Manabu Namiki (& general OST/chiptunes) appreciation thread

[Yoshino]

Hope this is the best spot for this topic.

Just really got back into STGs - but I've always loved chiptunes/VGM - and he is a great musician. Particularly, I really like his Ketsui & DOJ soundtracks...You can tell metal as well as more recent music developments like drum & bass/breakcore have had an influence on him. Love how he uses the Amen breakbeat, as well as those metal "stabs" on "No Remorse" where you fight the TLB. If any of you are into drum & bass or breakcore I'm sure you'll know what I mean. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen_break)

The Garegga soundtrack is cool as well, partially because the limitations: that crunchy FM synthesis sound is classic.

There's really a lot of nice music in the STG genre, I remember a lot of great stuff from Gradius series, to Thunderforce, and Lords of Thunder (Winds of Thunder)...although the latter, I believe, was completely studio-based I think and just 'redbook' CD-A or whatever they called it back then.

Anyone want to suggest any great OSTs I should look into?

[BulletMagnet]

Radiant Silvergun (by Hitoshi Sakamoto) is pretty neat, if only for its unusual classical undertones - he re-uses (sorry, remixes) the same key sequence in many of the tracks though. He also did Soukyugurentai if you're in the mood for something a bit more electronic.

I personally like Mushihime-sama's OST a lot too, though others aren't so big on it...Futari's is pretty cool as well. A lot of people love ESPGaluda's music, but I've never taken to it nearly as much.

For weirder/funkier stuff you could look into Radirgy - Karous has a similar vibe but a good deal darker. For kooky, fluffly stuff there's Parodius's chipper interpretations of all manner of public-domain material, or possibly Game Tengoku or Twinbee Yahho.

Aaaand you've already mentioned Garegga.

Those are the soundtracks that pop most immediately to my mind, though there are others I also like at least in part.

[clp]

metal black .

[Obiwanshinobi]

Pimpish Gate of Thunder OST comes to mind. Gallantry and Zanac too.
That "Debris" tune from Radiant Silvergun is wicked. Makes me wonder how a philharmonic orchestra coupled with African polyrhythmic drumming would sound.

[MathU]

Manabu Namiki is great and all, but Kou Hayashi and Daisuke Nagata are the new lords and masters of shooting music.

Go Sato is also an old favorite for his classic Raiden II soundtrack and Raiden Fighters music. Raiden III also has some nice original work that seems really unappreciated around here.

[RNGmaster]

Psyvariar 2. That is all.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The music from the Psyvariar Medium Unit and Psyvariar Revision G-Cards are ace to chill out for their cool BGM tunes running on the Taito G-Net mobo. Tetsuro Sato is the man behind some of those cool Psy-MU & Psy-R BGM tunes along with Psyvariar 2: The Will to Fabricate.

Success and Skonec should properly do a Psyvariar 3 sequel -- would be cool to hear some new Psyvariar inspired BGM tunes to "rock down the house".

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[ratlhead]

I like Namiki's work, but his OST's never completely clicked with me somehow. There are some tracks that i really love from his OST's, like "Like the Night of the Falling Stars" from Mushi or "Burn Yourself" from DOJ, though.

Anyway, as a big Thunder Force fan, my favorite shump composer is Hyakutaro Tsukumo. His unique synth guitar sound on TFV and Broken Thunder OST is incredible. I also like other TF soundtracks (especially, TFIII)

WASi303 (Psyvariar, Psyvariar 2), Kou Hayashi & Daisuke Nagata (Chaos Field, Zanac Neo), Hitoshi Sakmimoto (RSG, Gradius V) are some other composer that i fond of.

[mesh control]

Great topic.

Soukyugurentai's OST is a great. IIRC, Manabu Namiki collaborated with Sakamoto on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRyduAPorw0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sl1gcmpmjc

Stage 1 boss's theme has a very grisly undertone to it.

[drboom]

Namiki is the shit. Check the avatar - you know I like this guy! Garegga may be the best OST ever for STG's. I honestly think he's kinda fallen off his game recently - even he has said that his best work is Garegga.

Shinji Hosoe is also pretty great, if you get into the metal/rock side of things. The Ibara OST is stellar. Took a while to grow on me though. Wrote the Dragon Saber OST, which is amazing, as well as Pink Sweets, which is pretty good too. Got to love a guy whose "general interests" on the Square Enix Music homepage are listed as "composing music and drinking spirits."

[mesh control]

Does anyone know who did Dragon Blaze's soundtrack?

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Yeah, Namiki is hit or miss... he has come up with great themes (I like almost all the catchy tunes in Mushihimesama) and great background music (I wouldn't listen to DOJ music on its own, but it works amazingly well in the game), but some of it doesn't even sound old school so much as old (what's the name of that horribly boring Neo geo shmup... or Bat Rider). Of the newer stuff, too much is of the often sugary Jap trance pop variety - see ESPGaluda 2, Death Smiles, and DDPDF, which was particularly horrible. I wish he'd return to the more subtle arrangements he did ten years ago.

[Zeron]

Does anyone know who did Dragon Blaze's soundtrack?

No clue but its my favorite Psikyo soundtrack outside of Strikers 1999 such a shame Dragon Blaze never got a OST.


Same goes for the fantastic Armed Police Batrider.

[drboom]

APB is Namiki, Hitoshi Sakimoto and Kenichi Koyano, jusy fyi. Awesome as well.

[lgb]

metal black .

yack .
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Kou Hayashi and Daisuke Nagata are the new lords and masters of shooting music

what~

k.h.d.n. is even less shooty than zun

seriously though k.h.d.n. last boss themes are underwhelming most of the time, it's creepy

Raiden III also has some nice original work that seems really unappreciated around here.

everyone hates raiden iii/iv music, I dunno why
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IIRC, Manabu Namiki collaborated with Sakamoto on it.

pretty sure sakimoto went solo here

it's a little obvious
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Shinji Hosoe wrote the Dragon Saber OST as well as Pink Sweets

cave sound team did pink sweets
--------
....trying hard to ignore how awkward this next post is!

what's the name of that horribly boring Neo geo shmup

zed blade, there's actually an ost+arrange for it coming soon

also, hardware

Batrider sounds old

hardware

DDPDF

which he only did so many songs for

I wish he'd return to the more subtle arrangements he did ten years ago.

go back to zed blade? ok
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also ratlhead really knows his stuff

those are also some of my favorite of namiki's too, that mushi tune is like no way out
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ok let's write other stuff

zun, he's strangely really good

ogr,
also

okay I'm tired of dealing with youtube

[Xexyz]

Yeah, Namiki is hit or miss... he has come up with great themes (I like almost all the catchy tunes in Mushihimesama)

Correc tme if I'm wrong but Mushihimesama was a collaborative effort between Namiki and Sakimoto, though I have no idea which composer wrote which tracks.

And since we're mentioning other shmup composers, how about one time shmup composer Kenichiro Fukui and his brilliant Einhander soundtrack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTlVf8sepLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCTTPhcWeOk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3sZL44LN7M

I'm not an Einhander fan, but the OST keeps me coming back. Wish this guy would do more videogame music in general.

[MathU]

seriously though k.h.d.n. last boss themes are underwhelming most of the time, it's creepy

Have you even played Karous?

[clp]

Its true milestone games are pretty much unrivalled musically beyond taste and preference there production levels are amazing .

[iconoclast]

I love Namiki. Ketsui and Dai Ou Jou are my two favorite stg soundtracks of all time.

The Ketsui stage 1 BGM never gets old to me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z472pIce5CY

And the arranged version in the 360 port is pretty boss too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CXFh8GyLsA

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

what's the name of that horribly boring Neo geo shmup

zed blade, there's actually an ost+arrange for it coming soon

also, hardware

Batrider sounds old

hardware

DDPDF

which he only did so many songs for

Could you explain what you mean by "hardware"... are you talking about the hardware limitations of the Neo Geo? Because there's lots of NG games that have awesome music that don't sound as old or artificial as Zed Blade, among them Pulstar or Metal Slug.

Re DDPDF: There's not a single redeeming song on the whole OST album...

[ShmupSamurai]

Thunder Force 2, 3, and V for syth guitars...

I also dig Batugun's cheesy 90's anime vibe.

Also, why has NOBODY mentioned the mighty Dogyuun, esp the first stage theme?

[BulletMagnet]

Also, why has NOBODY mentioned the mighty Dogyuun, esp the first stage theme?

Probably because it has no sound in MAME (or at least didn't last time I booted it up), the only place most of us have experienced it.

[ShmupSamurai]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4770gzO1hSw

Then for those haven't...Lo and BEHOLD!

[Ed Oscuro]

Also, why has NOBODY mentioned the mighty Dogyuun, esp the first stage theme?

Probably because it has no sound in MAME (or at least didn't last time I booted it up), the only place most of us have experienced it.

Silly people, do I gotta rip the OST again? (Actually, udderdude + other people said yes because I broked the bitrate.)

Also most of what lgb said makes sense to me, though I don't know all the names. Batrider sounds "old" because, this just in, the hardware it's on is old. In other words, it does very well with the hardware. Also haha @ Zed Blade "subtle" arrangements. The end tune Valkyrie...okay sorry looping horrible sound sample + really shit noise piled on top of that = more horrible

[Skykid]

Raiden IV stage 3 has the guitar riff from Fatal Fury's last boss theme (Geese.)

[Van_Artic]

of Namiki's compositions, my favourites are Garegga, Mushi, Ketsui and Deathsmiles
outside of Namiki i love Ibara, (Hosoe also did Xenosaga II OST which is a great masterpiece IMO) Karous and DFKBL (i don't remember who did that soundtrack lol)

[Mortificator]

Also, why has NOBODY mentioned the mighty Dogyuun, esp the first stage theme?

Probably because it has no sound in MAME (or at least didn't last time I booted it up), the only place most of us have experienced it.

Dogyuun and the other Toaplan games have working sound in ThunderMAME. There were some threads about it a few months ago, and it would be understandable if you didn't see... except you posted in one.

Anyway, while I'm sure nimitz had a good reason for advising against the UI version of the emulator, I haven't noticed any problems using it. Dogyuun does indeed have a bitchin' soundtrack.

Raiden IV stage 3 has the guitar riff from Fatal Fury's last boss theme (Geese.)

That's cool, though listening to it on YouTube just made me want to listen to Geese's real theme.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

haha @ Zed Blade "subtle" arrangements. The end tune Valkyrie...okay sorry looping horrible sound sample + really shit noise piled on top of that = more horrible

Any specific reason why people here are so grimly determined to be right in every case? I didn't say everything he did years ago was subtle. In fact, if you read my post again, you'll find I called Zed Blade's music old. Is this really worth arguing about (especially since we agree on the less than stellar quality of Zed Blade's OST)?

[Estebang]

Raiden IV stage 3 has the guitar riff from Fatal Fury's last boss theme (Geese.)

You're ignoring the more obvious similarity: the game over jingle sounds like Van Halen's "Jump."

[Limbrooke]

Shinji Hosoe is also pretty great [...] Wrote the Dragon Saber OST, which is amazing, as well as Pink Sweets, which is pretty good too.

Hosoe did 2 tracks on the ho-hum arrange album. The original Pink Sweets soundtrack was by the Cave Sound Team which could've sold without the arrange tracks. Otherwise, I think his more noteworthy work is alright.

Naoki Maeda (Salamander 2) did an outstanding job and that soundtrack is one of the best around, especially given the unused tracks. It makes me think of the game having stages removed for some reason as tracks like Nervous Breakdown and Fire Tripper could very easily suffice the imagination for potential stage use.

As for Namiki, I prefer his earlier work up until Ketsui/DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou. Most after that has never had the same feeling. Case in point; the domination that is Zed Blade over something like Espgaluda 2.

I otherwise have great respect for the Zuntata TST (former and present), Sakimoto, old Koshiro works, the Toaplan crew, and who could forget Hoso-Q.