I'm not sure how many of you heard the rip he did for the first Siren game a few years ago, but Parjay has struck again with a rip from the second game. I'm listening to it now, and it certainly has the suspense and creepiness factors NAILED.

It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but for those who ARE so inclined, here's his thread over at GamingForce:

http://www.gamingforce.org/forums/my-st … 2-rip.html

as much as i so desperately wanted to enjoy siren 1, i couldnt beat the first friggin stage of the game. it was like self-catheterization-with-a-pixie-stick painful...

Indeed. I need to build my courage up and try it again, but...
And it's a shame that fS2 didn't get a North American release, because it apparently was a MUCH more manageable and fun game from what I've read.

Oh well...at least Parjay has provided us with the overwhelmingly POSITIVE element from the games.

This makes me VERY happy indeed! The first Siren game had some of the best dark ambient in VGMdom, so I've been looking forward to this eagerly.

Only problem is, I can't view the page because I'm not a member of gamingforce, and I really don't want to register there (I remember that forum as quite odious). Is the rip available anywhere else, or do any kind soul feel like throwing up a rar or zip at sendspace or some such site...? I'd be very grateful.

Yeah, the game's controls were notoriously bad. Like, I know most people whine about "survival horror" controls, but Siren 1's were just beyond bad. I managed to master them and beat the game, though. The game itself (story, atmosphere, etc.) is really good, definitely one of the best horror-game experiences. Its just too bad about the shitty controls putting people off. Siren 1 is like a diamond buried deep in a piece of coal... very, very, very, very deep inside. What really made the Siren games special was the "survival stealth" quality - often you'd have no choice but to stalk around in the shadows and avoid the enemy, so it truly felt like horror, unlike some other series were you blow up stuff with rocket launchers.

Yeah, the second one was a much better executed game. Not quite as scary (FS1 was more claustrophobic), but much improved in every other way. Definitely worth an import.

Speaking of Siren, the PS3 remake of the first game is out soon, and the soundtrack has been announced. I wonder if they actually have the balls to release a SH1-style pure dark ambient CD, or if its just a collection of piano cutscene music or something like that? I'd bet on the latter, but you never know. Anyone got any info on this?

FS2 Soundtrack:
Awesome, I still have the rip of the first one that I listen to quite frequently. Great dark ambience.

Siren Game:
I didn't think the controls were that bad. I passed on playing when it was first released. Kindof sucks that I did because when I played it a few years later, it dethroned Silent Hill as my all-time favorite Survival Horror game. Definitely recommended.

Remake:
Preordering the soundtrack hands down. Might even play the game if they don't screw it up.

Here's the directory where Parjay is keeping all of his SIREN goodness:
http://www.macabre-productions.com/rips/

Hmmm.... Have listened to it now, and I have to admit, the FS2 rip just isn't doing it for me. Parjay's recording and mixing is flawless as usual and I appreciate his hard work, but the soundtrack itself really is quite inferior to Hitomi Shimizu's awesome FS1 music. Its roughly in the same style, but just a lot more bland and flat, IMO, the first game's music had much more character. Most tracks sound exactly the same, and that rain-SFX is used waaay too much (almost like its covering up the fact that the underlying ambiance isn't that hot). Where is all that crazy chanting, mumbling, and chattering from the first soundtrack? Where are all the twists and turns? I've played through Forbidden Siren 2, so I already knew the music wasn't as good or memorable as in the first game, but I'm still disappointed that it doesn't sound better when laid out in OST-form.

Thanks for the link anyway, SquareTex. I'll give it a few more listens to see if it picks up.

Good to hear from you, Parjay!

...but...how do you improve on perfection?

I'm currently at Episode 11, so I expect to complete it soon.
This game is very very SHORT.
It's my first foray into the world of Siren, and I like it, particularly because it does Silent Hill a lot better than Silent Hill has been doing Silent Hill lately.
Did I mention the game reminds me of Silent Hill?

It does.
In a good way!

The game is SO ridiculously easy however that it hardly ever gets scary.
As soon as you have ANY kind of weapon, enemies pose no threat whatsoever, so the game is actually most enjoyable when you are without any kind of defense, which is when it turns into a kind of Splinter Cell type of sneaking game.

Splinter Hill?
I like it!

Also, the game came with a free Sounds of Siren CD with some new and some old music. If anyone's interested I could put it up for download somewhere.

Nice, to think that such a sweet girl could create music filled with such malice.

Parjay, are you planning on doing a complete rip of the new Siren game? I think the soundtrack release will only be one disc, and I can stake my life on it being incomplete (especially considering the fact that the two previous games had enough music to fill two discs = the Silent Hill syndrome).

No so surprising. Its after all a remake of Siren 1, which was designed by the director of Silent Hill 1, Keiichiro Toyama. Siren has sometimes been very close to Silent Hill in style, but has also forged it's own identity through the emphasis on sneaking "stealth horror" and the atmosphere of Japanese rural xenophobia. Good stuff!

It seems like they definitely tried to make the game more accessible this time around. The original Siren 1 was exactly the opposite: It was pretty long for a horror game, and it was very difficult. Even if you had a weapon in that game (which you often didn't), it was still very hard to kill the enemies (because they could take many hits, and the controls were really frustratingly sucky).

I bet on the original being the better game in terms of atmosphere and horror-factor, though!

^ Everything in the above post is awesome! Thanks for posting her reply, it was an interesting read, and I really get the feeling that she's a cool person. I certainly hope to see more game music from her!

Haha, so great that she described her own music as "a bit ...boring". Not something you'd see from most composers.

Also great that the first two soundtracks will get CD releases, if nothing else than for the recognition. If the original Siren 1 soundtrack turns out to be somewhat complete or close to, I might even buy it (although I'm very satisfied with the excellent rip as it is).

What I liked from her website:

So the PS3 version is a remake of the original Siren? I played the remake demo or whatever it is on the PS3, and it was great! Definitely looking forward to it. In the PS3 demo you play as an American professor, so that can't really be a direct remake of the original, since I believe the original had a fully Japanese cast (anyway, someone correct me if I'm getting mixed-up). At any rate, nice

-avatar!

Well, I did give it another listen, and I like it a lot more now! The first time I listened through it I forgot one of the key factors of enjoying this kind of music: listen to it at night. Still think its no way near as good as the first game's phenomenal soundtrack, but its very good nonetheless. My favourite track has to be "Abandoned Structures of Decay". That shit is just evil!

Thanks for the rip again, Parjay!

Put up the Free Demo CD on Zshare for the interested.
Couldn't remember some of the location names in the game, so I left it out in track 2 and left it untranslated for track 3 :S

Really like Track 7 myself.

http://www.zshare.net/download/163405301b630b11/

I remember reading somewhere that it was a Japanese cast with English accents!

Thanks for the CD-rip, Amazingu! My favourite is definitely track #6.

The original Siren 1 had an all-Japanese cast, but they seem to have changed some of the cast to an American news team in the remake, probably to make it more accessible to westerners.

The original Siren 1 (for the PS2) was released in Europe before it was released in America, and it had English voice-acting with British accents. Here's a clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0KHj4L-DxM

Observe also the clunky combat and the Silent Hill-inspired surroundings.

It looks like the second Siren OST will be two discs. No news on the first Siren OST, though...

I had heard the game was really bad from several sources. I've always wanted to try it, but it's so hard to find.

All this talk of music makes me wanna listen to it, too.

I remember Play magazine doing an import review of the second game, saying it was really good, so I am intrigued. We'll see if it can top Fatal Frame as my all time favorite horror series.

Alright, more goodies! Thanks!

The only one I have so far is "Fly Shibito" (looks like your bandwidth is getting hammered right about now). How shall I say...comically spooky?

Looking forward to the rest!

Excellent! I hope they don't screw up the first game's soundtrack release, though.

Parjay and I collaborated on an interview with Hitomi Shimizu for Siliconera on Forbidden Siren and Siren Blood Curse.  The English-language version of the article can be found here:

http://www.siliconera.com/2008/08/18/so … -interview

While the Japanese-language original is on the Manual of Errors music website:

http://www.manuera.com/ps3_siren

The translation is by anime localizer Kaoru Bertrand.

Very nice.  Keep the interviews coming!  It's stuff like this that the VGM scene needs more of!

-Mike

Very interesting - thank you!

Siren 1 soundtrack announced:

http://www.team-e.co.jp/products/kdsd-00235.html

Meh, judging from the catalog number, its only one disc. Just typical that they would fall on the last hurdle and mess up the soundtrack release of the best score in the series (there's no way they'll be able to fit everything onto one disc - its either skip a lot of themes, or have really short track times, either of which sucks). Guess I'll pass on this one and stick to Parjay's excellent rip.

So, any opinions on Siren OST or Siren 2 OST?

Pretty much the same as with the soundtrack rips. I did get the CDs after all, I'm a real bitch for this kind of music, and I wanted to see what the extra tracks were (curiosity killed the cat, you might say). In general, both CDs have slightly better sound quality than the rips (which is to be expected from an official release), but most tracks are considerably shorter. Although this isn't as much of a problem as I first imagined, it doesn't feel like the tracks are too short. Siren 1 OST has some extra short incidental music that's missing on the rip, and Siren 2 OST has a whole slew of new tracks, although no real stand-outs among them.

Musically, both albums are old-school, hardcore dark ambient, with none of those wussy rhythms or melodies from the New Translation/Blood Curse OST. Siren 2 OST is, frankly, kinda mediocre, the score is hurt by the fact (which I mentioned earlier in this thread) that almost every track sounds the same. Not only that, there are way too many tracks, this is definitely one soundtrack that overstays it's welcome, by the end of the second disc I'm just thinking "enough already!". There's not too many VGM-albums in this style, so I guess its a welcome addition, but nothing mindblowing. Some stand-out tracks include "Unease", "Nothingness", "Decisive Battle", and "Sinking in the Red Sea" (mainly because they sound different and better than the others).

Siren 1 OST, on the other hand, is great. Definitely the best of the three Siren soundtracks, and the OST CD is a good representation of it. I don't really know what to say about it, other than that I consider it among the absolutely best dark ambient scores in VGMdom, its in the good company of Akira Yamaoka's Silent Hill 1 OST and Masaharu Iwata's Baroque OST (the original one from 1998). Listen to this soundtrack on a good sound system with the lights off... the mad chattering, distant voices, weird noises, and deep atmospheric drones will take you to another place.