Topic: Castlevania Music

[Pfil]

So, there's been some talk recently about the music of the saga, especially about the difference between the MS games and all previous 25 years of tradition, and luckily, most people seem to miss the old kind of soundtracks and want the next games to return to that.
Of course, I am one of them. Every time I listen to the new soundtracks I can't help thinking that a very important part is missing (and not going into details of other things I consider they are missing).
But I'd like to see what everyone thinks about it, so I decided to create a topic for that.
In the end, it's always a matter of personal preferences.
Do you miss what Castlevania music used to be? Do you want it to return?
What do you expect in the next games? Any composer in particular?
Etc.. Feel free to say anything

[Shiroi Koumori]

One of the main reasons why I liked Castlevania is its music.
Personally, I missed the old soundtracks and I'd like a return to that.
There is really something in those old soundtracks that is not present in the LOS trilogy. I can't put exactly my finger on what is missing but there is a hole.

Well, since we do not know which studio is making the next batch of Castlevania games, I will not make any expectations lest I'd be disappointed in the end.
I miss Yamane. 

~~~
Oh by the way, who here has bought the Akumajo Dracula Best Music Collections BOX? I'm curious about the DVD.

[Kingshango]

Some of my favorite video game music comes from Castlevania games.  It would have been nice if the Aruajo/Yamane collaboration went though but Konami big wigs wouldn't allow it to happen and told them to go off into another direction with the music instead. The music in LOS1, while it fit the theme of the game, it didn't fit as a Castlevania game. But to be honest, if you took the upbeat tunes of previous Castlevania's and put it in Lords of Shadow, it doesn't really fit well if at all with the game (believe me I've tried). On the plus side the music in Mirror of Fate (aside from the battle themes) is a baby step in the right direction as it sounds reminiscent of Castlevania 64. Also, LOS2 is suppose to incorporate both orchestral and electronic synth, hopefully it comes out well.

If they can get Yamane back for whatever Castlevania game comes out after LOS2, then at least get Yuzo Koshiro somehow (he isn't really doing shit anyway) but if a western team gets a shot next, then it's gotta be Wayforward cause Jake Kaulfman will surely be at the helm.

[Lelygax]

Oh by the way, who here has bought the Akumajo Dracula Best Music Collections BOX? I'm curious about the DVD.

Can me more specific please? I've all the musics that come with this collection, separated by CD folders, with their respective names and all, also I have images of the package, its almost a "digital version" of this.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Can me more specific please?

http://castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Castlevania_Best_Music_Collections_BOX
Disc 19.

[Lelygax]

Thats new to me, since I never knew of this special DVD I never searched about it. Now Im curious too.

[Pfil]

http://castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Castlevania_Best_Music_Collections_BOX
Disc 19.

Wow! Now I have to get that! If I find it I will post the download link (it's allowed, right?).

Some of my favorite video game music comes from Castlevania games.  It would have been nice if the Aruajo/Yamane collaboration went though but Konami big wigs wouldn't allow it to happen and told them to go off into another direction with the music instead. The music in LOS1, while it fit the theme of the game, it didn't fit as a Castlevania game. But to be honest, if you took the upbeat tunes of previous Castlevania's and put it in Lords of Shadow, it doesn't really fit well if at all with the game (believe me I've tried). On the plus side the music in Mirror of Fate (aside from the battle themes) is a baby step in the right direction as it sounds reminiscent of Castlevania 64. Also, LOS2 is suppose to incorporate both orchestral and electronic synth, hopefully it comes out well.

If they can get Yamane back for whatever Castlevania game comes out after LOS2, then at least get Yuzo Koshiro somehow (he isn't really doing shit anyway) but if a western team gets a shot next, then it's gotta be Wayforward cause Jake Kaulfman will surely be at the helm.

I tried playing with several soundtracks too. It's natural it didn't fit, because while the music didn't feel like CV to me, the game didn't feel either, so putting Curse of Darkness soundtrack while playing LoS, while improving the overall experience, didn't fit. That's true.
LoS should have a medieval fantasy game without the CV name (and it had potential to be a good one, by the way). But that's another story.

I totally agree with Yuzo Koshiro, his tracks in Portrait of Ruin were spectacular!
And I also totally agree with Jake Kaufman, his work on Bloodrayne: Betrayal is very reminiscent of CV, and he is a declared life-long fan of the saga.

One of the main reasons why I liked Castlevania is its music.
Personally, I missed the old soundtracks and I'd like a return to that.
There is really something in those old soundtracks that is not present in the LOS trilogy. I can't put exactly my finger on what is missing but there is a hole.

Well, since we do not know which studio is making the next batch of Castlevania games, I will not make any expectations lest I'd be disappointed in the end.
I miss Yamane. 

I, too, was atracted to Castlevania for its music first. For example, I listened the SOTN soundtrack before playing it, and I liked it so much that I played the game... and the rest is history. Twice in my life (2005 and 2012) I played all CV available games in a row, in a time period of about 2 months.
I miss Yamane too
...but I have hope that any other of previous composers will return someday. Yasuhiro Ichihashi did a wonderful work in Order of Eclessia, and I am, since 2008, waiting for his next CV tunes.

Anyway, perhaps 2014 will finally satisfy us and we'll have another Castlevania album to listen forever!

[Shiroi Koumori]

Wow! Now I have to get that! If I find it I will post the download link (it's allowed, right?).

For example, I listened the SOTN soundtrack before playing it, and I liked it so much that I played the game... and the rest is history.

Anyway, perhaps 2014 will finally satisfy us and we'll have another Castlevania album to listen forever!

Yes, please post the link if ever you get to find it. A lot of people here would appreciate it.

That happened to me too with SOTN. I loved it so much that when I went to Japan, I hunted the official soundtrack. 

2014, perhaps, perhaps. Hoping. (Please....!)

[Lelygax]

If it doesnt come. Atleast we can wait until 2035 and try to enter Dracula's Castle in Japan.

[Shiroi Koumori]

If it doesnt come. Atleast we can wait until 2035 and try to enter Dracula's Castle in Japan.

Oooohhh nice one! I'm gonna be searching for Arikado when we get to the castle. teeheehee~~~

[Puwexil]

then at least get Yuzo Koshiro somehow (he isn't really doing shit anyway)

Koshiro has scored four Etrian Odyssey games over the past six years, and they count as some of the strongest work of his career. I'm sure he has other pursuits as well, but that alone justifies anything he has or hasn't been up to as of late. His Portrait of Ruin output was merely tolerable.

If Kaufman's BloodRayne: Betrayal soundtrack is any indication of how he'd approach a Castlevania-related project, I'd prefer the two never cross paths. It managed to embody the worst excesses of the series' sound as trash like Judgment and Harmony of Despair presented it, full of indulgences into the realm of uninspired metal riffs filtered through a vague "gothic" soundscape. Frankly speaking, it was nightmarish to listen to.

Personally, I keep daydreaming of Hitoshi Sakimoto lending his craft to the franchise, but a daydream it is. Yousuke Yasui could potentially turn out something incredible, too. They're not alike as composers, but those with talent always carry the possibility of discovering new facets of the series and its musical identity. I'd rather witness that than endlessly repeated and increasingly diluted iterations on the past, which only leads to self-cannibalization.

[VladCT]

Oooohhh nice one! I'm gonna be searching for Arikado when we get to the castle. teeheehee~~~

Good luck finding a guy who seems to always be somewhere else.

[Lelygax]

Its easy, we have photos lol

[K.G. Morder]

I dig the classic tunes as much as the next guy, but I think there's something to be said for some change to freshen things up.

I had no problem with LoS orchestral music. Most of it was pretty damn good. The main LoS theme is a great piece, and I particularly like the orchestra remixes of the old tunes like the Waterfall, Courtyard, etc, you know the ones. I think the LoS soundtrack is terribly underrated. I've heard some similar orchestral soundtracks in other modern games and some of them DO sound pretty generic, but I'd say LoS is very much unique. It's problem is not quality of music, but quantity, i'd say.

[Pfil]

With all respect, I have to disagree about LoS music. I think that, to the contrary, it is very overrated. Don't take it as an offense, please.

Harmony of Dissonance did a good job of freshen the saga sound, at least for a single game. It took a while for me to assimilate and understand the progressive sound of the game, and what was the composer thinking, but when I got it, I had to recognize it was pretty good. At first I didn't like it, but then I was OK with it, and I even put some themes on my favourites selection folder, even listened to the whole soundtrack from time to time.

Legacy of Darkness was another example of a soundtrack that took some time to understand... heck, even the game felt weird the first time for me. But, in time, I understood it and it felt like Castlevania. It's some unique sound.

But with LoS, no matter how hard I try, I can't find anything.
Castlevania can do good with orchestral music, but there are some basics that must be followed. What Araujo did for the MS games sounds similar to another games or movies he made, and that's why it doesn't have the CV soul on it. It's Araujo's common sound.
Something similar like when Hans Zimmer and his composers are criticized for rehashing over and over the same soundtracks, for medieval movies, knights movies, pirates, or even for animation flicks like Rango, or Happy Feet 2, which sounds like something epic but it's just a cartoon about some penguins (this last one made by John Powell, who works with HZ).

Another games had beautiful orchestral sound... Knights Contract (PS3), Knights of the Temple (PS2... mediocre game, but some excellent tracks in the OST)... even the Devil May Cry saga had some beautiful orchestral tracks.
Castlevania could do with something similar. Like I previously said on another topic... something like the orchestral tracks for the cutscenes in Lament of Innocence.

But the Oscar Araujo compositions, besides having good sounds and arrangements, lack in melody, and especially in chord progressions. That's where the soul is.
You can study Castlevania compositions and you will always find cadenzas, chord progressions and arrangements that, though they vary, they also have something similar.
And that goes from the very first game to Order of Eclessia, every game, every composer, every soundtrack.
In Lords of Shadow, Araujo threw away everything that always constituted CV signature music and did what he likes to do.
To most people, it was a good soundtrack. I don't even think it is good as a Hollywood soundtrack, which is what MS intended to do. In case of having orchestral sound, CV should have had a soundtrack similar to Hans Zimmer's Gladiator, or Klaus Badelt's Solomon Kane.
In that case, many of us would have liked it a lot more, or at least I would have.
But still it wouldn't have been Castlevania to my (and many people's) ears.