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  #1  
Old Feb 7, 2012, 11:55 AM
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HarukameiKasumo HarukameiKasumo is offline
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Default Game Music Similarities.

Note, this post is composed of many posts i made on VG Music similarity topics beforehand modified to fit in and be presented as one topic. I just now decided to bring the discussion here, since, well this is a VG music forum. :P So yeah, i have always been kind of interested in this kind of stuff, hopefully others here are as well. :P

Anyway, this is always a topic i am interested in as i love game music and it always interests me to see where it MIGHT have stemmed from or what it is unusually similar to.

Our Jorney - Breath of Fire II
Wild World - Cat Stevens

It sounds like it all through the song, but for the best impression, i say start it at 0:42 until about 1:30.(I also hear a little of Bay Area form Mighty Final Fight in the CS song as well)

Captain Commando - MvC1
Magic User's Club Opening(OVA Version)

Not just the melody, but listen to how the drum kicks in, it starts a tad later, but it's the same basic beat. When i first watched this, i swore up and down it was going to be a happy version of Cap's theme. LOL The drumming in one part of cap's theme even sounds slightly similar.

Breath of Fire II - A Long Time Ago

Always reminds me of Dhalsim's theme

Dhalsim Theme

EDIT: Can't forget this famous one. I was the first one who noticed this similarity. At least that i know of, possibly someone else did before me, but i don't know them.

M.U.S.H.A. Offensive Overdrive
Incredible Hulk Genesis - Boss 2

This one, i had not heard the original genesis version, but i used to go to VGMusic before any of these video sites like YouTube were around, and then i got IH for the genesis afterwards and i was slightly spooked at how similar the song was. But this was way back in the day, all the way back to 2004. XD

Gemeni Man

1960's Spider-Man Theme

Maybe i'm crazy, but i noticed the similarities, similar beat, similar melody, similar chord progression. etc

This could either be intentional or coincidental, who knows. Not claiming either.


I might be the only one thinking this, but i always thought the Staff Roll theme From Street Fighter Alpha 2 sounded like Rick Astley. Two songs specifically.

Street Fighter Alpha 2 Staff Roll 3 (Note, this song is exclusive from SFA2)

First one that comes to mind. I think i actually remember hearing this and thinking of the SFA2 credits theme. I think of this because the piano part sounds like the you know what part.

The Famous Rick Roll Song

Then it sounds like it begins to delve into this song.

Together Forever - Rick Astley

It has a similar beat and its melody is rather Rick Astley-like, possibly a coincidence, but could have been intentional. Who knows?

And yes i know of Chrono Trigger's Rick Astley thing...It's old, never bring it up. LOL


Enemy Spaceship - Captain Commando

Toxic Seahorse - Mega Man X3

As well as.

Muscle Bomber - Lucky Colt

City - Captain Commando


This might be a bit of a stretch as the similarities aren't that obvious, but there's something oddly similar with Harden My Heart by Quarterflash and Slash Man from Mega Man 7. The beat is entirely different, but the melody, atmosphere, and overall theme are very similar. I heard the song on the radio today and noticed some odd similarities that simply made me think of Slash Man.

Harden My Heart

Slash Man


(Note, this is not my finding, but interesting none the less)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw&ob=av3e

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rqymIimGhQ


Stevie Wonder - Superstition

Vectorman Song


Woe Is The World - Comix Zone

Very Ape- Nirvana

Alternative: Woe is the World Sega Tunes version



Pure Imagination

Windmill Hut


Earthworm Jim- Psy-Crow

Sounds a lot like Lover Boy - Turn Me Loose in the intro, and then goes on to sound like a dance mix of Marc Cohn - Walking in Memphis


I have always thought Final Fight - Stage 5-2 sounded a lot like The Doors - Love Her Madly Same key and atmosphere.

This Version threw in moments that makes it hold more similarities to it.


Buttville 1

na na hey hey kiss him goodbye


Cadillacs and Dinosaurs - Swamp Forest

Live A Live - Wait For Truth

Here's one someone else mentioned also sounded like Swamp Forest.

Live A Live - Kiss of Jealousy

And, that's all i have for now. :P
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  #2  
Old Feb 7, 2012, 12:14 PM
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Quite nice topic

Quote:
Originally Posted by HarukameiKasumo View Post

Our Jorney - Breath of Fire II
Wild World - Cat Stevens

It sounds like it all through the song, but for the best impression, i say start it at 0:42 until about 1:30.(I also hear a little of Bay Area form Mighty Final Fight in the CS song as well)
Either you are incredibly gifted regarding your musical hearing, or I don't get it? I don't see much similarity at all. Maybe very little regarding the melody, but apart from that, the songs differ in speed, chord progression and most of the melody.

Quote:
Muscle Bomber - Lucky Colt

City - Captain Commando

This might be a bit of a stretch as the similarities aren't that obvious, but there's something oddly similar with Harden My Heart by Quarterflash and Slash Man from Mega Man 7. The beat is entirely different, but the melody, atmosphere, and overall theme are very similar. I heard the song on the radio today and noticed some odd similarities that simply made me think of Slash Man.
That could be due to the allegedly same composer Masaki Izutani (T Yomage).
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  #3  
Old Feb 7, 2012, 12:38 PM
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Quote:
Either you are incredibly gifted regarding your musical hearing, or I don't get it? I don't see much similarity at all. Maybe very little regarding the melody, but apart from that, the songs differ in speed, chord progression and most of the melody.
Okay, just to clear up any confusion, which is due to my bad tendency to speak of things in a vague manner, i was talking about 0:42 of Cat Steven's song, just in case that's what it was, if not, then scratch what i said.
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  #4  
Old Feb 8, 2012, 02:10 PM
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I'm well aware of the Wolverine one from MvC1 and 3, but i also thought Cross Counter from Breath of Fire II sounded like the Power Ranger's theme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH5M1wbb5wM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJFvk...eature=related

It's kind of funny that both songs(wolverine and CC) were composed by the same person. To me anyway. lol
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  #5  
Old Feb 8, 2012, 09:40 PM
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So, the opening vocals in Seymour Battle from FFX and Pet Shop Boys' A Red Letter Day always sounded so stylistically similar to me that I can't help but wonder if Uematsu was influenced...

Seymour Battle

A Red Letter Day

Sonic 1 Labyrinth Zone (@ :21) always sounded like Got To Be Real to me...

Labyrinth Zone

Got To Be Real

I'll see if I can think of some more.
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  #7  
Old Feb 9, 2012, 08:04 AM
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Speaking of Pet Shop Boys:

Super Mario Galaxy - Wind Garden (about 1:14)
Go West (main melody)

EDIT: Speaking of Rock Lobster:

Granado Espada - The G Appears (around 00:57)

Last edited by jdkluv; Feb 9, 2012 at 12:09 PM.
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  #8  
Old Feb 9, 2012, 10:13 AM
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Not sure if everyone has seen (heard) this one. This goes a little beyond "similarities".

Mooselini's Rap
Turtles Have Short Legs
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  #9  
Old Feb 9, 2012, 10:06 PM
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I have mentioned this before, but i figured i might as well bring it up here as well. :P

Mission 8 from Area 88 and Wily Tower 4 from Mega Man Wily Wars sound similar to me. Since there is no video on YT of this song, i had to record off of Jukebox and upload it, so you'll have to download if you want to hear it, sorry.

http://www.mediafire.com/?v9phmqqps7rcdr9

And Wily Tower 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx2V1I1RWCc

Also, Nitro Man reminds me of both a little bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doxUxFsXCJs
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  #10  
Old Feb 10, 2012, 06:32 AM
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the beginning of fft ost 1.10 and xenogears ost 1.15 looks alike
when I had played both games, I had noticed that

and I think a track from treasure hunter g and a track from fft have similarities
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  #11  
Old Feb 11, 2012, 10:44 AM
Xenofan 29A Xenofan 29A is offline
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This one's probably more of a conscious homage than anything.

Final Fantasy VII - Cinco de Chocobo

Dave Brubeck - Take Five

This one, on the other hand, is most likely an unconscious "reminiscence".

Xenoblade - Acamoth, Imperial City

Shostakovich - Symphony No. 4 3rd Mvt

The same theme also appears earlier in the movement.
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  #12  
Old Feb 11, 2012, 10:29 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Xenofan 29A View Post
This one's probably more of a conscious homage than anything.

Final Fantasy VII - Cinco de Chocobo

Dave Brubeck - Take Five
Well, consider the fact that "cinco" means "five". So yeah.
(Of course being that the tune is in 5/4....but yeah, it's a pretty clear homage)
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  #13  
Old Feb 12, 2012, 12:43 AM
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there is already a thread for this. maybe they could be merged?

http://vgmdb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7992

i still have some to post some time though~
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  #14  
Old Feb 12, 2012, 05:02 AM
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I think this thread is more VGM -> non-VGM similarities, as opposed to VGM -> VGM
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  #15  
Old Feb 12, 2012, 09:56 PM
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I guess we could consider this a mix of both. Like VGM to either other VGM or Non-VGM similarities. :P
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  #16  
Old Feb 13, 2012, 12:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HarukameiKasumo View Post
Ah, so someone heard this one as well....

I approve of this topic, so here are a small handful of what I know of the top of my head...

Gustav Holst - Wars, Bringer of War
Mario Series - Airship Theme

This one speaks for itself...
Metal Gear Solid Theme/Sviridov Comparison.

I refuse, REFUSE to give you the similarity of this one.
Arc Rise Fantasia - The Decisive Battle
?????? - ????????

And Speaking of Shostakovitch....

Symphony 5 - Finale
Mother 3 - Porky's Theme

That'll be it for now.
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  #17  
Old Feb 13, 2012, 01:09 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jdkluv View Post
I think this thread is more VGM -> non-VGM similarities, as opposed to VGM -> VGM
I wonder if there is plagiarism in vgm (because similarities could lead to that -I don't mean classical music etc.), I know in anime there is
some years ago, there was a sort of polemic about yoko kanno and her works
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  #18  
Old Feb 13, 2012, 01:18 PM
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Oh, not this again. Kanno is heavily influenced by various (classical) composers and of course this shows. However this has nothing to do with plagiarism...
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  #19  
Old Feb 13, 2012, 01:20 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LiquidAcid View Post
Oh, not this again. Kanno is heavily influenced by various (classical) composers and of course this shows. However this has nothing to do with plagiarism...
Isn't that the line pro-kanno people throw around when this subject comes around? :P

And some of Kanno stuff do sound almost like plagiarism, but then who knows if she just got influenced by the music she was listening before composing or what.
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Old Feb 13, 2012, 01:21 PM
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I had heard she used a song or songs from a french singer/composer (among other ones): laurent voulzy for cowboy bebop, I think
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  #21  
Old Feb 13, 2012, 01:22 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LiquidAcid View Post
Oh, not this again. Kanno is heavily influenced by various (classical) composers and of course this shows. However this has nothing to do with plagiarism...
Right on. I was just about to post this relevant Mitsuda example as well, regardless.

Tsugunai - The Pub

LĂșnasa - MĂ­ Na Nollag
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  #22  
Old Feb 13, 2012, 01:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Razakin View Post
Isn't that the line pro-kanno people throw around when this subject comes around? :P
Maybe. But I'm not pro-kanno. I'm just contra-people-who-ramdomly-accuse-other-people-of-things-they-don't-know-shit-about.

EDIT: Also, didn't we have exactly this discussion here before?
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  #23  
Old Feb 13, 2012, 02:01 PM
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Well, let's get back on track before this topic gets flooded with more arguments and less comparisons.
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Old Feb 13, 2012, 02:13 PM
Xenofan 29A Xenofan 29A is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Razakin View Post
Isn't that the line pro-kanno people throw around when this subject comes around? :P

And some of Kanno stuff do sound almost like plagiarism, but then who knows if she just got influenced by the music she was listening before composing or what.
Unconscious influence is much more common than one might think. The most important thing, to my mind, when judging whether something is plagiarism or not is whether the "substance" of one piece/song was used as the substance of another or not. If the composer rips off some relatively insignificant portion of a larger work (like the Shostakovich example I mentioned) and creates something completely different around it, then it's not a problem in my opinion.

As for Kanno, at least some of the accusations I've run into are pretty spurious. There may be some truth to others though. I know that anime composers work under tighter deadlines than video game composers (more like film composers in that way), so they have to write to temp tracks and such more often.

There's also the grey area of sampling, but I hold to what I said above. If it's used as the basis of something, rather than substituting for it, it's okay by me.
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Old Feb 13, 2012, 10:16 PM
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One i just remembered.

Long Distance - Revenge of Shinobi

Iron Maiden - Aces High Listen to this at around 1:24 and you'll see.
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  #26  
Old Feb 14, 2012, 12:08 PM
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Speaking of subconcious appropriation:

Jim Power - Level 1

Ys III - A Searing Struggle

Nature of inspiration *apparently* confirmed by Hulsbeck.
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  #27  
Old Feb 14, 2012, 02:56 PM
Xenofan 29A Xenofan 29A is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rhythmroo View Post
Gustav Holst - Wars, Bringer of War
Mario Series - Airship Theme
Oh, it's much more common than just that.

Front Mission 2 - Player Battle (Normal)

Front Mission 2 - Player Battle (Heavy)


This one's a little further away, but it has the 5/8 meter of Mars, and some bits are similar.

Xenosaga - Gnosis

I know there are many examples I'm forgetting at the moment.
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Old Feb 14, 2012, 05:04 PM
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Haven't I posted the Kanno-Similarities thread at least twice on this board? Yes, there's some serious plagiarism in here catalogue that needs to be addressed. I've gone through all the cases personally, and her theft in many of those cases is undeniable.

http://ykdb.monkey-pirate.com/index.php?topic=8.0

I'm a bit disappointed in the Tsugunai Pub similarity--that's pretty close. However a lot of these are pretty far from the mark. For example the Mars stuff--sure the Mario 3 tune is obvious, but the FM2 tracks? Not a chance. You could say that all martial orchestral themes written since 1900 are influenced by Mars, but few are true lifts (might want to ask Hans Zimmer about that).
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Old Feb 14, 2012, 06:30 PM
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Dissidia 012 - Cantata Mortis
Verdi Requiem - Libera me
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  #30  
Old Feb 14, 2012, 07:57 PM
Xenofan 29A Xenofan 29A is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jormungand View Post
For example the Mars stuff--sure the Mario 3 tune is obvious, but the FM2 tracks? Not a chance. You could say that all martial orchestral themes written since 1900 are influenced by Mars, but few are true lifts (might want to ask Hans Zimmer about that).
I wasn't trying to imply that these were plagiarism, per se, just based on that very popular template. There's a big difference between that and outright plagiarism like Gladiator. And I think that distinctive parts of Mars are indeed emulated (but not copied) in those tracks.
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