Of all the Suikoden soundtracks I’ve heard so far, this one is probably my favorite. And why would that be the case? Well, that’s because this soundtrack contains nearly all of the best tracks from the Suikoden series. And this is all coming from a game that probably will never make it to American shores. (I can almost hear the collective screams of the RPG community).
Every single track within the 2 CDs has been done to such an extent that it sounds almost like a live concert performance. Don’t believe me? Just listen to the samples, though I’m sure the encoding wouldn’t do what you hear off the CD justice. Considering the game is all text-based, I can understand why they could devote so much of the PlayStation’s resources to pumping out the high-quality music.
The majority of the tracks are from Suikoden II, but of course we’ll all recognize the familiar tunes from the Suikoden series: like “Moonlit Night,” which only seems to improve with each game. As if that isn’t enough, they even remixed Neclord’s theme AGAIN!! Wow, this track really ROCKS!! Stuff like this should belong in Bemani games…or 70’s movies, whichever way you see it.
While there’s so much good stuff about this soundtrack, the part that bothers me is that there are still some “background music” tracks inside; and what’s worse, the 2 CDs only give roughly 45 minutes of music each. Ouch. Talk about short. And there’s plenty more I felt the need to gripe about. The opening theme “Currents” is a vocal version of Two River Cities theme (the original vocal was done on Orrizonte) and sounded quite weird to me (but that’s only me, other people say it’s cool). In addition, the version of “Beautiful Morning” here almost gave me a fit. A bit too fruity and Hawaiian for my taste. I still prefer the Suikoden II version, but that’s purely my opinion, don’t take it as fact.
So you’re probably asking yourself whether you should do your part to save the Japanese economy by buying this, right? Well, in my case, I’d buy it. The good tracks inside far outweigh the not-so-good ones…I’d be lying if I said I regretted this purchase. But, the price is pretty steep for this one. Anime Natio will run you a bill of $45 to purchase the 2-disc set. It’s your choice, but below are samples to help you decide!
