The Let's Play Archive

Fantasy Maiden Wars E

by BlitzBlast

Part 86: New Music in Chapter 1M

I'm not dead! It's Music update 1M

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19. Bizarre Smile
Original - Strange Oriental Discourse
Source - Dolls in Pseudo Paradise (actually first in Highly Responsive to Prayers)
Author - ZUN
Arranger - cobu

A theme of unrest for conversations on the enemy's side. Does it sound like "Darkside of Gensokyo" perhaps?
In all sorts of works, the scenes where the bad guys are talking to each other and displaying their evilness are some of the most exciting times. I wonder what kind of villains we will see in FMW from here on.

For the record I prefer the HRtP version. Anyway this is another of the songs you'll hear quite a fair amount. It's alright for what it's intended for, but I can't help feeling that they could have made something a bit darker and slower. My dreams of grimdark touhou may one day be a reality.


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24. Be a Shooting Star (Blitz refers to this as "Time to come" in the update.)
Original - Vessel of Stars ~ Casket of Star
SRW Original - Time to Come (SRW F/F Final)
Source - Lotus Land Story
Author - ZUN
Arranger - cobu

Marisa's theme. It was made to feel like a certain "Time to Come!" This song is full of memories for me, as it is the song I made as my application to be one of the staff of FMW.
Marisa's reliance on hard work, power, and her desire to constantly push forward makes her really cool as a main character in an entirely different way from Reimu. I tried to make this song display that coolness as well.
The song's name can mean being a literal shooting star, but it can also mean someone really good at shooting {games}.

This song's alright, but I don't really think it "fits" the more modern Marisa in this game, I'd have preferred something a little faster I guess. I generally get tired of hearing this one after a few times and just set marisa to not have animations.

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27. Water-To-Air Super Youkai Warhead Nitori
Original - Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's "Kappa" ~ Candid Friend
Source - Mountain of Faith
Author - ZUN
Arranger - Ibiza

The theme of the extremely awesome in many ways (for this game at least) cheerful kappa girl, Nitori.
The original song evokes feelings of elegance with its 3-beat tempo, but as much of a famous theme as it is, I shifted it to a 4-beat rock in order to fit the style of the battle animations, hehe.
The accompanying piano and the sound effect of water spraying right before the hook was to show an invigorating atmosphere and associate it with water, while the hook itself has a clear feel to it to represent an aerial battle, and emphasise a heroic atmosphere!
Since she's usable from the start, she's pretty much equivalent to a main character after all!
I'll be glad if this turns out to be a feel-good song for you too.
Personally I feel that the conversion to a rock style song detracts from the original. That said, I really like the bit of the song that begins at 40s in. Plus while it is a little gimmicky, the water effects do add to the song. Not really sure if I like this or not to be honest.

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37. Observe, White Wolf!
Original - Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall
Source - Mountain of Faith
Author - ZUN
Arranger - cobu

Mo-mo-mi-mo, mi, Mo-mi-ji~! This is Momiji's theme. She may not be very Super-type, but with her sword, shield, and her power to see great distances, she's plenty courageous to me.
The song title comes from "Advance, General!", though I was thinking recently that a play on a certain big brother's wolf sword would be good too.
Completely off-topic, but I've finally done a no-reset clear of Marisa's first stage on Lunatic difficulty after four months. You're really strong, Momiji! And I hate you, Shield Defense!
cobu is a bit of a nerd. Anyway this is pretty much just a more "epic" version of the stage 4 theme from Mountain of Faith. If you liked it there, you'll probably like it here.


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18. Is a Transparent Enemy our Ally?
Original - Mary, the Magician
Source - Ghostly Field Club
Author - ZUN
Arranger - Ibiza

This BGM plays when much too suspicious unknown enemies have much too suspicious conversations with each other. Given what it is, I carefully chose a musical phrase that already sounds suspicious and arranged it.
Of course, it's usually rather obvious who the people are, but pretending not to know is what a true gentleman does.
H-Hey, expected things like these are still important in telling a story! Hehe.
Yup, that's pretty suspicious alright. Don't really have much I want to say about this.