In other words, the chip was made for the game, rather than the game for the chip.The game's audio programmer, Hidenori Maezawa, assisted in the chip's creation.
While i wouldn't use the term "downgrade" as backhandedly (i find it a bit disrespectful of the excellent work done), it seems the soundtrack indeed was composed for the vrc6 first and then had additional work done for the port.The North American release replaced the VRC6 with Nintendo's Memory Management Controller 5 (MMC5). the MMC5 chip's sound channels cannot be used with the NES, and the game's music had to be downgraded by Yoshinori Sasaki to comply with the NES's standard five channels
re: tokumaru
aw, shucks! thanks. though there are plenty more skilled video game composers out there. I've never studied music theory as formal education, either. I honestly have a bit of a complex regarding that.