To date, Revelations: Persona and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment are the only two installments of Atlus’ revered Shin Megami Tensei series to have reared their demonic heads on console systems outside of Japan. As many hardcore MegaTen fans are aware, however, Persona 2 was actually a game consisting of two parts, Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, the former of which never saw the light of day stateside due to content that would have been deemed controversial for the American audience. Kurokawa-san’s work in each OST, however, is a remarkable achievement in gaming music that should not go unrecognized by all fans of RPGs alike.
The casual listener will immediately notice that the Persona 2: Innocent Sin OST contains a smoothly-flowing blend between a vast array of musical genres. The album carries a distinct techno/oriental tone, yet manages to synthesize tracks of jazz, rock, and fusion together into a consistent representation of Sumaru City’s multi-cultural setting. This is a soundtrack that tends to invoke the precise emotions that its composers had aimed for; the battle themes are upbeat, vibrant tracks that engulf the listener in the intensity of combat, while songs like “Maya’s Theme (Sad)” cannot help but convey the same grief and anguish experienced by the game’s heroine. The Innocent Sin OST does not find itself left out of the current trend towards vocal tracks, either; “Joker” is an excellent vocal piece with a distinctive J-Pop flair, performed by Hiroko Konishi.
The Persona 2: Innocent Sin OST could be well-described as a “complete” soundtrack. Everything it does, it manages to do well, while keeping “filler tracks” to an absolute minimum. Almost every song has something special and unique to bring to the table, an uncommon surprise that is always well-received in an RPG’s soundtrack. I wholeheartedly recommend it to all fans of high-caliber video game music. The Innocent Sin OST has a little something for everyone.
