Taro Omiya

Taro Omiya

Software Engineer, Game Designer

  • Weekly Game Music: Mii Channel (Wii)

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    New week, new music. Lets try something different, shall we? Here’s the Mii Channel music from the Nintendo Wii console. It’s composed by Kazumi Totaka: the composer who frequently drops the Totaka Song Easter eggs in his games.

    Well, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about the Mii Channel, let alone the Wii Console, but…according to the Iwata Talks interviews, the developers has intended to make it a simple, fun character avatar creation that anyone can use. The music is composed to be inviting, in that sense.
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  • Strange Free Games: Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online

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    New week, new game. Lets talk about an MMORPG, shall we? Here’s one addicting, but queer RPG called Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online. Why queer? Well, for a Japanese anime inspired game, the visuals are oddly gothic and religiously offensive. Unusual to this genre, the game even has some cinema-scenes, too. And the most interesting part? It plays a little likePokémon.

    Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online can be downloaded at Aeria Games.

    Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online starts off in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where the city has been leveled by demons. As the typical MMORPG trope, you are a Demon Buster, one trained to fight against demons. While investigating a ruin, your leader takes a significant blow as a gigantic demon emerges. You’re rescued, barely alive, and decide to take some vengeance against this boss.

    It wouldn’t be a Shin Megami Tensei game, however, if you couldn’t befriend these demons. As luck may have it, you have a talent to convince demons to join your cause, and have them fight alongside with you. Some NPCs are demons themselves, proving once and for all how resilient the human species are.
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  • Weekly Game Music: Opening Credits (Little King Story)

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    New week, new music. Like classic music, with a modern twist? Here’s an a cappella remix of Ravel’s Boléro: the Opening Credits for Little King Story, composed by Yutaka Minobe. The royal music helps set the stage for the toybox-like environment in this dictator-takes-over-the-world game.

    Little King Story starts with a little boy who comes upon a crown that magically turns him into a king of a country. A shoddy, failing country. Taking a bold leadership role, our king directs the civilians to rebuild the country, and eventually take over neighboring lands and their princesses.

    Little King Story is frequently described as Pikmin, if it were themed aroundPsychonauts. As the king, you approach and charm workers to follow you to quests. Each worker can be thrown to handle a certain task correlated to their profession, including building, digging, and of course, fighting. The boss battles you encounter when invading rival countries are widely varied, including straight-up fights, answering questions from trivia shows, and even a ping-pong tournament. Despite its childish graphics, the game frequently delves into the surreal and disturbing imagination of a child’s mind.

    Little King Story was released on the Wii in 2009. No other ports exist.

    Extra!

    Title: King Jumbo Champloon
    Game: Little King’s Story
    Composer: Yutaka Minobe
    Comments: Remix of The Infernal Gallop from Offenbach’s opera, Orpheus in the Underworld


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  • Strange Free Games: Void

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    New week, new game. Today’s free game is from the friendly team of students at DigiPen Institute at Singapore. The game? Void, a dimension-manipulating first-person puzzle game.

    Void can be downloaded from the DigiPen website.

    People who played Portal should feel very comfortable with this game. Void begins with our main hero, Artaith, desperately running away from the rubble, and investigating on its cause. Somehow, he’s gained the ability to create dimensional rifts into the past, as well as obtain eyeglass that allows him to see the complex he was in, pre-destruction state.

    Artaith can create up to two temporary, spherical dimensional rifts on any surface. In doing so, certain floors and items may become visible, while others may end up being obstructed. As such, the player must carefully place the rifts to his or her benefit, without losing their footing. The puzzles becomes particular complex when water is introduced, allowing you to swim to higher locations that would be otherwise dry and difficult to climb.
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  • Weekly Game Music: Prime #19 (Echochrome)

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    New week, new music. Here’s a soothing café for a mind-bending puzzle game: Prime #19, composed by Hideki Sakamoto. The music is intended to soothe the player to an otherwise bizarre and confusing puzzle game,Echochrome.

    As a puzzle game Echochrome offers no story. Despite this, the aesthetic of the game tells a lot. In a world outlined by solid black lines and a white background, the player must guide an artist’s mannequin across the MC Escher-like level. As the player, you control the camera, and command the mannequin to stop or start walking. That’s it.

    Yet, controlling the camera itself proves vital to our hero. See, our clueless mannequin lives in a 2D world. Us with the camera live in a 3D world. By simply moving the camera around, we can easily cover gaps in a path with a dangling plank, and the use of perspectives. The forced perspective can even be used to cause the mannequin to fall at locations that are, in 3D, higher than the original falling point.

    Echochrome was originally released on the PSP in 2008. It’s available for download on the Playstation 3.
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  • Strange Free Games: Cloud

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    New week, new game. Here’s a popular game that helped launched the infamous artsy game studio, ThatGameCompany. Cloud, is a Katamari-like game of collecting clouds and achieving various missions. Incidentally, it was one of the games I’ve introduced in the Weekly Game Music series as well.

    Cloud can be downloaded at University of Southern California’s website.

    Cloud describes a bed-ridden boy who’s given a spiritual chance to enjoy flight. As one of the cloud spirits, his role is to collect clouds. With these clouds, he can create cloud formations, calm storms, and even cause the clouds to rain.

    As its name implies, Cloud is intended to be a relaxing game. As the spirit, you fly towards a patch of cloud to collect it, and have it follow you as you gather more. Since the clouds will lag a little bit, you’re forced to proceed in a slower manner. The said clouds can be stored and released, however, whenever you feel like it.
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