Genso Suikoden OGS was a phenomenal breakthrough for Konami, marking a spot for them in what seemed to be a new style of VGM in itself…Impossible to describe, but great to listen to.
If you have played a significant amount of Suikoden, you should know that you are not only in the majority of RPG Fans out there to have played it, and that you are much more likely to enjoy this soundtrack than those who haven’t played the game. Because almost every track is used only in one specific occasion, each song will take you back to different spots in the game.
The highlights of this soundtrack are most definitely the opening and ending tracks. The opening is epic, but not heavy. The ending, a choral vocal singing in some romance language (Italian? Portugese? I don’t know), left the gamers with a definite feeling of accomplishment (even MORE definite if you got all 108 characters)…If you never played the game, the song still leaves you feeling satisfied with the soundtrack itself. It feels like every track before it was written just to build up to that point.
The soundtrack is quality through and through…No track is worth skipping, each is uniquely enjoyable. Many tracks have synth vocal sounds in them…I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t tell the difference between synth and real if I tried. Check out disc 1 track 24’s sample to see what I mean. The only little problem I see in this whole soundtrack is track placement…specifically, throwing the cute little bonus tracks after what would be the ending of the storyline. It sort of bothers me, hearing this wonderful piece and then hearing these little “bleep-blip-you got some treasure!” themes. Other than that, I cannot see why one wouldn’t want this soundtrack.
If you own any other Suikoden soundtrack but for some reason never managed to pick this up, there is probably something wrong with you. If you haven’t heard any Suikoden music yet, I’ll consider not deeming it a crime as long as you hastily buy this soundtrack. Game Music Online sells Genso Suikoden OGS for $43…That’s $21 a disc for a soundtrack that is likely to become rare after this and a few other online stores run out of stock with it.
