MAGFest X Recap: EARTHBOUND PAPAS Q&A Interview


Following their amazing performance at MAGFest X, the EARTHBOUND PAPAS gracefully held a Q&A panel the following morning that we were able to attend. Suffice to say, we learned tons of things about some of our favorite composers, including lighter facts about their personal lives (all of EBPs apparently love steak and beer, would rather ride chocobos than cars, and listen to the Doors) and their subsequent experiences as songwriters, as members in a band, and at Square Enix.

An official MAGFest video of the EBPs panel has been embedded above. Although we’ve managed to cover the entire transcription of the EARTHBOUND PAPAS panel below for instant gratification, the band answers almost every question you’ve been dying to know about video game music composition, dealing with issues of what Final Fantasy VIII song you should play to propose to your girlfriend to more serious matters of dealing with the evolution of gaming hardware and the reality behind dealing with composition as a career.

By the way, have you heard about the EARTHBOUND PAPAS remix/arrange contest? If not, you should keep informed to win a chance to be a guest performer on the next EBP album!

[EXPAND CLICK HERE for the complete transcription of the EARTHBOUND PAPAS Q&A Panel]

ANNOUNCER: Well, first off, let’s give a round of applause from these guys coming all the way to MAGFest. Applause and whistling.

HANYUDA: Ah, good morning everyone. My name is Arata Hanyuda, the drummer of the EARTHBOUND PAPAS. Thank you for coming.

HIROTA: Did you enjoy yesterday’s show? Round of applause and cheers. Thank you. I’m the bass player, Yoshitaka Hirota.

UEMATSU: Good morning, I’m Nobuo Uematsu. Thank you very much for coming, we really enjoyed last night’s show. Thank you very much.

NARITA: Good morning. I’m Tsutomu Narita, keyboard and guitars.

OKAMIYA: Hello? Hello. Laughs. You all rock, no, no, you rock. My name Michio Okamiya, guitar.

TRANSLATOR: Okay, my name is Shida. I’ll be translating this panel. So, do you guys have any questions now? I don’t know how we’re gonna do this, but let’s line you guys up in front of the microphone and have you guys ask questions.

INTERVIEWER, roughly translated: What are you favorite foods?

HANYUDA: Hamburger. Hamburger and steak.

HIROTA: Sushi and steak.

UEMATSU: I like ramen and steak.

NARITA: I like pasta and steak.

OKAMIYA: Sandwiches and steak.

INTERVIEWER: We all know Nobuo likes Sam Adams, so what’s your favorite drinks in Japan? Type and brand if you could, please.

OKAMIYA: Abashiri Beer. And steak.

NARITA: Green soda.

UEMATSU: You mean, Japanese brand?

INTERVIEWER: Yes.

UEMATSU: Abashiri beer is very good, you know?

HIROTA: Um, miso soup. And steak.

HANYUDA: Gravy sauce on steak.

INTERVIEWER: I just want to ask some of your favorite compositions that you made that may not be the fan favorites that we might really know that much that may be personal favorites?

UEMATSU: “Slam Shuffle”. Applause.

INTERVIEWER: As some of us know, the EARTHBOUND PAPAS CDs that you brought along are completely sold out and I was just wondering if there’s any chance they might be put up on American sites, like Amazon.com and the like for other people to purchase?

TRANSLATOR: Okay, you can buy it from Dog Ear Records website and he can tell you more about that, he’s from Dog Ear Records. Points at representative off-stage.

INTERVIEWER: Oh hi. This goes for all of you, or mainly Nobuo. When you come up with music, how do you know when the scene’s going to fit when you make the music in your games?

UETMATSU, trans.: You kind of have to do it when you’re so close to the deadline. Smiles and nods head.

INTERVIEWER: Can I get a hug?

UEMATSU stands up and places arms in hugging motion. INTEVIEWER runs up and gives Uematsu, the rest of the members and translator a hug. Laughs and applause heard all around.

INTERVIEWER: Thank you very much for the great concert last night. My question is for composers who have done both animation and video game music. What are some of the challenges of animation versus video games in composing music?

UEMATSU, trans.: Probably the biggest difference is, well, first of all, the technology is so advanced now, so, sound quality-wise it’s not that different. But for anime music, even if you compose a long piece, they may use a second of it or two seconds of it.  And for video games, you don’t know how long the player is going to spend on certain stages so you kind of have to worry about the loops.

INTERVIEWER: I’m just wondering what other projects you’ve enjoyed doing in your time before this span? What ones were your favorite to work on? Anything ranging from games to performances.

TRANSLATOR: You mean the whole band?

INTERVIEWER: Yeah.

UEMATSU, trans.: I have worked on so many projects but nothing in particular stands out because I love them all. Particularly speaking, Fantasy Life which is a 3DS game which is coming out pretty soon, I composed a bunch of different styles of genres and composed about seventy to eighty different pieces of music. It was a really different side of me and I enjoyed it quite a lot.

HANYUDA, trans.: When I worked at Square Enix on Final Fantasy XI, we did a lot of fan festivals and that was probably the most enjoyable thing.

HIROTA, trans.: Well, I can’t speak the title, but there’s a PS Vita game that I worked on and I have tended to like recent games more. And also, playing in the rock band that I really love.

TRANSLATOR: I’m sure he’s talking about EARTHBOUND PAPAS.

NARITA, trans.: I enjoy all the works that I am involved with, but particularly Green Saga, that’s the TV animation that I worked with Uematsu-san. That was the first thing that I worked on with him and that was probably the most memorable thing.

OKAMIYA, trans.: You may not know this, but I worked on this software on DS that’s a KORG DS-10 and also the Black Mages.

INTERVIEWER: Good morning. You guys had an awesome concert last night. I want to know what your favorite moment was or a memorable moment while you were recording for your new band.

NARITA, trans.: There’s this song called “Homecoming” on the EARTHBOUND PAPAS CD. It’s the last song. And when we recorded the percussion loop, we got together at Uematsu-san’s place and we surrounded the microphone and just played a bunch of instruments all together. I remember that quite strongly.

UEMATSU, trans.: We recorded a lot of stuff in my home studio and there’s one thing you don’t have to worry about if you do that: there’s no fee for renting the studio so you can keep doing it for as many hours as possible, but I probably spent more time for smoking and drinking. Laughter and applause ensues.

OKAMIYA, trans.: For Black Mages, everyone brought their arrangements and we played exactly from the sheet music. But this time, we kind of brought in rough ideas to the studio and we worked together as a band and it felt really like a band.

HIROTA, trans.: There’s a song called “Bo-Kon-Ho-Ko” on EARTHBOUND PAPAS album and there’s a place that I do rap. Murmuring laughter. I recorded and dubbed two different voices, a regular voice and also a lower, registered voice. And in the studio, I would be talking in the lower voice and everyone would make fun of me.

HANYUDA, trans.: The girl who worked at the mastering studio…. she was really cute.

INTERVIEWER: I guess just had a question for everyone who had worked at Square [Enix] in the past… What was it like working with the whole team and working with Sakaguchi-san [former president of Square Enix] and in the end, when the game is finished, coming together and seeing the fruition of all your hard work?

UEMATSU, trans.: It’s been twenty-five years but the best experience was the company was really, really small when I joined. There were only about twenty people and Sakaguchi was only a college kid back then… But because of the success of the Final Fantasy series, the company kept growing and to see that happening was the best experience.

HIROTA, trans.: I remember exchanging letter openings with the staff and sound effects teams. When I went to the refreshing room, Uematsu-san would be talking to other staff members and if I listened too closely, they were thinking about jokes to tell to people. I remember that strongly.

HANYUDA, trans.: I appreciate Square Enix for having me meet Uematsu-san and also the video games. Pause. And also meeting my wife at Square Enix.

OKAMIYA, trans.: The first I worked on was Final Fantasy IV, and I initially joined the company as a PR person and Sakaguchi-san told me not to play music as much, just to focus on promotion. But Sakaguchi-san also plays the guitar and his effectors are, I have his effectors and it says Hironobu on it, his name. And I have a twelve-string guitar, which was owned by him that he got from Uematsu-san.

INTERVIEWER: Good morning, first I’d like to say thank you for answering our questions this morning. My question is directed to Nobuo: you’ve worked with a lot of different technology through the evolution of video games from Nintendo to today. Each system has its own sound, so my question is what technology was your favorite to work with?

UEMATSU, trans.: I’m not really particular about the hardware and technology. I think what moves people is the melody, great melody, so I don’t really care about the hardware or what hardware I work on.

INTERVIEWER: Also, one more thing: earlier this morning, my friend dropped his wallet in the lobby and someone on your team picked it up and returned it so he’d like to thank you.

HANYUDA raises his hand and nods. Loud applause is heard.

INTERVIEWER: Good morning. First of all, thank you for a wonderful concert last night. It was an honor to listen to you all play. My question is a little similar to the last one. For those of you who worked on composing for Famicom and Super Famicom, and also composed for the modern systems, did you find that you had to be more creative to work within the limitations of the older hardware or do you find now that you can really express your full creativity now that there’s, you know, one compressed audio in the new systems?

UEMATSU, trans.: The ones with the limitations, you can be more creative. When you work under limitations, you have to look at certain things and you really have to be creative and you think a lot. Now that you don’t have any limitations, you don’t really do as much work.

INTERVIEWER: Hola. Tu eres… Okay, well, you describe your music and your songs as being your children. He describes his music and his melodies as his children. Well, I would like to show your my firstborn. My first child. Plays guitar.

HANYUDA gets up and begins playing drums. When INTERVIEWER stops, members of EARTHBOUND PAPAS clap.

INTERVIEWER: Thank you. I guess for question, it would be: If you were a ‘summon’, if you had to choose to be one ‘summon’, which ‘summon’ would you choose?

HANYUDA: Ifrit! Noticeable surprised gasps and cheers.

HIROTA: Shiva.

UEMATSU: Shiva, me too.

NARITA: Mogri.

OKAMIYA: Bahamut.

INTERVIEWER: Thank you for being here, so happy to be able to talk to you. I want to ask my girlfriend to marry to me and I want the tone with a piece of music from Final Fantasy VIII. I was wondering what piece I should use.

UEMATSU: “Eyes On Me”.

HANYUDA, jokingly: “Don’t Be Afraid”. Band members clap in unison.

NARITA: “Maybe I’m a Lion”.

INTERVIEWER: Thank you coming out to Washington D.C. to play for us last night. This is a question for everyone — if you could be a creature from the entire Final Fantasy series as a pet, which creature would you pick and why?

NARITA: Moogle. [Trans.] Because a moogle is comical.

UEMATSU, trans.: You know, the vehicles are really bad for the environment so I would ride on a chocobo.

HIROTA, trans.: He would like to take a walk with a Cerberus.

HANYUDA: I’d like to rave with Knights of the Round. Laughter.

OKAMIYA: Gilgamesh. Cheers heard. [Trans.] I’d like to have a younger brother like Gilgamesh.

INTERVIEWER: You guys have written for Final Fantasy for a long time and you’ve done a whole bunch of similar situations for compositions; you have a battle situation, a boss situation, a world map. How do you avoid writing the same melodic ideas, or having a varied piece every time composed for similar situations?

UEMATSU, trans.: I feel like I’m making kind of similar things all the time. Is that okay? Giggling heard in audience.

INTERVIEWER: Thank you very much for the excellent concert last night. I’m just curious, what are some of the highlights of MAGFest that you’re going to tell people why we’re so awesome? [This is] for everyone.

TRANSLATOR: Square Enix… or….

INTERVIEWER: No, just in general. Like the concert last night.

UEMATSU, trans.: They paid for the meals.

HIROTA, trans.: So much beer.

HANYUDA, trans.: The nice environment. View and everything. The lady who came in last night for the session, she said she was going to Kushima to volunteer for nine months and I was very, very impressed by that.

NARITA, trans.: I love this place, it’s beautiful architecture, the hall is great, the hotel is great, and the lighting show downstairs… Ogawa-san there ran down as soon as he saw it and took a bunch of pictures.

OKAMIYA, trans.: I don’t see these community-based events in Japan that much and I would love to come here next year, too. Please give some hands to the staff, to the people who worked on the concert. They worked very hard. Applause all around the room.

INTERVIEWER: Hi, my question is for Nobuo. How you were approached to compose the opera from [Final Fantasy] VI and what was the inspiration behind it?

UEMATSU, trans.: I had never written anything like that before and Sakaguchi-san said like “let’s do something fun, something bombastic” so I wrote my first opera piece. As soon as the game came out, Koichi Sugiyama from Dragon Quest, he called me up and he knows for opera — he’s a trained composer — and he said, “why didn’t you talking to me before you wrote it?” Laughter.

INTERVIEWER: I was a piano player when I was a kid and came home after playing Final Fantasy VI and told my mom, “I think there’s a video game that has Beethoven in it”. I didn’t know at the time that it was you. You’ve been a huge inspiration on my life, I’m now a composer. I just want to know, was there ever a turning point in your life that gave you as much inspiration as you’ve given me?

UEMATSU, trans.: I had a lot of LPs back home when I was a kid, but they’re mostly classical music. I didn’t really think about doing music for a living but when I started listening to rock and pop jams, I felt like “maybe I can do this”. That was my turning point.

INTERVIEWER: First of all, thank you so much for coming here, I’ve been in love with the Final Fantasy series for a long time now and it’s just a great honor to be able to meet you and hear you perform live, which was a fantastic performance last night. I was wondering, what’s kind of the process for the creation of character themes? How do you draw inspiration to really capture the essence of Final Fantasy characters in music?

UEMATSU, trans.: I read the dialogues quite a lot before I compose anything, and I think about what kind of voice the character has and what kind of character or personality he has, then I make it.

INTERVIEWER: I’m very nervous. First off, I’d like to thank you for last night and staying late to sign those autographs. That was very gracious of you. We all appreciate that so very much. My question for you is: is there any American music in particular that you like or that has inspired you? For everyone.

UEMATSU, trans.: I probably know about American music more than any one of you here. Laughter. I grew up listening to a lot of American music because I wanted to be, decided to be a composer when I was in middle school and I thought I’d obtain Japanese music from somewhere else so I didn’t listen to and shut out a lot of Japanese music. I’d spend a lot of time listening to Top 40s Billboard hits.

INTERVIEWER: What about the Doors?

UEMATSU, trans.: We listen to Doors and I love it.

HANYUDA: Metallica. Laughter. Especially “Fight Fire with Fire”. Do you know that?  And “Battery”.

HIROTA: Nine Inch Nails. Cheers heard. [Trans.] I was inspired more by American rock music than Japanese music.

NARITA, trans.: I listened to quite a lot of classical music and film scores as well as rock music like Metallica. My dream was listening to New York Phil and Chicago Symphony here in the U.S., but another dream came true before that, which is performing to you as a rock band.

OKAMIYA, trans.: They said what I wanted to say. Laughs. Was going to name some professional wrestlers. I love funk music. Other than what Uematsu-san said, I listen to Parliament, they’re from D.C., and I listen to Trouble Funk and James Brown. And Michael Jackson. Applause.

INTERVIEWER: I wanted to thank you, first of all like everyone else, for coming in and performing for us last night. My question for you is: how did you come around forming the name EARTHBOUND PAPAS?

UEMATSU, trans.: I don’t really know, but there’s an album called Earthbound by King Crimson and if I just named to band Earthbound, it just sounds like we’re a progressive band… So Earthbound would be kind of a hardcore, progressive rock band so I put PAPAS so it just sounds like middle-aged men playing rock music. Laughter.

INTERVIEWER: Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Uematsu-san. I have two questions. First one is for the whole band.  For example, I know Hirota-san has arranged and written for tribute albums that came out this year and I’m wondering besides the music, what are some other video game soundtracks that you’d like to arrange professionally or to perform as a band?

TRANSLATOR, talking of HIROTA: He said that doesn’t exist. Band members laugh. So I was told.

HIROTA, trans.: I’ve known Mitsuda for quite some time since I was a teenager and I worked with him again on Shadow Hearts and I’d love to do some work on his music.

UEMATSU, trans.: Nothing negative, but I’m not really interested in arranging music. If you’re talking about the human body, I make the heart — the core of the human body and arranging is like changing, so I’m not really going to take any arranging jobs. I’m more interested in composing.

NARITA, trans.:  I worked with Uematsu-san quite  a lot, but I’m a composer myself so I really do enjoy the composing part. I’ve worked on this game called Unchained Blades Rexx and I really enjoyed composing for that game, but as far as arranging goes, arranging Uematsu-san’s music is the best.

INTERVIEWER: Oh, and real quick, Uematsu-san, since we’re both progressive fans and I took a raincheck in Baltimore, can you put me in the Full Nelson really quick?

UEMATSU stands up and obliges INTERVIEWER’s request. Cheers heard.

INTERVIEWER: Good morning. I have no regret in beating a dead horse by saying thank you very much for making the trip down here. We hope you’ll be coming back down to MAGFest in the near future. My question is for all you: what would you say your mantras are, or just words to live by, things to believe? What would you say would be your personal words to live by?

UEMATSU, trans.: The most important thing is you do it without thinking, without worrying about things.

HANYUDA: Take it easy and have fun.

HIROTA, trans.: There’s a Japanese old song saying that, “A moment is like a dream, so be passionate about the moment.”

NARITA, trans.: Just like Hanyuda-san said, enjoy your life.

OKAMIYA: Don’t take fear! Laughter and applause.

INTERVIEWER: I’ve been listening to the Black Mages since high school, so thank you. Please come back to MAGFest in the future. Clearly, this community is built in large part by arrangement in video game music, fan reinterpretations of the original work. What sorts of fan works have you heard and which ones do you enjoy?

UEMATSU, trans.: “Dancing Mad” arrangement of the band that went before us. I had never thought of playing that song with three guitars and it was so, so wonderful.

HIROTA, trans.: Me too, “Dancing Mad” from yesterday.

HANYUDA, trans.: I saw a guy who posted a video on YouTube, he’s playing one of the Black Mages songs and I thought he was better than me.

NARITA, trans.: The band the day before yesterday, they played “Those Who Fight Further” and I really like that, and also “Dancing Mad”, I ran around like a kid and took a bunch of photos. Laughter.

OKAMIYA, trans.: We didn’t have that much time to listen to bands  and I was I had more time but same, “Those Who Fight Further” and “Dancing Mad”.

INTERVIEWER: I’ve been really inspired by anime and game music, specifically Japanese video game music so much so that I have started a show. I was wondering maybe what inspired or attracted you to the industry? I’d also be honored to give you a CD.

UEMATSU, trans.: I don’t know what to answer to this question because a bunch of people asked about inspiration quite a lot and I get inspired by anything, my iTunes has about 80 gigabytes of music. I listen to classical, jazz, rock, and it’s a shuffle, so that’s where I get inspiration from. I’d love to get your CD.

End of panel.

[/EXPAND]

Quick Look: Laura Shigihara on Video Game Music

Here at ThaSauce, we love Laura Shigihara‘s music. No seriously, we absolutely adore her. Apart from being quite the busy lady nowadays, this acclaimed Plants vs. Zombies composer takes time out of her involved schedule to post intriguing personal vlogs on her YouTube channel, like bathing an elephant (what?!) and raving about her love for tea. This time around, Laura Shigihara comes up with a couple of reasons why she loves video game music. Highlights of this video include Ms. Shigihara’s  inspirations for choosing to create video game music as a career and her experiences with early varying genres of music within video games.

Coupled with the fact that Laura Shigihara’s voice is as endearing as a dozen fluffy kittens, this video is quite inspirational for aspiring professional VGM composers everywhere.

The ‘Quick Look’ series at ThaSauce covers quick videos and  featured songs to introduce emerging artists and musical twists within the VGM scene. Have you heard or seen any interesting VGM videos on YouTube lately? Shoot me an e-mail at [email protected].

 

PROTO·DOME Releases Second Album BLUESCREEN


UK-based jazz artist PROTO·DOME  has recently released his second album, BLUESCREEN:

From the creator of the hit chiptune album BLUENOISE, comes the exciting all-caps sequel, BLUESCREEN! This time around things get more varied with a touch less wah synth, a little more crazy hi-hat jamming and 100% more live sax on 1/10th of the tracks! Statistics! You know it’s going to be good.

Following his wonderful debut album BLUENOISE, we’re pleased to announce that PROTO·DOME’s latest head-bobbin’ tracks are as catchy as ever. Creatively dubbed as ‘chiptune jazz micro-music’, BLUESCREEN gracefully borders the line of classy overtures and bold, saxxy tunes.

BLUESCREEN is available now on Bandcamp and Ubiktune. We’ve taken the liberty to embed a few of our favorite songs below for your listening pleasure.


EARTHBOUND PAPAS Present “Metal Hypnotized” Remix/Arrange Contest

 


EARTHBOUND PAPAS have recently introduced an official contest to remix or arrange “Metal Hypnotized” to promote their hit album, Octave Theory. According to contest rules, there are no limitations to how you can actually remix or arrange this song, as instrumentals and lyrics may be played or replaced with other members. Participants may also choose to include friends or collaborate with others. EARTHBOUND PAPAS will also listen to each submitted track to choose the winner on February 14th, 2012,  who will then appear as a guest performer on the next EBP album. The contest will end on January 31st, 2012.

For those interested, EARTHBOUND PAPAS’ sound data may be downloaded here, but remember that the use of these files outside of the remix/arrange contest or in public and secondary media is strictly prohibited. You must post your remix/arrangement as a video response on YouTube, but no movies or pictures are required on the video. We have also included the video that you need to ‘respond’ to join the contest above. Good luck!

 

MAGFest Attendance Doubled, MAGFest XI Announced

According to MAGFest PR extraordinaire Nick ‘The Newbie’ Marinelli, recent attendance for this year’s MAGFest X has more than doubled:

Ladies and gentleman, everyone on the MAGFest staff would like to thank all of YOU, the attendees, for making MAGFest X the best one in the history of the event. We had 6100 people in attendance this year, which is double that of last year. We hope you enjoyed being there, because we sure as hell enjoyed putting it on for you. If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to fill out our Feedback Form. As much as we did right this year, we know there was a lot we could improve on, so let us know what you loved, what you hated, and what you would like to see.

In order to allow for convenient planning, MAGFest XI has been announced to return to the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, MD on January 3 – 6 2013 with hotel reservations opening soon. Time to start saving up

ThaSauce Shows Solidarity with SOPA/PIPA Protests

To show support for the last bastion of freedom of expression, economic opportunity, and technological innovations that the Internet enables, ThaSauce will be blacking out this Wednesday, January 18th from 8 am-8 pm EST. No, we do not think that ThaSauce receives millions of views per day, but that does not stop us from trying to raise awareness around the possible debilitating implications of the Internet if the Senate’s Protect IP Act or the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act come to pass. Over fifty different websites that many of us utilize daily will also black out on January 18th, including such sites as Wikipedia and Reddit to date. Other projects that have joined in solidarity also include Mozilla, WordPress, and Minecraft. Our staff at ThaSauce cannot stress the importance of action: if we do nothing, the complete censorship of the Internet will be inevitable.

You can learn more about the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act here and here. There is also an available list of companies and websites that have shown support against PIPA and SOPA. To keep informed, you can watch a live video stream of the House hearing where multiple people from the community will be testifying SOPA/PIPA on January 18th. Please help us raise awareness against this despicable attempt of Internet censorship and take action.

Nerdapalooza Live Recordings Now Available for Digital Download


Previously only obtainable through physical copies, all past Nerdapalooza live recordings have been made available for download on Bandcamp. As Orlando’s premier ‘nerd culture’ festival, Nerdapalooza is touted as “the first of its kind to invite all genres of the nerd music movement under one roof, including nerd rock, nerdcore hip hop, chiptunes, and video game music”. Past performers have included MC Frontalot, Shael Riley & the Double Ice Backfire, The Megas, The Protomen, Metroid Metal, and I Fight Dragons to name a few. Just to give you a taste of the awesomeness that truly encompasses the vivacious intensity of Nerdapalooza’s past  performances, we’ve taken the liberty to include some of our favorite songs, accessible below.

 

The Ultimate NES Tribute Abobo’s Big Adventure Out Now!

Do you remember your childhood? Viciously trekking across a kingdom to save a princess, throwing up punches and ka-pows to beat fierce thugs into submission, swimming across the open sea to avoid squids while desperately tapping A because you’d plunge to the bottom and magically die (multiple debates have sprung up at ThaSauce headquarters — is the loss of one life really that necessary?) Imagine these burdening, yet somewhat nostalgic dilemmas of your tiny eight year old self. Kind of awesome, right?

For those of you yearning for the fond memories of sitting in front of your NES for hours on end, look no further. Abobo’s Big Adventure is the perfect Nintendo Entertainment System parody game that pays tribute to the games you have come to know and love. Adapting to a variety of NES gameplay styles, the protagonist Abobo beats his way through a multitude of familiar characters and territories in search of his son Aboboy.

Just released, Abobo’s Big Adventure had been in development for over six years as labor of love as head developer Roger Barr explains, “A lot of love went into Abobo’s Big Adventure. We had no bosses to report to, no budgets to meet, no rules about what we couldn’t do… we simply took the time to make the kind of game that we had dreamed about when we were kids.” With the superior quality of Abobo’s Big Adventure, we firmly believe that Team Bobo’s commitment to this wonderful tribute may easily set the bar for prospective and future Flash games. If this hasn’t piqued your interest, you’d be delighted to know that ABA is free on the web and ready to play. So what are you waiting for? Get to it!

MAGFest X Recap: Nobuo Uematsu Leads a Colossus Roar

As we continue to dwell of the lasting vestiges and epic legacy of MAGFest X, we feel inclined to show you another favorite moment that resides in our hearts. As seen in the video shot by our overly excited staff,  Nobuo Uematsu leads the crowd in an epic Colossus roar as a part of the EARTHBOUND PAPAS encore before they perform their live version of “Maybe I’m a Lion” from Final Fantasy VIII. Nobuo Uematsu’s incredibly invigorating energy on-stage just proves why he may be seen as one of the most popular VGM composers of all time, which is probably a great reason for you to be on the lookout for ThaSauce’s exclusive interview with U-man himself! Yeah, that’s right. Try not to pee yourself, ’cause we already did that for you.

Image credited to BonusJosh

OverClocked ReMix Releases New Policy for Private Album Projects

 

OverClocked ReMix overlord djpretzel has recently released a new policy to announce the source material and directors of private album projects in order to tackle problems with other potential projects of the same game:

We’ve recently decided (duh) that it’s not fair to the community to have these private projects be COMPLETELY private – at the very least, we’re going to announce the names of games being worked on, so would-be directors can decide for themselves whether to start their own projects from the same games. Again, to be clear, these are private albums being run by directors who prefer to do things that way, which IS an option that we respect & allow, so we’re not going to release any additional information about these projects OTHER than the game name, and we ask that everyone respect the wishes of the director(s) who choose to run their projects this way. By the same token, though, we decided that keeping the actual names of the games private was problematic & not transparent.

Currently, the two private projects  that have been approved by OverClocked ReMix are Final Fantasy VI and Banjo Kazooie. To keep up-to-date on the list of current OCR projects that will be released , you can view the thread here. If you happen to be interested in the starting an official project for OCR and/or project approval,  guidelines are also available here.