The VRC6 chip is a really cool expansion to the NES sounds, this game just shows how amazing it sounds. That being said, Yoshinori Sasaki did a great job when he redid the soundtrack for the standard NES soundchip. I disagree with what Pluto said before, I think he reformatted it in a way that kept the depth of the music as much as was possible. There's actually some parts of the music that I like better in the US version, where the VRC6 chip just sounds too gritty and less graceful, like the bridge part in Beginning. There's this one guy who combined both versions into one track, and it sounds AMAZING. I would recommend listening to that. It shows that they're both unique sounding and awesome.
Everyone is focused on the music, but I think the biggest difference is the difficulty. The US version replaces decent weapons with the stupid knife, makes the enemies deal more damage, puts enemies in unfair places and makes the game more difficult in general. It really disrupts the flow of the game and makes it WAY too frustrating to play. Also, Grant got nerfed hard and lost his main ability. Akumajou Densetsu is far superior to the US version. It's still hard as balls, but at least it's fun to play.
To give the US version credit, though they did have to deal with the absence of expanded audio, they did their best on bug correction and even aesthetic identity (the cross in the intro being a notable counter-example).
Yeah. Three extra sound channels will do that. :D I was very impressed with the overall improvement in quality. But there are some tracks that I still prefer the NES version of, like "Rising" - the level with Frankenstein's Monster as the boss.
Fox Miller I wouldn't say that, mabye it's because i'm use to the us version but to me the famicom version sound rough and gritty, I can hear a little bit more instruments being used though
Yikes, Nintendo really screwed up rearranging the NES's hardware. Surely it wouldn't have been too difficult to keep the extra pins in the cartridge slot? Either way, the composer did a good job rearranging the soundtrack for the international versions of the game.
The NES lacks the audio on the regular cartridge connector. Just to save a few cents, what moreons they were. However, the expansion slot at the bottom of the NES actually had the audio pin (pin 3 from the top of my head) so in theory one could make an NES cartridge wirh VRC6 and with some wires or a little board at the expansion slot, you could actually make it work.
Nintendo cared more about controlling the content on its system after Atari got blamed for pornographic games on the 2600 manufactured by other companies
On the Castlevania collection on PS4 they had an update and added the Famicom versions of a few games and personally on Castlevania 3 it sounds way better!
I actually love both of them. Even though I played the Japanese version first, some songs sound somewhat better in the American version, regardless of the instrumentation.
The closest comparison that I can make to this video is that this is like what happened with the Sega Master System music and sound. Europe and Japan got FM sound, while the US was stuck with PSG.
Even crazier is the fact that a handful of Western-developed games (including some that never made it to Japan) are able to make full use of the FM card, even though the US and PAL SMS consoles didn't have a place for the card!
I wish the NES had the same expanded sound chip in with the standard one, the Castlevania music is so much richer (though the North American version is not bad, it's just comparing great vs good)
While Akumajou Densetsu's audio is definitely "Better", Castlevania III sounds like it belongs more. IDK, they're both good in different ways, though Castlevania III's audio could have been formatted better. It kinda seems like they just played the same music without the extra channels instead of reformatting it to the channels available
The instruments used are definitely different between the two, and I can see where you're coming from with the idea that it sounds like it belongs more in the US version. The Famicom version however does have a much more 'epic' sound to it.
Quite a few games had expanded audio of their NES counterparts - even the original Legend of Zelda on the Famicom disc system used more sound channels than the US version. A full list can be found here: wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/List_of_games_with_expansion_audio
I'm from England originally, so I know how this goes. Despite the US having retro games run at faster speeds, be content in the knowledge that PAL is a sharper image.
Many Japanese computers had Yamaha sound chips (PC-98, X68000, etc;), so Sega also used a Yamaha sound chip on the Genesis. Sega also used the 68000 processor because many arcade machines also used this processor. They felt it would make it easier for companies to make games for the Mega Drive by using similar hardware.
I have a repro of Akumajou Densetsu in english so I can hear that awesome music. My nes has the expanded audio installed. But when I tested the game, the music was off. It did not sound exactly like Akumajou Densetsu's soundtrack. I asked and I'm told no eeprom can emulate a sound chip, only fpga. In other words, I think only the famicom game has the chip in it that will produce the audio I am wanting to hear, no reproduction cart will have this. Is there a solution to this? I want to play the game in english while listening to the awesome expanded audio from Akumajou Densetsu. Someone made the game in english with the awesome main title screen as well but the music is off. What can be fixed so it sounds just like the japanese game?
I actually recorded this from an NTSC console, modded for expanded audio. Even though the console board is modded on yours, is your Famicom adapter also modded/designed for expanded audio? I have an adapter cribbed from an old broken Gyromite/Robot Gyro and it required an extra jumper to be soldered in between one of the cart contacts and socket pins.
Jesus, the Famicom version sounds so much deeper than the NES one, completely different from CVII where the FDS version has better sounds but the NES version has more interesting composition.
Knowing that the American NES could not reproduce the channels that the famicom had I wish Konami had gone a different route with the music. they could have taken all the reproducible music channels and kept the same music from the famicom and just added a Bass track. Just my opinion
the famicom surely used the vcr6 good enough, but the only general difference is the "reverb", which ofc sounds better, it's just the effect is so impacting
Not *too* many games have such impressive expanded audio, but Esper Dream 2 and Madara for the Famicom use the same chip. However, Lagrange Point for the Famicom uses the next generation of this chip (the VRC7), which essentially gives the game full FM audio. I'd love to get a hold of a copy to show it off on here some day.
Konami used their own cartridge hardware. The VRC6 and 7 has expanded audio. I believe Namco and Sunsoft games also had expanded audio, but Im not sure if any of them were released in North America as well. Nintendo changed the NES to make sure they could approve every game made for the system due to the video game crash of 1983-1984. So Konami couldnt make their own cartridges outside of Japan and had to use Nintendo's cartridges. Contra in Japan has some expanded scenes and some background animations (it uses a VRC2 chip), but almost all of the other games Konami made in Japan play the same way they do in North America. I know Konami made Castlevania 2 and Gyruss on the Famicom Disk System, and moved them over to the NES, so the audio is different in that respect (Nintendo also made games for the Famicom Disk system exclusively between 1986 and 1988 and pre-Final Fantasy Squaresoft made games for the FDS as well before shipping a few of them over to the NES).
What a terrible compromise for the composer, he had to flatten the music and lose depth and dynamism, becoming cartoony instead of atmospheric. His composition stays top notch though.
How did you get such a clear video/sound on your Famicom and NES? Especially on the Famicom, as mine is connected via RF and looks blurry and muddled by comparison. Don't tell me you were using emulation?
As far as I'm aware, and I may be completely wrong, but sample data uses far more memory than traditional music data. VRC6 sidestepped the need for this by adding more sound channels, resulting in the more "complete" soundtrack in the Famicom release. It could be argued that increasing the memory space on the cartridge would fix the issue, but the NES also could not access extra memory chips used in certain other Famicom games (such as Lagrange Point).
Yes it does! There are some differences too, as Grant was able to actually throw his daggers in the Famicom original, and enemies deal scaled damage instead of everything doing four hearts.
Standard Definition Gaming Everything doesn't do 4 hearts(or bars rather). It's progressive from 2-4 in the US version. In the Japanese version, each enemy and hazard (sort of) does its own damage.
The VRC6 chip is a really cool expansion to the NES sounds, this game just shows how amazing it sounds.
That being said, Yoshinori Sasaki did a great job when he redid the soundtrack for the standard NES soundchip. I disagree with what Pluto said before, I think he reformatted it in a way that kept the depth of the music as much as was possible. There's actually some parts of the music that I like better in the US version, where the VRC6 chip just sounds too gritty and less graceful, like the bridge part in Beginning.
There's this one guy who combined both versions into one track, and it sounds AMAZING. I would recommend listening to that. It shows that they're both unique sounding and awesome.
you got a link to the combined version?
@@TJ-xl1kd ua-cam.com/video/UwIQ3nBZ4Dw/v-deo.html
It's supposed to sound gritty, dark, grimy, loudly as possible...Usa version sound flat, the graphics were faded
It's a big difference. The Famicom one has SO MUCH more depth.
The three additional channels make an enormous difference - especially the offered ability to generate that killer reverb!
Yeah, the final boss theme is a great bit of chiptune goodness on the NES, but on the Famicom it actually sounds like a harpsichord.
Everyone is focused on the music, but I think the biggest difference is the difficulty. The US version replaces decent weapons with the stupid knife, makes the enemies deal more damage, puts enemies in unfair places and makes the game more difficult in general. It really disrupts the flow of the game and makes it WAY too frustrating to play. Also, Grant got nerfed hard and lost his main ability.
Akumajou Densetsu is far superior to the US version. It's still hard as balls, but at least it's fun to play.
Grant's knife in the Japanese version
Syfia still makes the US version beatable. Agreed grant is useless in the US version
the japanese version is incredibly fun especially with grant
I'm playing it now on the Anniversary Collection. I also noticed the hunchbacks have a different character sprite too.
The original Japanese version with the special chip sound like a PC Engine!
To give the US version credit, though they did have to deal with the absence of expanded audio, they did their best on bug correction and even aesthetic identity (the cross in the intro being a notable counter-example).
The Famicom Version is Much better.
Yeah. Three extra sound channels will do that. :D
I was very impressed with the overall improvement in quality. But there are some tracks that I still prefer the NES version of, like "Rising" - the level with Frankenstein's Monster as the boss.
AGREE
Fox Miller
I wouldn't say that, mabye it's because i'm use to the us version but to me the famicom version sound rough and gritty, I can hear a little bit more instruments being used though
It would probably be even better if there was a triangle channel.
Honestly the Japanese version makes the famicom sound like a pc engine
Yikes, Nintendo really screwed up rearranging the NES's hardware.
Surely it wouldn't have been too difficult to keep the extra pins in the cartridge slot?
Either way, the composer did a good job rearranging the soundtrack for the international versions of the game.
Those two pins could save them half a cent per console. They are the only game company managing to make money on hardware.
Yeah, I’m impressed by what a good job the composer did with it, but wow is it noticing better on Famicom!
America wasn't exactly too trustable to keep buying
The NES lacks the audio on the regular cartridge connector. Just to save a few cents, what moreons they were. However, the expansion slot at the bottom of the NES actually had the audio pin (pin 3 from the top of my head) so in theory one could make an NES cartridge wirh VRC6 and with some wires or a little board at the expansion slot, you could actually make it work.
Nintendo cared more about controlling the content on its system after Atari got blamed for pornographic games on the 2600 manufactured by other companies
On the Castlevania collection on PS4 they had an update and added the Famicom versions of a few games and personally on Castlevania 3 it sounds way better!
I'm sad that the nes could not handle a little extra sound. But damn still a great game
In theory it can, the expansion connector at the bottom of your NES (behind the plastic cover / tab) actually has the audio in pin.
I actually love both of them. Even though I played the Japanese version first, some songs sound somewhat better in the American version, regardless of the instrumentation.
They don't
@@jorgitoislamico4224 Well to each his or her own 👍🏼
@@AlfonsoECruz No
The closest comparison that I can make to this video is that this is like what happened with the Sega Master System music and sound. Europe and Japan got FM sound, while the US was stuck with PSG.
Even crazier is the fact that a handful of Western-developed games (including some that never made it to Japan) are able to make full use of the FM card, even though the US and PAL SMS consoles didn't have a place for the card!
Would love to hear more sound comparisons
I wish the NES had the same expanded sound chip in with the standard one, the Castlevania music is so much richer (though the North American version is not bad, it's just comparing great vs good)
Sound chip in cartdridge
Am I the only one who notices that the cross has streaks of light coming from it on the Famicom version?
There's a lot of strange differences, those purple zombies in the first level look completely different too
Grant got done dirty in western release of the game as well. His throwing knife got replaced with a shitty melee
Castlevania III sounds good but after playing the translated Akumajou I cant go back
While Akumajou Densetsu's audio is definitely "Better", Castlevania III sounds like it belongs more. IDK, they're both good in different ways, though Castlevania III's audio could have been formatted better. It kinda seems like they just played the same music without the extra channels instead of reformatting it to the channels available
The instruments used are definitely different between the two, and I can see where you're coming from with the idea that it sounds like it belongs more in the US version. The Famicom version however does have a much more 'epic' sound to it.
Standard Definition Gaming how many games supported the expanded audio?
Quite a few games had expanded audio of their NES counterparts - even the original Legend of Zelda on the Famicom disc system used more sound channels than the US version.
A full list can be found here: wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/List_of_games_with_expansion_audio
+Pluto Nonary nah dude
I'm from England originally, so I know how this goes. Despite the US having retro games run at faster speeds, be content in the knowledge that PAL is a sharper image.
It sounds great, in both cases. Why Megadrive chose FM synthesis? It could sound like a Famicom.
What do you mean ?
FM snythesis is the best music creating technique .
Many Japanese computers had Yamaha sound chips (PC-98, X68000, etc;), so Sega also used a Yamaha sound chip on the Genesis. Sega also used the 68000 processor because many arcade machines also used this processor. They felt it would make it easier for companies to make games for the Mega Drive by using similar hardware.
I have a repro of Akumajou Densetsu in english so I can hear that awesome music. My nes has the expanded audio installed. But when I tested the game, the music was off. It did not sound exactly like Akumajou Densetsu's soundtrack. I asked and I'm told no eeprom can emulate a sound chip, only fpga. In other words, I think only the famicom game has the chip in it that will produce the audio I am wanting to hear, no reproduction cart will have this. Is there a solution to this? I want to play the game in english while listening to the awesome expanded audio from Akumajou Densetsu. Someone made the game in english with the awesome main title screen as well but the music is off. What can be fixed so it sounds just like the japanese game?
I actually recorded this from an NTSC console, modded for expanded audio. Even though the console board is modded on yours, is your Famicom adapter also modded/designed for expanded audio? I have an adapter cribbed from an old broken Gyromite/Robot Gyro and it required an extra jumper to be soldered in between one of the cart contacts and socket pins.
Jesus, the Famicom version sounds so much deeper than the NES one, completely different from CVII where the FDS version has better sounds but the NES version has more interesting composition.
Knowing that the American NES could not reproduce the channels that the famicom had I wish Konami had gone a different route with the music. they could have taken all the reproducible music channels and kept the same music from the famicom and just added a Bass track. Just my opinion
the famicom surely used the vcr6 good enough, but the only general difference is the "reverb", which ofc sounds better, it's just the effect is so impacting
Konami Mappers > Nintendo Mappers
In this case:
VRC6 > MMC5
Maaaan, the West got the shaft on this one. Akumajou smashes Castlevania into pieces.
It sounds like a SNES ! Is there others games that use this chip ?
Not *too* many games have such impressive expanded audio, but Esper Dream 2 and Madara for the Famicom use the same chip. However, Lagrange Point for the Famicom uses the next generation of this chip (the VRC7), which essentially gives the game full FM audio. I'd love to get a hold of a copy to show it off on here some day.
Konami used their own cartridge hardware. The VRC6 and 7 has expanded audio. I believe Namco and Sunsoft games also had expanded audio, but Im not sure if any of them were released in North America as well.
Nintendo changed the NES to make sure they could approve every game made for the system due to the video game crash of 1983-1984. So Konami couldnt make their own cartridges outside of Japan and had to use Nintendo's cartridges. Contra in Japan has some expanded scenes and some background animations (it uses a VRC2 chip), but almost all of the other games Konami made in Japan play the same way they do in North America. I know Konami made Castlevania 2 and Gyruss on the Famicom Disk System, and moved them over to the NES, so the audio is different in that respect (Nintendo also made games for the Famicom Disk system exclusively between 1986 and 1988 and pre-Final Fantasy Squaresoft made games for the FDS as well before shipping a few of them over to the NES).
Not only sound. The graphics are better on Famicom too.
Famicom version da best because of originality
la version de famicom suena como si lo hubiera compuesto "justice" !! jaja eto es genial!
Y suena mas como una sega genesis
What a terrible compromise for the composer, he had to flatten the music and lose depth and dynamism, becoming cartoony instead of atmospheric. His composition stays top notch though.
Adrian Vázquez-Pérez I we,
How did you get such a clear video/sound on your Famicom and NES? Especially on the Famicom, as mine is connected via RF and looks blurry and muddled by comparison. Don't tell me you were using emulation?
Nope, using a Dazzle DVC100 connected to a regular US NES with RCA.
Why couldn't they use the sample chip to sample the VRC6 chip.
As far as I'm aware, and I may be completely wrong, but sample data uses far more memory than traditional music data. VRC6 sidestepped the need for this by adding more sound channels, resulting in the more "complete" soundtrack in the Famicom release. It could be argued that increasing the memory space on the cartridge would fix the issue, but the NES also could not access extra memory chips used in certain other Famicom games (such as Lagrange Point).
I have a more in-depth comparison of these games on my channel for anyone interested in checking it out:
ua-cam.com/video/WFV4VwPU_zU/v-deo.html
it sounds neutered
Actually "Beginning" on NES sounds better. And every other track, Famicom sounds better.
Combining both, fami and nes tracks: ua-cam.com/video/y0vQOyBwkDE/v-deo.html
Does the Japanese version have the option to transform into the 3 different forms?
Yes it does! There are some differences too, as Grant was able to actually throw his daggers in the Famicom original, and enemies deal scaled damage instead of everything doing four hearts.
Standard Definition Gaming Everything doesn't do 4 hearts(or bars rather). It's progressive from 2-4 in the US version. In the Japanese version, each enemy and hazard (sort of) does its own damage.
HIYA!!!
HEY BUDDY!!!
Famicon version is fucking suberb.
The famicom version is better
❤️
the famicom version shits all over the nes version in many ways
The original Japan the best
I don’t hear any difference
hemos vivido engañado con la nes americana
Dont like games from u.s.a, hate de censorship from u.s.a