How The Video Game Orchestra Made Re:Legend Epic, An Interview with DC Gan and Shota Nakama
Turns out, music and video game production goes hand in hand.
Re:Legend is an upcoming farming RPG that has made waves across the world, thanks to its successful Kickstarter campaign and seamless blend of nostalgia and innovation.
DC Gan, the CEO of Magnus Games, the studio developing this highly-anticipated game, sat down with us during Level Up KL.
Joining him was Shota Nakama, CEO of Soundtrec as well as the genius behind the conception of the Video Game Orchestra. Together the pair discuss the importance of music and their collaboration on Re:Legend.
1. Give us an intro to VGO. How did it start and how did you start to work with Magnus Games on Re:Legend?
Shota: VGO is a project of mine that plays video game music in the form I love the most, that being a rock band with orchestral backing. Our songs are very epic and bombastic, and people seem to like that.
We play in sync with with a video of the game playing in the background. It’s like a big rock show but with video game music and is more interactive.
How it was born is simple, I just thought to myself: ”Maybe I should play video game music live?” And I just did, and I talked to my friends about it. We did a show and packed the place and snowballed from there.
DC: We were introduced to each other in 2017. I have always been a fan of VGO’s stuff, since I loved big orchestral renditions of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts’ soundtracks.
I’m a musician as well, Shota is from Berklee and I’m from the Musician’s Institute in LA. To me, Shota is very important for Malaysia’s game industry, as he is comfortable in working for big projects, as well as smaller scale, Kickstarted games like Re:Legend.
2. How did your experiences in music school prepare you for the video game industry?
S: I think Berklee was an interesting school. There’s all kinds of people there, from beginners to pros. Just incredible musicians. What I got the most out of Berklee was the network of fantastic musicians. It was worth the money.
DC: For me, I’m a composer for Chinese dramas in Malaysia, Taiwan, and China. I learned more about the production side of music in MI. Working with Shota and his team, it was easier to pinpoint what kind of music we want in the game. It helps with the decision-making with Re: Legend.
3. What were some of your favourite games growing up?
S: I’m from Okinawa, and I can tell you I played the most games out of anyone on the island. I played on the Famicom, Super Famicom, Game Boy, Game Gear, Satellaview, PlayStation, Sega Saturn. I played the usual Dragon Quest and Final Fantasies. But I was more partial to Dragon Quest.
Currently, my favourite console is the Switch, and load it up with games that either I or my friends have worked on.
DC: I played Diablo 2 for 8 and a half years. Throughout school it was all about Diablo, from Primary 6 to the end of high school. I also played a lot of Contra, Monster Hunter, Fantasy Life, Harvest Moon, and Rune Factory.
The most important game for Re:Legend is the first Digimon World for the original PlayStation.
4. How was it like working on Re:Legend and what were some of the things you personally added to the soundtrack?
S: I didn’t actively write the music, but I do conduct the orchestra recordings for the game. From there I improvise and add my own personal touches into the soundtrack that way.
Luckily for me, DC understands music. Most game directors don’t, so that made the experience much easier. So knowing music and being particular about the idea is very, very important.
DC: That’s right, sometimes two people knowing and understand music as a language is required to craft a masterpiece.
5. Re:Legend is the highest-funded Southeast Asian game on Kickstarter at the moment. Do you think you will ever be dethroned or are you keen on beating your own record someday?
S: I think Re:Legend is paving the way. I’m excited to see what happens after the game is fully released.
DC: We actually beat our own record once when we were on the Square Enix Collective before Kickstarter. We don’t want to compete with anyone else We just want to be better for ourselves. So that is always the target and goal for our team.
6. Favourite soundtrack of all time?
S: Back To The Future, easily. Alan Silvestri, the composer, I had the chance to meet him. He’s a guitar player and he went to Berklee for one year. There are bits and pieces from the Back To The Future soundtrack, that you know that only a guitarist would come up with. His songs are just masterpieces, all of them.
DC: For me, Final Fantasy X’s soundtrack is what made me realise that a good soundtrack is important in a game. Usually we heard such things in movies, to get that kind of quality in a game, really influenced me until today.
7. What kind of innovations would you like to see in the world of video game music?
S: Binaural sound, using 360 microphones to measure the distance and direction of sound. Utilising this technology not just for music, but for sound effects as well. If you listen to voices recorded in binaural, you’ll feel the pressure and breath of the person, as if they’re there with you.
DC: For me, when I was young I always wanted to customise each track of a song however I want. A customisable soundtrack sounds pretty cool for the future.
8. Any upcoming projects we should know about?
S: We can’t say much about that right now, haha.
DC: What I can say is that we hope we can work with VGO more, release the soundtrack of Re:Legend online. The dream is to have a Re:Legend live orchestra show, like Distant Worlds Final Fantasy. That is one of the things we are hoping for, it makes me happy and excited every time I think about it.
9. Are there any songs with vocals on the Re:Legends soundtrack?
DC: Yes there’s two, that being Ready Say Ho and Legends Land.
S: Legends Land is the main theme of Re:Legend. It was composed by Yuki Hayashi, who is known for the composition of the My Hero Academia soundtrack, as well as One Piece and the latest Pokemon anime. We asked him to write a song, and the next song he immediately sent a demo.
10. What advice would you give to those who want to get into composing for video games?
S: For the music side, what I can say is that just perform. Learn to play live, how to work with people, and that will help with your composition.
DC: Same goes in the production in games, you need to have more hands-on experience, so that you can learn how to solve problems more efficiently. Keep working even if you don’t know you’re going to succeed, don’t stop. If you stop now, then you’ll never be successful.
S: That’s right, it is just so easy to stop.
DC: When we started Magnus Games, we didn’t think that our two man team could grow into a 50-man team like today. We are still learning, but I believe that’s the best thing you can do. Overthinking kills projects.
