Topic: Symphony of the Lament of the Curse of Darkness: A Yamane Appreciation Thread

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Yamane. Dear, sweet, talented Yamane. With your help, Castlevania found it's new identity, it's new defining spirit, for a decade, and then some.
You have given us amazing music time and again. When the games themselves faltered, your soundtracks helped make the experience that much better.

We all have our favorites. Some like Symphony of the Night, others like Order of Ecclesia.
But this is hardly about something so trivial. This is about YOU. No matter the game, your music contributed indelibly to their identities. Even if you weren't the only composer, your spirit could be found in every song. With your music, games that otherwise would have started to blend and blur together became more unique, and yet familiar in a warm and comforting way.

My biggest regret? That you could not have remained longer.

[X]

Yamane didn't do all of the music in SotN. In fact there were three composers (Yamane being one of them). the real tribute to her should be how she was introduced to the world of Castlevania by doing the music for Castlevania: Bloodlines. That was her first work in the series and thought the Genesis limitations held her back in some regard it didn't stop her pulling off a good soundtrack. I did choose SotN since it was the one I remember most of her talents.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

By the way, who composed Chaconne C. Moll in the Saturn Version? It's obviously not a Yamane piece, but it's amazingly awesome all the same.

[Puwexil]

Gonna quote myself on the topic of who did what for Symphony.

Akira Yamaoka is credited for "rhythm arrange" on two tracks, Dracula's Castle and The Tragic Prince. As in, he programmed the drums. Yamane still gets full credit for composing all the songs except two that are remixes from Rondo, and I am the Wind which is by Rika Muranaka and crew. All you can really find to argue otherwise is an ambiguous recollection by Yamaoka himself -- "I helped compose" -- but you can't really tell how far-reaching the implication of something that vague is.

That's really all there is. Yamane is even the arranger on Blood Relations, presumably meaning she also handled Dance of Illusions, the other Rondo-derived track.

As for the Saturn-exclusive songs, the Beginning and Bloody Tears remixes found their way on the Akumajou Dracula Best Music Collections BOX anthology release, being credited to Kaoru Okada (the co-composer of Legends, another KCEN project at the time), Junko Karashima and T. Ohsono. The two lone original tracks from that version - Chaconne C. Moll and Guardian - could also be by them, but who knows.

[KaZudra]

Curse of Darkness still has one of the best soundtracks ever.

[Sumac]

LOI. Absolutely the best.

[K.G. Morder]

Castlevania Bloodlines Music - The prayer of a tragic queen

Prayer of a Tragic Queen is like the big brother to Wood Carving Partita.

[beingthehero]

Yamane gave us easily the best soundtracks, besides the lads who did SCIV's music. Granted, some of her DS tracks could get weak, especially for DoS. On the other hand, her OoE stuff was great.

[shelverton.]

As much as I dislike Curse of Darkness as a game, it has THE best soundtrack on the PS2. Yes, I said it. It's flawless IMO.

And Symphony of the Night, oh Symphony! It's crazy good too. I chose CoD but it was a close one.

I love Yamane. Order of Ecclesia was, however, the soundtrack that made me feel she should move on to something else. It's still a great collection of songs, but there was a bit of filler in there to be honest.

EDIT: I didn't think Yamane had anything to do with DoS, did she?

[Sumac]

I absolutely didn't like her work in DOS and POR, but in OOE she once again made an outstanding job. Soundtrack fits the game like a glove. I'd say the music is a very big part why I like OOE. It is moody and melancholic.

In general I think that CV1, SCV4, CV64, LOI and OOE have the best soundtracks in the old series. And I am mean not only quality of the songs, but how they fit the game alltogether.

[beingthehero]

EDIT: I didn't think Yamane had anything to do with DoS, did she?

She did half of it, while Kimura did the rest. Incidentally, he did the best music (like After Confession).

[Kaori]

I love Symphony's, and Lament's is alright, but I SUPER loved Curse of Darkness' OST. It has the best OST in the whole series, in my opinion. In fact, I think I'm going to have to almost agree with shelverton. I think it has one of the best PS2 OSTs. I'm not sure if I'm willing to say the best, but it's certainly in the top 5 on the PS2, in my opinion.

[K.G. Morder]

Well considering theres only 2 PS2 CV games...

[uzo]

I believe she means all PS2 games, Castlevania or otherwise.

[beingthehero]

CoD's stage and cutscene themes are excellent, but I always thought some of the boss music could be better. They were kind of samey, except for Drac's and Issac's respective battle themes.