The “music” of Operate Shooting Star

Of all the discussion about Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star, one of the biggest topics is how much of the original Battle Network material it uses. Yeah, the graphics are all ported over, but the music would be arranged at least. Or would it? Truth be told, from what was in the demo the music of OSS was sounding pretty identical too. Were they really just porting over the music directly from the GBA version? Well, have a listen to these recordings from the demo yourself.
Internet theme (used as the title theme in the demo)
Virus busting
Boss battle

Clearly the music isn’t straight GBA music, but seems to be “ported,” as if the music were moved over to the DS infrastructure and given similar sound samples to replace the original GameBoy chip noise. Either way, it’s definitely not what people would respect, given the likes of Battle Network 5 DS. However, I have a feeling this is all place holder music. Granted, I can’t say the final music will be that different. What gives me this notion, however, is the internet theme, specifically the last portion of it. The synthy piano kind of part is completely flat, whereas in the original tune it had a little more shape. If you compare the two versions you’ll see what I mean. This gives me the impression that the music was quickly thrown together for the demo (though it’s probably something Splashman could explain better).

It’s my guess that the final product will have more arranged music (after all, we have heard a nice rendition of the game’s main theme in the message from Takeshi Horinouchi). But it’s still a little uncertain until OSS is finally out. I just don’t feel these tracks will be representative of that.

LanceHeart