Why does Moon Over the Castle only shows up in the Japanese version?

G

gabrieldiego

1
I can´t understand why the one of the greatest feature of Gran Turismo series is not featured in the versions outside Japan. In the GT4, Moon Over the Castle is played in the orchestra in the start of the intro but suddenly cuts to that annoying music (music? I mean noise) that I even don´t want to know its name. The only good music used in the american intro was the My Favourite Game by The Cardigans in the GT2 but the Japanese version still was better. I always preferred the Japanese versions for this and many other reasons (the american version won´t convert my old save game, only works in the japanese version).
But, back to the Moon Over the Castle is that any copyright issue or a market strategy of Sony (poor if sure)?
 
This is a Gran Turismo 5 forum, I think you are looking for the Gran Turismo 4 forum.
 
No, he's right. A franchise series which doesn't have a franchise title song in certain lands, while it does at home, is just wrong. Especially when it's so cool. I know having region specific songs gives marketing guys a reason to make big bucks, but I'm hoping Gran Turismo 5 finally breaks the mold. If Sony does put different openings in different regions, I want them to give us at the very least the Japanese intro in it's entirety. Including their version of Moon Over The Castle.
 
It's not that great of a song, I don't care if they include it or not. Certainly having fresh and new content in each version is better than the same repetitive mess reworked.

What video games have "franchise" songs? If it were a movie, sure, but a video game shouldn't have the same opening song every time.
 
I'd like to know what is that great of a song then. Panama?? Ew. :P

Choice, dude. Other tunsies are okay and all, but give me a choice.
 
It's a song about a car, made by Van Halen. What more perfect a choice for an American release of the game?
 
The359
It's a song about a car...
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That's the silly thing about Polyphony Digital's licensed music choices -- they go "oh it has something to do with cars" and that's it. They don't pay any attention to the quality of the music, whether it is suitable for racing, or whether their primary fanbase would like it.

That said, Moon Over the Castle isn't that great -- it's a classic example of an acceptable yet highly mediocre Japanese rock song. But I'd very gladly take it over "Panama."
 
I agree with gabrieldiego. Moon over The Castle belongs to those songs, which never gets old or much played, it's just GT classic. In direct comparison, Van Halen song was really pretty disharmonic wakeup after orchestral part of the intro. I want to hear MOTC for Pal release of GT5.
 
Moon Over The Castle is to GT what NFL and NASCAR's themes* are to those brands. it's the song that helps give the brand identity. Granted, the first Moon over the Castle rendition...It was really not all that great. the scenes didn't match up at all to the music, and the electronicified string section beginning to the song felt artificial. It felt like Kaz commissioned it at the last minute. The Chemical Bros Remix of Manic Street Preachers' "Everything Must Go" fit (The exact same Intro scenes.) much better. However, for GT2-on, the song was powerful, well matched, and very good.

I Like Van Halen's "Panama," It's a great old song, and "Are you Gonna Go my Way" Is Tolerable, especially after the remix, while the Cardigans' "My Favorite Game" was inspired by the original GT, it's almost obligatory, but the JPN intro was so much better by GT2, it made the "Favorite Game" intro look and feel like a 4Kids Anime hackjob. and it was quite well matched, mind you!

(*Those, heard in the background of "This is a copyrighted telecast blah blah Don't copy with out asking us blah blah.")

EDIT: I'm going to add the intros I can find in order, but You'll have to click the links...I'll break my post If I don't.

Gran Turismo (US)
(The JPN intro has gone missing!)
Gran Turismo 2 (JPN)
Gran Turismo 2 (US)
Gran Turismo 2 (PAL, even more of a hackjob than the U.S. Intro)
Gran Turismo 3 (JPN, look out for the Diablo!)
Gran Turismo 3 (US)
Gran Turismo 3 (PAL? I've never seen this one, before!)
Gran Turismo 4 (JPN, Watch for that ESSO Supra!)
Gran Turismo 4 (US)
Gran Turismo 4 (PAL, never seen this one, either)

Example of official NASCAR Theme, so you get the idea of what MOTC is to GT.
 
That's not NASCAR's theme. That's a theme chosen by a network. NASCAR doesn't own that song in any way, in fact I've heard it used many times for football.

NASCAR and NFL however are sports. Gran Turismo is a game. Find me any gaming series that has the same theme song, besides something like Mario Bros.
 
Wolfe
That's the silly thing about Polyphony Digital's licensed music choices -- they go "oh it has something to do with cars" and that's it. They don't pay any attention to the quality of the music, whether it is suitable for racing, or whether their primary fanbase would like it.
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So you think an American rock song is not suitable for a driving game, not good quality, and the primary AMERICAN fanbase would not like it?

Do you even know what you are saying?
 
The359
That's not NASCAR's theme. That's a theme chosen by a network. NASCAR doesn't own that song in any way, in fact I've heard it used many times for football.

NASCAR and NFL however are sports. Gran Turismo is a game. Find me any gaming series that has the same theme song, besides something like Mario Bros.
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Uh, That track is "Thunder," by Dave Robidoux, and it is actually NASCAR's theme. I'm looking at my NASCAR IMAX 3D Soundtrack right now. Says it right there. It appears in Every telecast's "copyright" blurb, regardless of network. the Networks use their own theme music.

To prove this, Here's the theme music for the current broadcast networks

Fox/Speed Channel (First Song, only)
ESPN/ABC (by Aerosmith, apparently)

All I'm saying, is that I personally feel that "Moon Over the Castle" Is truly the ideal theme music for the series, as it's instantly identifiable with the game. I'm not saying "Panama" is terrible, either. I love Van Halen. I have their "Best Of" C.D., and "Panama is on my MP3 Player. I just like my GT intros to have Moon over the Castle. Some of the others very much dislike "Panama," which I feel is a shame, It's really very good. I feel, at the very least, MOtC should be somewhere in the game soundtrack, if not the standardized intorduction music for the entire series, tweaked and improved for each version.

Aside, Do you think you can use the "Edit" button? I mean, ranting and launching on other people is bad enough, do you have to double post?
 
I'm fairly certain I've been here long enough to know how to post. I can use the edit button when necessary.

I'd also hardly call two responses to two seperate people to be ranting or "launching". Let alone double posting.

30 second copyright info screens are hardly "theme songs", especially since that song has been used elsewhere. This does not explain the fact that you have brought up a sports franchise when we are in fact discussing video game series. Apples and oranges.

I don't identify the game at all with music. If people DID identify the game with music, why do most trailers for the game NOT feature Moon over Castle? Wouldn't the use of Moon over Castle easily identify this as a Gran Turismo series game, by your logic? Every single trailer for the series has had its own unique music, and every release has had its own unique music (including the likes of GTHD and GT Concept).

There's nothing in Moon over Castle that makes it ideal for anything. It's just a song. It or any other song have as good a chance of fitting with the game. Panama makes sense in that it is about a car, in is face paced and fits with the quick pace of the intro.

Moon over Castle is in the Gran Turismo 4 soundtrack. Yes, it is edited down, but how many of you listen to the Classical orchestral music that is in GT4's soundtrack? I doubt many do, simply because a long instrumental song like that does not really make for great driving music.

Gran Turismo does not need a standard piece of music for every iteration. Barely any video game series do.
 
I can see that If I take this any further it'll blow up into a debate of GT-R thread proportions. Fine, then, what would you want to hear in the U.S. version of GT5 proper?
 
Doesn't matter to me, whatever will appeal to the largest audience and fits with the theme of Gran Turismo and the pacing of the video.
 
The359
So you think an American rock song is not suitable for a driving game, not good quality, and the primary AMERICAN fanbase would not like it?

Do you even know what you are saying?
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I was talking about all of the songs, not just GT4's NTSC-U/C intro. But now that you bring it up, no, I don't think Panama is a good song (my opinion), and no, I don't think it fits with the tastes of the majority of Gran Turismo players (I would guess they listen to more alternative rock, rap/hip hop, and/or electronic music).

You can disagree with me if you want, but don't act like it's "obvious" that all americans love good ol' american rock music.
 
Who said everyone? I said the majority. And I said that the majority of American car fans playing video games would enjoy a fast video with a good hard rock song.

I think it's grossly misestimating things to believe that fans of electronica, especially in the realm of those that play Gran Turismo, would even come close, let alone out number, those who would prefer rock.

I never said Panama was that great of a song either in my opinion, but it fits the market very well.
 
Personally, I think the majority of those playing Gran Turismo would be happy with any kind of an upbeat song.

Moon Over The Castle is rock. But as in GT4, it can be any style.

Are some of you saying we shouldn't even get the choice? ;)
 
I'm sort of surprised some of you didn't like Van Halen's "panama' as the song for the american GT4 intro as I thought it went good with it, but thats just me. And the poster of this thread apparently has also noticed the repeated use of MOTC in the Japanese versions of GT.


Wolfe
no, I don't think Panama is a good song (my opinion), and no, I don't think it fits with the tastes of the majority of Gran Turismo players (I would guess they listen to more alternative rock, rap/hip hop, and/or electronic music).
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Seems like the majority of GT fans are into Metal, (look at the vids on youtube), a decent amount are into electronica, and even less are into rap/Hip hop(at least from what I've seen).

Off-topic: I pray no more hip hop/rap is put on GT. As enjoyable as it might be, I do not see Kanye West or 50 cent or soulja boy fitting the pace of the game as well as say Saliva or even BT. For instance, Look at how well Saliva's new song fits the new PS3 commercial's action packed pace, can you imagine Something from DMX playing to that? Another example: Look at how well BT's song "Never Gonna Come Back Down" fits in the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds" or his song featuring David bowie called "She can do that" from the movie "Stealth". Try visualizing either of those movies with Lil Bow wow's music to it.
 
I personally think that "Moon Over the Castle" is the theme for Gran Turismo. Not just Gran Turismo in Japan- Gran Turismo in general. This is the song that has been the theme to Gran Turismo. So why not let the rest of the world hear this as a theme song? GT4 was the first GT in which "Moon Over the Castle" has been introduced to places other than Japan (at least, to my knowledge). I think "Panama" by Van Halen is a good song to play speaking as a guy who normally doesn't like rock music that much. Think about your favorite consumer goods or television shows. Think of Star Wars. You know what movie you're watching when you hear the traditional Star Wars theme song. Why would you want to replace the Star Wars theme with some other theme song? I know this would be stupid, but what if the theme for Star Wars for another nation or international region was replaced... with the theme to "Star Trek?" I think PD should have "Moon Over the Castle" as the theme songs for all Gran Turismos for all regions.

Then again, you're going to have your usual, "who cares about Japanese Rock?" Well, probably the ones forced to hear the music in "Burnout: Dominator" or some other game with ludricrously bad rock music. It's the theme of the game. Sell your product the way you want. Get it out there for all to hear. Don't just leave something out to just rot and die (like absolutely NO Simulation Race events at Rome-Night in Gran Turismo 2 unless it's a generated race).

Now to go off-topic. On the contrary (talking to RACECAR), a good majority of YouTube videos are into either rock music or extremely annoying songs to compliment their videos. I grew up with hip-hop, and so it doesn't bother me too much at all. I don't immediately assume "rice" or tuner car culture with rap music in a racing game. To me, it's just music. We all have favorites and least favorites.
 
I'd really rather have a different song for each game because it makes each one more unique. They can still have it in the game, but there should be a different song for each iteration as well as version country to country.
 

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