LRCD-101: Castlevania Advance Collection Soundtrack

[zierts]

Originally Posted by Brad Evans II

Don't worry, I'm expecting Circle and Harmony to sound like they did on the CD. I doubt Konami made new transfers for LRG when they didn't for their own box set.

Shamelessly plucking this from the other thread to continue a worthwhile discussion here.

Being the same master as the Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance soundtrack sounds more like a threat than anything. The low-quality samples with the hissing of the GBA hardware make for a really unpleasant listening experience for what would otherwise be great music. We'd need something like Patricio Herrera's SynthFont recreations on YouTube, with some proper channel balancing and mastering. And a higher-quality sample version akin to Portrait of Ruin's second disc thrown in for good measure.

Originally Posted by Brad Evans II

Speaking of Harmony and Circle - and Aria as well - am I the only one who has started playing the Advance collection because of the stuff LRG CV stuff being on sale? I was was going to wait until the physical copies of the game started shipping to play it (I know that would be like 6-8 months from now) but I guess I couldn't wait. I'm not going to fight this as I've had the collection DLed for nearly two years* and haven't touched it.

I'm near the end of Circle now, and man, I like it but I forgot how annoying it can be at times. However, I like how I have a better d-pad on the switch as compared to the GBA. My hands don't get as cramped.

* correct me if I'm wrong, but don't these CV collections tend to come out about every two years? I mean if they keep the trend going, should we be getting another collection sometime soon? It be nice to get another one. I wonder... 3D (Lament and Curse) or DS (Dawn, Portrait & Ecclesia)? DS kind of has the split screen problem tho.

I can't say these collections brought me to play the games as I use mostly original hardware but I beat Circle of the Moon a while back. Yes, it definitely has its problems, mostly the lack of a run button, but it's still good fun. And I still can't bring myself to play the other IGAvanias. Igarashi had a scorched earth policy to become the franchise's producer and mobbed the other Castlevania teams into submission every chance he got. It was a hostile takeover. Plus, he maneuvered the plot into a dead end with Aria of Sorrow. All you could do now is kill off Soma and have Dracula return again in a futuristic or post-apocalyptic setting. But all we've seen after Order of Ecclesia is these weird all-star protagonist games with plots even thinner than what we're used to from early Castlevanias.

I was surprised Konami even put those collections out. They buried this and their other "hardcore" franchises a long time ago and everything that's left is a shambling corpse still walking the earth (quite literally in the case of Castlevania and Silent Hill). It's a good thing they can't erase the old games and we can still enjoy these whenever we want.

[LuxKiller65]

I used to hate all the Castlevania produced by Igarashi, but over the years, Harmony of Dissonance became one of my favourite games in the series. Though I still think all the plots/stories of his games are terrible.

Also, they can stop reprinting Castlevania soundtracks if they're all from the same f***ing source again and again and again and again and again. Go away! Leave! Do something else!

[Brad Evans II]

Originally Posted by LuxKiller65

I used to hate all the Castlevania produced by Igarashi, but over the years, Harmony of Dissonance became one of my favourite games in the series. Though I still think all the plots/stories of his games are terrible.

I like all three GBA games, but Harmony and Circle are just weird as hell to me. Harmony just has some curious oddities to it (I swear the game is trying WAY too freakin' hard to be the next Symphony of the Night) but it's those odd quirks that ultimately make it interesting. And yeah, the plots to these games are pretty rubbish, but I honestly thought Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was even worse. (IGA has learned nothing.) If you couldn't guess who the villain was in the first fifteen minutes, I - I just can't help you. I *think* the Curse of the Moon games are a separate continuity (I at least hope so) cause they treat the franchise's characters with more respect.

Originally Posted by LuxKiller65

Also, they can stop reprinting Castlevania soundtracks if they're all from the same f***ing source again and again and again and again and again. Go away! Leave! Do something else!

If Konami wasn't going to fix Harmony and Circle for their own box set, I wasn't expecting them to go that extra mile for Limited Run. Yeah, I passed on the CE cause I've had the OG CD for these in the past. That said, I'm not really solving any problems with my non-purchase cause I bought the dumb LPs even though I know what I'm getting.

[zierts]

Well, if we split the series into two periods of 1986 to 2001 and 2001 to 2024, I know which one I'd favour. I'll eventually give at least Igarashi's 2D games a chance but I really don't like the man.

In a perfect world, companies would put in the effort to preserve their music in the best form possible... And they'd be rewarded by buyers. But they probably have to churn out cheap soundtracks as anything else is not economically viable. Nowadays, for these older games, you need to have enthusiasts working on a soundtrack as a labour of love.

As an aside, do we know of any GBA soundtracks released in the last 10 to 15 years or so, with improved sound quality? I can only think of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Edit: Some Fire Emblem and some Pokémon CDs, judging from our database. It's a rather short list. The GBA was not a good system when it comes to soundtrack releases.

[LuxKiller65]

Igarashi said HoD is indeed some sort of sequel to SotN and that he incorporated in it stuff he didn't manage to put in SotN (like the furniture room). Frankly, when I play HoD and don't think about SotN, I don't really feel they are that close. The colours and music are so off compared to all previous Castlevania games, that it feels like a magic mushroom nightmare-induced spin-off. I think it works great and by 2024, for me it's no doubt the most unique and original entry in the main series. The N64 game is still my favourite though.

I think the two main problems with the CotM/HoD soundtrack release are:
- They needed two discs
- CotM sound quality is not good

I think the HoD part sounds fine, since it uses PSG, am I right? I'm no GBA expert, but it seems this mode of composing music on the GBA was the exception?

[Brad Evans II]

Originally Posted by LuxKiller65

The colours and music are so off compared to all previous Castlevania games, that it feels like a magic mushroom nightmare-induced spin-off.

That's a pretty good way to describe HoD if you ask me. So much of the game feels off to me, but not in a "I can't play this" way but a "it's kind of a trainwreck but it's still interesting" way.

[LuxKiller65]

It has lots of funny and interesting details too. Have a look at this old article if you enjoy the game and the series in general:

https://web.archive.org/web/20210418...ic.php?t=32040

I mean, the game has volcanoes with flashy magma pouring out of them in the background (you're supposed to be inside a castle). And a huge room where crushing a single monster fills it with blood, and you never get to see what the monster looked like. And a creepy merchant who's obviously some sort of Jewish merchant of Venice that appears in random spots in the castle. I like how it's complete nonsense, even for a game that doesn't try to be realistic in any way, but you can choose to see it like subtle humour or scary nightmare.

The game is just in a class of its own. Also thanks to the strange music.

Sorry, this was really out of topic.

[Aifread]

Colors were made brighter and more contrasting in Harmony of Dissonance because one of the main complaints about Circle of the Moon was that the color palette was too dark and muddy to see well on the original non-backlit GBA.

For the music they decided to forgo samples and use entirely PSG so they could fit a larger castle map on the cart. This is a blessing in disguise though, as it lets the brilliance of the compositions stand on their own and contributes to the horror mood that the series had been lacking for a long time. Soshiro Hokkai's use of counterpoint under these limitations is insane. In my opinion it's far and away the best soundtrack of the GBA trilogy and beyond. I'd go so far to say it's the best the series has heard since Dracula's Curse, which it definitely draws from the most.

[Aifread]

Originally Posted by zierts

The GBA was not a good system when it comes to soundtrack releases.

Extend this to handhelds in general. Classic GB is very poorly represented aside from a compilation here and there. DS has a few but it's really not till PSP/3DS and the move away from sequenced music that they become more commonplace.

[zierts]

Originally Posted by Brad Evans II

I like all three GBA games, but Harmony and Circle are just weird as hell to me. Harmony just has some curious oddities to it (I swear the game is trying WAY too freakin' hard to be the next Symphony of the Night) but it's those odd quirks that ultimately make it interesting. And yeah, the plots to these games are pretty rubbish, but I honestly thought Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was even worse. (IGA has learned nothing.) If you couldn't guess who the villain was in the first fifteen minutes, I - I just can't help you. I *think* the Curse of the Moon games are a separate continuity (I at least hope so) cause they treat the franchise's characters with more respect.

From a casual glance, most IGAvanias seem to follow the same plot setup. Even Circle of the Moon. You have the protagonist (Alucard, Nathan, Juste, Soma, Hector), the protagonist's foil who is somehow turned against him but isn't outright evil (Richter, Hugh, Maxim, Graham, Isaac) and the cookie-cutter love interest (Maria, -, Lydie, Mina, Julia).

Also, most of IGA's games somehow feature the same protagonist:



That's a merry band of silver-haired pretty boys!

Originally Posted by LuxKiller65

Igarashi said HoD is indeed some sort of sequel to SotN and that he incorporated in it stuff he didn't manage to put in SotN (like the furniture room). Frankly, when I play HoD and don't think about SotN, I don't really feel they are that close. The colours and music are so off compared to all previous Castlevania games, that it feels like a magic mushroom nightmare-induced spin-off. I think it works great and by 2024, for me it's no doubt the most unique and original entry in the main series. The N64 game is still my favourite though.

Castlevania 64 might be my favourite, too. And what you say about Harmony of Dissonance makes me want to give it a try. It also seemed to me like the black sheep of the IGAvanias and the one that stood out most. I really like its strange music. "Successor of Fate" is completely bonkers and seems to underline the game for it.

Originally Posted by Brad Evans II

That's a pretty good way to describe HoD if you ask me. So much of the game feels off to me, but not in a "I can't play this" way but a "it's kind of a trainwreck but it's still interesting" way.

Nicely put. I think I may have had more fun with the CD-i Zeldas than with everything after Wind Waker.

Originally Posted by Aifread

Extend this to handhelds in general. Classic GB is very poorly represented aside from a compilation here and there. DS has a few but it's really not till PSP/3DS and the move away from sequenced music that they become more commonplace.

You can understand it in a sense. Listening to Game Boy's bleeps and bloops and the GBA's or DS's low-quality samples for 60 minutes straight probably isn't most VGM enthusiasts' idea of a good time. I guess producers deemed it too big a risk to release those soundtracks in what is already a niche market.

[Brad Evans II]

Originally Posted by zierts

That's a merry band of silver-haired pretty boys!

About these protagonist, I have a few points:

Hector: You know, I really want to like Hector (I like CoD despite its faults) but the game does NOTHING with him. The revenge story in the game falls flat IMO (I even read the two volumes of manga on this; it didn't help) and even certain music tracks in the game overplays that clash. I get that's my fault from expecting anything of the plot of a CV game tho.

Soma: How do I say this: I don't hate Soma, I just don't care? Even what's revealed in the game doesn't make him interesting to me. That said, the two games he headlines are some of the better ones, so this isn't a very big infraction.

Juste: My problem with Juste has nothing to do with his personality; it's just his pale skin and after shadow just seem like a frail attempt to replicate Alucard to me. If you took that way I'd probably look upon him a bit better, but then the rest of the game plays a hand in that as well, so it's moot.

I wish I had something concrete to say about Leon - he seems like the kind of character that would have something about him that would irritate me - but I'm surprisingly without complaint for some reason.