There's this bass sound that's all over japanese media from the 90's and early 2000's. Kind of sounds like one of those early clumsy attempts at recreating the sound of acoustic instruments, in this case an upright bass. Considering there are instruments like the Roland D-50 that have defined certain eras of music with their preset patches, I think this is probably also a preset on some popular workstation from that time.

Examples:

 

When it comes to 90s/2000s japanese video games, the answer is usually 'it's a Roland SC-55', and I suspect that's the case here, probably the SC-55 rendition of the GS 'Acoustic Bass' patch.

 

There's a few free synths to do this.. try Surge,https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/
upright Bass/slap bass/double bass! or what ever DAW you use should have a synth to create this

If you want a decent workstation with all the presets you will ever need i suggest XPAND 2
Going cheap at the mo in friday deals https://www.airmusictech.com/virtual-instruments/xpand-2/

 

Last edited: Nov 26, 2024 at 3:59 PM

here is another one:

Here you can hear a few examples directly from the devices, the bass can also be spotted here:

 

To me the first video doesn't sound like 90s synth or workstation at all, tone and playing style sound like a fretless electric bass.

And it reminds me of this:

 

I didn't check your examples, but this spreadsheet is actively maintained and dedicated to finding samples used for the VGM of the era. Worth bookmarking, even if it doesn't have sources for your games specifically.