VICL-2173: Rockman 2: The Power Fighters

[kyubihanyou]

Theoretical breakdown
Setsuo Yamamoto (Carried over from PB): (Napalmman ----> Adjusted bass [lower] and synthesizer [higher] volumes, Geminiman ---> [Slightly slower and slight change in drums], Blues Ending) --->[Blues Ending is actually rescored with different instruments, but it's still the same song structure]
-Player Select (Guitar and chimes; same instruments for main melody as Gutsman)
-VS. ~Stage Start~ (Same as from PB [chimes are unchanged]) **Very differrent from PB Version via a lot of enhancements**
-Centaurman (Guitar, violin, percussion, and piano)
-Shadowman (Same bell inflection as Napalmman at very start; chimes; sax; guitar)
-Stage Clear (Same as Stage Select (Rockman 1~2))
-Roll Rescued (Percussion) **Slightly different from PB Version [Uses "tapping wood" instead of "tapping chime"]**
-Gutsman (Same chimes used in first few seconds as Napalmman)
-Mad Grinder (Guitar, violin)
-Wily Machine (Violin, piano, and percussion)
-Rockman Ending 2 (Guitar, drums, bass)
-Forte Ending 2 (Same bell inflection as Napalmman; guitar) ---> Intro is basically the same as that of Stage Zangief in Street Fighter Zero2 **Slightly different from PB Version [Vocorder in beginning part]**
....
-Elecman (New) Use of chimes [Setsuo?] (NOT Hideki)
-Forte Ending 1 (Piano, vocorder, bass, and bells; Lead-in relation to Forte Ending 2; Syun only has two entries in the liner notes)

Hideki Okugawa (Carried over from PB): (Plantman, Gyroman ---> [Different keyboard])
-Slashman (Bells; jazz piano)
-VS. ~Wily~ (Sounds like Plantman)
-Yellow Devil (Scat-like sound just barely heard)
-Continue (Synthesizer from other tracks, ala Gyroman) **Slightly different from PB Version [Uses same clackers as Heatman instead of snare drums]**
-Game Over (Same exact start as You Got New Weapon, only tuned much deeper) [same synthesizer from Gyroman]
....
-Opening (New)
-Heatman (Includes violin undertone, low-end synthesizer, as well as "clacker balls" [also found in Continue, a Power Battle track])
-Rockman Ending 1 (New) Melody could be Hideki's (NOT Setsuo)

Yuki Iwai: (Bubbleman, Cutman, Mecha Dragon)
-Weapon Get (Uses same instruments and inflections as Cutman)
-Elecman (Similarities to Cutman and Bubbleman)

Yuko Takehara (Kadota): (Course Select, Wily Capsule)

Syun Nishigaki: (Ranking, Quickman) --->Light piano, "every-other-quarter note" percussion, "plop" sounds, and long-note violin undertone

Masato Kouda: (Diveman, Stoneman, Pharaohman)
-Duo Ending 1 (Sounds like Duo Ending 2) [same melody as Duo Ending 2]
-Duo Ending 2 (Includes same sounds as Pharoahman) [quick slips and background guitar] [same melody as Duo Ending 1]
-Neo Parts Reclaimed (Same clicks heard in Pharaohman)
-Escape (Includes little "chirps" from Neo Parts Reclaimed)

Tatsuro Suzuki: (Shademan, Airman) (Percussion, piano, and little "clicks")


EDIT (02/27): The ending credits from the actual game are as follows:

Sound Effect: MOE.T -------------> (Takeshi Kitamura is indeed MOE.T)
Music: YUKI, Hideki OK, Kadota Yuko, Koda Masato, Tatsuro-, SYUN Nishigaki, SETSUO Yamamoto ----->Note the order difference
Voice Actor: Hekiru Shiina, Jin Yamanoi, Koji Tobe, Takashi Nagasako, Takko Ishinori
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hJNPkreB_U starting at 4:45

-Iwai being on top of both lists shows that she did the most in the game, and therefore has the potential to have done more than 3 tracks [the liner notes just limited her to 3]
-Yuko being third here with two tracks [one composition and one arrangment] makes this interesting, both by quantity and by role
-Masato Kouda being fourth here with five tracks [two compositions and three arrangements] means that going by quantity or role throughout the entire list is now compromised.
-Tatsuro Suzuki being fifth here with two arrangements is interesting, as he was last on the OST credits. Did he do more or less than Syun?
-Syun Nishigaki being sixth here with two arrangements seems consistent, as I believe Tatsuro did more based on the sound
-Setsuo Yamamoto being last doesn't necessarily mean he did the least. As with Naoshi Mizuta [SFZ] and Tatsuro Suzuki [SFZ2], he could have done more than the person immediately above him (Syun)

[Brad Evans]

I use to love this CD, but over the years the synth has really fallen out of favor with me. Does anyone else feel the same way?

[kyubihanyou]

I went fishing for Kadota's old page and found these.

Originally Posted by CHz

GMCL says Kadota is the maiden name. Let's go with that.

Originally Posted by Gigablah

Is she ever credited as Yuko Kadota on any of the albums?

Originally Posted by CHz

I looked through the scans when I was merging the entries, and I didn't see her explicitly credited on any of the albums with either name. The links here probably come from the credits of the games, which for the most part are fairly well documented (Mega Man series, Breath of Fire 2, etc.).

I don't blame ya, CHz. The scans for this album came after the merge, but still, Yuko Takehara is definitely credited for this game as Yuko Kadota in both the booklet and the in-game credits (see above) and thus, should be reflected here on this album.

[Secret Squirrel]

Thanks for looking into this. I've updated the links.

[kyubihanyou]

The last sentence of the yellow section of Masato Kouda's area in the liner notes includes the terms "Personality" (キャラ), "Duo," "Ending," "Tune (曲)," and "Work" (作). Duo is not referred to anywhere else in the notes. I think this is good enough proof that Masato Kouda composed both parts of Duo's Ending [shared melody], which I always suspected was the case by sound alone.

To review, the liner notes are like this:
Blue = Tracks names from Power Fighters; () = Source [Game or Original composition]
Green = Past games worked on; () = Tracks from that game [Either 1 particular track, a general description of what they did, or something saying that they did all of it]
Yellow = Artist comments for the tracks
Pink = Advice and closing statements from the artists

-Furthermore, for anyone else interested, I've noticed that Tatsuro, Yuko, and Syun all only have 2 tracks despite having room for a 3rd. This makes me suspect that they only did those two.
-Meanwhile, 2 of the 3 tracks listed under Setsuo and Hideki are from The Power Battle. Therefore, the opening of Power Fighters (different from PB) and the rescoring of Blues Ending (technically makes it new) are all they did for Power Fighters. Setsuo is also notable because Blues Ending -despite being based off an older track that's from the same game as the other two and the tracks generally being listed in the same order as the album's tracklist - is on top, implying that a divide must exist. This also applies to Hideki.
-By this logic, all the remaining tracks are either done by Yuki Iwai or Masato Kouda

[Dag]

Koda does say that but Japanese is tricky and deceptive so you could always ask here to confirm.

For later reference here are the liner notes credits, which should help confirm what you editted recently (blue/green/yellow/red comments boxes):

Yuki Iwai
- Bubbleman (FC RM2 Bubbleman) / Cutman (FC RM1 Cutman) / Mechadragon (FC RM2 Wily)
- Marvel Super Heroes (Shuma Gorath, Psylocke, Etc) / Rockman X2 (All songs original) / Aladdin (original music and arrange)
- All the music she was in charge comes from consumer Rockman titles arranges so please compare them with the originals blah blah.
- (etc)

Yuko Kadota
- Stage Select (FC RM6 Stage Select) / Wily Capsule (Original)
- Star Gladiator (Staff roll, etc, about half) / SFZero (Nash, Rose) / Breath of Fire 2 (Except the theme song)
- (etc)
- After RM3 and RM7 she thought she was done with Rockman, but doing these two songs was fun.

SYUN
- Quickman (FC RM2 Quickman) / Ranking (Password)
- Ultimate Ecology / 19XX (Mission 3 DANCE OF GREEN GNOME) / SFZero2 (Dhalsim, Gouki, Sodom, etc)
- (etc)
- He ends up doing ethnic tracks somehow (Gouki, Sodom, Dhalshim, Quiz Tonosama no Yabou 2, the good ol' Feilong)

Setsuo Yamamoto
- Blues Ending (FC RM3 Ending) / Geminiman (FC RM3 Geminiman) / Napalmman (FC RM5 Napalmman)
- SFZero2 (Adon) / Rockman X (various)
- [this man talks in kansai-ben, madness. not sure what's he saying about the previous game]
- (etc)

Hideki Okugawa
- Opening Demo (first part RM2) / Gyroman (FC RM5 Gyroman) / Blastman (FC RM2 Crash man)
- Vampire & Vampire Hunter (Aulbath, Gallon) / Alien vs Predator (all)
- (etc)
- (etc)

Masato Koda
- Diveman (FC RM4 Diveman) / Stoneman (FC RM5 Stoneman) / Pharaohman (FC RM4 Pharaohman)
- D&D Shadow over Mystara (all songs) / Cyberbots (Colony Stage)
- He did the ending without knowing the new character Duo's true identity.
- (etc)

Tatsuro_
- Airman (FC RM2 Airman) / Shademan (SFC RM7 Shademan)
- SFZero2 (Sakura, Gen) / 19XX (Mission 5 City light in the black strait)
- (etc)
- (etc)

Blue and green are in order of their favorites.
If somebody wants to recheck this even better.


STEALTH EDIT: hmmm

[kyubihanyou]

Nice work Dag

Indeed my Japanese is shotty, as I've essentially been teaching myself through this site. To set the record straight, I'm as white as they come.

What I like most, however, is that this is still consistent with my previous points. The fact that the listed tracks are in order of favorites means that Syun and Tatsuro might have only had those two tracks to rank, and Hideki and Setsuo, with only one new track each, had no choice but to start picking from their earlier, unedited material from The Power Battle.

...either that, or they critique themselves a little too roughly.

If the above, however, is correct, then that would still leave Yuki and Masato, the former being an arranger only. It may just be as simple as Yuki arranging the remaining old (Heatman, Weapon Get, Elecman, Rockman Ending 1, Forte Ending 1) and Masato composing the remaining new (Neo Parts Reclaimed, Escape).

Correction corner:
For Tatsuro, it's actually Gen because of the ゲ (ge), Blastman is supposed to be Plantman, and the first red should be green.

[strugglepoo]

For added insurance, found this in an interview.

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2010/03/..._interview.php

You were also responsible for arranging several tracks for the arcade fighting game Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters?
Yes, three of the stage themes.

How were those three chosen?
I was asked if I would work on the game and accept the tracks that had not already been taken. I was happy with the songs, so it was my pleasure.

How did you go about arranging them?
The chords found on "Dive Man's" stage have been modified. I took the existing melody line and altered the harmony which accompanies it to be more in line with my tastes. For "Pharaoh Man," I went with a Latin rhythm, which I think worked to its advantage, while on "Stone Man" the first passage is downbeat in the image of a saxophone.

Was it a good experience to collaborate with other musicians?
At that point I had only been in the company a couple years, so the others had more experience. I was able to observe their work patterns and learned a lot about arranging. It was a chance to come to understand their various styles and creative processes.

[kyubihanyou]

@strugglepoo
That works well with me, because
a) I never once considered Kouda having done Elecman or Heatman, since they don't sound anything like him, and they are from the same game that Yuki Iwai did most of her arranges from, and
b) The rest of what I have assigned to Kouda (Duo Ending 1, Duo Ending 2, Neo Parts Reclaimed, and Escape) are all new compositions. Neo Parts connect to Pharaohman via the "click" sound, and Escape connects to Neo Parts via the "chirp," though it is very hard to hear).

-On that note, the fact that stage themes, ending themes, and menu demo themes (i.e. Ranking [under Syun]) are referenced tells me that Syun and Tatsuro would have definitely listed either Elecman, Heatman, Weapon Get, Rockman Ending 1 and/or Forte Ending 1 had they done them.

-Another interesting tidbit is from The Power Battle liner notes that Dag posted (http://vgmdb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3682):

Setsuo: Geminiman, Blues ending
OK: Gyroman, 2 original songs

Because Setsuo's and Hideki's credits are relatively unchanged from these for Power Fighters, I can more effectively conclude that their responsibilities were relatively unchanged, and that they had little to no role with new tracks, either. Hideki's inclusion of Opening is proof that they would have listed one of the newer track up there if it was good enough. However, the new ending pieces for Rockman and Forte are a bit too similar to not be considered done by the original artist.

As for Elecman and Weapon Get, they are quite similar to Cutman and Bubbleman. Therefore, for the remaining 6...

EDIT (01/13): Heatman confirmed as Okugawa's. Now it's just 6 left.

Hideki Okugawa: Rockman Ending 1
Setsuo Yamamoto: Forte Ending 1
Yuki Iwai: Elecman, Weapon Get
Masato Kouda: Neo Parts Reclaimed, Escape

[strugglepoo]

This interview with Okugawa has Heatman listed in the play section. Not concrete evidence, but there is mention of Heatman at the tail end of the interview. Can someone translate it to make sure?

[Yoshinori.O]: そうかもしれませんねぇ（笑）。でも、そのかわりといっては、なんなんですが、今回Hideki.Oさんに 「ジャイロマン」と「ヒートマン」のアレンジMIDI Versionを提供してもらいました。是非、一聴してみてください。
　
[Hideki.O]: あんまり、時間が取れなかったんだけど、これを聞いて「ロックマン」のファンになってくれれば嬉しいです。
　
[Yoshinori.O]: 今日は本当に「今」のラインの忙しい中ありがとうございました。
　
[Hideki.O]: あまり為になる事をいってないけど・・・すんません。

[kyubihanyou]

Originally Posted by strugglepoo

This interview with Okugawa has Heatman listed in the play section. Not concrete evidence, but there is mention of Heatman at the tail end of the interview. Can someone translate it to make sure?

In an interview... with just Okugawa... with no one else associated with the game present... where the track is associated with an absolute both in text and audio form. If anything that's overkill.

I really should have came to that conclusion when I noticed that Continue also used that key instrument, and yet I didn't for some unexplainable reason...

Nice work

[Dag]

Saw it earlier (look at my post... :P), not sure if it's a confirmation.

Earlier in the interview he talks about how 7 people worked on the album, and when asked he mentions Heatman being his favorite arrange.
Then Ono says Okugawa offers two midi arranges, Gyroman and Heatman (you can still get them, but they have no info inside from what I see).
One would think he'd give his own midis but who knows.