Two notes before beginning the review:
1) Ao no mamade roughly translates to “Stay Blue,” which is shown in track 2 as an English subtitle. The “Tenku Danzai” section of Skelter Heaven can be translated roughly as “Sky Conviction,” or perhaps, “Conviction of (regarding) the Sky.”
2) Track 35, “Dreamcather” is a typo not on our part, but on the part of the publisher.
Alright, now to the review.
Idea Factory, a company known for their many strategy RPGs, took a quick dive into the world of graphic adventure dating sims. I!F’s in-house composer, Kenji Kaneko, scored music to two such games: Ao no mamade and Tenku Danzai Skelter Heaven (the title that always makes me think of Helter Skelter). The two games each had small-scale soundtracks, such that the two of them could easily have their entire list of songs fit on one disc. Team Entertainment made this possibility a reality, and thus we have the album in question.
The two games have varying styles. Though both games have peppy female character themes opening the album, there is a sharp difference in the rest of the songs. Ao no mamade’s music is distinctively orchestral in nature. Piano, flute, and other synthesized equivalents to traditional instruments help to paint the soundscape. It also has a vocal theme, one which I didn’t find myself particularly enjoying. Skelter Heaven, on the other hand, has straight rock tracks dominating the second half of the album: in particular, tracks 31 and 32 are excellent, rivaling some of Falcom’s better tracks. Both sides of the album are great, and it all clearly demonstrates Kaneko’s ability to write different forms of music for this genre of gaming. Among Kaneko’s various works, I might say that these are some of my favorite songs from him. This album is definitely a hidden treasure.
It’s funny, though, because the album is still easily available for purchase. Though it may become hard to find those other Idea Factory albums (Generation of Chaos, Spectral Force, Spectral Souls), this one will probably be difficult for online stores to unload their stock, probably because of the obscurity to these adventure games from this unlikely source (Idea Factory). Seriously, it’s a decent soundtrack for two obscure adventure titles. I’m glad I gave it a chance, and you might be glad if you were to do the same.
