TURC-0009: DUST BOX

[Nicolaas Hamman]

Not sure why tracks 07 and 11 have multiple game origins. And how is THUNDERFORCE VI their origin when that game didn't release for another 5 years? Is it a typo of Thunder Force IV?

[Chris Porter]

Originally Posted by Nicolaas Hamman

Not sure why tracks 07 and 11 have multiple game origins. And how is THUNDERFORCE VI their origin when that game didn't release for another 5 years? Is it a typo of Thunder Force IV?

In the notes it says that track 7 is similar to the 8th screen of Thunder Force IV, but it's actually a new, original track. I think it's a cheeky way of saying that it's actually a cover of that track without actually admitting it. All of the liner notes speak vaguely like this.

For track 11, it references the final shooting stage of a "certain company's" SLG (simulation game) that was for a game system whose production had stopped (probably referring to Dreamcast). Likely it's Segagaga, as that was released for the system on March 29th, 2001 and has both RPG and SLG parts, but I'm not familiar with any of the music.

[Aifread]

When I requested product pages for the Thunder Force games, I hadn't anticipated we would have to deal with the messy post-2000s Technosoft era. But I guess now is as good a time as any. I'll detail what I know that's relevant here, but I'm far from an expert and I welcome any Techosoft fans to chime in with anything I missed or got wrong.

*deep breath*

While Technosoft saw success in the early 90s with a devoted Thunder Force and Herzog fanbase, by the late 90s 2D arcade-style games were going out of fashion and the company was treading water. Thunder Force V received a lukewarm reception and plans for a Thunder Force VI for the Dreamcast fizzled. The company eventually folded and was acquired by a pachinko corporation called Twenty-One. It was around this time that Toshiharu Yamanishi sought out other projects and had a brief stint writing music for Gust.

Here's where things start to get messy. One of Sega's producers, Tetsu Okano, was a big fan of Technosoft and decided to pay tribute to them in Segagaga by incorporating assets from the cancelled Thunder Force VI, including its music. That's why the tracks here are said to be from both Thunder Force VI AND Segagaga.

Things get messier. There are two games that were at some point or another known as Thunder Force VI. The first one, the aforementioned cancelled Dreamcast game, stayed with Technosoft (or what was left of it). Its soundtrack and eventual title first surfaced in 2001 with the release of NOISE IMAGE SOUND TRACK Vol.3 BROKEN THUNDER, but the game itself would remain in development hell until 2006 when it was released as a doujin game. As it was finally approaching release, the team hyped it up with an expanded reprint of the soundtrack that contained remixes from previous Technosoft games (FNAG-0003), complete with the subtitle "Project Thunder Force VI" (this subtitle was also shared with a reissue of the Hyper Duel OST). True to its name, Broken Thunder was made from the broken pieces of a would-be Thunder Force sequel. It suffered from technical and design issues and was ultimately pulled from stores with a promise that it would be fixed and re-released (it wasn't).

I'm not sure if the Technosoft (or ex-Technosoft?) staff was authorized to do any of this. The cryptic liner notes not just on this album but on many of their other releases make it seem like it was all done under Twenty-One's nose.

Shortly after, Tetsu Okano's continued obsession with Technosoft led him to get licensing rights for Sega to do their own Thunder Force VI. As far as I know this game had no involvement whatsoever from Technosoft, and the music was handled by an all-star team of shmup veterans from other series. It ended up being a rehash of previous Thunder Force levels and, like Thunder Force V before it, did not receive a very warm welcome in the 3D era. Almost a decade later, Sega acquired all of Twenty-One's video game licenses, including Technosoft.

TL;DR: There were two Thunder Force VI games, one of which became Broken Thunder after its music was featured in Segagaga.

For our purposes, we can probably consider all tracks from the Dreamcast project to be prototypes for Broken Thunder since that's what the game was ultimately released as, while "Thunder Force VI" should probably be reserved for Sega's PS2 game to avoid any confusion.