I missed January 1st! Oh well...
Here's a crossfade mix of some choice tracks from this dark horse SOTY candidate. Find a tracklist and my thoughts after the read more thing.
(are we calling them jumps on cohost? chumps??)
| Time | Title | Composer(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00-0:40 | 端倪 Tangei | Karin Nakano (中野香梨) |
| 0:41-2:13 | 月風魔物語: 第1話 Getsufūma monogatari: Dai 1-wa | Kakushin Nishihara (西原鶴真) |
| 2:14-3:24 | 業火の骨音 Gōka no kotsuon | Karin Nakano |
| 3:25-4:21 | 放ちの龍骨鬼 Hanachi no ryūkotsuki | Konami Kukeiha Club (Hidenori Maezawa) Arranged by Satoshi Hono (宝野聡史) |
| 4:22-5:37 | 暴乱萬猫 Bō ran yorozu neko | Karin Nakano |
| 5:38-7:21 | 黒夜の城砦 Kuro yoru no jōsai | Satoshi Hono |
| 7:22-9:18 | 幻化の傀儡 Maboroshi-ka no kugutsu | Karin Nakano |
| 9:19-10:58 | 獄下の共闘 Goku-ka no kyōtō | Satoshi Hono |
| 10:59-12:08 | 邪狐の神降ろし Yokoshima kitsune no kamioroshi | Karin Nakano |
| 12:09-14:00 | 行け！月風魔 Ike! Getsufūma | Konami Kukeiha Club (Hidenori Maezawa) Arranged by Satoshi Hono and Karin Nakano |
Released on Steam Early Access in 2021, Konami's Getsufumaden: Undying Moon1 was an attempt to get back in gamers' good graces by surprise dropping a remake/sequel of a deep cut back catalog title. Described as an "intense roguelike hack-and-slash action" with distinct ukiyo-e styled art, the fewer-than-1K 'Mostly Positive' reviews reduce down to "Plays like floaty Dead Cells. Pretty tho."
Version 1.0 was released in February 2022, with a 2-CD soundtrack2 following in April containing over 2 hours of music. I hadn't played the game, but based on some of the early game trailers featuring some very energetic rock arrangements of the original Famicom Getsufumaden music, I knew I wouldn't be disappointed buying the soundtrack sight unseen (err, sound unheard).
What I wasn't expecting was how varied the soundtrack would be from start-to-finish. What starts with some very traditional Japanese music performed with traditional instruments3 becomes, by the end, a delirious fusion of the old and new as western strings, distorted guitars, hip hop, ambient synth and EDM gradually get added to the soundtrack's language. As the game gets stranger, relatively, so does the music. In fact, the straightforward style I was expecting from the arranged Famicom tracks featured in the trailers was relegated almost solely to those tracks (the 4th and last entries in the crossfade). And I'm not-at-all surprised to find this is a conscious decision on lead composer Karin Nakano's part, as mentioned at around 12:44 in this lengthy and informative making-of video. Also interesting is her approach to the game's music not as representing the protagonist, but rather the enemies' response to an outsider's intrusion into hell.
I strongly urge you to check out that video, because Nakano's own words say much more about the soundtrack than I do on this detour I'm about to take.
There's a deep sense of sadness or depression that comes by when I experience something that's well-executed or full of talent or objectively good on one or more metrics that's never going to find a broad audience.
It's dumb, I know.
It's that dumb, childlike "I want all my friends to succeed" notion.
There's a level of talent and execution put into this game's soundtrack that's been wasted on two fronts. This thing was put out by a company that spent a chunk of the last decade willfully pissing away its trust, heritage and goodwill on a public that has loudly responded with "message received" and vowed to write-off anything they make in perpetuity.
Many years ago on pre-social media internet gaming forums, there would be threads devoted to studying the special sauce that went into Konami's 8 and 16-bit output. One forum in particular had their own "Fucking Konami Week" with some fucking good threads about how fucking good Konami was and some fucking great essays and comics and gonzo posts and deep dives (all of the kind chosting aspires to), including one particular thread that was, in its moment, one of the best English-language resources on the original Famicom Getsufumaden. I shouldn't say it's never going to find a broad audience, but it's my sincere hope that, in the future, this game and its soundtrack finds appreciation in the same spirit that our early-2000s foreposters had for the game's predecessor.
I ache
for what Nakano and Hono
could do with a Castlevania score
Anyway, I'm doing this again tomorrow with another soundtrack!
I hope I'm not as long-winded or maudlin about it!
-
or Getsu Fūma Den
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A third disc containing the original Famicom game soundtrack was available if you pre-ordered direct from Konami
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Including 3 of these solemn noh performances by Kakushin Nishihara (entry #2 on the crossfade)