Happy Video Game Nerd: Clash at Demonhead

The HVGN finally returns with a brand new full review. In this latest episode, he covers an obscure NES action-adventure game called Clash at Demonhead from Vic Tokai. You can see the review at the Retroware TV website here:

HVGN: Clash at Demonhead

Be sure to stick around after the credits for some funny outtakes!

Artistic Discussion – The Good and Bad of Gaming Box Art: 8/31/2010

Good – Shiren the Wanderer (Wii, Atlus)

I don’t own this game, but the gorgeous art certainly catches my eye.  Excellent use of color, plus dynamic poses of the game’s fantastic character designs, makes me want to find out more about it, precisely the purpose of any box art.  Kudos, Atlus.

Bad – Nostalgia (DS, Ignition)

This, on the other hand, is not the way to utilize your character assets.  It’s not the worst I’ve seen, but I barely get what the game’s about here.  From what I understand, it’s a RPG with lots of air-sailing.  The blimp and the upper part of the background give me a glimpse into that idea, but the uninteresting character designs and the ineffective attempt at a stylish background fail to intrigue me further.  Maybe if the man in red was the only hero on the cover, or if the ships in the background covered some more ground, things would be different.  As they are, though, I’m not impressed.

Cultural Anxiety – Power Blade/Power Blazer (NES/Famicom)

The Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom

Study 7: Power Blade/Power Blazer (Taito/Natsume)

Power Blade is generally regarded as one of the more underrated gems of the NES, and with good reason.  It’s a solid action game that spins a Mega Man-style level selection into the mix, and has a little of Metroid’s exploration aspects thrown in for good measure.  It is also one of the more radical alterations in the NES library, as its Famicom equivalent, Power Blazer, is vastly different.

Power Blazer, even from its box art alone, sports a massive design shift from the game Americans are used to.  The protag is a tiny robotic man, Steve Treiber, who could easily be confused as a poor Mega Man cosplay with his outfit, while the enemy designs are styled in a pretty traditional anime coat.  The North American and European boxes, on the other hand…

If Nova’s (Power Blade’s lead) make-over is NOT styled after Arnold Schwarzenegger’s famous Terminator role, I would be shocked.  Quite the departure from our Mega Man knock-off, huh?

Tony Ponce in his excellent Destructoid series Off-Brand Games details some of the changes Power Blazer received in order to become Power Blade:

The hero was replaced with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Chevrolet-inspired twin Nova, the game’s mechanics were tweaked, and the linear levels of the original were scrapped for ones with multiple paths and tighter platforming. Except for the music and a few enemy sprites, the entire game was overhauled and the result was one the best rarely mentioned classics on the NES.

It’s hard for me to imagine Power Blade as anything but the great blend of Mega Man and Metroid design philosophies, but the Japanese original was definitely slanted towards the Mega Man side of things.  Unlike Power Blade, which had the player controlling Nova through the game’s levels to find informants in order to duel the stage’s boss, Power Blazer’s straightforward levels led right to those bosses, which is more than a little flattering to Capcom’s series.  Several Mega Man mechanics, like vanishing blocks, similar types of enemies and the aforementioned level select, alongside Steve’s rummaging of Dr. Light’s rejected Mega Man parts in the dumpster out back, and it’s obvious what Taito’s aspirations were here.  Alas, Power Blazer is nothing more than a pale imitator.  Steve’s running speed is slow, his jumping ability is poor, bosses don’t cough up any extra weapons, and the boomerang is both short-range and can only be thrown one-at-a-time, making combat a little too personal.  It certainly tries to be as good as the first three Mega Man games, but it just can’t obtain that distinction.

Power Blade, on the other hand, manages to remedy many of Power Blazer’s faults.  Kurt Katala over at Hardcore Gaming 101 explains how Nova’s a more versatile hero than Steve:

The basic mechanics of the game have completely removed almost everything annoying from its predecessor. For starters, you run much faster, jump much farther, and your boomerang power meter regenerates much quicker. Your boomerangs will always carve through foes, scoring multiple hits, so you don’t need a power-up. You can still find items that increase its strength, but there are also items that will allow you to throw multiple boomerangs at once, wherein you could only throw one in Power Blazer. Your attacks have also been made more versatile, as you can throw your boomerang in any direction. The energy tanks and bombs return, but you can also find a power suit, which encases your hero in armor. When equipped, it will allow you to shoot out extremely damaging energy waves, and also shields you from three hits before it disintegrates.

…and also how the stages have been remade:

The stages in Power Blazer were completely straightforward, but Power Blade allows for much more exploration. Most stages have branching paths and extra rooms to explore, most of which contain power-ups. Additionally, you need to hunt down an informant in each stage, which will allow you to open up the boss door at the end of the level. On one hand, this gives a slightly more open-ended feel than most NES action games. On the other hand, it’s a bit frustrating to get to the end, only to realize that you missed the informant or took the wrong path…or even worse, if you loop around back to the beginning of the stage. Still, these are only annoyances the first time you play, and the stages are never so confusing that you’ll get lost. There is a time limit, but unless you’re playing on the Expert difficulty level, it won’t prove to be an issue.

Below are some screens from both games that showcase some of the sprite changes.  On the left is Power Blazer, and the right is Power Blade.




As you can see, Power Blazer’s anime-esque spritework for both Steve and some of the game’s bosses have been reworked for a more gritty, realistic aesthetic.

Taito was pleased enough with Power Blade that they made a sequel to it.  While ours was Power Blade 2, Japan did not get a Power Blazer 2.  Instead, Taito treated it as a brand new title called Captain Saver, and the two are mostly identical.  However, it would seem that Natsume didn’t seem to catch on to what made Power Blade so excellent – the stages return to being linear, like Power Blazer, and the game’s gameplay shifted back towards Mega Man-style elements, ripping off the power gathering aspect this time.  Nova can equip special suits that give him special abilities, much like Mega Man can utilize fallen robot master’s weapons.  Nova runs a touch slower, too, although he was given a slide (hm…who else slides around? :p ) to compensate for it.  *sigh*

Oddly enough, the Japanese box recaptures Nova’s image from the NA Power Blade box far better than the NA version, which is just fugly.  Steroids, anyone?

Sources:

Hardcore Gaming 101 article on the series – http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/powerblade/powerblade.htm
Time Warp Gamer NES Box Art Archive – http://timewarpgamer.com/features/box_art_master_nes.html
Off-Brand Games article on Power Blazer – http://www.destructoid.com/off-brand-games-power-blazer-140628.phtml
Unseen 64 piece comparing Power Blade and Power Blazer – http://www.unseen64.net/unseen-changes/powerblazer-vs-power-blade/
GameFAQs page for Power Blazer – http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587522-power-blazer/images/box-2697
1UP Article on Games Altered Overseas – http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=7&cId=3158520

Looking Back – My Favorite Game from 1995

Sixth and seventh grade were my least favorite years in school.  It was an awkward, difficult and tremendously stressful time for me.  Without going too into detail, I had some personal hygiene problems that were incredibly embarrassing, and it took some massive willpower to overcome the stigma that had ingrained itself into my mind as normal to combat and correct it.  Identity issues were also popping up – who was I, and where did I fit into this convoluted puzzle of public school cliques and popularity contests?  How did I want to present myself?  Why?  And at what cost?  All of these questions would take several more years for me to find the answer to, and at times, the discovery process was agonizingly long and brutal.  Of course, the fun part of trying to figure out who you are comes with other people who think they have got you pegged, and some would go well out of their way to force their opinion of you onto you.  And most of the time, it was not a pleasant conversation – more like a verbal beating.  I do not look back upon this age with any sense of fondness.

Increasingly, Chad became a vital part of my livelihood and sanity.  He too had his fair share of detractors, and the two of us could take some comfort in the fact that we knew what the other was going through.  We spent a lot of free time at each other’s houses, playing games, listening to music, and talking about things.  The two of us supported each other through the thick and thin, and his friendship showed me that there were people out there who cared for me (beyond my family) and would stand up for me.  That was such a relief to have in the most trying years of my life.

To get away from the shitty part of this year for the remainder of this article (getting into the nitty-gritty of this particular year is not what I’d like to do!), I’d like to share the first real attempt of mine to do something creative.  Most of my art up to now was fan art or goofy comics.  But one night late in 1995, I had a dream.  One that would define and be a massive part of my life to this very day, even.

The dream was a game concept.  Chad and I drove up to a girl friend’s house to hang out, but she was not there.  Instead, three wizards were.  They told us that our friend was kidnapped and hidden within the grounds of the mansion she stayed at, and we needed to find keys to explore the mansion and free her.  The gameplay was top-down, similar to a 2D Zelda game, and had some rudimentary enemies roaming about for us to dodge, as we had no weapons to start off.  I remember finding the first key and getting inside, but each room had its own puzzle or boss encounter to deal with.  I distinctly remember the bathroom having a bubble monster waiting within.  Chad and I eventually got swords to defend ourselves, and in the end, it was the wizards themselves who had taken our friend hostage.

The drive up sticks with me.  I can still see the mountains surrounding the mansion, loaded with trees and flowers.  Chad and I had a red sedan.  The road was dirt.  The mansion was unpainted, a dingy brown.  The grass was tall and vibrantly alive.  The wizards were of different ages, all male, and wore different colored robes.

The dream kicked off my first game concept.  It may be what my webcomic I’ve been debating about becomes.  I’ve accumulated as much of the art of it that I could, which now is a massive archive of images, sketches and thoughts from 1996 to 2010.  It, I suppose, is my life’s work thus far.  It’s been so well guarded that I’ve only mentioned it to a chosen few both online and off.  Perhaps you’ll get to see what it has become in the near future.

1995 was also the year (if memory serves) that Funcoland came into the city where we shopped.  I found their retro backlog to be an valuable asset to my stalled NES collection.  I miss those days.  It was always an adventure to see what new oldies had shown up, and if I wanted any of them.  Funco would last for about 8 or so years, until Gamespot bought them out.

By this point, I had a solid collection of NES and C64 games that I had played over and over again.  Next year would be the first to introduce a new system into my life that I could actually do something about.

Shortlist:


Chrono Trigger (SNES, Square)
A dream team of JRPG developers combined their talents to create one of the most well-regarded games of the 16-bit era.  Gorgeous music, excellent spritework, an engaging battle system and a rewarding plot all meld together for a fantastic gameplay experience.


Fighting Vipers (Arcade, Sega)
Sega’s second 3D fighting series featured unique characters and exciting gameplay.  The walled-in aspect, alongside an armor system, made the game’s battles  both strategic and chaotic.


Street Fighter Alpha (Arcade, Capcom)
Capcom’s reboot of the Street Fighter series had beautifully rendered sprites, engaging new gameplay concepts and more personality than the characters ever had before.


Real Bout Fatal Fury (NeoGeo, SNK)
SNK took the lessons of the previous Fatal Fury titles and created what I feel may be the most polished fighter in the whole series.  Tight controls, awesome character designs and clever ring-outs made this a fun title.

In my opinion, the best game of 1995 was…


Chrono Trigger (SNES, Square)

Chrono Trigger is magical.  Something about the entire experience clicked several of the right switches for me.  It had a great plot, which I do like having in my RPG’s.  I won’t say it’s the finest piece of gaming narrative I’ve encountered, but it was leaps and bounds above some games both then and now.  It compelled me to continue onward, to see where it would take me.  It threw curveballs.  It presented parallels to our world.  And it provided us with seven characters that overcame their stereotypes to become truly special avatars for the player.  Building from the plot and characterization were Akira Toriyama’s brilliant designs, which I feel stand as his best, and the musical majesty that Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uemetsu supplied.  I can fully support the notion that CT is one of gaming’s finest soundtracks, no question.

Despite all that, though, it’s the brazenness that I think made Chrono Trigger so endearing to me.  Perhaps the dream team of JRPG designers led by Final Fantasy’s Sakaguchi and Dragon Quest’s Horii felt that they could do something outside of their comfort zones long established by their own franchises.  Both FF and DQ had 5 entries up to CT’s release, with the sixth installments in development. CT was a creative release, one that allowed the developers the chance to stretch out their ideas and thoughts in order to make something truly wonderful.  And while CT is not 100% unique, I think that the collaboration turned out beyond their wildest dreams.  CT combines the strengths of each respective series, adds in several of its own novelties, making the end result tremendously incredible.  I cherish this game as one of the absolutes in my gaming library.

Some personal anecdotes…

I own two versions of Chrono Trigger – the SNES original and the DS update.  I’ve also had the PS1 port, but that one was poorly put together.  Load times sucked the soul out of CT.  But the fact remains that I have had all three renditions of CT legally available, which ought to tell you something about how much I adore this game.

I also have two soundtracks for the game that a friend of mine gave me that I am beyond tickled about.  I have the original soundtrack and the jazzy The Brink of Time.  I consider them among the best gifts I have ever gotten.  Thanks, Ryan! ;)

The world of CT is really well-executed.  The time-travel mechanic is a joyous exercise of exploration.  I love getting to that part in the game to try to fix all of the individual world’s issues to try to make everything right.

I feel that Chrono Trigger is one of the first “modern” RPG’s, with likable characters and a coherent plot.  I love Merle, Lucca, Ayla, Frog, Robo, Crono and Magus.  Their sprites, their dialogue, and their personalities are all distinct and digestible for the player, and this is the earliest RPG that I can say that about.  Dragon Quest IV and V have it in their remakes, which the originals both predate this, and Final Fantasy VI has both interesting characters and a good plot, but there’s something truly awesome about CT to me that I can’t shake…not that I want to, mind.

I’ve played through CT about 4 or 5 times now, and I love it more each time.  I think that’s a good way to cap off my thoughts.

Chrono Trigger

Comix Zone

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest

Ecco Jr.

Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory

Fighting Vipers

Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals

Marvel Super Heroes (video game)

Mega Man 7

Mega Man: The Power Battle

Mortal Kombat 3

Puzzle Bobble 2

Real Bout Fatal Fury

Ristar

Secret of Evermore

Street Fighter Alpha

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

Virtua Cop 2

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

 

Back to 1994Forward to 1996

Virtual Console No-Shows: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)

14. Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis, Konami)

Brief Synopsis: Konami’s lone Genesis offering of its Castlevania franchise, this title tried to bring in plot elements from Bram Stoker’s Dracula into the overall plot.  John Morris and Eric Lecarde, the game’s two protagonists, each offered up different ways to conquer the game’s stages.  Also, this is notable for being the first game in the series to be composed by Michiru Yamane, who, until recently, was the primary composer for Castlevania for many years.

Why is it Missing?: Konami has been a very big supporter of the Virtual Console, piling up a large amount of their retro catalog onto the service.  However, they have so far neglected their Genesis backlist.  It’s not clear as to why we haven’t seen their games from this side of the 16-bit war.  Maybe Sega is keeping third parties at bay (we haven’t seen too many games outside of the Sega umbrella, with a few titles from Interplay, a couple from Namco Bandai, Capcom, and Activision, and one each from NCS and Factor 5).  Perhaps Konami is having issues porting them.  It’s possible that they aren’t making the effort.  It’s unknown as of right now.

Other (Legal) Options: Bloodlines is exclusive to the Genesis, and I haven’t seen it myself, so it may be a little tricky to come across (Genesis games in particular are not a frequent sight where I live, and more often than not the ones I stumble upon are sports games).  Genesis consoles are more common, though, and usually are not too expensive.  Test it out first, though – the majority of the systems I’ve dealt with have not been well-treated.

Weekly Whose Line? – Weird Newscasters

Colin gets a great work-out in this skit.

Virtual Console No-Shows: Duck Hunt (NES)

13. Duck Hunt (NES, Nintendo)


Brief Synopsis: In this early NES adaption of Nintendo’s Laser Clay Shooting Ranges, you blast waterfowl or clay pigeons with the NES Zapper, a light gun.  The ducks can be controlled by Player 2 wielding a second Controller, and no, you can’t shoot that snickering dog.

Why is it Missing?: I have a feeling this has a lot to do with programming.  The Wiimote, while at first glance seems to be a perfect fit for Duck Hunt’s…duck hunting, works differently than the NES’ older Zapper technology, and I imagine it would take some considerable tinkering to make it emulate correctly.  Considering that none of the Zapper/Super Scope games have made an appearance on the Virtual Console, I’d wage that the effort to convert the game’s controls may be more of a hassle than the end results would garner.

Other (Legal) Options: Duck Hunt is readily available on the NES – thanks to being a pack-in with Super Mario Bros., it’s one of the easiest (and cheapest!) cartridges for the console.  Finding the Duck Hunt-only cartridge is trickier, but I think I’ve seen a couple in my used game hunts.  You do need a Zapper to play it, which can be a little harder to come by (especially the gray model, which was fazed out after some complaints about it looking too much like a real gun [really?], so it was painted a garish orange later on), but is nowhere near impossible.

Tunage: Mari Yamaguchi

Mari Yamaguchi

Mari Yamaguchi (aka Mari) was a member of Capcom’s Alph-Lyla in-house band, as well as a composer to several of Capcom’s games for the Super Nintendo.  She worked for Capcom from 1991 to 1995.  Among her best known compositions are the phenomenal Super Ghouls N’ Ghosts, Mega Man 5, and U.N. Squadron’s Super NES port, where she re-arranged the arcade tunes for the SNES sound chip, as well as contributing a couple of tunes to it.  She also had a hand in the music of Breath of Fire, Final Fight 2, the Magical Quest games, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition’s TurboGrafx-16 port, and Mega Man 10.

As of this revision, Yamaguchi is still without a Wikipedia page to her credit.  Luckily, between us and the Capcom Wikia, I think that her career is very well documented.  Her output was rather small compared to some, but I think she did some amazing work for Capcom during her tenure there, and she deserves some recognition for being a great composer.

Complete Discography (newest to oldest)

Mega Man 10 (2010, Wii/PS3/Xbox 360, with several other composers, Capcom, Sheep Man’s Theme)

Mickey & Donald Magical Adventure 3 (1995, Super Famicom, with Tatsuya Nishimura, Capcom, composition)

The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey and Minnie (1994, Super NES/Super Famicom, with Tatsuya Nishimura, Capcom, composition)

Street Fighter II’: Champion Edition (1993, TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine, Capcom, arrangement)

Breath of Fire (1993, Super NES/Super Famicom, with Yoko Shimomura, Yasuaki Fujita and Minae Fujii)

Final Fight 2 (1993, Super NES/Super Famicom, with Yasuaki Fujita, Yuki Iwai, Setsuo Yamamoto, Yuko Takehara and Tatsuya Nishimura, Capcom, composition)

Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse (1993, Super NES/Super Famicom, 1992, with Tatsuya Nishimura, Capcom, composition)

Mega Man 5 (1992, NES, Capcom, all composition/arrangement)

Super Ghouls N’ Ghosts (1991, Super NES/Super Famicom, Capcom, all original composition/arrangement)

U.N. Squadron/Area 88 (1991, Super NES/Super Famicom, 1991, arrangement/composition.  Yamaguchi may have had a hand in the arcade release as well, but I can only find one source confirming that.)

Examples of her Work:

Super Ghouls N’ Ghosts

Ice Forest

Full Playlist

Mega Man 5

Wave Man

Full Playlist

Breath of Fire (with Yoko Shimomura, Yasuaki Fujita and Minae Fujii)

When I originally composed this article, I was unable to find a proper composer credit to this soundtrack.  I ran with a lead – Jormungand at VGMdb had compared tracks from BoF with earlier/later work from Yamaguchi, doing some educated guesswork from the Special Box set and determining which songs they felt matched up to her style.  The names of the songs on the Box Set are quite different than what the majority of the Internet cites as the game’s track list. but thanks to Savage Adam, I was able to properly compare the soundtrack to Jormundand’s work.  However, Capcom Wikia confirms five tracks that belong to Yamaguchi on their page for her: Starting the Journey ~ Breath of Fire, Holy, Music City, Emergency and Return.  They don’t source their information, naturally, but the consensus between Jormungand and Capcom Wikia on Starting the Journey works for me, so I’ll select that for my choice here.

Starting the Journey~Breath of Fire [Overworld 1]

Best of Playlist

Final Fight 2 (with Yasuaki Fujita, Yuki Iwai, Setsuo Yamamoto, Yuko Takehara and Tatsuya Nishimura)

Yamaguchi was one of several composers attached to this soundtrack, and I’m not sure what she contributed to.  So, I’ll just have to sample these one piece as a general representation of the game’s sound, and hope that Yamaguchi was involved.

Carve a Dragon Wood (The video says that the track is from the end, but this clearly shows otherwise)

All 3 Final Fight titles Playlist

U.N. Squadron/Area 88 (with Manami Matsumae)

Ah, U.N. Squadron, once again you mess with me.  I have one source saying Yamashita worked on the arcade version, and many others stating she only was involved with the Super NES port.  I’m not sure what is true, but I do know that more than one source states that she handled this particular track on her own, which I would guess means that she worked on the arcade game.  But, hey, I won’t argue.

Canyon (Composer/Arranger)

Super NES Playlist

Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse (with Tatsuya Nishimura)

All of the Magical Quest with Mickey games were composed by Yamaguchi and a second composer, Tatsuya Nishimura.  As seems to be the unfortunate case with Yamaguchi, I do not know what tracks she composed for these games, so I’m using what I feel are solid representations of the game’s soundtrack that remind me of her other compositions.

Snowy Valley

Full Playlist

The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey and Minnie (with Tatsuya Nishimura)

Stage 2

Mickey & Donald Magical Adventure 3 (import, (with Tatsuya Nishimura)

Stage 1

Mega Man 10

Sheep Man

Sources:

Capcom Wikia page for Yamaguchi
Chudah’s Corner Track Listing for Area 88
SNES Music Listing for Yamaguchi
GameFAQs Credits for Final Fight 2

GameFAQs Composer Credits for Yamaguchi
VGMdb Forum Topic for Breath of Fire Track Credits
OCRemix Listing for Yamaguchi
Infoseek.jp listing for Composers beginning with “Ya” (In Japanese) – See this translation.
Wikipedia Entry on Mega Man 10
VGMdb Page for Yamaguchi

Yamaguchi’s photo uploaded to the Internet by Spiceman.
Musical assistance with Breath of Fire provided by Savage Adam of the NinDB forums.

Big thanks to all of the Youtube users who uploaded this music!

Weekly Whose Line? – Greatest Hits

Should have done this set, the Songs of Soccer, during World Cup fever, but alas, I’m too late.  Still great, though!

Song Highlights: Mario Kart 64, Mega Man 2, Body Harvest, Muramasa: The Demon Blade

I’ve been in a game music mood lately (which ought to be obvious, given the amount of said posts these last few weeks), so here’s more excellent songs from gaming’s pantheon.

Mario Kart 64 – Credits (Kenta Nagata, N64, Nintendo)

I think the Nintendo 64 and Mario credit music were made to compliment each other.  I love this song.  It’s a delightful romp, one that is a fitting conclusion to the tense racing action you just faced (and conquered, with any luck!).  Well done, Nagata-san.

Mega Man 2 – Wood Man (Ogeretsu Kun, Manami Ietel & Yoshihiro Sakaguchi [Yuukichan's Papa], NES, Capcom)

Mega Man 2 had to be included on here at some point, and my first pick from this extraordinary soundtrack is the theme of Wood Man.  It’s got such a unique, odd opening to it that any cover I’ve heard has not managed to recapture it just right.  The remainder of the track, a fast-paced, wild-sounding track, is a perfect fit for the forest beasts Mega Man has to square off with.

Body Harvest – Inside* (Stuart Ross and Allan Walker, N64, DMA Design)

The entire Body Harvest soundtrack is melancholy, but this one particular piano piece has always stood out as a fabulously eerie song.  It captures a tenseness that the hero must feel, despite the temporary respite of being indoors.  The alien menace that is surrounding him may not be able to attack Adam (the protagonist) inside, but the music reminds the player that they still are out there, waiting for him to return to their battlegrounds.  A fantastic aria.

* = I don’t have track names for this soundtrack, so I’m naming it for where it was used.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade – Seifu Meigetsu A (Noriyuki Kamikura, Wii, Vanillaware/Marvelous)

This is one of the first field themes you hear in Muramasa, and it proved to be one of the best.  It’s got an excellent rhythm to it that perfectly suits the wanderings of your avatar, and also works in a lot of interesting instrumentation that ties into the Japanese culture and history it’s drawing from.  A solid track indeed.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 137 other followers