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Staff Members :: Z-Freak

Title

Reviewer, Biographer, Assistant News Reporter

Email Address

shinryuu [at] squareenixmusic.com

Real Name

Luc

Joined Site

November 2003

Favourite Game Music Artists

Yasuhisa Watanabe
Shinji Hosoe
Koji Hayama
Noriko Matsueda
Yoshitaka Hirota

Date of Birth

January 29, 1978

Place of Residence

New Brunswick, Canada

Occupation

Store Assistant

Favourite Musical Styles

Electronica, Rock, Alternative

General Interests

Researching Game Music
Using Sound Forge/Cool Edit
Synthesizer Playing
Writing Reviews
Translating

Z-Freak

Biography

My introduction to gaming started with Super Mario Bros back in '87. It took until Super Mario Bros 3 was released in '88 to get me really into gaming. I also recall renting a game called MegaMan 2. Not knowing what to expect, I decided to try something new for a change. The minute I started playing, I picked on the gameplay immediately, and I found myself enjoying this action game so much. This was the first game that really got me thinking "Wow, that's some really great music right there!!" I tried some other games, some of which included Karnov, The Legend of Zelda, and Bubble Bobble. With each of these games, I paid extra attention to the music. That was probably some time in '89.

Fast forwarding to 1995, I was enjoying a lot of the SNES games out then; I recall that my favourite game music was Demon's Crest. A friend of mine insists I try this game called Final Fantasy III. I was always under the impression of these "quest" type games being really boring and not worth checking out. I decide to bite the bullet and give this game a shot. I got through Narshe fairly easily, and then I encounter the Whelk. The moment the music, "Another World of Beasts," played, I was surprised by its quality and its progression as I was fighting the giant snail. From that moment on, my interest in RPG's kicked in. It wasn't long until I tried others such as Final Fantasy II and Chrono Trigger.

In late 1996, I discover the wonders of the Internet and just browse for fun. At the time, I was a huge Gargoyles fan, so I read Fan Fiction on this series daily. Aside from that, I also visited some game-related sites pertaining to Mega Man, Castlevania, and Final Fantasy. It was sometime in early 1997 that I discovered The Impressario's Sounds of SquareSoft Page, which had MP2s for several mainstream Square games. It was also on this site that I heard "One Winged Angel" for the first time, even before playing Final Fantasy VII. Come 1998, I decide to check out one of the links on that page, which was the Game Music Online webshop.

I wanted to try something new, so I saw the Final Fantasy V soundtrack. I knew I had to have it, no matter what. Several weeks following the order, the soundtrack arrived and I immediately consumed it as if it were my bread and water. Shortly after, I took something I was familiar with: Final Fantasy III, which I discovered to be numbered "VI" in Japan. It wasn't long until I decided to acquire all of the Final Fantasy soundtracks, while picking up several Zelda and Castlevania soundtracks as well. In the end, my "greed" got me to acquire *all* of the Square soundtracks from Final Fantasy to Front Mission 4.

During my 6 year quest to acquire everything Square, I bumped into a curious soundtrack called IS: Internal Section in 2002. Its electronic/trance approach really appealed to me in a way that no other soundtrack had done at the time. Shinji Hosoe was my new favorite composer at the time. I went out my way to acquire many old Namco soundtracks of his and his friends. My search for new, fresh game music eventually had me pointing towards Taito's musical band: Zuntata. Like IS two years before, the Taito Sound Team appealed to me so much that I couldn't help but putting them at the very top of my favorite VGM list. Even now, I haven't heard a fourth of all the VGM out there, but I keep on trying new things. I could never realize how branching out paid off so much. Even though I prefer Taito to Square Enix at the moment, there will always be a place for Square's music since those were the first to introduce and initiate me to the wonderful, wide world of game music album collecting.

I am a graduate of a two year Game Design course. After a year of strengthening my skills, I feel it is time to enter the Game Industry and make myself known. For the time being, I am aiming for a position as Sound Integrator / Manipulator / Programmer. With the experience I'll acquire from programming synthesizers, integrating music, and sound effects, I hope one day to be able to become a freelance composer and pay tribute to the real game music kings: the Japanese composers, of course. I feel a lot of affinity towards musical genres of electronica, jazz, rock and fusion, so it is these styles that I'll be concentrating my music on. Right now, I am enjoying the life of a badly paid store assistant at a liquor store, though!

Reviews Written

All Sounds of SaGa
An Cinniùint
Bahamut Lagoon Original Soundtrack
Brave Fencer "Musashiden" Original Soundtrack
Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon Original Soundtrack
Cyber Org Original Soundtrack
DewPrism Original Soundtrack
Drag-on Dragoon Original Soundtrack Vol. 1
Drag-on Dragoon Original Soundtrack Vol. 2
Driving Emotion Type-S/Bushido Blade Original Soundtrack
Final Fantasy & Final Fantasy II Original Soundtrack
Final Fantasy USA - Mystic Quest Sound Collections
Front Mission Original Sound Version
Front Mission 2 Original Soundtrack
Front Mission 3 Original Soundtrack
Front Mission Alternative Riow Arai
Front Mission Series: Gun Hazard Original Sound Version
Live A Live Original Sound Version
Mahou Shoujou Ai 2 "transformation" Full Arrange Album
Parasite Eve Remixes
Secret of Evermore Complete Soundtrack
Seiken Densetsu Sound Collections
Seiken Densetsu 3 Original Sound Version
Shadow Hearts Original Soundtrack plus 1
Shining the Holy Ark Original Soundtrack
Soukaigi Original Soundtrack
Street Fighter Tribute Album
Super Mario RPG Original Sound Version
Vagrant Story Original Soundtrack
Xenogears Original Soundtrack
Xenosaga Original Soundtrack

 
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