Neon Genesis Evangelion: USF by hcs at 11:27 AM EDT on July 18, 2005
Neon Genesis Evangelion fully tagged preliminary set is up, another game that I started work on a while ago but never finished, sometimes all it takes is a fresh look at the problem. I know no one requested it, but it's something that had to be done. I've known about this game since before I knew anything about the anime itself, and I've come to love the music.
So we've got about an hour of N64-average renditions of the tunes, though several are outstandingly listenable (due more to the strength of the composition than the arrangement). I'm disappointed that all of the character themes are absent, and that THANATOS is missing the interesting second half. Generally it sounds alright, just don't listen to it next to the originals. Also, it's quite large for its sample quality, 4.4 MB or 3.7 MB zipped. This must be due to the somewhat large variety of instruments. I kind of wish they'd have used up another few megabytes and kept the vocals, though I guess the flute they use instead is a tolerable substitute.
Crystalline Night Sky is now even more reminiscent of Final Fantasy 7.
The sound engine is mostly custom. I found the song selection function by scrolling through the code looking for something that looked right rather than doing actual analysis, and it worked the first time.
I don't know who was responsible for the music, so I've just credited Shiro Sagisu and the classical composers (Bach and Handel make appearances). The set is in preliminary status primarily because of that (and since I haven't renamed the files). My morning's worth of research while the ripping was proceeding turned up absolutely nothing.
sparse00 is somehow corrupted, it sounds like it was written for a different set of instruments and effects. I may leave it out of the final set, or at least put it last in order. It is identifiable, though.
The sound test is accesible when you've completely finished the game, or you could cheat and get a complete save as I did. sparse00 is not on the sound test, which only has 23 entries (00-22). So it's probably a development remnant.
Crap, you're right, I thought it was a completely different song (from Handel's Messiah, you know?) My knowledge of the classics is shown to be as shallow as it is.
I'll have a final version with that fixed up later today, when I've finished writing my batch PSF renaming program. First I must drive my brother all around the damned state looking for deals on PSP games.
Uploading final version now, the batch PSF renaming tool is now in the psf_rippers Yahoo group archive if anyone wants a look.
My brother didn't find the game he was looking for, but I found Katamari Damacy for $20 and couldn't resist picking it up. Bizarre fun and fitting music.