An Excitement for Music

March 18, 2018, 8:18 AM · So I was on a morning walk, and before heading outside in the sunny day I watched an unboxing video for the brand-new Ni No Kuni II! This game will have the same composer (and still played by the Tokyo Philharmonic) as the first game, which I mentioned in a recent post. So during my walk I decided to listen to the soundtrack of the first game, and what a mix of strange emotions I felt! It was nostalgic because it reminded me of listening to my Doctor Who soundtrack on a walk in 2013, I was thinking of previous soundtracks I've listened to on walks: Lord of the Rings, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and a little Final Fantasy (Nobuo Uematsu) with the Japanese quality to it; and I was thinking about my love of music and the violin and how this clashed with my love of both video games as a whole and enjoying them through my favorite YouTuber, Stampy. I love some of the techniques Hisaishi uses - whole-tone scales, a little pentatonic, 5 beats in a bar and other mixed meters - one track seems to flow freely from 2/4, 3/4 and 3/8 - and fantastic orchestration things, like the violins and trumpets having this fantastical melody together, the beautiful piano melody that I remember hearing over and over throughout the game, even some table and sitar for Al Mamoon, the desert town, tambourine for the fantasy castle, etc. So yeah, I just thought I'd share this experience here as it helped me start my day today and just make me incredibly happy with how I'm spending my time nowadays!

The brand new Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom will be released on the 23rd of March. I'm very excited to watch through it - and enjoy another great soundtrack!

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UPDATE: It's now the next morning, and I purchased three tracks from the Ni No Kuni score: "World Map", "Ding Dong Dell - The Cat King's Castle", and "Miracle - Reunion". As I was listening in particular to the third track, as the piano melody kicked in, I remembered instantly all of the big sad or inspirational cutscenes in the game, and it brought me back to those moments. In looking ahead to the sequel, assuming I will still be watching through it for (at least!) the rest of this year, I'm excited to, as I go to the movie theater and hear new film scores, apply them especially to the score to Ni No Kuni II, since these are VERY cinematic tracks. I might also add that I was binging Stampy’s series on the first game around a difficult time in my life recently (February 2018), and some of the score (especially the piano for the “Reunion” track I mentioned above) really colliding with the game’s story really touched me and helped me through a little more. I’m excited for the same to happen and think on during this new sequel as I watch through it in the coming months starting Friday.

And finally, here is a short video of the orchestra and comments from the composer and director of the game.

UPDATE: here is the game's soundtrack on YouTube. If you have a PS4, go and support the game by buying it! My thoughts from listening to it on walks? I love how he brings back melodies from the first game in it! From the first few episodes of Stampy's series on it, the game looks fantastic too, and I can't wait to watch him play it to the end!

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An Excitement for Music

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