Hello everyone, I’m Kazuhito Udetsu, the producer of Katamari Forever for PS3 at Namco Bandai Games. For those asking, “who?” let me introduce myself a bit further. I joined Namco in 1996 as a game designer. I worked in various departments including marketing and promotions where I worked on the original Katamari Damacy. I’m here today to give you a peek into the music of Katamari Forever. As always, Yuu Miyake was in charge of sound direction and he did a wonderful job. What’s so great about his work is that it’s always beyond my expectations. However, because he was also simultaneously working on Noby Noby Boy, I was a bit worried he would tire himself out with his crazy schedule! Anyway, he managed to survive and both games turned out to be in the so-called “what hath God wrought” caliber.
Since his job has finished, and he has so much free time now, I thought I would let him take over for the rest of this post. Enjoy reading his profound comments.
Hi everyone! Having a good time? I’m Yuu Miyake, the sound director for Katamari Forever.
Katamari Forever’s soundtrack consists of remixes of past Katamari songs. Let me briefly talk about why this is. Since the first game, Katamari Damacy, was originally only released in Japan, we wanted Japanese singers who were well-known in Japan but nobody had heard from in awhile for whatever reason. For the second game we wanted to do the same thing but with foreign artists. However, this didn’t happen because of our lack of foreign friends and ability to negotiate. For this game we thought it would be a good idea to have those tunes remixed or arranged by Japanese and non-Japanese artists as sort of a musical trilogy (Oh, did you notice that Katamari Forever is the third title for a PlayStation console? Not that it really means anything though.).
The most important thing about the remixed music is that it’s clearly meant to be for a Katamari game. That includes Katamari-themed lyrics and an overall Katamari feeling. We selected fan favorite tunes and ones that we have special feelings for, and started to narrow down the most attractive singers for each remix. All the artists I asked to remix the songs for in Katamari Forever were ones I listen to, know and respect. I wish we could have artists from all over the world take part in the game but I only have Japanese friends, so most artists are Japanese. Professional musicians and sound experts in the US, please be my friends!
What I think is important in this consuming society is not to stick to one genre. I maintain this philosophy throughout the entire Katamari series. Since Japan has a long history of games I included chiptunes like YMCK. I also added “organic” tunes like SOFT’s remix of “You Are Smart.”
As a result of the tune selection, Katamari Forever has two streams of music, “electric” and “organic.” I guess if I had one more thing to say it would be…maybe…Check out Noby Noby Boy, too!
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