Music! Metal Gear Rising: REVENGEANCE Edition (For Real This Time)

In the middle of my third playthrough of REVENGEANCE, I've finally come to the realization that it's not only Mistral's Theme that I'm a fan of, but rather the entire soundtrack, now that I've heard it so many times.  It's not a fondness through repetition, nor was it something that is particularly catchy - It's simply that after hearing the tracks enough times, I could pin it down.  When you find yourself humming along with it, or timing your movements to certain parts of the song, well, yeah, you know it well enough.  That I'm listening to them outside of the game is probably proof-positive enough that I enjoy them, I would say.  Especially considering the versions I'm using require more than just listening to the soundtrack I got (since mine was just the instrumentals).

I didn't exactly plan it this way and it is technically a slight spoiler to sort of...state things this way, but I'm going ahead with it.  Of the three remaining boss fights (of the core group anyway, not counting the final bosses, you know the drill), I ended up sort of ranking them, and wouldn't you know it?  I like them in the exact order through which they come up.  Beyond my above-and-beyond enjoyment of "A Stranger I Remain", of course, which is outside of this post anyway, so no worries.  That said the first song of tonight is "The Stains of Time", which is Monsoon's theme, the second member of the 'Winds of Destruction'.  (Mistral being the first)

I'm just using the Remixed versions of every song since, given they're the closest we have to 'Official' as I ranted about, it's just the easiest way about things.  I've noticed that, compared to Mistral, not a whole lot is lost in the three remixes for tonight which is comforting even if they are still way too short by their very nature.  It's hard to really pin down -what- I like about "The Stains of Time", but if anything, I'd have to guess the guitar, because let's be honest, it is pretty damn kickin'.  The vocals are delivered well and fit the song pretty nicely, while the lyrics are actually pretty good as well.  The chorus being the best part of it all, if only for the punctuated delivery you get.  That would be the part of this song I tried to synch things up with when I was fighting Monsoon, but, well, that didn't happen.  Still was fun trying, though!

After the Monsoon fight, actually quite a while after, you end up fighting Sundowner who is the first member of the Winds of Destruction that you're introduced to in the game.  For good reason too, as he's actually the leader of the three of them. Presumably their basic cyborgs as well, but mostly the three of them.  (Mistral, Monsoon and Sundowner).  There's some codec conversations in the game that describe their theme and their name origins which, of course, all have to do with winds and specific regions.  Sundowner, specifically, is some type of wind condition in California or something - honestly it's interesting in the game, but I can't retain that sort of thing.  Still, nice that they put some thought behind it.  Continuing his little theme with 'sun', his theme is titled "Red Sun".

Not gonna lie; the vocals of this song are really what drew me into it.  The opening riff is nice, but it doesn't carry very far into the song.  When it ends, though, the vocals pretty much kick in right then and I didn't even really pay attention to the lyrics the first few times I really started listening to it.  When I did, though....it's almost kind of silly how out of place the lyrics -are-, in a sense.  When you play REVENGEANCE for yourself (and you damn well better if you haven't already) and are in scenes with Sundowner and eventually fighting him, remember that "Only love is with us now, something warm and pure / find the peace within ourselves, no need for a cure" is part of his official theme.  And then hold your head like a Psyduck and get back to enjoying the game.

The last video tonight is the theme of Jetstream Sam who is probably the most featured bad guy in all of the trailers that have been shown for the game.  With good reason - Sam is pretty much awesome, even though is is a bad dude.  Now, I know I said there were only three members of the Winds of Destruction and they all had Wind-themed names and yes, Sam has a wind-themed name, but he's not an official member.  He's just sort of working with them for the bigger picture in REVENGEANCE which I am not going to say anymore about because spoilers and I've spoiled enough as it is.  Still, Sam's theme might actually be my favorite of all four now, and I don't want to stall anymore.  So without further stalling "The Only Thing I Know For Real".

I....am pretty certain that I don't have to explain why I like this song.  Nor do I have to point out what there is to like about it.  I will do the latter point, however, and tell you what is great about the song:

Everything.

There's a really interesting sort of fusion feeling behind it, with the 'whistles' you get that are reminiscent of Samurai duels and the like, along with the rockin' guitar and such.  Which, funnily enough?  There is a reason for it that's openly given in the game in several different ways.  And it is similarly pretty awesome.  When you actually get to hear it in-game, it cranks up the intensity to 11 and makes it one of the more memorable sections.  All of this is purposefully said to entice you to play/buy the game, of course, so please do that.  In droves.  Because I want Metal Gear Rising 2:  RE-REVENGEANCE.  So do you.  But mostly me.

There are other songs on the soundtrack that are equally worth a listen, but these are pretty much the most important ones, by virtue of being the boss themes, so that they're awesome is good.  Quite good.  And really, that's all I wanted to convey.