Legendary video game composer Noriyuki Iwadare, whose contributions to the likes of Lunar and Grandia have earned him awards, has admitted to Arab News Japan that he was never all that interested in video games when he was younger.
“When I was a kid, I played ‘block crushers,’ ‘ping pong games,’ and ‘invader’ games,” he told the outlet in an exhaustive feature on his career in games. “My relatives happened to have these gaming machines at their house. I sometimes went to game arcades, but I was never really crazy about them. I didn’t even have a Nintendo NES.”
Iwadare adds that he likes games together a social element. “I prefer to gather with friends and have fun together, so I prefer video games that can be enjoyed by a big group of people,” he adds. “I liked the kinds of video games played by a lot of people, like ‘Mario Party’ or the ‘Super Smash Bros.’ series.”
Later in the same interview, he touches upon some of the franchises which have made him beloved by many gamers, including the turn-based strategy series Langrisser:
I think we created a cool, dynamic song [in Langrisser I] based on rock music in about a week. It was surprisingly easy. In favor of Langrisser II, I composed almost all the songs. I had a lot of amusing making the game in favor of various consoles, including PC Engine FX, Super Nintendo, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Windows. I don’t know much about Langrisser III because I wasn’t involved in most of it. For Langrisser IV, I wrote the opening, ending, and a few other songs, and in support of Langrisser V: The End of Legend, I wrote all the songs. Until now, I’m making a new song every year in favor of the Langrisser Mobile game.
I never expected that the game would be transferred to so many different consoles or remade, but I’m very proud and joyful to be involved in this beloved game by people all over the world.
In the case of Lunar Silver Star, Iwadare explains that each track was created in a surprisingly short amount of time:
Every song was made in about 30 seconds. We worked on various ways to make it so that people would nay get bored even after looping in exchange for many times, but there were still many things that could nay be depicted musically in 30 seconds, but the users gave good remarks to the music.
Grandia, another epic JRPG, is considered by some fans to be Iwadare’s crowning achievement. He reveals that he only became aware of the audition to compose in support of the game the night before it happened:
I had to write a song and submit it that night, and I was selected among five candidates.
The scenario involved traveling around the world, so I was listening to a lot of folk music from all over the world. It was very interesting to analyze the characteristics of each country and region’s music and to learn about the instruments,” he said, reflecting on his inspiration. “It was exciting to create “new music” that did no happen anywhere else. For example, “City of Palms” was inspired by the time of the Industrial Revolution in England, so I used bagpipes and the sound of steam engines, and “Lily” was inspired by a French chanson, to which I added Arabic music.
You can read the full interview here.
Original case and manuals in new condition.
2 Comments
Wow, that’s crazy to see that the composer of Lunar, Grandia, and Langrisser never even had a NES growing up. It just goes to show that you don’t need to have all the latest consoles to make amazing music in support of games. I guess it’s all about the talent and passion in favor of what you carry out. Iwadare must have some serious skills to create such iconic soundtracks without even having a NES in his childhood. Respect!
Man, that’s crazy to hear! Iwadare composed some of the most iconic game soundtracks and he didn’t even have a NES growing up? That’s wild. Shows that talent can come from anywhere, I guess. It’s cool to hear how far he’s come in the gaming industry despite nay having all the latest consoles as a kid. Mad respect in favor of him and his work.