Crimzon Clover – 2011 Composer Interview
This very short Crimzon Clover interview with composer potechi was originally featured in volume 3 of the always excellent publication STG Gameside. I mainly translated it as a little nod to the newly released Crimzon Clover DLC which just came out (that I translated the voluminous superplay interviews for, actually).
—How does it feel having finished the compositions for Crimzon Clover?
potechi: I’m a STG fan to the core, so I was able to testplay Crimzon Clover at the same time I composed the music for it. I was deeply involved in the development process and it was very fun. Yotsubane recommended me because he felt that “STG music should be made by a person who knows STG.”
I had messed around in RPG Maker type tools before, so I had a certain level of knowledge, but the project really started for me once I purchased some proper DAW software.
—Did you know Yotsubane before this project?
potechi: We’ve known each other a long time. In high school he could get 20m points on the stage 4 course of Radiant Silvergun, and he had reached 2-7 on the Dodonpachi Special Version (blue rom version). I struck up a conversation with him about STG and that was how we first met. After that, we formed a doujin circle focused on arcade games.
—What mindset did you bring to the composition of Crimzon Clover?
potechi: It was really a lot of pressure. When I played the demo version, I thought to myself, “this game is going to be a hit, there’s no doubt about it.” I also feel that a game’s rating can rise or fall depending on how good the music is. As such, I kept asking Yotsubane “am I really the right guy for this job? I don’t know about this!” But he would always tell me “don’t worry about it, just take your time.” I also saw this as a good opportunity to learn to use a DAW, and the work looked fun, so I decided to give it my best shot.
—Were there any things you paid particular attention to when composing? Also, are there any individual songs you’re really fond of?
potechi: One of Crimzon Clover’s selling points is its sense of power, and I tried to write music for the boss fights that would give you a feeling of fighting power welling up down in the pit of your stomach. The music I really like personally is the Mode Select theme, “Brave Soul.” I think it conveyed the excitement and nerves of being inside a hangar just before take off, and I like the cold, icy feel. For the title theme, my image was of a pilot flying his ship into the wide sky and not being able to see anything as he ascends. Yotsubane didn’t have many requests for the songs; he would say “the next stage feels like this”, and after that I’d be free to do what I liked.
—I understand that the soundtrack features the songs from the game in unaltered form.
potechi: Yeah, the feeling was that we’d spent so much effort on this, let’s memorialize it as-is. At Comiket, about 1 out of 5 people who bought the game also bought the soundtrack, so that made me very happy. There’s also an 8-bit famicom remix appended to the end of the soundtrack, but that was mostly just done as a little experiment for fun.
I was saying we should use it on the official blog as part of an April Fools joke for an 8-bit Crimzon Clover. (laughs)
—Please give a final message to those who purchased the Crimzon Clover soundtrack.
potechi: Thank you for picking up this OST. I’ll be working hard to refine my skills and bring you even better music in the future!
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