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Song Title: Reminiscence

Composer: Tomohito Nishiura

Game: Dark Cloud (PS2, 2000)

Length: 1:48

Composer Tomohito Nishiura did sound design previously, but Dark Cloud was the first game he was tasked with scoring. We could chalk the Dark Cloud OST’s quality up to beginner’s luck, but his work on Dark Cloud 2, Rogue Galaxy, and the Professor Layton series is just as great and discredits that assumption.

Nishiura is fond of the acoustic guitar, and every time it appears in Dark Cloud, it is a treat. Reminiscence features arguably the greatest use of the instrument found in the game’s soundtrack. The song’s title is perfect, as this warm melody is drenched in nostalgia. It brings to mind a fond remembrance, perhaps marred a bit by pain either from the memory, or from longing to return to that time.

**mild spoilers from early in Dark Cloud below**

In the hunting village of Matataki, players meet their third playable character, Goro. Goro has isolated himself after the disappearance of his father, and is standoffish until players defeat a boss and retrieve his father’s pendant. When Goro is presented with the pendant, he is confronted by the spirit of his father, revealing that he was not abandoned by his fellow hunters, but chose to die in battle. This is when Reminiscence begins to play. Goro’s father was a legendary warrior, who secretly had an illness that was slowly taking his life. Rather than die in bed, he went into the forest to combat the Killer Snake that had been terrorizing the village. Knowing that he would likely perish in the battle due to his weakened state, he still fought with all his might, though he hoped this battle would be his honorable end. As the snake wrapped him in its deadly grip, the villagers who’d accompanied him into the forest left the scene with sorrow in their hearts, knowing he did not want their help. Their respect and admiration lead them to keep his death a secret, and this was why Goro believed his father was missing in the woods, left by cowardly villagers to die.

Goro’s father encourages him to become a hunter he would be proud of, and lend his strength to the player’s party in their quest to banish the recently awakened Dark Genie. With tears forming in his eyes, Goro turns his back on his father. The spirit slowly walks away and vanishes, just as Goro angrily announces his insincere hatred for him.

Reminiscence captures the scene perfectly, helping convey the myriad of emotions present when Goro is briefly reunited with his father and given the painful truth as well as reassuring words and inspiration. The determination Goro feels after this meeting leads him to join the party on their quest.

Dark Cloud was my second PlayStation 2 game, so the song has special meaning for me as well. I remember enjoying the song during Goro’s scene when I was six years old, but when I hear the song now, I associate it more with playing the whole of Dark Cloud with my grandmother (she’s a huge JRPG fan). Reminiscence makes me, as its title would suggest, reminisce about that simple time, playing Dark Cloud after school every chance I got until we made it to the final dungeon of the game and got stuck on the final boss. It wasn’t until a few years later, at the age of ten when I revisited the game and showed my grandmother the ending. Besides my personal attachment to the game, Dark Cloud is a great title with many memorable moments, and Reminiscence makes them all come rushing back to me.

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