Shinji Hosoe Works Discussion Thread

Seeing how successful the thread dedicated to Sakimoto has been, I've been wanting for a while to start up some discussion on Hosoe. Now I know not many people may have liked his work on Xenosaga II, but please let's try to keep this civil as possible.

Myself being quite a huge Hosoe fan, my discovery of him was done with Square's iS : Internal Section OST. It was the first electronic VGM OST that I really enjoyed. After that, I came accross his Super Sweep and Namco works. Driving Emotion Type-S was a first for me, as it showed that Hosoe also had skill with rock music. For his early Namco works, Dragon Saber really hit a chord with me, I thought the compositions were a lot of fun and were memorable. Cyber Sled is also another favorite of mine, combining synth-rock with a touch of electronics.

Unlike a great deal of people, I absolutely loved his work in Xenosaga II, despite the evident contrast with Kajiura's work. The Final Battle theme really got my attention the most, by mixing choirs and his signature beat(you'll know when you hear it) into the theme.

If people didn't like XS2, I wonder if they'd give him a second chance upon listening to Under Defeat and Ibara. These two have a solid rock theme to them, and unless some here completely hate rock, I can't see how it's possible to hate these two works, at the very least.

I also get a kick out of his arrangements, like "Dr. Mario" from Famicom 20th Arranged Soundtrack and "Wonder Forest" from Tobi D+vine Complete Soundtrack. Then it comes to his "original" tracks not related to game music at all, like 2197, Sampling Masters, Nanosweep 1 and 2, Be Filled with Feeling, etc.... Those are absolutely brilliant IMO.

So there... I think I've said enough.

Go!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Elixir

Shinji Hosoe is a genius. He's worked on (according to the english website) Bushido Blade, Dodonpachi Daioujou, Border Down, Metroid Prime, Metroid Fusion, Ibara, Under Defeat, ESP Galuda and a bunch more.

I really like his music. His english website is very useful as well. I'm extremely impressed the music he's done for Dodonpachi, ESP Galuda and Under Defeat. Not only are the games great, but they're amazing.

Most of the themes fit the feel of the game (except for Galuda, where you have trance/techno playing while you're killing small dolls (but Galuda is probably the best OST he's ever done)), and Under Defeat's OST is really soothing. Ibara and Daioujou are more fast paced, and his music fits perfectly with the games.

While I am not a fan of Ibara personally, the soundtrack is great. I highly recommend checking him out.

Some corrections...

DDP DOJ : A couple of remixes for the PS2 port.
Border Down : One arrangement only available through the soundtrack.
ESP Galuda : One arrangement only available through the soundtrack.

DDP DOJ is by Manabu Namiki.
Border Down is by Yasuhisa Watanabe.
ESP Galuda is by N.T.

Thanks for brining the thread back to life at any case.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Elixir

Forget I said anything, then.

If he's only made a bunch from Ibara and a couple from Under Defeat I'm not going to praise him.

Of course... only the really popular shmups are worth praising

And for your information, Hosoe did compose all of Ibara and Under Defeat.

Makes me wonder : Do you actually bother to do research on his works ?

Other than those two, Hosoe composed Dragon Spirit, Dragon Saber, Metal Hawk, Ordyne, Internal Section, Galaxian ^3 Project Dragoon, StarBlade and more in the shmups world. Other than shmups, practically everything from Dragon Spirit to Driving Emotion Type-S in the discography is his work.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.