COMMENTARY ON USED AND UNUSED TRACKS FOR THE GAME
Humans and Nexomon — Originally under the working title “Opening Cutscene”. This plays alongside the “Humans and Nexomon; together, we have thrived for many generations…” narration at the beginning of the game. I was feeling especially glum that day, so to help keep me productive, I held a private stream so my friend Aleah could cheer me up and keep me on track. It helped a lot! In the official soundtrack release, this song did not appear, so I thought it had gone unused. On Dec. 23rd, he suggested “Getting Along” for the title, but after I learned the song was indeed in the game, I decided to name it something more inline with the game.

Pinewoods — Originally under the working title “Orphanage Outskirts”. The intention was for it to sound like the Route 1 Theme from the original game, I think. I was worried about the intro after I submitted it. When a player exits a random encounter, Pinewoods would start from the intro, naturally. Another random encounter will surely happen in a few seconds of walking through tall grass. So, I was worried that if the player was focusing on battling and leveling up, they would only hear the intro over and over and not the main part of the song. If the intro were shorter, it wouldn’t be an issue, and given people’s reactions to the song it didn’t seem to affect them in practice. When you’re a game composer, you have to keep in mind how the music will mesh with the game design. This was a learning experience for me.

Lobo’s Legion — Originally meant for a boss battle at the very beginning of the game under the working title “Crisis”. The monster was described as a giant, so I tried to make the beginning stinger, horns, and drumbeat sound like an elephant stomping around. The whole song and especially the lil bit at 0:37 was inspired from the Monk Maz Koshia Battle track from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild! The song was repurposed under “Trainer Battle Theme” and in the end I think it may have been used for something else. As of writing this, I haven’t actually gotten to play any of the Nexomon games because I was too scared that I didn’t do a good job with the music. After reading the comments from fans uploading the music to YouTube, I’m really glad that in the end people like it!! <3

One of the comments said “All cultists meet on the dance floor”. That’s interesting because I would get feedback from the developers that my battle music sounded too little like rock and too much like dance music. Chalk it up to me playing more Paper Mario than Pokémon, I guess 😎

Trainer’s Guild — I’m pretty happy with this song. I wanted to give it a regal vibe, yet keep it vibrant. I did this by adding a dopey sounding horn doing a walk up at 0:34 and a climax at 0:43. The developers said that particular section was reminiscent of Dragon Quest and I hadn’t realized.

Salem’s Theme — This was originally called “Lava World” and “Lava Route Theme”. When I started working on this song, the section at 1:06 was actually at the beginning and it was going to be a far slower, melancholic song to deliver the feeling of an looming volcano. Once the song took on the shape it does now, I struggled to figure out how to keep the energy going with this somber dulcimer section. It puzzled me for days, but eventually I thought “Why not just put a drumbeat on it?” Turns out the solution is simpler than you think.

Amelie’s Anthem — I remember using synth brass and the developer didn’t like it. I used acoustic brass instead and the developer still thought it was synthesized. I considered hiring my old friend Adrian Sanjiamo to record live trumpets to get that realism, but he lived far away and was busy with college. It took a few tries with Reason’s acoustic brass samples, but I did it! I’m also really happy with that jazzy run at 0:14.

Premonition — Originally under the working title “Dark Suspense”. This was meant for a cutscene in which the villain plots his diabolical scheme, I believe. The song was inspired from Last Day, the theme of the final hours of Clock Town, from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Premonition is one of the few used tracks of mine that heavily feature synthesizers.

Lobo’s Minions — Originally under the working title “Suspense”. The glass break sample was inspired by Jam by Michael Jackson.

Grand Master Edward Theme and Battle Theme — I worked on music for Grand Master Edward and his battle music, but could not complete it because of the aforementioned art block. The song is not included in the album because it is not complete enough to present, but I thought it was important to talk about it for comprehensiveness.

Bonus Track: Route 1 from Nexomon—’96 Version — This is a Game Boy chiptune cover of the first song I made for the original Nexomon! I was struggling with art block and imposter syndrome, so I decided to take a break and redo an old song for fun. The song was never meant to be included in Extinction, so it’s not technically an unused track. Maybe it could be used as an easter egg!

Unused Track 1: Battle Destiny OVERDRIVE — Originally under the working title “Battle” (very original, I know). This track was created during the production of the first game, but went unused. It also went unused in the sequel, probably because it didn’t jive with the rock music of the other battle themes and it’s a little rough around the edges. I used Reason for everything and realistic acoustic instruments like saxophones are not its strong suit.

Unused Track 2: Messin’ with My Head — Originally under the working title “Darkwoods” and “Ghost City Dungeon”. This was originally meant for a graveyard, I believe, or a generally spooky area. The snare hits were mixed too loud, in my opinion, so I went back and changed it among other tweaks.

Unused Track 3: BLAM!! — Originally under the working title “Trainer Battle”. This track took a lot of time to create even in its current form because I just couldn’t figure out what to do with it. The developers wanted there to be a more prominent melody using electric guitar throughout the song and at 0:25 in particular. I tried going to a previous collaboration partner of mine and multi-instrumentalist Jänson Harris to help, but the results were too chaotic—no offense to Jänson; he’s an amazing musician!! I look forward to working with him in the future. You can find his work on his YouTube. (Our previous collaboration was Nashergania, a cover of Vampire Killer from Castlevania!)

After months of sitting on the song on Dec. 22nd, well after the game’s release, I sought out Daniele Coppola, another composer for the game, to help finish the song. The results were given on Jan. 7th and they were similarly chaotic to Jänson’s version, but if I were to fiddle with the melody I thought I could work with it. I unfortunately could not.

Afterward, I contacted Kaiman Parker, who I had known for creating this cover of Vados’ Theme on YouTube, and asked him to do a guitar solo over that troublesome section. He couldn’t do it either! So, I just cut my losses and released the song as is. Thank you to everyone who gave it their best shot!

Unused Track 4: Amelie’s Anthem (Alt.) — Originally under the working title “Amelie’s Theme”. This version focuses more on piano and violin for the main melody instead of just brass and sounds more whimsical in my opinion.

Unused Track 5: This Is It — Originally under the working titles “Dark Suspense Choir” and “Dread”. I don’t know if I even presented this song to the developers. I think I made it just because I was depressed, thought “Hey, this could be used in the game!”, and that was as far as it went. Since all the unused tracks aren’t intrinsically tied to the game anymore, I like to think that This Is It is a prologue to Extinction Event in the same way 1984 is a prelude to Jump. Titled by Aleah on Dec. 23rd.

Unused Track 6: Extinction Event — Originally under the working title “Final Boss Theme” and simply “Extinction”. The developers had all the composers take a whack at a final boss theme and they would pick the one they thought best fit. Though this is the track I am most proud of, the devs eventually ended up using music from the talented José Alberto Duarte Pinzón!

The developer said he wanted something similar to Dreality by Dreamtale. After listening, I figured the vibe I should go for was a mix of Operation: Mindcrime by Queensrÿche, Live and Learn by Crush 40, and Déjà Vu from Initial D. The first attempt sounded awful, but the second attempt was pretty good and I worked off that! I ended up loving the sound of this eurobeat-metal fusion that I made the song Kickassia after my work on this game ended. This was one of the last tracks if not the last track I did for Nexomon: Extinction.

Yes, that beatboxing is me.