RPGFan's Rhythm Encounter – Details, episodes & analysis

WARNING: This episode contains major spoilers for Slay the Princess, so listen at your own risk if you have not yet played the game!

Every now and again at Rhythm Encounter, we have the chance to bring on a special musical guest. For today’s episode, RPGFan Music editor Patrick Gann sits down with Brandon Boone, composer for the indie visual novel hit Slay the Princess. The interview includes Brandon’s insights and reflections on the process of building the game’s score from the ground up, then expanding the soundtrack for its newer form, The Pristine Cut. Brandon also provides some interesting background information on how he got his start in music, his ties to studio Black Tabby Games (Abby Howard & Tony Howard-Arias), and his recent win at the World Soundtrack Awards!

Featuring: Patrick Gann, Brandon Boone, Mike Salbato; Edited by Jonathan Logan

Tracklist
0:24:13 - The Princess (Brandon Boone) - Slay the Princess Original Soundtrack
0:40:44 - The Shifting Mound Movement V (Live) (Brandon Boone) - Slay the Princess Live
1:23:26 - Brandon’s Bonus Track! House of Woodcock (Johnny Greenwood) - Phantom Thread Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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Retro Encounter can't be the only one making quiz show episodes. Rhythm Encounter had to get in on the action to celebrate our 150th episode milestone! Which of course means making our contestants identify songs, composers, and more across five themed rounds. Who will triumph? Feel free to play along too and see how you do! We had enough fun with this one that we don't want to wait another 150 episodes to bring it back. But for now, put your quiz show hats on (those are a thing, right?), make some guesses, and ring in 150 episodes with us!

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Patrick Gann, Hilary Andreff, Gio Castillo; Edited by Jonathan Logan

Rounds
0:05:31 - Round 1: Better Together
0:16:45 - Round 2: This One's for the Girls
0:35:35 - Round 3: This, That, or the Other: Sakuraba Edition
0:51:50 - Round 4: Final Fantasy Arrangements
1:13:10 - Round 5: Know Your Eras
1:31:06 - Round 6: Final Question

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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Part two of our handheld RPG music celebration continues — and concludes — today! Last time, we brought you some of our favorite tracks from Nintendo DS RPGs, and this time we talk about the DS' competition, the Sony PSP. The PSP was a haven for RPGs, especially considering its support of playing PSOne/PSN titles. From a surprise track by Nobuo Uematsu, beautiful vocal tracks, to the second and last Mega Man Legends title, we have a great lineup today. Let us know what some of your favorite PSP music is!

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Patrick Gann, Audra Bowling, Gio Castillo; Edited by Paul Dennis

Tracklist
Toneless Feelings
0:03:51 - Tears of Feelings (evbtl08) (comp.&arr. Chikayo Fukuda / vocal Tomoyo Mitani) - .hack//Link
0:07:53 - Toneless (comp. Nobuo Uematsu / arr. Kimio Itoyama / vocal YVONNE) - Anata wo Yurusanai

Snowy Jungle
0:29:01 - ‌Calinca Tundra & Calinca Ruins (vs Reaverbots) (Makoto Tomozawa) - Mega Man Legends 2
0:31:13 - ‌Shibuya - Jungle Navigation (Yuzo Koshiro) - 7th Dragon 2020

Written in the Stars
0:51:02 - Crimson Star {PSP “Growlanser” OP2 (Male Version)} (Noriyasu Agematsu {Elements Garden}) - Growlanser PSP
0:54:59 - Rendezvous of the Stars - Ready to Fly - (English Version) (Chiaki Fujita {Sing Like Talking}, Additional Music by Bill King) - Summon Night 5

Extra Gurumin
1:06:26 - Sight of Silence (Falcom Sound Team jdk) - Gurumin
1:10:05 - Battle (Shinji Hosoe) - Fate/EXTRA
1:35:36 - Gio's Bonus Track!

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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To kick off what is essentially a new season of Rhythm Encounter, I enlisted proofreader and music aficionado Hilary Andreff along with musician Chris Porter to talk about one of our favorite composers, the baddest and coolest around, Yasunori Mitsuda. The result is an episode with an impressive musical range, fun discussion, and some great surprises. Listen to the episode and check out the time-stamped tracklist and related links for each album below, including links to our reviews and places to buy/stream the music.

One thing to note for fans of the show: We know that in the past we rarely kept the show to a schedule, but with a renewed focus and tighter episodes, we will be adhering to a bi-weekly schedule now, so you can enjoy this episode with confidence that the next one will be ready for you later this month! We appreciate your patience, and hope you enjoy listening to Rhythm Encounter as much as we enjoy recording them! It's good to be back.

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff, Chris Porter; Edited by Mike Salbato

Tracklist
0:03:39 - Coffin Fetish/Blue Castle - Shadow Hearts Original Soundtrack
0:05:27 - Beautiful Day - Armodyne Original Soundtrack
0:17:36 - EPISODE IGNIS - The Main Theme - Final Fantasy XV OST Vol. 2
0:20:02 - To the Top-A New Beginning - Re:volvers8 Original Soundtrack (a.k.a. Revolve8)
0:35:42 - Shadow of the Lowlands - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 OST
0:38:30 - Creid - CREID Yasunori Mitsuda & Millennial Fair
1:02:55 - Bonus Track!

Bonus Background Tracks
0:00:32 - The Day the World Revived / Robo's Theme - Chrono Orchestra Arrangement Box
0:25:35 - A Lightless Journey - Final Fantasy XV OST Vol. 2
0:54:40 - October Mermaid - CREID Yasunori Mitsuda & Millennial Fair
0:56:48 - Corridors of Time / Schala's Theme - Chrono Orchestra Arrangement Box

Links for this episode
RPGFan Episode Post

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Album Links
Armodyne Original Soundtrack
Our Review
VGMdb Listing

Buy:
Amazon Japan

Final Fantasy XV OST Vol. 2
Our Review
VGMdb Listing

Buy:
Amazon
iTunes Store
CDJapan
Square Enix Store (NA)

Stream:
Spotify
Apple Music

Re:volvers8 Original Soundtrack
VGMdb Listing

Buy:
iTunes Store

Stream:
Spotify
Apple Music

Shadow Hearts OST
Our Review
VGMdb Listing

Buy:
CDJapan

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 OST
Our Review
VGMdb Listing

Buy:
Amazon
iTunes Store

(Xenogears) CREID Yasunori Mitsuda & Millennial Fair
Our Review
VGMdb Listing

Buy:
CDJapan

Chrono Orchestra Arrangement Box
Our Review
VGMdb Listing

Buy:
Amazon (JP)
CDJapan
Square Enix Store (NA)

Note: Some links above are affiliate links.

Note: We had to re-number our episodes several years after publishing. This was originally Episode 33, as reflected in the audio. Don't worry, you're not missing anything!

Many years later after a very successful Kickstarter campaign, Enigami brings to life Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom, a magical world of vivid sceneries and wonderful, alluring music. Creator and composer, Hazem Hawash, alongside his dedicated team, pored a great deal of love into Shiness, so it was only right to bring in Hazem to chat about this lovely game and its shining soundtrack. Enjoy the chat, dear readers!

Featuring: Marcos Gaspar, Hazem Hawash

Links for this episode:
Show notes & post on RPGFan

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Note: We had to re-number our episodes several years after publishing. This was originally Episode 32, as reflected in the audio. Don't worry, you're not missing anything!

It's safe to say that EarthBound has a lot of fans, and that includes us at RPG...Fan. Bad jokes aside, where there are fans, there's often a demand for quality arrangements of classic RPG music. Mustin, of Mustin Enterprises (formerly OneUp Studios), and a group of excellent remix producers collectively known as Bad Dudes have provided just that for EarthBound fans with Psychokinetic. Join us as we chat with Mustin about the album and the timelessness of EarthBound.

Featuring: Marcos Gaspar, Mustin

Links for this episode:
Show notes & post on RPGFan

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Note: We had to re-number our episodes several years after publishing. This was originally Episode 31, as reflected in the audio. Don't worry, you're not missing anything!

Are you a Pokémon fan? Have you always wanted to hear an orchestral arrangement of the music from Pokémon Gold & Silver? Well, you're in luck, because such an album is currently in the works, courtesy of Materia Collective! Join Marcos as he chats with Braxton Burks, the creative mind behind this exciting new arrangement!

Featuring: Marcos Gaspar, Braxton Burks

Links for this episode:
Show notes & post on RPGFan

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Our third interlude is all about the music of Persona 5! With the long-awaited RPG just around the corner, we thought it would be a special treat to share some selections from the amazing soundtrack this time around. So grab your masks and get ready to steal some hearts!

Also, on a housekeeping note, Rhythm Encounter is going through a period of transition at the moment. As such, we're going to be on hiatus for a bit while we get things sorted. We hope you can bear with us during this time, and we'll let you know as soon as we're back in action!

Featuring: Caitlin Argyros, Mike Salbato, Marcos Gaspar; Edited by Mike Salbato

Links for this episode:
Episode tracklist & post on RPGFan

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The final movement of Rhythm Encounter's Music of the Year 2016 extravaganza is upon us. In true MOTY tradition, that means this episode is where we, your hosts, get to share with you some of our favorite music from the past year. We've got music from big names like Final Fantasy and Pokémon to indie titles like VA-11 HALL-A, and we even have some choice arrangements to delight you with as well. So sit back and enjoy one last hurrah as Music of the Year 2016 on Rhythm Encounter comes to a close.

Featuring: Caitlin Argyros, Mike Salbato, Marcos Gaspar

Links for this episode:
Episode tracklist & post on RPGFan

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If you're looking for more Music of the Year goodness, look no further than our second exceptional movement on Rhythm Encounter. On this episode, two longtime friends of the show, Michael Cunningham from RPGamer and Don Kotowski from Video Game Music Online, join us to share their favorite music from 2016.

Featuring: Caitlin Argyros, Michael Cunningham, Don Kotowski

Links for this episode:
Episode tracklist & post on RPGFan
RPGamer
VGMO

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