Chrono Trigger composer details their approach to Sea of Stars' tunes
One of gaming's greatest composers
The bulk of Sea of Stars soundtrack is being composed by Eric W. Brown, composer from The Messenger. Brown is an absolutely fantastic composer who has cooked up some stellar tunes so far, but Sea of Stars will also see a few guest tracks composed by one of gaming’s most legendary composers.
Yasunori Mitsuda of Chrono Trigger fame is providing Sea of Stars with 10 different tracks. Mitsuda worked on a town theme, boss theme, battle theme and more, but we’ll have to wait until Sea of Stars’ launch on August 29th, 2023 to hear them all.
In advance of the game’s release, Game Informer spoke to Mitsuda to find out how he channeled and elevated his classic 16-bit style for Sea of Stars.
On the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), sampled tones were configured within the system’s limited memory and played back in 8-voice polyphony. Additionally, although very cheap by today’s standards, the “echo” effect can also be considered as a characteristic of SNES-style sound. While keeping a taste of the feel of that time but also using modern technology, I tried creating the music for Sea of Stars as if it were coming from a slightly upgraded SNES. Usually, synthesizer audio can be used as is, but this time I deliberately resampled the audio in 32 kHz and applied an effect with the same settings as the SNES “echo”. The sound is more gorgeous than that of the past, but I think you’ll somehow be able to feel that SNES feeling.
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