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Song Title: Mansion Basement
Composer: Mamoru Samuragochi (but apparently actually Takashi Niigaki?)
Game: Resident Evil: Director’s Cut – DualShock Ver. (PS, 1998)
Length: 1:07
One minute and seven seconds too long, huh? Bacon Bebop usually covers the best of the best from gaming OSTs, but when a song is this offensive, it deserves to be written about. Taste in music varies wildly, but Mansion Basement from Resident Evil Director’s Cut DualShock Ver. is objectively atrocious. I know that you don’t need five hundred plus words from me to understand that this piece of music is an assault on the ears, but humor me.
The version of Mansion Basement that appeared in the original release of Resident Evil is very scary; it almost feels like the music, as well as the zombies and other experiments, are all coming after you. After being thoroughly scared, but eventually becoming accustomed to the layout of the first and second floors of the mansion, you’re greeted with this absolutely hostile track that lets players know that they are once again in a dangerous and mysterious foreign area. Making it to the basement is a landmark in progressing through the game, and the original song fit the moment. DualShock ver.’s Mansion Basement is only unsettling if you falsely believe for a moment that you’re experiencing some strange audio glitch.
The controller-rumble enabled version was the third release of Resident Evil and only differs from the second release, Resident Evil: Director’s Cut by adding vibration and a new OST that no one asked for (the original is one fine ominous soundtrack). Though we’re accustomed to re-releases, remasters, and GOTY editions in 2015, these were much less common in the days of the original PlayStation. Imagine the frustration of a Resident Evil mega-fan after having purchased the original game, then Director’s Cut for the Resident Evil 2 beta and extra content, and then buying the DualShock Ver. so they could finally experience this new “rumble” feature only to make it one-fourth through the game again, around $150 poorer, only to hear this cacophony of tuba players falling down a long flight of stairs. I’m sorry fellow Resident Evil devotee; you didn’t deserve that sorrow.
Deaf (false) composer (also false) Samuragochi
DualShock Ver.’s soundtrack was said to be created by (formerly) legendary deaf Japanese musician Mamoru Samuragochi, but since he admitted in 2014 to not being quite as deaf as he’d claimed and having Takashi Niigaki actually compose all of his work, we have the latter to thank for this. Niigaki has actually done amazing work in the name of Samuragochi, like Onimusha‘s incredible score. There are even some pretty good tracks to be found in DualShock Ver.’s OST. I suppose since he was ghostwriting for a man who was said to be deaf, Mansion Basement might be Niigaki’s attempt at throwing people off of his trail, like a snickering high school student purposely getting a few answers on his test wrong so it won’t look like he had the answer key.
Mansion Basement has real promise for three seconds. The first note foreshadows slower, tone setting ones to come, but they must have missed the memo. Instead, a jumble of all-over-the-place sounds just come rambling on. If they were going for random noises pieced together to create unease and discomfort, they could have looked to the past for advice. Super Metroid showed the world it could be done with the Item Room theme in 1994. Appropriately, the mentioned theme gives off more of a sci-fi vibe, but the song would definitely be a good starting place for fixing Mansion Basement but keeping the nontraditional sound it seemed to be aiming for. But alas, this is what we were given; some of the worst video game music ever. Mansion Basement is definitely a horrifying composition, but probably not in the way it was intended.
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Written by ChronoSloth
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Video game reviewer who particularly loves the fourth and fifth generation of consoles. In an exclusive polygamist relationship with Nintendo and PlayStation. Fluent in Al Bhed and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 combo notation. Follow him on Instagram to see lots of pictures of video games.
