Sunday, February 13, 2011

Sound Test 4

For this month’s sound test Timo has graciously allowed me the opportunity to share some of my musical memories with you fine readers. Since last month Timo focused on one of his favorite series that got started in the 6th generation of consoles, I thought I would do the same and talk about the Onimusha trilogy on the Playstation 2. Now much like Splinter Cell a lot of the music in these games is more for ambiance than listening, but like Splinter Cell there are exceptions, and it is those songs, the main themes of the characters, and games themselves that I will be focusing on. Yeah you know you like that sentence ending in a preposition.

Like all logical and good things in life we will begin at the beginning, Onimusha Warlords. The first game in the Onimusha series is both intense and eerie at the same time. Some might even call it intensely eerie. This concept can be perfectly summed up in this awesome track. That song puts me on the edge of my seat just thinking about all the demons I (playing as the bad ass samurai Samanoske Akechi) have had to slice through trying to beat this game.
Other noteworthy songs
Samanoske's theme: This song is awesome and represents the best character in the series but it seemed to obvious of a choice, and doesn’t do as good a job of summing up the feel of the game.
Kaede's theme: This is probably the best song in the game. But you play as a girl when it plays so it doesn’t count.

The second game in the series Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny carries on the aura of the first game really well, but adds a little be more grandness and emotion to the story. I did not play this game as much as a child due to the fact that that the main character switches from the awesome Samanoske to the less awesome Jubei. One would think that would make it harder to find a song that really captured the spirit of the game but luckily this little diddy here is so awesome that it spans pretty much every emotion and feeling a person can get from playing a game and shocked back memories that have long been buried in my mind. If you like that song play Onimusha 2 because it is that song in video game form.

The last game we will be talking about is Onimusha 3: Demon Siege. You would think that since this game already achieved 150% bad assery by not only returning Samanoske to the game, but also by adding a character (Jacques) that is based off of Jean Reno, the composer might just be a douche and let up on the music. Not so. However, rather than give you another track that is all about the tone of the game (I am sure you get the point by now) I thought I’d give you just the overall best Playstation 2 boss battle music(in my opinion). Since this game has 2 main playable characters, and since I am sure that last tune got you all on edge ready to mess some people up, here is a beautiful and calming track from the Jacques side of things.

There is a 4th game in the series, but it once again abandons Samanoske, and was not made by the creator of the series so as far as I am concerned the series, and this blog entry end here.