Bandai is offering up a piece of gaming history today by releasing the original soundtracks to the first three NES ports of the legendary RPG series Wizardry onto streaming services. These specific adaptations of the seminal American dungeon crawler were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in the late 1980s. Much like the SimCity port I covered recently, these versions featured dedicated, rearranged scores composed by Kentaro Haneda, an iconic figure of Japan's golden era of video games, who sadly passed away in 2007. You can explore his full discography over on his VGMdb page. The latest album in the series credits Tamiya Terashima as the lead arranger.
Titled We Love Wizardry, SUITE WIZARDRY II, SUITE WIZARDRY III, and SUITE WIZARDRY V: HEART OF THE MAELSTROM the four albums out today compile the tracks Haneda and Terashima composed and arranged for the Famicom/NES and SNES adaptations of the said games. Given that Haneda also penned many other albums for the franchise, we can likely expect them to land on streaming platforms in the near future.
Naturally, given the 8-bit era's hardware constraints, these soundtracks have a relatively stripped-back, chiptune sound. Even so, the melodic scope remains remarkably impressive, proving that both the composer and the franchise have genuinely earned their cult status.
The Wizardry franchise is still making headlines as it celebrates its 45th anniversary. Exciting announcements are around the corner, promises Drecom on social media. In 2024, American composer Winifred Phillips won a Grammy Award for her score on the remake of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, which launched a year earlier on PC and modern consoles. Listen to the soundtrack here.
Find all listening links for We Love Wizardry (Original Soundtrack) by Kentaro Haneda on its dedicated page:
→ https://nwpl.ing/we-love-wizardry
