While familiar faces continued their usual streak of excellence, there were loads of newcomers that provided some of the year’s best VGM. This hefty episode looks at a bit of everything, from recurring brands like Zelda, Sonic, Xenoblade and Ys, to fresh experiences like Horizon, Cuphead and Prey. Light spoilers ahead!
SHOW NOTES
0:00:00 – Dancing Skeleton (PS4 Theme)
0:14:16 – Sunshine Coastline (Ys VIII)
0:17:27 – Woods of Elevated Coral Reef (Ys VIII)
0:20:05 – A Footprint in the Wet Sand (Ys VIII)
0:31:20 – Action Start (Xenoblade Chronicles 2)
0:35:47 – Mor Ardain (Xenoblade Chronicles 2)
0:46:51 – Studiopolis Zone Act 1 (Sonic Mania)
0:49:58 – Titanic Monarch Zone Act 1 (Sonic Mania)
0:52:37 – Press Garden Zone Act 2 (Sonic Mania)
1:02:22 – The Magic Mirror (Shovel Knight Treasure Trove)
1:06:54 – The Price of Doing Business (Shovel Knight Treasure Trove)
1:20:46 – Botanic Panic (Cuphead)
1:24:44 – Floral Fury (Cuphead)
1:35:33 – Inkoming (Splatoon 2)
1:38:24 – Rip Entry (Splatoon 2)
1:40:43 – Seafoam Shanty (Splatoon 2)
1:53:44 – Field Battle (Breath of the Wild)
1:56:33 – Hyrule Castle (Breath of the Wild)
2:05:04 – Aloy’s Theme (Horizon: Zero Dawn)
2:07:27 – Territory of None (Horizon: Zero Dawn)
2:14:03 – City on the Mesa (Horizon: Zero Dawn)
2:26:35 – Everything is Going to be OK (Prey)
So happy you’re back Brett!
Only an hour into the episode currently but super digging it so far!
I get that this episode is already rather long, and you picked some very good tracks, but not having any Nier or Persona 5 in here is a big oversight in my opinion.
Not an oversight – following the rules of the Year in Review episodes. Haven’t done a NieR show yet, so shouldn’t fire off 3 tracks here when it’ll get its own show down the line. P5 was a tough call, but we didn’t have Henry, who could actually talk about the game. I know we spun our wheels with Xenoblade, but didn’t want to have 2 entries that were us essentially guessing where the music played and why it was impactful within the game.
OH THANK GOD, YOU’RE BACK!!!! T_T
Please, PLEASE keep making episodes! You’re my favorite podcast but I don’t have anything new to listen to! Are you out of ideas for shows? Because there’s still lots of content to cover that you haven’t covered yet! You could do a “Capcom Special” episode that has one-off Capcom games in it like Bionic Commando, UN Squadron, Willow, etc. You could do an entire episode on Street Fighter. You still technically haven’t done that Sunsoft Special episode where you play Journey to Silius in earnest along with the rest of their library that you haven’t done yet.
I’m really sorry I haven’t supported you financially, but 2017 was a really really rough year for me. I lost my job, spent most of the year unemployed, and I’m now finally employed but it’s part-time so I’m still under-employed. As soon as I’m fully employed again I’ll contribute something to the Patreon or the one-time Donate Now, but srsly just please keep making episodes.
Also… hey where is Persona 5???
VGMpire isn’t on the Patreon anymore (not really part of it since April/May 2017) so the best way to support is listening and sharing!
P5 was a tough call but without Henry to provide context / discussion, it would’ve been the three of us just babbling about it. P5 will get its due.
Merry Christmas to us! Thank you, sir!
What can I say Bret? You always bring it…. Even if it’s been few and far between this year. Another dandy episode. I do wish that some of the lesser games of 2017 had gotten some love (The Mummy Demastered and Samus Returns soundtracks are amazing), but I understand completely going for the heavy hitters. And yes it’s better to discuss a game with experience and context rather than rambling on and on. Some quick thoughts…
Haven’t played Sonic Mania yet. But I will now. The tracks you played were amazing. About ten seconds in I could hear the voice in my head going, And now your local forecast, here’s the current outlook! Sounded so much like Weather Channel 90s-2000s music that I couldn’t believe it. Definitely a great thing. Makes me think the composer could have been influenced by at least the style of that type of music.
BOTW was somewhat disappointing to me. Been trying to decide if I should get this game, and a huge draw for me personally has been the great soundtracks. What I heard was good, but I tend to eschew Hans Zimmer style soundtracks. Disappointed in the creative direction of this Zelda’s soundtrack, but that’s not your fault. Good tracks nonetheless.
Cuphead tracks were amazing, and I’m expecting you’ll do a full feature on the soundtrack in due time. Just heard more from the game on Pixelated Audios podcast, so to hear some here shows that you’ve got your finger on the pulse of what’s great and what’s not.
I guess my only complaint would be again, maybe some more indie tracks from lesser games in 2017. Loving the Shovel Knight stuff, I’m playing through it again at the moment. Really is a great time for new and old games.
Speaking of Henry, what the heck happened to him? I haven’t heard him in ages. Did he take a corporate job in a cul de sac in Ohio or something? 😂.
Thanks again Brett. Keep it rolling!
Thank you for this Brett, is Awesome to have VGMpire back 😀
Brett is alive!!!!
it’s a Christmas miracle!
Man, that Zelda field music took me by surprise. It was almost like neo-math rock.
Great to see the show back Brett, I really missed it. VGMpire was my gateway to the rest of the Lasertime network.
Glad to have you back, Brett! It was a lovely surprise seeing VGMpire update on my podcast feeds. Some great music in 2017. And it’s always a pleasure to hear Patrick’s opinions and Chris’ random commentary. I couldn’t stop laughing when he talked to Patrick about New Jersey musicians networks.
I screamed like an excited toddler when this showed up up in my feed this morning morning. I love them Bruggeman Bros, but I always miss the contextual industry info you guys bring to the podcast.
So glad we got an episode. I’ve tried other VGM tracks and nothing matches this show.
Another great BOTW track is the one that plays when the dragons show up. So good when farming shards.
I’m sure a lot of people are going to say this but, Nier Automata had an all time great soundtrack this year. And glad to have you back i missed VGMpire a lot especially during a noticeably quieter rocktober.
Always awesome to hear a new VGMpire especially after a long absence. I was a bit surprised by the choices for BOTW since the themes for the champions and rito village day theme are what stick out to me most bout that game, as well as the awesome audio track from the last non dlc trailer. I can’t wait for upcoming episodes once life slows down a little for you. Also remember last year when splatoon had some holographic shows featuring song from the Squid Sisters? I think they are doing another one with the new show hosts for that game but I can’t read japanese but here is the official jp twitter post bout it … maybe brett knows somebody who can read it to confirm. https://twitter.com/SplatoonJP/status/940892671802875904
Merry Christmas! Loved the episode, and glad to have you back. Wasn’t sure if we’d get a Year in Review after no Rocktober, but I understand VGMPire is a labor of love. I always appreciate the love that Ys gets. I keep the Ys episode on my computer because it’s so great.
Bret,
So glad you guys are back! I will say I missed Rocktober this year, but just happy you are still putting out shows. Looking forward to hearing more from you guys in 2018!
Blessed be, new VGMpire went a long way in maintaining sanity while commuting over the holidays…Thanks for taking the time to bang out this wrap-up, guys–looking forward to the next ep!
Glad to have a new episode! I understand why it was missing, but I really hope ya’ll get around to Persona 5 some day. It’s quickly become one of my favorite game sound tracks of all time.