At some point in the mid 90’s while many of us were playing Doom on our blazing fast 386 machines loaded with Windows 95, an enterprising developer in Japan by the name of Famibe no Yosshin was busy crafting an amazing freeware “bullet-hell” shooter for a somewhat obscure Japanese computer that was capable of arcade perfect ports upon release in 1987 and still being pushed to it’s limits through the 90’s. That game in question was doujin vertical shooter Cho Ren Sha X68k which was released on the Sharp X68000 in 1995.

(Side note: Be sure to also check out Retro Gaming Magazine’s coverage of the X68000 and must have titles in our second issue.)

Besides the stellar graphics and addicting gameplay of Cho Ren Sha, I found myself drawn to the brilliant FM music made for this game. In 2014 I originally conducted a written interview with composer Ruzarin “Loser” Kashiwagi for an episode of Retro Obscura Podcast but the interview  questions were answered well after the show was released and it was never published–until now. Huge thanks to dj/writer/translator Justin Pfeiffer for putting me in touch with Cho Ren Sha composer Ruzarin Kashiwagi and handling the translation of my questions to Japanese.

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Aaron Hickman: Hello Kashiwagi-San , my name is Aaron Hickman and I’m a co-host on a retro gaming podcast called Retro Obscura. We cover forgotten, and obscure games. I thought it would be neat to ask you a few questions for the show since we are doing our next show on shooters.

Ruzarin Kashiwagi: Nice to meet you! It is my pleasure!

AH: What is your musical background?

RK: When I was a kid I didn’t have the money to buy music so I listened to game music that I recorded at the arcades and from my Famicom at home, as well as popular music I recorded from the TV. The first game music that really impacted me was Namco’s Rally-X. When we got a computer I installed a game music program through BASIC which I’d seen in magazine and began making my own arrangements of songs. Before I knew it, I started making my own music. After that, when I was in high school, I was making my own original music for the X68000 and sent it out it through the computer’s network system (at that time there was no internet; we used a modem and phone cord to transmit data throughout certain areas in Japan). It was then that I randomly the Cho Ren Sha creator, Famibe-no-Yosshin, and took the job of making its music.

AH: I notice a mix of hard rock/electronic influences in your music, Who are your influences?

RK: When I first started making music, the person I received the most influence from was Yuzo Koshiro; Ys and Sorcerian, among his other titles. I listened to The Scheme’s music more times than I can count. The song, “I’ll Save You All My Justice” got me listening to Hi-NRG (Eurobeat), and “Blue Dragon” from Sorcerian got me listening to Iron Maiden. I made my own Eurobeat for the first stage in Cho Ren Sha. When I was making Cho Ren Sha’s soundtrack, I was influenced by Viewpoint for Neo-Geo and Battle Garegga. From there, I started listening to techno and house music. Nowadays I listen to a lot of different music which influences me, but I was turned on to all of it through game music. There are a lot of different genres in game music these days. I hope, like me, people can listen to game music and learn about many of different kinds of music.

AH: What is your favorite track in the game Cho Ren Sha?

RK: I’d have to “Pleasure Trip” (Stage 3). The melody for example; even when I hear it now, it really sounds like me. Also the Boss theme. When I listen to the Last Boss theme now, I’m a little embarrassed to say it sounds a lot like Castlevania (laughs).

AH: Where can people find your music?

RK: You can find my current activity here:

http://sunnyfield.org/

I’ve also started using Bandcamp. I plan to release some original game music, arranges, and chip music so please check it out!

http://loserkashiwagi.bandcamp.com/

—————-END OF INTERVIEW——————

If you would like to check out a freeware Windows port of this game – be sure to check out this page on instructions on getting it set up and a link to the developer’s page where it can be downloaded.

For even more information on Loser Kashiwagi’s composer credits – click here .

You can also hear excerpts from this interview on the PixelTunes Radio podcast with music from Cho Ren Sha and other great X68000 titles below:

And here’s a great follow-up article from RGCD you can read to find out more about the game and it’s many hidden modes:

Aaron Hickman

Aaron Hickman is a musician, writer, and father of 3 awesome kids who co-hosts on several gaming podcasts including Retro Obscura, Genesis Gems, and Insert Coin. He also really loves Spelunker on NES for some really odd reason and thinks everyone in America should own a ZX Spectrum.

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paypal.me/AaronHickman



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