I've added "12. Kotaro's Theme #3 ~ Yokai no Kuni" to the Music Room.
I originally composed this piece as battle music for Stage 6. However, it ended up sounding like an arrangement of Kotaro's Theme, so I decided to scrap it.
Still, there is no limit on the number of tracks I can include, and the only real downside to adding one is an extra 45 KB of installation space—the size of the .vgm file.
So I decided to rearrange it for the map scenes from Stage 4 (Toba) onward—the travel scenes in the second half of the game—and use it there.
The title "Yokai no Kuni" (Land of Yokai) comes from a bit of background lore in this game: yokai outnumber humans in the western regions.
Now for a little tangent.
Here's how I make the music for Battle Hanafuda:
Compose in Logic Pro (the rough draft)
Recreate it for the YM2612/OPN2 in Furnace (the finished version)
That's my workflow.
I recently discovered that dragging and dropping a MIDI region onto Chords in Logic Pro's global tracks lets the AI analyze the chord progression and fill it in automatically, so I gave it a try for this piece.
I'm not very knowledgeable about chord progressions, and entering chords in Logic Pro is quite a chore, so this is a big help.
The AI also analyzes the key automatically, and apparently this piece is in F major.
I thought I was writing it in D minor. But come to think of it, I don't think I used the notes of the descending melodic minor scale this time, so maybe that explains its interpretation... probably.
The piece changes key every eight bars, going from F major to B major to E♭ major, then ends on F7 before looping.
I chose to end on F7 (II in the E♭ scale) simply because it sounded the most beautiful. But the idea that "it was actually in F major all along" seems to give that choice a neat explanation in terms of music theory, too.
The piece opens with B♭maj7, the subdominant (IV) in F major, and ends on the tonic (I), creating a lovely I → IV progression as it loops. I wasn't thinking about the structure in that much detail while composing; I was simply choosing what sounded beautiful by instinct. Yet it seems that the result that fits music theory best also sounds the most beautiful.
Seen that way, the AI's decision to interpret the piece as F major rather than D minor makes sense to me.
Though I doubt Logic Pro's AI is actually reasoning at that level.
If Logic Pro could connect to an external AI via MCP, perhaps its reasoning would become even more accurate.
Incidentally, once you've entered the chords, Logic Pro's Session Player feature can automatically compose bass lines, keyboard accompaniment, drums, and more.
The results aren't quite good enough yet, so I don't use it.
This, too, might become much more useful if it could connect to an external AI via MCP.
(A connection in the other direction is already possible via MCP.)