The actors have left the stage, and the story of Mad Rat and His Heart is done. But Rat God will allow us to view the story once again, and so, we'll go through the DLC songs.
Song: Gloucester Carousel by a_hisa (145 BPM)
Stage: 3-3 Dazzling Yellow
Begins at: 00:34
I must be a glutton for punishment, because I chose one of the hardest stages in this game, even in comparison to later stages, to showcase "Gloucester Carousel." This one is a jaunty entertainer type song, designed to evoke slapstick comedy during the silent film era. This one is my personal favorite of the DLC songs, but I can see why they might have had trouble finding a place for it in the game. It's too advanced for the early game but too light for the mid or late game.
This song is most likely named after Gloucester cheese, one of the most famous cheeses from England. It is a hard cheese with a different flavor and color depending on what time of year the cows produced the milk used to make it. If the cow subsists on hay and other preserved grasses over the fall and winter, the cheese will be white and mild in flavor and is known as single Gloucester. If the cow eats fresh grass over the spring and summer, the cheese will be orange and sharp in flavor and is known as double Gloucester. Double is a more expensive cheese than single; to that end, some less-than-honest cheesemakers in the past colored single Gloucester orange to pass it off as double Gloucester for extra profits.
Song: Nightmare Road by Dyes Iawasaki (132 BPM)
Stage: 2-5 VS Ghost Rat
Begins at: 04:50
I felt this one to be the weakest of the DLC songs. Though it evokes southern jazz of the mid-20th century, keeping in line with Dyes Iwasaki's preference for electroswing, it felt like he was really phoning it in for this one, with little variation or progress in the song from beginning to end. I do wonder if it was designed for vocals though. It feels like it's missing something, and that may be it. In any case, I was ind of surprised how poorly I played this, considering that this boss is not really all that hard compared to the rest of the bosses in this game. Maybe I was just feeling off.
Song: Bowing Steps by Yo Oyama (130 BPM)
Stage: 5-2 City at Night
Begins at: 11:14
Listen carefully, and you'll hear pieces of "Ghost of Culvert" in it towards the end of the loop. As a result, I was pondering whether to use this song or "Nightmare Road" for the Ghost Rat battle, but I felt the light, airy, relaxed feel of this song wouldn't work, so I played 5-2, City at Night, with the laid-back, sleepy appearance of the backdrop fitting pretty well. This is the song with the longest gap between inputs in the game, by the way, even more so than the one in "Heartless being." No matter how many times I hear it, I can't estimate it correctly in my head, so I have to watch the heartbeat thing at the bottom.
Song: MAD LAST WORLD by Kazuya Takasu (178 BPM)
Stage: 4-1 Black Hole
Begins at: 16:45
I am honestly not sure where this title came from, or what it's even supposed to mean. However, the fact that this song is cheerful and upbeat leads me to believe there was going to be a denouement stage after the Rat God boss battle, and this would've been used for it. Or at least, that Kazuya Takasu thought there would be one. He was this game's music director, so it sounds like he also filled in gaps for stages the other composers hadn't yet made music for yet. This one is surprisingly tough though, but I guess if this was going to be the last stage, it had to be.
Song: If We Could Be Friends, by Camellia (169 BPM)
Stage: Afterlife
Begins at: 20:21
The comma is part of the title, by the way. And while there are moments of "MAD RAT, ALIVE?" in here, this would've clashed with VS Parasite even more than "Bowing Steps" would've clashed with VS Ghost Rat, as this is a quiet, peaceful, idyllic song that nevertheless has one of the highest tempos in the game. Camellia definitely made "MAD RAT, ALIVE?" into Rat God's leitmotif, and I guess this song is his way of saying that there might have been a way for Mad Rat and Rat God to live peacefully together. Of course, the story makes me highly doubt that--Rat God's instinct is to die for the sake of perpetuation of her species, and for that to happen, Mad Rat would've had to die too.
Song: MAD RAT DEAD RAP by Tophamhat-Kyo, Dyes Iwasaki, and Johngarabushi (132 BPM)
Stage: 6-2 Research Lab (reprise)
Begins at: 23:31
This song was originally used for a promotion in Japan for Mad Rat Dead. Dyes Iwasaki took "MAD RAT HEART," the music for 6-2 and the main theme of the game, and rapped alongside Tophamhat-Kyo over it. The two of them, by the way, are known as "FAKE TYPE," and they are a two-person indie electroswing band in Japan. For the record, Johngarabushi was the guitarist for this song. All guitar parts, acoustic and electric, were played live by him.
Thank you for watching! The next game I'll cover will be Ara Fell. This is an open-world indie JRPG.
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