ARM Backup/Ar Portal translation/Hymmne Chronicle/Issue 5

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こんにちは、土屋です。 ヒュムノスに関する開発秘話やエピソードなどを皆さんにお届けするコーナー、 ヒュムネクロニクル。皆様の応援のお陰もあり、２周目に突入！という事になり ました！そんなわけで、今回は「CHRONICLE_KEY」と「HARMONIUS」についての、 製作苦労話などをしていきたいと思います。 歌い手さんには、志方あきこさんにインタビューをさせていただきました。

Hello everyone, it's Tsuchiya. Today we have another issue of the column we use to tell you all secret development stories and episodes related to the Hymmnos, the Hymmne Chronicle. Thanks to your support, we are on our second week of working on this column! So thanks to that, today we'll be talking about [CHRONICLE_KEY] and [HARMONIOUS], including the difficulties we encountered during their creation. We also held an interview with their singer, Shikata Akiko-san.

【今週のテーマ１：『CHRONICLE_KEY』】 試聴：『EXEC_CHRONICLE_KEY/.』 クロニクルキーは、私の中でも最も思い出の深いヒュムノス曲でもあります。ア ルトネリコを制作している最中、私が一番ドキドキだったのは、ヒュムノス詩が どのように出来上がるか、という事でした。言わずもがな、アルトネリコの売り であり、私としても相当に力を入れている部分でしたから、その出来はずっと気 になっていたものです。そんな中、全てのヒュムノス曲の中で一番最初に送られ てきたのが、このクロニクルキーのラフでした。送られてきたのは夜だったので すが、周りの迷惑顧みず、大音響で聴き始めました。そしてこの時思ったのです。 「これは勝てる！」と。クロニクルキーには沢山の自信をもらいました。新規タ イトルで前衛的なシステム、そして大作RPGが下火と言われていた時代でしたか ら、当時の私は得も言われぬ不安がつきまとっていました。システムも世界観も、 自分なりには自信はありましたが、それでも不安がありました。ですが、クロニ クルキーを聴いたとき、本当にこれはイケル！と思い、嬉しくて笑いが止まらな かったのです。そして、何とかしてプレスの人達にこの音楽を紹介してもらいた い、という想いで色々動き始めたのも、この時がきっかけでした。発売前は分か らなくても、プレイしたら、その人が絶対に口コミしてくれる、と思ったのも、 このクロニクルキーを聴いたときでした。そんな絶大な自信を与えてくれるほど に、この曲は自分の中で圧倒的だったのです。 隣で夜通しの作業をしていた広報担当の者がビックリして「これが、アルトネリ コの詩ですか！？すごいですね！」と言っていたことは、今でも鮮烈に覚えてい ます。私に大きな自信を与えてくれたクロニクルキー。今でもファンの皆さんの 中での一番人気は譲っていません。

【This Week's Theme #1: [CHRONICLE_KEY]】 Trial Listen: [EXEC_CHRONICLE_KEY/.] Chronicle Key is the Hymmnos of which I have the deepest memories. While I was working in Ar tonelico, the thing that made me the most excited was wondering how I'd go about making the Hymmnos Songs. It goes without saying, to me they were the part of the game that needed an appropriate amount of effort put into them due to being its selling point, so their creation always was a point that occupied my attention. And among all those Songs, the first one that was completed and sent to me was this one: Chronicle Key. It was late at night when I first got it, and I listened to it at a high volume not minding if it'd be a bother to anyone around. And when I listened to it, I thought: [This is a victory!] I had plenty of confidence in Chronicle Key. As a fresh title, it needed avant-garde game systems since we were already in an era in which epic RPGs had started burning low, so back then I always had an indescribable anxiety following me. I had a lot of self-confidence on the setting and systems I had made on my own way, but I still I couldn't help but feel anxious. But once I heard Chronicle Key, that was when I truly thought "Let's do it!" and I couldn't stop laughing out from the happiness I felt. And while I had thought many times that I wanted to somehow show the press people the music from the game, by this time I had already the perfect chance to do so. And I also thought that even if no one knew of it prior to its release, once people started playing it, they would transmit it by word of mouth. All of that were the thoughts I got when I listened to Chronicle Key. Since this Song was what gave me such an absolute confidence, it ended becoming an overwhelming power within me. I still can remember vividly how the PR people that were working that night with me said with surprised voices: [That's an Ar tonelico Song!? Amazing!] Chronicle Key was the Song that gave me a great amount of confidence, and even now it hasn't surrendered its spot as the most popular Song among the fans.

【今週のテーマ２：『HARMONIUS』】 試聴：『EXEC_HARMONIUS/.』 そういえば、この曲は昔は違う名前でした。最初に決まっていたのはラスボス戦 の曲であるという事でして、その後シナリオが出来たときに初めて、どういう意 味合いでラスボス戦で謳うのかが決まったからです。ちなみに、ハーモニウスの 仮名は「EXEC_EXTRACT/.（エグゼク・エクストラクト）」でした。ヒュムノスを よくご存知の方は、何とも不思議な名前だと思われますよね（今では「エクスト ラクト」とは、いわゆる詩魔法ではないヒュムノス詩の正式なカテゴリ名称とし て使われています＞参考HP）。当時まだ何も決まっていなかった頃、今とは逆 で、ボス戦ではボスが謳う事になるだろうと考えていました。それ故にエクスト ラクト（＝展開する）という曲名を仮称でつけておいてあったのです。要するに、 ボスが変身してパワーアップする為に歌曲として、最初は定義していたという事 です。ですがシナリオを組んでいき、最終的にボスが謳うのではなく、ボスを救 うために彌紗が謳う曲になりまして、エクストラクトという名前の意味に不一致 が出てきました。それ故に「ハーモニウス」という名前に改名したのです。 曲の方は、まさに私の想い描く理想のものが上がってきて、圧倒されてしまった 記憶があります。社内でも、ボス戦が超荘厳になりテストプレイでみんなで盛り 上がっていました。PVにも使われ、この曲のお陰ですごい大作RPGのようなシビ レルPVが出来、広報担当とその話で盛り上がった事も、今では懐かしい話です。

【This Week's Theme #2: [HARMONIOUS]】 Trial Listen: [EXEC_HARMONIOUS/.] Now I think about it, this Song actually had a different name a long time ago. To be clearer, we decided how it would be this way: we had decided from the beginning it would be the final boss Song and we decided the first scenario it would be heard in later on. Incidentally, Harmonious' provisional name was: [EXEC_EXTRACT/.] Those versed in the Hymmnos language must be thinking by now that this is very strange name for a Song (because currently, [Extract] is used as the name for the official Hymmnos category to which the Hymmnos Songs that aren't Song Magic belong to. Check the reference website for more information. At the time we hadn't finalized on anything yet, so originally, we thought that we would make this Song be sung by the final boss herself, completely opposite to how it is now. That was why we gave it the provisional name of Extract (or deployment). In other words, we had originally designed it to be a Song the final boss would sing to transform herself into a more powerful form, but as we continued putting the scenario together, we ultimately made it so that the final boss wouldn't sing it and instead Misha would sing it to save the final boss, which cause the Extract name to be at odds with its purpose. It was due to this that we changed its name to [Harmonious]. As for the Song itself, I have overwhelming memories of how it invigorated me to sketch the feelings about the things I idealized. And it's not only me: even the test players in the company got really invigorated from how solemn it made the final battle. We even used it in the promotional video, so it was thanks to this Song that we could make a promotional video as exciting of those of the big-budget RPGs, and the fact it invigorated even the PR people to such an extent is something I look back on fondly now.

▼志方さんからのメッセージ 今回のテーマ『CHRONICLE_KEY』と『HARMONIUS』についてのメッセージを、 志方さんからいただきました！何と今回は、ちょっと嬉しいボーナス付き！ それが何かは聞いてのお楽しみです！ 以下の３つのテーマに沿って、各楽曲について熱くぶっちゃけていただいていま すので、是非是非聞いてみてくださいね！ １．今だから言える、この詩の印象や、謳った感想、苦労話、楽しかったこと ２．公開された後、周囲の反応を見て、印象深かった事 ３．この詩について、ユーザーさんに伝えたいメッセージ

▼Messages from Shikata-san We have received some messages from Shikata-san about today's themes, [CHRONICLE_KEY] and [HARMONIOUS]! And for some reason, we also got this time a special bonus that's sure to make you all happy! Please look forward to listening to them! Below you will see the three themes, and the honest and passionate feelings she has for each of these Songs, so please don't miss out on listening to them! 1. Since we've reached this point in time, I'll talk about the impressions I had about this Song, and the feelings, difficulties and fun I had with it. For this fifth issue of the Hymmne Chronicle, I thought it'd be great if I could tell you all several things about Chronicle Key and Harmonious. First, I'd like to talk about Chronicle Key. Whenever I'm making a Hymmnos, I'm always thinking about how to make its melodies in a way that's unique to me and to make sure they follow an order, and at the same time, I'm always taking in account the material about the scenario I was given, so basically I'm reading through it while I'm also making the Song. As for why I do it like this and read in advance that information, it's just because I personally get fixated on doing it this way, as otherwise I can't know why a character says things in this way or why they feel about these events this way, as I think about these things on my own and use the conclusions I get from this as the basis for the creation of the Songs. That's how it goes pretty much. While I personally think this way is pretty effective, to make it even more effective, I relaxed on my room, made everything dark, tried reciting small passages from the scenario and tried accepting the feelings they had into myself when I was composing Chronicle Key, which really increased the feelings of powerlessness it was supposed to have. However, I think everyone who saw what I was doing would think I'm weird or something. So while there may be things I wouldn't be able to show anyone else like these ones, that allowed me to find these feelings and sights on my own way, and while playing back on my mind music from bygone times and old songs, I focused myself into making melodies that expressed all of those emotions without any of these nuances being lost. And while doing that sort of secret ritual, after I finished making Chronicle Key, I also started again reading the scenario to make Harmonious. And I saw how that while Misha was quite sad and despaired when she sang Chronicle Key and had these feelings melt into the Song, I could only think "Whaaaaat!?" when I saw Lyner asking Misha "Can you sing?" That scene was really shocking to me and I even started wondering if Lyner actually hated Misha. Tsuchiya-san even had to state that Lyner actually felt sorry for Misha, so it was a large mess. And finally, while I was very happy that Misha would sing that Song to save the world, I thought there were several parts that left a lot to be desired about it, which is why I said I wanted to hit Lyner back in the interview we held during the Dokkoi Festival. As for what happened when I made Harmonious, that ended up getting out several problems I had within myself, to the point I even had to bother Tsuchiya-san when we were all so busy by asking him so many questions, one of them being that when the Hymn Crystal was Downloaded, Misha said she wanted to do it because she wanted to apologize to Mir and that she wanted to remind her of the kind heart she had long ago, so I was wondering if these feelings didn't have any sort of effect on the Song she Downloaded. But in the end, it did affect the Song in a way that only she could, right? When I asked that to Tsuchiya-san, he thought about it for a moment and told me about the Hymmnos Fusion phenomenon, and that was the moment when we decided that Harmonious would be set as a Song that Misha triggered a Hymmnos Fusion over. So while the calm part at the beginning was the Song that Mir made and how she sang it originally, the rest of it are the strong feelings Misha has that she must convey to Mir no matter what. They are like "no matter how painful it might be, no matter how much trouble it might cause me, I'll do my best to keep singing, I'll sing for you, so please, remember the gentle heart you had so long ago!", so I pretty much sang it as a Hymmnos containing a prayer. And while I was asking Tsuchiya-san the questions about this Song and we were talking about it, the word "Metafalica" came out among all the others we had been discussing , and I was asked to make sure it was also used in the song's lyrics, but "Metafalica" also appeared in Ar tonelico 2 later on, and while I was allowed to choose any other words as I pleased, I think the reason I was asked that is to establish that the worlds are connected between both games. 2. After it was revealed to the public, I saw the reactions from everyone and I chose the ones that left the deepest impressions on me. About the players who listened to the Hymmnos, they said they felt very pained when they felt Misha's feelings upon listening to Chronicle Key, and I was very happy when I saw how these feelings reached them. There are many things that make me happy and that I find enjoyable as a music creator, but making these Songs in a way that matches their meaning and in a way that they are performed well in-game, and thinking about these and many others things are what truly make me happy, even more than just being a composer, especially since they actually are grounded on the game they are made for. As for Harmonius, it might be a bit on the long side, but when we finally announced AT2 to the public and we started revealing information about it, people ended up noticing the "Metafalica" on its subtitle and went all: "Ah! Wasn't that word used in Harmonious too?", I was very happy to hear that. Given I was asked to add such details to it during its creation and wondered if it would have some purpose in the end, I'm really happy to see that something came out from it. 3. A message I want to convey to all the players about this Song. And as an ending to these messages, there's something I want to tell you all, and while I'm worried you may find it very unusual, I have a little surprise here, which is the BGM that you will hear playing behind. This Song isn't a Hymmnos for AT2, but actually it's a discarded Song I made in the process of making them. Both in AT1 and AT2, I ended making several discarded Songs before I could finally end up with the Songs you all can hear in the games, and while both Chronicle Key and Harmonious also were built upon the creation and scrapping of many discarded Songs, I always look forward to hearing about the happiness, tears and such other emotions these Hymmnos have instilled into you all. By the way, are you wondering which Hymmnos this BGM was a discarded Song of? Well, I've decided it'd be far more enjoyable if I left it to your imaginations. I can only express my thanks to Gust and Tsuchiya-san for helping me with giving you all this surprise. And now, to everyone who has listened to these messages to the end, truly, thank you very much!