Rez

Rez is a musical rail shooter developed by United Game Artists and published by Sega for the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2. It was released in Japan in 2001, followed by releases to the United States and Europe in 2002. The game was ported to Xbox 360 as Rez HD by Q Entertainment and HexaDrive in 2008. A virtual reality-compatible expanded version dubbed Rez Infinite was co-developed and released through 2016 and 2017 by Enhance Games, Resonair and Monstars for PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows and Android.

Following a hacker’s journey into a malfunctioning AI system, the game has players controlling their avatar as they shoot down numerous enemies. The gameplay and projectile hits sync with the music and have vibration feedback for different controllers, aiming to create a sense of synesthesia. The narrative is told using little description and no dialogue, and including thematic references to the journey of life and technological singularity.

The game was conceived by Tetsuya Mizuguchi in 1998, drawing inspiration from European disco music. Production began in 1999 after the team finished work on Space Channel 5; the developers included veterans of Panzer Dragoon creators Team Andromeda. The design concept drew from rave culture and classic rail shooters, and level design made extensive use of wire frame graphics drawing from the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky. The music, supervised by Keiichi Sugiyama, featured collaborations with multiple Japanese and Western music artists and influenced level designs.

The game met with low sales, but strong critical reception due to its music, gameplay and graphics. It also received multiple industry and special awards, and has been remembered as one of the Dreamcast’s best titles. Rez HD and Rez Infinite have likewise met with praise from journalists. Rez Infinite in particular was hailed for its virtual reality integration and its additional Unreal Engine-powered zone Area X, described as the closest people might see to a true sequel.

Music
For the musical style, Mizuguchi decided on using electronic dance music, emulating the music he had experienced during his time in Europe. The sound design and some of the music was handled by Keiichi Sugiyama, a member of Sega’s WaveMaster label. The music score was coordinated by Masakazu Hiroishi. It drew inspiration from the soundtracks of Xenon 2 Megablast (1989) and Xevious (1983), along with Haruomi Hosono’s 1984 Super Xevious remix single. Mizugushi and Yokota began investigating different musical genres that would evoke emotional and psychological responses appropriate to produce the primal and synaesthetic experience Rez was intended to provide. After hours of investigation, they concluded that due to its digital simplicity which allowed a designer to isolate a single note and to alter the timing of the overall rhythm, the techno genre offered the greatest promise for producing the desired effects. Music coordination was done by a DJ called Ebizoo, who helped incorporate the call and response methods into the in-game score. The project went through an intensive period of matching music to visuals requiring multiple iterations of back-and-forth alterations in which both music (sometimes from the first note) and art (including entire bosses) were significantly modified.

During early production, Ebizoo used placeholder tracks by Fatboy Slim and Underworld for test levels. Hiroishi contacted multiple composers to contribute tracks for each zone, including Ken Ishii and Joujouka as well as English artists Coldcut and Adam Freeland. These people both contributed original tracks and licensed remixes of existing numbers for the game. The team also reached out to Underworld, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers and Aphex Twin, but failed to reach an agreement about using their tracks. In the case of Underworld, the team wanted to use their track “Rez” for the opening area, as they had been doing during prototyping. Underworld declined as they did not wish to be associated with any kind of video game violence. This led to Sugiyama creating the opening stage track. The game also included two tracks from Oval, and a track from Ebizoo. The final boss theme was composed by Coldcut and Tim Bran

Mizuguchi had a university friend with Joujouka’s Tsuyoshi Suzuki, and the two had long wanted to collaborate on a project. The track used, “Rock is Sponge”, was one of a group Joujouka was creating for an album release. Mizuguchi listened to the early versions of tracks, picking “Rock is Sponge” as most suitable. For Ishii’s contribution, Sega asked for five or six variations within the track, which was around five minutes long. Ishii found this challenging, but satisfying. Mizuguchi personally approached Coldcut about using their music. They immediately understood what he was trying to do, and rather than licensing their track “Timber” as originally requested, they composed an original track for the game. Freeland also created his track “Fear” as an original piece, inspired by Mizuguchi’s description of the game as being inspired by the artwork of Kandinsky. “Fear” contained the lyric “Fear is the Mind Killer”, taken from the novel Dune by Frank Herbert. This was intended as being inspirational, and emblematic of life’s struggle. “Fear” was also slower-paced than the other tracks, fitting in with the area’s themes and feel.

For the album release, the team asked each composer to create a new remix that was the “highest” form of the track that had been mixed and synced to gameplay. The soundtrack album, titled Rez / Gamer’s Guide to…, was co-published in collaboration with United Game Artists by Musicmine, an imprint of Universal, and independent record company Third Ear. It included ten tracks from across the game, including secret areas. The soundtrack was released January 23, 2002. Third Ear also released two vinyl LPs. The Rez soundtracks were Third Ear’s first major commercial release, with one of its founders using contacts within Sega to get the publishing contract.