So, I'm sorting some music playlists yesterday and come across a couple of my favorite tracks from the Rockman Zero Remastered albums. And all I can think about afterwards is how Capcom compiled and re-released these games twice without properly integrating these arrangements. If you're unfamiliar, Inti Creates initially released these albums in place of original soundtracks1 considering the spirit of the music was just too strong for the GBA's modest capabilities.2 And, unlike the typical arrange album which might cover only a selection of a game's soundtrack, these albums arranged (almost) every track from the games. You'd think that would make a drop-in replacement soundtrack an option in the re-releases, right? The hearsay is that some bad blood between Inti and Capcom kept them from collaborating fully on the compilations, but who knows if that's true. Internet.
Anyway, I spent the rest of the day investigating the feasibility of replacing the music files in either the DS or PC collections. I've messed around with making loop points for other games' music files and wouldn't mind spending a couple days in the pursuit of realizing a dream. And in researching this I discovered:
- It is INCREDIBLY feasible. Like, drag-and-drop feasible.
- Some folks already did it like a month after the collection came out on Steam.
And now I can play the games as III intended.
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The original soundtracks were eventually released. Twice, even.
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A notion I want to elaborate on sometime is how, imo, the sample-heavy Mega Man Zero GBA music has aged poorly compared to the Mega Man Battle Network music, which leaned heavily on the original GB chip for sound.