I’ll post them here and on Twitter every Tuesday and Thursday using the hashtag #KongsTdayTunes.

#17

The music in Shining Force is characteristically bubbly and upbeat to match the vibrant colours and generally cheerful look and feel. This battle theme is fast-paced and exhilarating, evoking a sense of danger and menace. But its brilliance lies in the fact that the song takes up the main town theme as part of its repeating melody—it just makes it faster and scarier.

Shining Force is a great game, and one of its great strengths is how coherent it feels, from graphics and UI and design, to sound, to theme.

Track: “Battle Theme 4” (YouTube Link)
Game: Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention (Genesis, 1992)
Composer: Masahiko Yoshimura

I’ll post them here and on Twitter every Tuesday and Thursday using the hashtag #KongsTdayTunes.

#25

By the time Dark Wizard came out in North America in 1994, I had already played a few strategy and tactical games, but several things stood out to me about this one. Mechanically, it let you create and name your own generic units; I loved how they seemed to take on a personality in my own inner story as they increased in power and found a place in my army.

Structurally, it’s essentially four intertwining games. You have to select a protagonist, and the story unfolds differently depending on your choice. The paths don’t diverge too wildly, but the other characters make guest appearances here and there. Even though I’ve played all four paths, the music I’m highlighting here is Amon’s theme. There’s some grand, epic, heroic music in this game, but Amon’s music is this creepy, sinister string-based piece that opens up into a soaring middle. It characterizes the style of his conquest in the game, and it just sounds great.

Dark Wizard was developed and published by Sega, who presumably still owns the rights. Why haven’t they re-released this game in any of their gigantic retro collections? They need to pluck their claws out of the Genesis library and release a smoothed-out version of this game on modern systems!

Track: “Amon – The Wicked” (YouTube Link)
Game: Dark Wizard (Sega CD, 1993)
Composers: Keisuke Tsukahara, Sachio Ogawa, Izuho Numata, Masaru Setsumaru, Yoshimi Hishida, Shouko Ogawa