obviously feel the Japanese origin of the game in all the madness that emerges from the soundtrack! Which makes it an original and unique project.
Deep Cut Makes the Show!
That’s not all, the music is also an integral part of the game’s universe. The creative team created a musical context inside the game with its genre, concerts, bands and stars (as we can see in the video above).
The work on the game’s sound universe has been enormous and deserves your full attention. Its music hides real wonders! On the other hand, no albums are officially available for the moment. Given the amount of music composed, it’s easy to imagine the long-term work that awaits the team to reorganize everything into a linear ensemble!
Shovel Knight Dig, 16-bit Generation
Composer: Jake Kaufman
Shovel Knight Dig is a new installment in the franchise, which finds its place in the now quite vast universe of the knight. At first glance, you might think it’s a new platform/adventure game, but one of the originalities of the title comes from the fact that it’s also a roguelike. The gameplay has also evolved, as well as other elements. But if there is one aspect of the game that the development team does not want to mess up: it’s its music!
We would never think to suggest that the music of the series has not evolved! But what would Shovel Knight be without Jake Kaufman? The composer, a specialist in chiptunes, is back and provides, once again, a remarkable soundtrack!
As long as you enjoyed Jake Kaufman’s music on previous games and DLC, then it’ll be easy to see that the work done here is a real success. The chiptune, retro style is still there, but the sounds and melodies are varied enough not to fall into the repetition of the first episodes.
Yamaha YM-2608 chip & Mega Drive
From the first tracks, the music hits the mark and we easily dive back into the particular style of Shovel Knight. “Overground (Main Layer)” or “One Person’s Trash (Magic Landfill)” are two examples of songs that we particularly liked. One of the fun details to know about is that the leitmotif of Shovel Knight’s main theme song is recognizable from the short jingle “Well Met, Friend!”. The references are discreet but present.
Like the original Shovel Knight game, whose soundtrack was listenable on a real NES, DIG’s music was produced using BambooTracker. A tool that notably reproduces the sounds of the Yamaha YM-2608 chip, very similar to the sounds of the Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis) console. A logical musical evolution, consistent with the game’s graphics, which have also been upgraded to the next generation (16 bits).
Finally, we are delighted to be able to provide you with several official links to listen to the soundtrack! You should be able to find what you’re looking for regardless of your favorite platform: Bandcamp, Spotify, Steam, YouTube… Many thanks to Jake Kaufman and everyone involved for working on this release!
Foretales, An Enchanting Journey
Composers: Christophe Héral et Raphaël Joffres
We end this article with a French video game from start to finish, whether it’s the development team, the publisher or even the composers! Indeed, Foretales is the latest game from the Alkemi studio. It’s published by Dear Villager who has also published Souldiers (see article on video game music releases in June 2022), Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk or Edge of Eternity (see article for June 2021) to name a few.
A card game that can boast of having a quality design, Foretales features humanoid animals in a sort of reinvented Middle Ages. The player will therefore have to, through his choices, decide the future of the kingdom which is condemned by a dark prophecy.
An intimate atmosphere with the musicians
In order to sublimate the gameplay, we find Christophe Héral and Raphaël Joffres at the controls for the game’s soundtrack. As a reminder, Christophe Héral also composed for Beyond Good and Evil 1 and 2, Rayman Origins or Rayman Legends. As for Raphaël Joffre, we can find his work on Beyond Good and Evil 2, but also on Rayman Mini or even on the DLC of Ghost Recon Wildlands.
The result is a beautifully performed soundtrack by these two talented artists. The album takes us on an enchanting journey and we sometimes find the fairy-like and magical touch of Christophe Héral also present on the soundtrack of Rayman.
The tracks on this album are largely thought-provoking, which is quite normal for a card game. Nevertheless, the addition of choirs on certain tracks, such as “Isenburg is Burning“, adds an epic side which we enjoy. Moreover, we can find similar melodic schemes on “A Petty Thief” and “Isenburg is Burning“. However, the emotions we feel while listening to these two pieces are not the same. Proof of the artists’ ingenuity.
We feel a real connection between the two artists, Christophe Héral as the composer and Raphaël Joffres for the arrangement. The whole band is played by real instruments, which gives a certain grain to the music. We can feel the intimate atmosphere with the instrumentalists. Surely due to the fact that the album didn’t involve a symphony orchestra. The Foretales teams instead preferred to involve mostly soloists.