You know, I had the impression that everyone would have played through the entire game without me so I didn't bother to write about this. But just a moment ago I read the Iwata Asks article on Epic Yarn (again, I'm late to the party), and I saw the discussions going on about the music. Hirokazu Ando was there to talk about his classic Dream Land compositions.
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Iwata: So in the end, how did you integrate the songs made by HAL Laboratory and the songs made by Tomita-san?
Ando: The structure of the story was important, so Tomita-san’s music plays during the first half and towards the middle.
Ikegami: In other words, we used the new sound in the first half and middle to highlight the difference between this new world of yarn and the usual Kirby world.
Ando: And HAL Laboratory was in charge of the songs that play in the latter stages. As you proceed through the game, an arrangement of the Kirby theme that everyone is familiar with plays, so you feel like, “Ah, I’ve come home.” I think it’s a very effective structure for the game.
Iwata: The structure of the levels and the music that plays during them are directly connected.
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This is amazing. It's like Ando-san read my mind, and probably the minds of all Kirby fans everywhere. After all the new music, suddenly coming back to this really does feel like a happy reunion with all the familiar things you knew about Kirby. It's spoiler territory to say which stage this remixed Green Greens theme plays in, but I will say- it's more than just the music that will be familiar to you when you get there. Pretend you're Kirby, and take 'I've come home' very literally. Know which stage I'm talking about now?
