LogFAQs > #963822930

35st
Game: Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions
Title: Weapon Mode
Composer: Kazuki Muraoka, Masahiro Ikariko, Mutsuhiko Izumi, Yuko Kurahashi, Tomoya Tomita, Kazuhiko Uehara, Yuji Takenouchi, Tsuyoshi Sekito
Nominator: @Mr_Lasastryke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9AAArXGB28

to be clear because i never really standardized this for this topic, this is like [Masahiro Ikariko, Mutsuhiko Izumi, Yuko Kurahashi, Tomoya Tomita, Kazuhiko Uehara, Yuji Takenouchi and/or Tsuyoshi Sekito] arr. Kazuki Muraoka

Weapon mode appeals to me in some ways I did not expect. At a first glance it's honestly a more simple incarnation of odd time than usually excites me, plain 7/4 all the way thru. But its way less familiar to me than that would imply. Part of it is lots of layers not coming in on where I perceive beat 1 to be (it's actually mostly pretty unsyncopated, but i think some of the melodic patterns, feel like they "could be" moved over by an 8th or 16th beat, and would actually sound more gridded, than their current slightly more flowing incarnation if they were). it's also so HEAVY in terms of accent pattern (like huge kick drums all the same volume) that it's actually pretty easy to get turned around and for me to feel beat 1 in a different place than it "is." especially as the way it manifests this 7 is sorta like alternating 3/4 and 4/4, sometimes i swap which of those two bars making up the 7 is "first", and get turned around in that sense too. and i like that!

Another reason its majorly appealing to my tastes is the instrumentation: instrumentation I often forget is even part of the song until I listen, since its not right at the start. The FLUTE takes this world just enough outside of the wireframe grid the rest of the song is in, and floats me to "virtual jungle" and i like that place even more! really balance between natural<->artificial is one of the most key elements to my tastes, especially in 2022. So the simultaneous gridded synth realm and floating flute and brass atop is absolutely necessary in combination to get this to appeal to me to the extreme extent it does!

that's a big list of possible composers (though Kazuki Muraoka is the sole credited person for this game, meaning they were the arranger, but this originates from earlier metal gear stuff), but my suspicion now that i've learned more about them, is that this is originally by Yuji Takenouchi. he funnily insistently has at least 1 song per game in 7/8 or 7/4 (if not 7 songs per game). One track I really love from him is this which I see as pretty similar (actually maybe it's not that similar but...well he has a lot of songs that are, this is just the first to come to mind):

https://vgmrips.net/packs/pack/x-men-arcade#12-ambience-of-the-underground-stage-4

this one also comes to mind (not actually confirmed yuji takenouchi out of the two credited, but probably him), it's like a darker version of Weapon Mode in a way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3jsMgK6-Dc

well i would have said that, EXCEPT. the song this is actually a remix of is THIS song that's in mostly 13/8!! not 7!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF_QgTHQxWc

(then again, Crypt Killer does have this [probably yuji takenouchi] song in 13 too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-1zCyAm6bE
)

the original does still sound like yuji takenouchi's computery, mathematical note sequence of 1s and 0s wireframe landscape zone: both that version and the one you nominated. so i still stand by my composer suspicion here, even if it was arranged by Kazuki Muraoka, i can hear the yuji takenouchi beneath both versions, if i'm correct on this

anyway i'm going on and on about 'composer speculation' as i often do.

i like the atmosphere of the song, it generates a VIRTUAL REALITY landscape to me and i like that. it's pretty short and sweet and simple; none of those are bad in this context tho! It has the right balance of computer and green plants, and the right balance of rigidity and convolutedness. to in-the-end be pretty much exactly what i want! thank you for introducing this to me! (i wasn't familiar with that original version either until my friend HidekuniHorita told me about it after he saw that you nominated this years ago, and i've come to love that as well so you basically got me into TWO songs that i really love now!)