During a new “Ask the Developer” interview with Nintendo, key Mario & Luigi: Brothership developers discussed the hardships of ensuring the game’s music was “Mario & Luigi-like”:
Mario & Luigi | Brothership Devs on Making Sure the Music was “Mario & Luigi-like”:
Akira Otani: This time, since we had Acquire on board for the development, the game had dramatically changed with the transition to 3D, so we decided to take on new challenges with the music as well. We asked Sakamoto-san from Noisycroak – with whom Ohashi-san has worked for a long time – to handle it.
Haruyuki Ohashi: That’s right. But once again we ran into challenges with, you know…making it “Mario & Luigi-like”. (Laughs)
Akira Otani: A lot of the background music in the series so far has used piano tunes, but we wanted something new this time, so we asked him to use wind instruments and add more emotion, and left the rest to him…
Haruyuki Ohashi: We really struggled to create the music. We’d have meetings with Sakamoto-san once a week, where we’d both be like, “What does “Mario & Luigi-like” even mean?”. (Laughs) In the end, we picked out instruments that sounded like Mario & Luigi and reduced the number of them to hone in on that “Mario & Luigi-like” feeling. Things like tropical steelpans, upbeat brass bands, accordions…
Akira Otani: Once we narrowed down the selection of instruments, it started to match the series’ atmosphere. Although “Mario & Luigi-like” has no clear definition, one key point I kept in mind was whether it matched Mario and Luigi’s in-game movements. But the final product ended up being filled with a lot of great music.
What also impressed me was that in addition to the songs that crop up in several places, there are also lots of songs that were created for specific scenes. Normally, we create music to be used multiple times – one song for battles, one for boss fights, another for events… But he created a completely different piece of music for each cutscene.
Haruyuki Ohashi: For this game, the music was only added after the scene was created. Sakamoto-san composed the music for each scene after checking how it flowed from the previous to the next. The music for climactic scenes was also created while discussing together.
Akira Otani: A synergy develops as the story unfolds. There are over 100 pieces of music, and every single one is good. I need the soundtrack. (Laughs)
Haruyuki Ohashi: Generic songs wouldn’t have been able to fully articulate the cutscenes. Because personally, I thought the scenes were really well done. Then I thought it would be even better if we embellished each cutscene with incidental music (10) for dramatic impact. So we ended up adding another 40 tracks to the original 60. (Laughs)
For the full interview, why not click here to check out Ask the Developer Vol. 15, Mario & Luigi: Brothership – Chapter 4:
Ask the Developer | Mario & Luigi Brothership (Participating Developers)
- Akira Otani | Entertainment Planning & Development Division, Co-Production Group (Producer)
- Tomoki Fukushima | Entertainment Planning & Development Division, Co-Production Group (Associate Producer)
- Haruyuki Ohashi | Director, Acquire Corp.
- Hitomi Furuta | Designer, Acquire Corp. (Art Director)
