In 2017, arrangers ROZEN+REVEN created NIeR: Glory to Mankind, an album of covers from Square’s first installment in the video game series. That game’s sequel NIeR Automata is far more popular than the original, so where was the cover album for that one? It took a while, but it’s finally here: ROZEN+REVEN’s followup to Glory to Mankind, titled NIeR: Become As Gods.
GRIS was released in 2018 and fast became a cult classic due to its artful presentation and unique approach to its ideas. The title refers to the name of the protagonist, who drifts through a dream world solving puzzles and gaining abilities to access new areas. It’s one of the few indie games to have more than one physical version (a third edition is coming soon). One of the high points of the game is its score, and you’ll soon be able to listen to piano covers of GRIS’s infectious melodies thanks to Materia Collective.
Still looking for the perfect Christmas gift for the Zelda fan in your life? Din rest ye merry Deku Scrubs, let nothing you dismay…Materia Collective has arrived in their sleigh of eight flying Eponas with A Merry Hyrule Christmas. This special album rearranges eight classic tracks from the Zelda series with a festive theme. You get the following:
If you ever wondered how the melodies of Mario 64 would sound rendered by a big-time jazz band….Hang Onto Your Hat. That’s the title of a new album published by Materia Collective that introduces the world to the Video Game Jazz Orchestra, a Nashville-based group of musicians who plan to cover a wide variety of video games in the old-timey jazz style. They’re starting with Mario 64.
It’s a huge day for Poke-fans as Pokemon Sword and Shield are officially released onto Nintendo Switch, but if you travel back a few gens, today also marks the release of a tribute album for the Nintendo DS’s Diamond and Pearl games. Time And Space was created by Braxton Burks, a game composer, arranger, and orchestrator from Seattle.
A game as important and iconic as Chrono Trigger deserves a similarly epic cover album. Materia Collective has stepped up to the challenge with EPOCH, a sixty-track tribute with the game’s beloved melodies re-rendered in all sorts of musical stylings. It’s got rock, jazz, ballads, an acoustic guitar rendition of Frog’s theme, an autotune pop interpretation of Robo’s theme, the Millennial Fair melody in bossa nova, and Crono’s trial reimagined as a bombastic Broadway musical.
Sole is an indie game where you are the literal light in a dark world. We mean you play as a light source, roaming around the blacked-out remains of a once proud civilization. What happened to them? You, as light, are on the case. Maybe you can bring the world back to life if you play well enough.
Thanks to the new trailer (and release date), The Last Of Us Part II is on everyone’s mind. Whether it was timed this way or not, it’s the perfect opportunity for Materia Collective to release a remix soundtrack album of the original’s music (originally created by Gustavo Santaolalla). The Last of Us Remixed contains covers composed by Taylor Ambrosio Wood, who’s created soundtracks for a few indie games.
We’ve covered a lot of Materia Collective’s video game music albums around here, but this is one of the more interesting: Metal Trainer, an album that renders the soundtrack of Pokemon Red and Blue in guitar-shredding metal. It was created by Ro Panuganti, who’s already created albums covering Metroid and The Legend of Zelda tunes.
Composer Stemage has worked on professional jobs both good (Steven Universe) and bad (Bubsy: Paws On Fire!) His most recently released creation is the soundtrack for the Apple Arcade game Card Of Darkness, and if you enjoyed the tunes, you can now purchase them separately in the official soundtrack release.
It’s been a while since the last Final Fantasy themed cover album from Materia Collective, but they’re making up for it by adapting one of the best. EIDOLON is the title of a new 63-track album featuring rearrangements of classic melodies from 2000’s Final Fantasy IX.
Materia Collective is mostly known for publishing cover albums of popular video game tunes, but they also publish official, actual soundtracks to some games, albeit lesser known ones. Their latest is the soundtrack to Elsinore, a time-loop adventure game set in the world of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.