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1UP COVER STORY
1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JUNE 25 | VIDEO GAME MUSIC FESTIVAL
A Scythian Abroad: Superbrothers on Sword & Sworcery’s Japanese Remixes
Cover Story: We heard some cool S&S tunes reworked by our favorite composers and we wondered what’s up with that.
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apybara’s Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP grabbed attention (and rave reviews) last year by reinventing the graphical adventure genre for iOS. Its minimalist design and droll sense of humor helped it stand out from countless other competitors on the platform. But what really sold the game was its amazing soundtrack, at once wistful yet epic. For the game’s Japanese release, the game’s creators have teamed up to push their soundtrack to the next level by collaborating with nearly a dozen big-name Japanese game composers (including Silent Hill‘s Akira Yamaoka and Castlevania‘s Michiru Yamane), who have in turn reinterpreted the soundtrack in their own inimitable styles. The results are nothing short of amazing, and Sword & Sworcery co-creators Jim Guthrie and Craig Adams (as well as our friends at 8-4, who localized the game for Japan) have plenty of interesting things to say about the game, its music, and the collaborative nature of localization.
1UP: What was the inspiration for the original music direction in Sword & Sworcery? The soundtrack’s ambient/electronic/folk feel isn’t really what most people would expect from a game with that sort of 8-bit minimalist look.
