A Capcom Graphic Adventure, from the team that brought you the Gyakuten Saiban series – it’s a spirit-filled whodunnit, and it’s got music from Masazaku Sugimori, who wrote the original Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney) soundtrack. Go-go Ghost Trick!
Frankly, I’m happy to see (technically, “hear”) Sugimori-san back at the helm. Iwadare did a decent job with the third game, but the other composers who handled the Gyakuten Saiban series couldn’t do much beyond embellishing the great melodies Sugimori wrote for the original game. That’s my opinion, at any rate; take it for whatever it’s worth.
Now, you may be wondering, does this music come with all the synth compression artifacts you’d expect from a DS game, especially a Capcom DS game? The answer is both yes and no. Or rather, “yes” and “sort of.” No question, this is a super-synthy, super-grainy soundtrack. It almost has an endearing quality at this point. Listen to disc 1 track 3’s audio sample. It just sounds like the old GBA Gyakuten Saiban music, right? Irritating at first, but that style of music quickly grew on me. If you’re anything like me, you can look past it and get into the melodies. Also, some tracks come out sounding “smoother” than others.
The melodies are extremely bouncy. Everything is bouncy. What I mean by that is that the harmonic structure, whether it includes 3rds, 6ths, 7ths, 9ths, whatever … they are arpeggiated and then syncopated. Hence, “bounce.” I’d say, of the 37 tracks across the two disc OST, over half of them fit this description.
And whether or not they are bouncy, many of the tracks are definitely within the broadly defined genre of “jazz.” And on a very subjective good/bad scale, most of these songs are quite good. Simple, interesting musical ideas, some of which are fleshed out, others of which are not – all very fitting for a graphic adventure title that involves investigation and paranormal activity.
For a handheld game, it’s a strong soundtrack. And while it may not be celebrated like Gyakuten Saiban, it is still a great collection of tunes from a less-than-famous composer.
