CVST-0023: DODONPACHI SAIDAIOUJOU / DODONPACHI MAXIMUM ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK

[Don]

DoDonPachi Maximum is for Windows Phone. I didn't see an option for that in platforms represented, so I just used "Mobile Phone."

[Cedille]

I've not closely followed Cave's recent releases, but is DoDonPachi Maximum's soundtrack made up of tracks from the past installments? Kudo and Chiba are the featured composers, if so.

[Cedille]

This album is a BTO release (which VGMdb can't be able to handle well) and 25 April is actually the day the order period started. Cave stated there was no plan of further printing anymore, and it gets highly likely that now is the last chance to purchase this album - since today Cave announced they're closing their online shops. Maybe Cave is going to withdraw from shmup games and focus on mobile games. And if they ever release any soundtrack in the future, it will be an enclosure.

[Kewing]

You mean, as in no printing of any of their OSTs?
I knew about their international shop closing down, but not really about their main japanese one.
There's been quite a few talks about Cave quitting doing shmups, but apparently SDOJ is doing really well at the arcades, so maybe they could end up reconsidering their plans. Only time will tell.

[Zorbfish]

@Cedille BTO?

It's a shame the music releases will have to suffer, but this doesn't surprise me much after the crash and burn over the XBox360 ports.

[Xenofan 29A]

Originally Posted by Zorbfish

@Cedille BTO?

It's a shame the music releases will have to suffer, but this doesn't surprise me much after the crash and burn over the XBox360 ports.

Burned to order. In other words, it's printed on-demand.

[Vert1]

Well I was successfully scared into ordering this. Can you guys provide links on Cave closing down their online store and where people are talking about them moving away from STGs?

[Don]

The Cave closing down their online store message is the top jpeg on the official website:

cave-shop.jp

[Kewing]

Updated product links to DoDonPachi as well, since the 2nd disc includes a full arrangement of the original DDP.
Which was about time, it was one of the only 2 remaining games to receive some kind of official arrangement treatment, yet. Really looking forward to it.

[Despatche]

CAVE was supposedly working on a "huge shooting game" back in March, so I don't know about them quitting shmups so soon.

[Despatche]

Apprently these albums are supposed to ship on June 1st, should we put that down as the release date?

[Cedille]

Is it really 1st? The mail I received (and others apparently) said it would be sometime in early June, but they could ship items in sequence. As I posted above, we've not established any standard on the release date of this kind of productions, so there are multiple choices (the first or last day of the ordering period, the possible earliest receipt or delivery date, blah) to go with.

[Despatche]

I've heard "1st" by multiple people who received those emails, but I don't know.

I think it'd be a bit silly to use the ordering start date, since these were supposed to be printed on demand and shipped later. It seems the same as considering the reveal date to be the release date, honestly.

[Cedille]

As long as some explanations are in the note, I think which date is displayed on the album page is a secondary matter. We generally have the same issue with Doujin releases (shop vs event).

[Cedille]

http://cave-gameshow.cocolog-nifty.com/caveshop/

（商品紹介に書き忘れてましたが、最大往生のトラック1～13までは曲間のギャップを入れておりません。ノ ンストップミックス。）

This may mean the first disc virtually have only three tracks (1-13 in one, 14 and 15). I wonder we ever have any way to get an index and play each single track... It'd be helpful if we're allowed to have multiple track lists with different lengths, one of which is for freedb purposes, and the other for showing each track names.

Originally Posted by Despatche

I've heard "1st" by multiple people who received those emails, but I don't know.

You seem to be right, since some people apparently just got it!

[Kewing]

Originally Posted by Cedille

You seem to be right, since some people apparently just got it!

It seems so; mine actually just shipped. So when they were talking about being delayed to next month, they were probably talking about june, and not july like it was implied. In any way, good, now only to wait a little bit.

[Kewing]

Apparently, as I've been told at Solaris Japan, the album's gotten delayed, again, until next month.
Ugh... is this a bad feeling, I have? I hope it's just a minor issue and it comes through in the end.

[Vert1]

Perhaps this is due to large amount of orders they've received? Ugh. This and Senko no Ronde DESIRES ROULETTE Soundtrack x Novel makes an unprecedented event of me ordering two seriously delayed vgm albums.

[Vert1]

It sounds like it could potentially be a cd mixed album. No way Cave is doing one large track.

[Cedille]

Originally Posted by Vert1

It sounds like it could potentially be a cd mixed album. No way Cave is doing one large track.

It's more like those tracks having no fading out.

Btw, does anybody know if Makoto Asada (Cave's producer) has some musical skills? He's credited as "Sound Director & Arranger" with Takami and Umemoto and as much as I suspect Asada's role was direction, I added him to the arranger list for now (his liner note particularly doesn't back up either)

[KAI]

Asada said something about being "apprenticed" to Ryu Umemoto and supposedly helped work on the Instant Brain soundtrack, right Despatche?

[Vert1]

What do you think about the album, Cedille?

[Cedille]

Originally Posted by ritsukai

Asada said something about being "apprenticed" to Ryu Umemoto and supposedly helped work on the Instant Brain soundtrack, right Despatche?

Interesting. I've checked the liner notes of IB, but somewhere else.

Originally Posted by Vert1

What do you think about the album, Cedille?

I'd not call this as Namiki's best. When assighed to a sequel, he tends to feature the past materials, and not all of them are huge accomplishments, but Stage 3 is pretty darned good nonetheless. Perhaps one of his strongest compositions ever.

[Despatche]

I'd like to know where these funny "translations" come from. They're katakana, so can we just use romaji for this, please?

Stage 3 is godlike but I don't like the repeating bit.

[Cedille]

Originally Posted by Despatche

I'd like to know where these funny "translations" come from. They're katakana, so can we just use romaji for this, please?

So I removed it and please add yours. VGMdb doesn't like mixing Romaji + English translations (I submitted a couple but changed) and the disc 2 is actually fully translated before, that's why I added an English only tracklist.

[Secret Squirrel]

I've reverted these again, though I apologize that I didn't notice that there was a second page of this discussion when I clicked on the discussion link, and probably wouldn't have done this so hastily.

Some of these words are game names from the series though (Daioujou, SAIDAIOUJOU, etc.), and those should probably stay as Romaji given our precedent (except where Cedille mentions these titles were localized).

We should also include the rest of the parentheticals, since we include "(karaoke)". I know that some people don't like including these.

Anyway, we may have to just go with multiple English tracklists if we can't hammer out an agreement. BTW, we already do some very controversial stuff with katakana, namely re-reneding them to their source borrowed word (e.g., sandotrakku -> soundtrack).

EDIT: I've taken a look at some of the buzz around this entry, and so far I've only found disagreements about the translation (ラン being some kind of orchid as well.) With all of the homophones in Japaense, it might make more sense to romanize.

[Despatche]

Originally Posted by Secret Squirrel

BTW, we already do some very controversial stuff with katakana, namely re-reneding them to their source borrowed word (e.g., sandotrakku -> soundtrack).

The difference there is that those are simply transliterations from English/whatever to Japanese, so it's usually pretty clear what those words are supposed to be (maybe I should point out that I would never "translate" words like 'orgel' to 'music box'). What we're dealing with here is seemingly generic Japanese words being written in katakana, seemingly for the sake of vagueness/"cool factor"/puns. When people try to pull stunts like that, romanization is the best choice, and this isn't a part of my long spiel below.

Concerning the game titles issue, I don't like the idea for two reasons: 1. we're left with a halfway title until someone decides to localize SDOJ; and 2. we should be adhering to original titles (key words) in the first place, making sure any alternate titles redirect to their originals for the sake of getting people to the right place without misleading them.

I don't know what to do about the romaji tracklist anymore. With the way VGMdb claims to work now, we should keep the current "English" tracklist the way it is (other than image tracks and whatever you wish with those) and remove the "Romaji" tracklist. However, if people want differently, I think it's time for those words:

Originally Posted by Xenofan 29A

Even if it is a pun, the translator should make sure the audience understands the intent. Leaving Katanaka words "as is" by just transliterating them does little good to someone who won't understand them. Most of the people who will understand will be able to read katakana anyway.

Exactly. None of this is "supposed" to be translated, and people aren't "supposed" to understand all the time.

Japanese to English translations can and should never be taken as "proper", and should always be considered as an alternative. Primary forms should always be the original characters themselves, then appropriate romaji. Translations should only be considered guides; people should be encouraged to research the meanings outside of any body of work, and write it all down somewhere. Seems like another good use of the album threads, personally; we're already halfway there with this thread.

These translations are always made with the idea that they are what everyone should be using, no matter how much a translator wants to deny it (I could go on about "pedestrian service" here but people will probably complain). Such translations can and will be wrong, all the time, typically due to the complicated nature of both languages. If we just stick to the original form at least for the sake of getting these albums into the database, that problem can be completely avoided. Again, made-up stuff should be kept off the albums themselves, and left in the threads. Somewhat similar logic behind not guessing composers.

Speaking of extremes, I could easily argue that we should start 'correcting' all this 'Engrish' and all the typos, for the sake of meaning or whatever. Maybe I shouldn't bring that up, because I'm sure a sizable group would be far too eager to get that done, but oh well.

I'm sorry if this all seems so extreme, I just felt it needed to be brought up again.

[Cedille]

This "not translating Katakana" can bring some inconsistency to this specific release, because it has some tracks from DOJ (namely, 2-02, 2-05, 2-08, and 2-13). I don't see why these DOJ tracks that I believe are even far much more ill-suited for literal translation are allowed to be translated, if we're targeting the katakana tracks on the disc 1 and leaving them in Romaji.

For example, by "凄舞" (this is not a track featured here though), there is no such word as "凄舞", and I swear the two Kanji characters were selected and combined to just provide a similar sounding to Seibu, a Japanese shmup developer, and any alternative could be used, as long as we can still read them as "Seibu". Translating them as "Strange Dance" is kinda missing a point, since what these two kanji can mean is less important (also, where "Strange" came from, to begin with. I feel "凄" itself normally means something like great or such). Likewise, although there exists such word as "錯節", what matters here is not this kanji combination means something like "Intricate knots" (and again, is "Mixed Melody" a good translation?), but we can read it as "Sakusetsu" which sounds phonetically similar to Success, another shmup developer! If we're to respect the intent of Namiki behind these track names, we'd leave them in Romaji, and let Eastern users who can't read Kanji realize they're actually kind of a pun. More so, since there is some issues with translation accuracy.

That said, I see why romanization are sometimes preferred to translation and I myself stood on the position for Akai Katana. So, I'm ultimately okay with either way and let individual users decide what's the most comfortable to them. Plus, as stated, we could add an 'English + Romaji' tracklist, though we normally take simplism for the sake of maintainability.

[Ghaleon64]

$150 on eBay already. :/

[Vert1]

Originally Posted by Ghaleon64

$150 on eBay already. :/

On the yahoo japan front:
http://auctions.search.yahoo.co.jp/s...erce&ei=euc-jp

Cheapest is 7,000 yen (auction has two days left and has 25 bids).

edit: item ended at 9,800 yen.