Listening to the soundtrack of atmospheric soulslike Lies of P when it was released, I realised something—wait a second, I know a lot of these songs. Why do I know a lot of these songs? The game just came out! It’s not like developer Neowiz was licensing chart-topping pop tunes to include in its soundtrack. No, the reason for their familiarity is far more interesting: a good chunk of the game’s score includes rearranged songs from my favourite PC rhythm game.
Welcome to Soundtrack Sunday, where a member of the PC Gamer team takes a look at a soundtrack from one of their favourite games—or a broader look at videogame music as a whole—offering a little backstory and recommendations for tracks you should be adding to your playlist.
Neowiz is also the studio behind the DJMax series—starting off as an Asia-exclusive online PC game before moseying off to PlayStation for a number of years, finally returning to desktops in 2020’s DJMax Respect V. The game’s music library is chock full of tracks, from original pieces to collaborations with other games like League of Legends and Tekken. There’s K-pop, metal, hip-hop—if there’s a song genre, there’s a good chance DJMax has a composer for it.
I wouldn’t say any of it necessarily lends itself to a moody gothic take on Pinocchio, though. That’s what makes it even more intriguing that Lies of P so successfully contorted some of DJMax’s most iconic tracks into something that delicately toes the line between familiarity and an entirely new listening experience. I mean, hey, they say soulslikes are just rhythm games when it comes down to it. Maybe it’s the perfect marriage after all.
According to an interview with Game Rant, the reason behind repurposing a handful of DJMax songs was simply because… well, the developer thought it would be cool. “The direction was to use music and instruments that fit the art style and the world of Lies of P,” director Jiwon Choi said. “Neowiz is already servicing DJMax Respect V (which is a rhythm game) and we thought it would be fun to remake the music of the DJMax franchise into a Lies of P style. We are very happy with the result.”
I mean hell, I’m happy too. The rearrangements are genuinely fantastic. Perhaps the one that was already closest to Lies of P’s tone is Why by South Korean composer Nauts. It’s one of the newer tracks here to get a rearrangement, being introduced in 2020’s Respect V release.
The song is already pretty heavy on melodic piano vibes, with only a small twist needed to take it from edieval fantasy to something a little more melancholic. Even the part of the song that is more upbeat and hopeful in DJMax has been given a more somber undertone. Despite the two tracks being super similar to each other, they manage to convey two entirely different moods.
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My favourites, though, come from tracks that have had to undergo a massive transformation. DJ Mocha’s Feel is still one of my top tracks in DJMax, despite being one of the very earliest songs in the series. It was introduced all the way back in 2004’s DJMax Online, giving electronic disco vibes with bass slaps and groovy synth sounds.
Lies of P does away with all of that, instead layering the song’s vocals over slow, deliberate chords and guitar picking with some light distortion and vinyl crackling. It goes all-in on transforming Feel into a rainy day tune you’d hear from a lounge singer in a quiet back alley jazz bar. It’s got more of a noir feeling to it now, and while the original version will always have my heart the Lies of P version is genuinely fantastic, and one of my all-time favourite rearrangements.
It’s not the only dramatic genre change, either. Memory of Beach is a poppy, upbeat electronica track from M2U (one of my favourite rhythm game composers!) introduced in 2006’s Portable 1. The lyrics from DJMax’s version don’t get brought over here, with the rearrangement instead opting to turn the original’s melody into another gentle piano rendition with some light vocal harmonising over it. It took me listening to half the track to even realise it was Memory of Beach, but as soon as my brain latched onto the melody I could hear every part of the original.
Composing new music is an immensely tough endeavour—especially as it becomes harder and harder to create something that is wholly original—but I feel like being able to rearrange tracks like this is a hugely impressive skillset all in itself. I’d highly recommend going and listening to both the Lies of P and DJMax versions of all the songs below just to appreciate how excellent a job Neowiz really did at recycling some of its best tracks and turning them into brand-new, equally great listenings.
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