3 out of 5

Label: Data Discs

Produced by: Shaun Crook (mastered by)

In the liner notes from composers Tomoko Sasaki and Naofumi Hataya (written separately, printed on the back cover of each LP sleeve), I think it’s notable that both make mention, in some way, of how the game paired with the music is a unique experience – firstly because of the still weird vibe of Nights, and also because of its approach to music, which recycles themes in variations depending on how you’re interacting with the environment. While Nights wasn’t the only game experimenting in that fashion, because of that first point – how trippy the game is – I do think it was especially affecting: the whole thing is dreamlike, and as it shifts into the circusy surreal, the music getting tweaked alongside is notable. (Something else that’s mentioned: music recording quality was sacrificed for more room.)

Alongside Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Virtua Cop 2, Nights kindled an early love affair between my Sega Saturn and me: these were very specific experiences that felt different from any video game I’d been able to play before. But there was something even more “that” with Nights, hovering in this realm of mysterious and kind of scary: the story felt a bit inscrutable; the gameplay was foreign to me and I was learning my way through it; and these factors leant the experience a general Unknown factor that I can still trigger when replaying it as an adult.

I mean, this is also a deeply goofy game, I don’t want to mislead.

But I haven’t mentioned the music, have I? Which I guess is part of my point: while the bouncy, appreciably layered soundtrack from Sasaki, Hataya, and Fumie Kumatani is certainly part of the Nights experience, I’m not sure I got much out of it separated from the Unknown weirdness. There’s a platformer bop to it that’s dolled up with the expressiveness of CD-era gaming; on the C-side, when the tunes get moodier, it’s quite excellent – the bop starts to stand alone as something that conjures the game without requiring it to gain momentum. But in general, despite the aforementioned evolving themes, there’s nothing here that feels especially strong, and somehow comes across as too open-ended.

However, I mentioned the sound quality because I do think that’s at play here: while I might be misidentifying something that was only a Saturn issue and wouldn’t be present on the score, I noted, prior to reading the liner notes, that this score felt mastered at more muted levels than usual for Data Discs, and was occasionally somewhat crackly. Shaun Crook has always been DD’s vinyl masterer, so it’s not a change in that regard, and thus I wonder / assume if that quality limitation isn’t the culprit: because the playfulness of these tunes do have some fittingly weird undertones that feel like they should make for more enduring tracks, but it’s hard to get in to them in their presented quality. (“Dreams dreams,” meanwhile, is a banger of a vocal track, pure 80s animated kids show bombastic thematics – I very much appreciate the bonus 7″ with some alternates of that tune.)

As this was a landmark game, and as the score is undeniably unique in various ways, I’m glad Data Discs brought it to their label, and dressed it in their reliably professional style. I’m sure they did their best with the source music. But, if like Shinobi, they somehow somewhere discover a better source, I’d pick this up again on the suspicion I’d get a lot more of it.