Music and From Software

Chu Ishikawa is an awesome Japanese industrial composer who is probably most famous for creating the music of Tetsuo: The Iron Man in 1989. By doing sound design work for several movies, he (and later his percussion group Der Eisenrost) ended up also having a major influence on video game music in Japan throughout the 90s. What's less obvious, however, is whether or not he was directly involved in working on music for From Software's King's Field series. Now, Chu Ishikawa worked on the soundtracks for every Takashi Miike film in the 90s. Except for ONE, Full Metal Yakuza (1997). This film's soundtrack is credited to a contract group called Sound Kids Corp. (sometimes credited as simply SoundKids). However, Full Metal Yakuza's soundtrack sounds pretty much the same as any other Chu Ishikawa soundtrack for a Miike movie.
That's not a lot of listed work for the seven years between the original King's Field and Burnout's release, however, Koji Endo has had a long career doing music for numerous movies, anime series and tv shows since. Tsukasa Saitoh has done both composition and sound design for From Software ever since. Kaoru Kono however seems to have dropped out from movie and game production completely. What's interesting about this however is that Koji Endo made a lot of music for later Takashi Miike movies like Audition from 1999 on. But in reality he was involved with both Chu Ishikawa and Miike as early as the mid nineties. Just before SoundKids' final work on Burnout in 2001 they actually collaborated officially on another Takashi Miike film called Dead or Alive.

SoundKids was around for a few years, their last credit being sound effects work for the racing game Burnout in 2001. Their main three members are From Software regulars Koji Endo, Tsukasa Saitoh and Kaoru Kono (well regulars til around 2002). Now, SoundKids' only credited sound design and soundtrack credits are for the first three King's Field games, Full Metal Yakuza, some DTV softporn movie, and the sound effects in Burnout.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I34io5wf5kk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzDjI2skYk0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0KrJP1LcK4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0qKMX-4-a8

Now, if we listen to some selections of Chu Ishikawa's work from the late 80s through the 90s, it's not an exaggeration to say that what Ishikawa has is basically the sound of games from the 90s where you crawl through dungeons. This isn't surprising, as Chu Ishikawa's work had a huge effect on video game music in general. In Japan at least he was almost as influential as Yellow Magic Orchestra. One can hear the similarities in many Japanese game soundtracks from developers like SNK and Genki.


The clearest connection though, is when one listens to both music from the original King's Field and compares it to some of Full Metal Yakuza's soundtrack. It's stylistically identical to SoundKids' work on King's Field from 1994. Almost to the point of being interchangeable, we see what could not have been anything other than a collaboration between SoundKids and Chu Ishikawa himself, as this is the single 90s Miike film for which Ishikawa is not listed as the sole composer.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVQpAbiRT3Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-rNVnrFQDg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efHjdSM3nHo


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaoyKECQnPw

The similarity also implies, however, that perhaps Chu Ishikawa was actually involved in some way in sound design for the early King's Field series. This makes sense as while music of the first three King's Field games was produced mainly by Koji Endo and Kaoru Kono with Tsukasa Saitoh, the fourth installment was handled by just Tsukasa Saitoh. With this gradual change from SoundKids as a whole becoming less involved as Tuskasa Saitoh became the main composer for From Software's fantasy games, we can hear a subtle shift in each newer installment of the series.

Fitting for being greatly influenced by (and possibly working directly with) Chu Ishikawa, the first three King's Field most emphasize heavy percussion. While the series is in a purely fantastical setting complete with elves, magical swords, and ancient dungeons to explore, the music has a much more industrial drive to it more typical of Ishikawa's work, in defiance of a period where many game composers were using new sound drivers and technology to try to imitate actual instruments accurately. From Software instead embraced the limitations of the hardware of the time, creating several moody tracks that are a perfect match for exploring the King's Field series' many dark corridors and decrepit tombs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0xm86_sVdw

Once Tsukasa Saitoh takes the reins, however, we see a very clear shift happen, with the percussion giving way to more ambient music.  Eventually, From Software's adventure games would only even use background music during climatic battles or when meeting very important characters in the game. We also see a shift away from percussion and electronic composition in general, with each track being more stereotypically suited to From Software's European-inspired magical worlds. The more orchestral approach to these newer soundtracks is very effective however.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbEoLolFYWg

Now, while Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne, were all designed as spiritual successors to the structure and atmosphere From Software handled so well in the King's Field series, it's impressive that their shift in sound design is equally calculated. As background music came to be used only at the end of each area in Demon's Souls, each track is even more effectively evocative not just of the character being confronted as it plays, but of the unique tone of the area leading up to that battle. The music serves not just as a signal that one has reached the end, but as a cathartic outburst of the emotional responses From Software pulls out of the player with each area.
We see this same level of dedication with the music in From Software's other games too. The Otogi games stand out in particular. At a glance Otogi: Myth of Demons appears to be a typical fantasy game based on Japanese mythology, but like King's Field and Demon's Souls, quickly delves into more horror oriented designs and presentation. An impressive feat given how action packed both Otogi games are, in their level design we see the implied massive world and mysterious nature From would come to perfect in their Souls games. This is understandable as Tsukasa Saitoh was a driving force in the music for both games.

In a bold move, however, despite the use of more traditional instruments the music in the Otogi games is often much closer in tone to what one would expect to hear from one of From Software's more industrial influenced games. Both Otogi and its sequel are light on story but dripping with an impressive atmosphere which is effectively executed thanks to its oppressive, percussion driven soundtrack. When playing the game, it becomes obvious that this was not a random experiment. Otogi's protagonist, Raikoh, is a ghost that is only able to remain in the physical world for so long. One alleviates this timer in the game by "purifying" (the game's term for unleashing massive amounts of destruction everywhere you go, almost every building and structure in the games can be destroyed as you fight) the land. The musical choices end up nailing it, being the perfect concept for a game where every aspect of the story and level structure is based on ephemeral but frantic destruction.

We see a similar sense of musical urgency in From Software's 2004 horror game Kuon. Kuon models itself after Resident Evil 2, but uses some of the same personalities and concepts of Heian era mythology that we see in Otogi (most interestingly, these From Software games might be the only pop culture instances where historical figure Abe no Seimei is portrayed as female instead of male). However, even though the game relies mostly on a strong ambient soundscape like Demon's Souls and From Software's later games, when music is used it takes the same approach that we see in the Otogi games.

Given the structure of the game, it would have been very easy to make a more sensationalist filler soundtrack. From Software again proves themselves better than that, realizing how the approach seen in Otogi would be a good complement for the structural elements we associate with classic "survival horror" games like having a limited view of the action and a minimal amount of resources to work with. Kuon's dissonant, violent sounding percussion tracks suit it perfectly. Two big contributors to Kuon's sound 
are Yuji Kanda and Yūki Ichiki. Their earlier works for From Software includes contributing to the sound design in both King's Field: The Ancient City the Otogi games, and it's great to see how, while they remained obscure in the US and had more of a cult following in Japan until the release of Demon's Souls 2009, From Software's creative teams have consistently developed a unique feel and style for their games while still incorporating certain design sensibilities that go all the way back to the release of their first video games in the 90s.