Evergrace OST - Buying Goods with Palmira (In-Game Version)
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- Опубліковано 27 сер 2024
- Evergrace (2000)
Composer: Kota Hoshino
Producer: Masanori Takeuchi
Developer: FromSoftware
Requested by NeonMugen. My apologies for getting to this so late, life kicks my ass. I also had a lot to say about this track and the shop in general, so I spent a lot time in my head processing it all to plop on here! What do I even start with...
It's everyone's favourite Double Music, "Buying Goods with Palmira!" You'll see different translations such as "Buying Goods at Palmira," or "Buying Goods with Palmira Ore," but none of those quite fit. The key is the で particle. In the Japanese name, パルミラ片でお買い物, it can either translate to "at" or "with (by means)." So パルミラ片 is Palmira, and to be clear, not Palmira Ore! They're two different items - Palmira Ore is something you sell. でお買い物 means "shopping with these means," so put that together and it's Buying Goods with Palmira. I kept the translation of "Buying Goods" as not to stray from the other translations too much... But the inconsistency bothered me a lot with the other names. I must go against the grain sometimes.
Another going against the grain, you might've seen another video on UA-cam claim that their in-game version of Buying Goods with Palmira is the legit one. Both me and NeonMugen talked about this, and... It doesn't sound like that at all in the game, hence this video was made. The reverb on that video is ramped up so high, it's so weird! I'd really love to know how that person recorded their version. Like I've said in other videos, I capture all my audio through PCSX2 and Audacity, using the Japanese version of Evergrace. I don't think there's any version differences between Japanese/overseas Evergrace in terms of music, but... After learning RUNE and Lost Kingdoms have incredibly different music, my worldview can be considered shattered.
Speaking of another going against the grain/worldview shatter/discussion, I have words to say about the shopkeeper of the shop where this track plays. Some people might call him an elephant, but did you know... In an interview with Ken Sugawara, he's actually based off a baku, a supernatural creature from Japan who eats dreams. So I guess you could call him more of a tapir? A blue tapir.
Interview link here: web.archive.or...
Regardless of what he is though, honestly speaking, his design's always made me a bit uncomfortable. The guy was one of the few non-human NPCs in the game, with a long nose and a snide look he reminded me of antisemitic caricatures I'd learned about (especially ones that play on greed). Though if you've played Evergrace, you know he's a fairly generous guy who just likes fashion a lot, but his design's concerns me nonetheless. Talking with another friend about this, themes of orientalism came up as well - appropriating aesthetics, fashion, creating stereotypes from the imagined Orient... And that actually lines up with an interview from Masanori Takeuchi, speaking about how the Middle East and Islam inspired Evergrace's story and character names. Shopkeeper also talks in a blend of kanji, hiragana, and katakana (got to the point where I gave up reading his complex monologue in the novel) which implies a character who speaks with a foreign dialect. It all wraps up into a character who really leans into a bunch of stereotypes from a bunch of roots. Now, how that all ended up in a Japanese game, even though Japan itself was historically included in orientalism? That will probably take 3 more history lessons of Japanese-American media relationships I do not have enough brain cells to talk on right now.
Interview link here: web.archive.or...
Ultimately, me and my friend are just two people - if you are also passionate about the themes that made up the basis of Evergrace, let me know your thoughts below. If I got something wrong, or you have your own experiences from other games that parallel this, I would love to know. Or somewhere else if you'd like, since UA-cam comments aren't so great. In the end, I guess I just want to say be aware of these kinda stereotypes.
Also, check out my in-game version of Piercing the Heavens here! I've attached some important information bout the Evergrace OST as a whole in the description of that video: • Evergrace OST - Pierci...
Actually, that information leads into Indigenous appropriation in Evergrace's OST, so it applies to the stuff I wrote above too. Cross-promo.
And lastly... Thumbnail compiled from a few sources, such as the logo taken from an official wallpaper, and the render of Darius is from the Agetec PS2 Graphic Assets disk. It was also used in beta promotional media for Evergrace. Check out the video of the disk's contents!
• Agetec PS2 Graphics As...
Oh my god I wrote so much. If you made it here, thanks for reading.
Sounds less chaotic than the OST version, I like both, this one is more cheerful.
I feel like a lot of OST tracks really bump up the chaos, and is a bit as to why I like uploading these videos to see the difference. If only we could get both versions in the game...
I really love that chaos in the soundtrack version though. It’s weird and off but it gives it character and texture
As If from was kinda scared of the original soundtrack and Said "we making It Just a bit more normal"
i’ve been on a hoshino kick after recently discovering the armored core series, and reading your description gave me a nice fuzzy feeling. it’s always sweet to see people passionate about random, lesser/known games. thanks for the work on this video! i love the chaos of the cd(?) version, but this one has its own appeal… tough to choose one over the other.
Thank you very much!!! i just really like putting long descriptions into these videos, i have a lot to say about the game and its themes and the story it tells
I honestly love both the soundtrack version and the in-game version equally. It really depends on the day.
I appreciate that we have twice as many versions to enjoy and talk about, too :D
i'm back after 3 weeks and i unleashed 5000 words into the youtube description packed with my thoughts on this song, its title, the shopkeeper himself, and other things round the 'web. it felt nice to write a lot like i usually do. and if you read through it all, thank you!
i didn't even get to the part about how damn DIFFERENT this is compared to the OST version. well feel free to request more i will now go rest my fingers.
Es gracioso y al mismo tiempo extraño saber que existe un canal enteramente a las composiciónes de Evergrace, comparto la emoción :]
My ability to speak Spanish is not very good... But thank you very much!
It's like Hoshino produced two fucking albuns, one to sell and one to play on the game, so in order to hear it 100% of the music you need to both play and hear the individual records
Pretty much, right? I've been meaning to email Fromsoftware for a while, because the remastered OST is attributed to FreQuency... I'd love to know how much involvement they had in the album.
Keep uploading EverGrace songs, I love the game Very good video
Thank you! Man, I cant get enough of your nickname, it's just so entertaining to me. Darius.... Gamer.
If you have any requests, let me know! I mostly upload OST videos on a request basis, otherwise a concrete schedule would really hamper my other work.
love ur dedication, thanks for all this work related to evergrace :)
also does the 2 bonus tracks (Grace & EG expression 0) actually play in the game? because i would really like to hear what they sound like if they do
Thank you so much! I just really like this game, it really deserves another look after 21 years.
The two bonus tracks don't play in the game, and I've never heard of anyone encountering it either. Maybe it exists on the game disk unused, but as far as we know it's only on the soundtrack CD. I love those two tracks...
sounds like a slightly different mix than the soundtrack version, some of the background vocals sound a bit more sharp, and the bass a bit more pronounced
Yea, yea. I think the intense mix of the soundtrack is what makes it sound like the infamous double music it's come to be known as. I personally thought it sounded a bit quieter than the soundtrack version, lot of things are more subtle here. When I went to compare the tracks in Audacity, the pitch was slightly different, too...
I want to live on this render
I’m sure you can isekai to Rieubane, just like Darius 🤗
This one? That's a bargain!
“You want to upgrade that?” Yes…. I’m weird……….
@@mariopartylover10 Me: I ran out of life extract. I'm gonna mash the x button until I buy 10 of them *mashes the x button*
Shopkeeper: "This, that! This, that! This, that! This, that! This, that!"
This is literally how insanity sounds like
It’s just me when I’m buying things
thank u sm for uploading these! is there anywhere i can download the in-game versions?
You are welcome! I plan to make a kinda pseudo-album download in the near future as I have just one more track to record. But for the time being I do not have links yet, sorry!
sounds devoid of soul
This sounds like the product of higher ups stepping in and telling Hoshino to make a more “marketable” version of the song for the game. Still great, but lacking a lot of the soul the OST version has.
Sometimes I think EG’s in-game OST might be a product of dev hell (Hoshino had to remake the whole soundtrack from the scrapped PS1 version), and the CD soundtrack version might be his... More realized version, maybe? Even so I still like this version for being, well, in the game. It’s jank but not perfect jank. Jank is a science...
Personally, I don’t think those higher ups would’ve stepped in to make it more palatable when the whole game itself isn’t even damn fit for human consumption, but it still feels like those higher ups influenced things regardless. There’s a lot about EG’s development that I wonder.
Sounds like it needs to be a half step down.