Shujin Academy VGM Club

Episode 15 - Masters of VGM III - Fighters, Legends, Kingdoms (Yoko Shimomura)

All your favorite VGM podcasters are doing a series called “Masters of VGM”, where we do episodes devoted to our favorite video game composers. For my third entry into this series, I’m doing a career retrospective for Yoko Shimomura, best known for her work on the Kingdom Hearts series.
 
Special thanks for this episode goes out to: 
–Bedroth of Very Good Music and everyone else who’s set up the Masters of VGM project and all the podcasters who are participating. You can follow the project’s Twitter account @mastersofvgm or visit their website at mastersofvgm.com to see all the participating podcasts and episodes released to date.
–Jameson of the BARSlience podcast for the art for this episode. Find his excellent podcast on Twitter @BarSilenceVGM or wherever you get your podcasts.
 
Thanks to BokiBokiPixelArt for the show logo. You can find him on Twitter @BokiPixelart. 
 
If you like the Live A Live and Front Mission songs, and want to hear some more music from Square’s golden age that we didn’t get here in the United States, check out the “Square Over There” episode of the Singing Mountain podcast. You can find it at https://singingmountainpod.com/episodes/60-squaresoft-japan-podcast. 
 
If you want to reach me, you can email me at shujinacademyvgmclub@gmail.com. You can find me on Twitter at @ShujinVGMClub, and on Instagram at ShujinAcademyVGMClub. Please leave me a five star rating on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you’re finding this episode.
 
Track Listing:
00:00 - Show Tagline
00:05 - Kingdom Hearts - Dearly Beloved
01:16 - Talk Segment 1
03:54 - Code Name: Viper - Password
06:52 - Final Fight - Bay Area
08:57 - Street Fighter II - Ryu’s Theme
10:59 - Street Fighter II - Guile’s Theme
13:00 - Talk Segment 2
14:48 - Breath of Fire - Trade City
16:56 - Live A Live - Under the Fake
18:13 - Live A Live - Wait for Truth
20:00 - Front Mission - Canyon Crow
21:39 - Front Mission - Setting Up
22:52 - Front Mission - Coaxial Town
24:33 - Front Mission - Field Hospital
25:54 - Front Mission - Arena
27:06 - Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - Barrel Volcano
28:48 - Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - The Road is Full of Dangers
30:24 - Talk Segment 3
32:12 - Legend of Mana - Song of Mana (Opening Theme)
34:59 - Legend of Mana - Legend of Mana (Title Theme)
37:20 - Parasite Eve - Missing Perspective
40:00 - Parasite Eve - Somnia Memorias
45:56 - Talk Segment 4
49:16 - Kingdom Hearts - Destiny Islands
51:04 - Kingdom Hearts - Traverse Town
52:24 - Kingdom Hearts - Hand in Hand
54:48 - Kingdom Hearts II - Scherzo Di Notte
56:05 - Kingdom Hearts II - A Walk in Andante
56:59 - Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time - Main Title
57:58 - Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story - Dr. Toadley
59:13 - Final Fantasy XV - Omnis Lacrima
1:03:37 - Xenoblade Chronicles - Main Theme
1:07:17 - Outro Talk Segment
1:08:27 - Streets of Rage 4 - Shiva

Episode 14 - Masters of VGM II - Primary Colors (Shoji Meguro)

All your favorite VGM podcasters are doing a series called “Masters of VGM”, where we do episodes devoted to our favorite video game composers. For my second entry into this series, we’ll listen to the greatest hits of Shoji Meguro. This episode also serves as a de facto mixtape for the Persona games, since Meguro composed most of the music for the series.
Special thanks for this episode goes out to: 
–Bedroth of Very Good Music and everyone else who’s set up the Masters of VGM project and all the podcasters who are participating. You can follow the project’s Twitter account @mastersofvgm or visit their website at mastersofvgm.com to see all the participating podcasts and episodes released to date.
–Josh Grisham of Nerd Informants for being the voice of Junes. You can check him out on Twitter @NerdInformants, or find Nerd Informants on Facebook. You can also check out his podcasts “It’s Hollywood Calling with Josh Grisham” and “Informants NERDcast” wherever you get your podcasts. 
–My darling wife and beautiful children for being the Junes family.
–Jameson of the BARSlience podcast for the art for this episode. Find his excellent podcast on Twitter @BarSilenceVGM or wherever you get your podcasts.
 
During the talk segments, I said that I’d put some links to things in the show notes, and here they are! 
–You can check out the arranged version of Persona 3’s Changing Seasons at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuxGYUd0w24. 
–You can check out the lyrics for Reach Out To The Truth at https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Reach_Out_To_The_Truth 
 
If you liked this episode, and want to check out more Persona music, you can follow Daily Persona Music on Twitter (@Daily_Persona), where they post Persona music every day. 
 
Thanks to BokiBokiPixelArt for the show logo. You can find him on Twitter @BokiPixelart. 
 
If you want to reach me, you can email me at shujinacademyvgmclub@gmail.com. You can find me on Twitter at @ShujinVGMClub, and on Instagram at ShujinAcademyVGMClub. Please leave me a five star rating on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you’re finding this episode.
Track Listing:
00:00 - Show Tagline
00:05 - Persona (PSP) - Dream of Butterfly
02:07 - Talk Segment 1
07:40 - Persona 3 - Burn My Dread
09:12 - Persona 3 - Changing Seasons
12:09 - Persona 3 - Iwatodai Station
14:32 - Persona 3 - When The Moon’s Reaching Out Stars
17:08 - Talk Segment 2
19:56 - Persona 4 - Backside of the TV
22:48 - Persona 4 - Reach Out To The Truth
25:35 - Persona 4 - Your Affection 
28:25 - Persona 4 - Heartbeat, Heartbreak
30:38 - Persona 4 - Heaven
33:37 - Talk Segment 3
37:20 - Persona 5 - Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There (opening movie version)
38:55 - Persona 5 - Tokyo Emergency
41:28 - Persona 5 - Beneath the Mask
46:02 - Persona 5 - The Whims of Fate
49:14 - Persona 5 - Butterfly Kiss
51:37 - Persona 5 - Rivers in the Desert
56:50 - Talk Segment 4
57:52 - Catherine - It’s a Golden Show
1:00:24 - Catherine - Act on Instinct
1:01:57 - Persona PSP - Shops
1:03:22 - Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - Normal Battle 
1:05:21 - Outro Talk Segment
1:07:42 - Revelations: Persona - Aria of the Soul

Episode 13 - Masters of VGM I: First, Final (Nobuo Uematsu)

All your favorite VGM podcasters are doing a series called “Masters of VGM”, where we do episodes devoted to our four favorite video game composers. For my first entry into this series, I’m going through the greatest hits (and a few other songs) of my favorite VGM composer, Nobuo Uematsu.
 
Special thanks to Bedroth of Very Good Music and everyone else who’s set up the Masters of VGM project and all the podcasters who are participating. You can follow the project’s Twitter account @mastersofvgm or visit their website at mastersofvgm.com to see all the participating podcasts and episodes released to date.
 
If you like this episode and you want to hear some more obscure Nobuo Uematsu stuff, you should check out episode 3 of this show. It’s called “Before and Outside of Final” and it’s devoted to early songs he composed that are NOT from Final Fantasy games. 
 
I mentioned a few songs or alternate versions of songs during the show. Here are links so you can hear them:
 
Final Fantasy I (PS1) - Matoya’s Cave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IfOsnBDd1c 
The Black Mages - Matoya’s Cave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euRaT0V5bSk (I love the organ in this version!)
Love Will Grow (arranged version of Final Fantasy II’s “Ending”) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0wldsle-A0 
Have You Ever Seen Me (arranged version of Final Fantasy III’s “Cute Little Tozas”) -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxYH2TSU-eo 
The Black Mages - Clash on the Big Bridge - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KtKbcTSpp8 
 
Also, if you love the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack and want to hear an interesting take on it, you should check out Mega Ran’s album Black Materia: The Remake. You can find it on Spotify, or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moBMdS3ZaZQ. 
 
Thanks to BokiBokiPixelArt for the show logo. You can find him on Twitter @BokiPixelart. 
 
If you want to reach me, you can email me at shujinacademyvgmclub@gmail.com. You can find me on Twitter at @ShujinVGMClub, and on Instagram at ShujinAcademyVGMClub. Please leave me a five star rating on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you’re finding this episode.
 
Track Listing:
00:00 - Show Tagline
00:06 - Final Fantasy (NES) - Opening Theme
01:29 - Talk Segment 1
05:54 - Final Fantasy (NES) - Matoya’s Cave 
07:05 - Final Fantasy II (NES) - Finale
10:13 - Final Fantasy III (NES) - Cute Little Tozas
11:12 - Final Fantasy IV (SNES) - Into the Darkness
12:33 - Final Fantasy IV (SNES) - Illusionary World
13:46 - Final Fantasy V (SNES) - Battle on the Big Bridge
16:14 - Final Fantasy VI (SNES) - Devil’s Lab
18:47 - Talk Segment 2
22:07 - Final Fantasy VII - One Winged Angel
29:20 - Final Fantasy VIII - Man With The Machine Gun
32:10 - Final Fantasy IX - Secret Library Daguerreo
34:11 - Final Fantasy IX - Vamo’ alla Flamenco
36:04 - Final Fantasy X - Zanarkind
39:08 - Final Fantasy X - Prelude
42:51 - Final Fantasy XI - Ronfaure
47:45 - Final Fantasy XIV - Contention
51:57 - Talk Segment 3
52:41 - Cruise Chaser Blassty - Main Theme
54:36 - Nobuo Uematsu’s 10 Short Stories - Here Comes Conga Boy
59:55 - Fantasian - Main Theme
1:03:10 - Show Outro
1:04:09 - Final Fantasy III - Chocobos!

Episode 12 - They Can’t All Be Winners

Sometimes, a bad game has a good soundtrack. This episode is all about some terrific soundtracks from mediocre games.
 
You can find the archives of Kotaku’s Morning Music feature at https://kotaku.com/culture/morning-music, and you can find the article that helped inspire this episode (and introduced me to the Waterworld soundtrack) at https://kotaku.com/waterworld-is-one-of-the-snes-best-soundtrack-delivery-1847021569. 
 
Special thanks to Josh Grisham of Nerd Informants for recording the promo for poison mushrooms. You can find him on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZPHI7dFhWSg8VYoXwOiZ8g or Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NerdInformants/ or on Twitter @NerdInformants.  Also thanks to BokiBokiPixelArt for the show logo. You can find him on Twitter @BokiPixelart.
 
If you want to reach me, you can email me at shujinacademyvgmclub@gmail.com. You can find me on Twitter at @ShujinVGMClub, and on Instagram at ShujinAcademyVGMClub. Please leave me a five star rating on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you’re finding this episode.
 
Track Listing:
00:00 - Show Tagline
00:05 - SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters DS - Recycle Machine Card
00:25 - Talk Segment 1
02:23 - Waterworld - Attack 1
06:15 - Waterworld - Mission Theme 1
11:57 - Waterworld - Mission Theme 2
15:34 - Waterworld - Mission Theme 3
19:47 - Talk Segment 2
20:45 - Silver Surfer - Summoned by Galactus
21:17 - Silver Surfer - BGM 1
22:54 - Silver Surfer - BGM 2
24:35 - Silver Surfer - Device Completed
25:35 - Silver Surfer - High Score
28:33 - Talk Segment 3
30:56 - Haunted Castle - Devil’s Revival (Stage 2 - Watery Caverns)
32:47 - Haunted Castle - Bloody Tears (Stage 3 - Main Hall)
33:53 - Haunted Castle - Den of Worship (Stage 4 - Abandoned Mine)
35:35 - Haunted Castle - Basement Melodies (Stage 5 - Clock Tower)
37:35 - Haunted Castle - Don’t Wait Until Night (Stage 6 - Bridge)
38:58 - Haunted Castle - Devil’s Resurrection (Boss)
39:46 - Haunted Castle - Dracula’s Room (Final Boss 1)
40:13 - Haunted Castle - Sent to the Devil’s Requiem (Ranking)
41:15 - Talk Segment 4
43:33 - Lunar: Dragon Song - Excitement
45:59 - Lunar: Dragon Song - Tomorrow
43:33 - Lunar: Dragon Song - Port Town
51:30 - Lunar: Dragon Song - Gentle Breeze
54:36 - Lunar: Dragon Song - Main Title
56:14 - Lunar: Dragon Song - Wind of Future
59:00 - Talk Segment 5
1:02:08 - SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters DS - Introduction
1:05:00 - SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters DS - Battle Theme
1:06:10 - SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters DS - Floor to Floor 
1:07:29 - SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters DS - Shop Theme
1:08:34 - SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters DS - Card Menu
1:09:49 - SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters DS - Last Floor
1:11:08 - SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters DS - Boss Battle
1:12:24 - Show Outro

Episode 10 - The Sounds of the Aipu FZ22

The history of gaming has quite a few failed systems, in addition to the well-known consoles like the SNES and the PlayStation. The Neo Geo Pocket Color, the CD-i, the 3DO, the Atari 5200 - the list goes on and on. For this episode, we take a look at the sounds and history of one of the least-known systems of the 8-bit era: the Aipu FZ22, a console with a very limited library that never made it outside of Japan.
 
If you want to reach me, you can email me at shujinacademyvgmclub@gmail.com. You can find me on Twitter at @ShujinVGMClub, and on Instagram at ShujinAcademyVGMClub. Please leave me a five star rating on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you’re finding this episode.
 
Track Listing:
00:00 - Show Tagline and Intro
03:14 - Golfer Sarutahiko - Yokohama Course BGM
04:00 - Talk Segment 
04:19 - Star Forneus - Confrontation
04:58 - Talk Segment 
05:26 - Power Intuition - China BGM
05:57 - Talk Segment 
06:28 - Train of Life - BGM 4.1
07:11 - Talk Segment 
07:38 - Gambla Goemon - Hot Blooded Man of Chance
08:24 - Talk Segment 
09:07 - Punch Ouch - Jab Jab Uppercut!
10:04 - Outro Talk Segment

Episode 9 - Chilly McFreeze II: Ice Dagger

After my first chill music episode, I decided to make another episode devoted to laid back VGM. I may even make some more in the future. 
 
This is an episode that’s heavy on the music, so if you like a lot of VGM without much talk in your VGM podcast, you’re in luck today.
 
If you like the chill VGM concept and you want to hear more, check out my fellow VGM podcast KVGM The Last Wave at https://www.kvgmradio.com/. 
 
If you want to reach me, you can email me at shujinacademyvgmclub@gmail.com. You can find me on Twitter at @ShujinVGMClub, and on Instagram at ShujinAcademyVGMClub. Please leave me a five star rating on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you’re finding this episode.
 
Track Listing:
00:00 - Show Tagline and Intro
01:23 - Waterworld - Map
03:16 - Romancing SaGa - Theme of Solitude
05:15 - Earthbound - Winters White
07:37 - Seiken Densetsu 3 / Trials of Mana - Another Winter
12:16 - Front Mission: Gun Hazard - Cenktrich 
15:56 - Talk Segment
17:57 - Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master - Sakura
19:25 - Shining Force II - Elven Town
21:03 - Pixel Puzzle Makeout League - TalkJams
24:42 - Coffee Talk - Gleefully
31:25 - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Pazaak
32:49 - Final Fantasy X - Wandering Flame
37:27 - Parasite Eve - Missing Perspective
41:07 - Legend of Mana - Ranch Night
42:19 - Talk Segment
43:34 - Final Fantasy: The Four Heroes of Light - Trading City Vulpes (Day and Night)
45:51 - Picross e5 - BGM 0
47:58 - Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Club LOL
49:23 - Persona 2: Innocent Sin - Seven Sisters High School
52:48 - Danganronpa 2 - Beautiful Ruin
57:23 - Show Outro

Episode 8 - Professor Tom’s Pokémon Journey

For the first time ever, Shujin Academy VGM Club welcomes a guest. Save Point Sam (also known as Professor Tom’s son) joins the show to play some Pokémon songs and discuss the finer points of Pokémon with Professor Tom, who knows little of Pokémon beyond what he’s seen on TV. This is an interview-type show, and as you may imagine, the ratio of music-to-talk here is tilted fairly heavily towards the talk instead of the music. 
 
If you want to reach me, you can email me at shujinacademyvgmclub@gmail.com. You can find me on Twitter at @ShujinVGMClub, and on Instagram at ShujinAcademyVGMClub. Please leave me a five star rating on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you’re finding this episode.
 
Track Listing:
00:00 - Show Tagline and Intro Talk Segment
01:00 - Pokemon Red & Blue - Opening Theme
02:52 - Talk Segment 2
06:16 - Pokemon Diamond & Pearl - Routes 209 & 212 (Day)
13:16 - Talk Segment 3
16:56 - Pokemon Gold, Silver & Crystal - Johto Gym Leader Battle Music
19:56 - Talk Segment 4
24:07 - Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire - Victory Road (Inside the Pokémon League)
31:07 - Talk Segment 5
33:40 - Pokémon Diamond, Pearl & Platinum - Champion Cynthia Battle Music
36:40 - Talk Segment 6 / Outro

Episode 7 - The King of Episodes

To celebrate the release of King of Fighters XV, we’re devoting an entire episode to SNK’s venerable franchise mash-up fighter. I hope you like the Neo Geo sound, because this one is all King of Fighters, all the time. 
 
You should watch the amazing Woo vs Reynald match from Evo 2013’s KOF XIII tournament. It was one of the coolest grand finals sets ever in a fighting game tournament. Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqWf5G9bcRY 
 
Are Kyo and Iori secretly in love? Listen to “The Evening Sun and Moon” and decide for yourself at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA2QwP7Y_2A. That video even includes lyrics, so there’s no room for debate. 
 
Do you like the Psycho Soldier team song? Do you want to hear an in-depth discussion of it’s history? Of course you do! I’m not going to cover it in this podcast because Drew Mackie covered it so well on an episode of his VGM podcast, Singing Mountain. You can check that out at https://singingmountainpod.com/episodes/athena-asamiya-theme or https://soundcloud.com/singingmountain/the-magic-effervescence-of-athena-asamiya?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fsingingmountain%252Fthe-magic-effervescence-of-athena-asamiya. 
 
If you want to reach me, you can email me at shujinacademyvgmclub@gmail.com. You can find me on Twitter at @ShujinVGMClub, and on Instagram at ShujinAcademyVGMClub. Please leave me a five star rating on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you’re finding this episode.
 
Track Listing:
00:00 - Show Tagline
00:12 - King of Fighters ‘98 - Opening Theme
00:57 - Talk Segment 1
05:47 - King of Fighters ‘98 - Kurikinton (Gomame Guitar Version)
07:49 - King of Fighters ‘94 - SLUM No. 5
10:36 - King of Fighters ‘94 - NAPOLITAN BLUES
13:06 - King of Fighters ‘97 - Rhythmic Hallucination
15:56 - King of Fighters ‘96 Arranged - Psycho Soldier Remix ‘96 (Psycho Soldier Team Theme)
19:19 - Talk Segment 2
21:42 - King of Fighters ‘96 - ESAKA?
25:02 - King of Fighters ‘96 - Stormy Saxophone 2
26:59 - King of Fighters ‘97 - COOL JAM ~Stormy Saxophone 3~
28:29 - Talk Segment 3
30:52 - King of Fighters 2000 - KD-0084 (K’ Theme)
34:29 - King of Fighters 2000 - Ice Place (Kula Diamond’s Theme)
38:45 - King of Fighters ‘99 SHA-LA-LA (Women Fighters Team Theme)
41:13 - King of Fighters 2002 - TACOS DANCE (Mexico stage theme)
43:31 - Talk Segment 4
45:57 - King of Fighters 2003 - Splendid Evil
50:13 - King of Fighters XIV - Tiger and Dragon (ART OF FIGHTING TEAM BGM)
54:39 - King of Fighters XIV - IKARI -KOF XIV ver.- (Fateful Battle BGM)
57:21 - Outro Talk Segment
57:58 - KOF The Best - The Song of Fighters