Why do I suddenly feel like I’m in France?
…It must be all the accordion and orgel (music boxes) coming from this CD I bought. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (or Pandora’s Box), eh? Who would’ve expected Tomohito Nishiura (Dark Cloud, Rogue Galaxy) to compose such traditional, Western European pieces? The man is good at bringing ethnic diversity to the table, but we are quick to assume “ethnic” equals African drums, traditional East Asian flutes and strings, maybe some Mediterranean or Arabic melodic structure. And Nishiura delivered in previous games, pulling out all the stops to create a very diverse landscape.
But Professor Layton is a decidedly European game. Early Industrial Revolution era Britain and France immediately come to mind. And certainly, developer Level 5 did have past exposure to a “French” game with the alternate-history strategy RPG “Jeanne d’Arc” released for the PSP before this trilogy came about. But there was very little “provincial” about that soundtrack. In turn, this soundtrack is very nearly the definition of provincial. So if you’re ready to sit down at a cafe and have a croissant, while playing a Nintendo DS, this is the soundtrack for you.
What sells this album to me as a good album release is, honestly, the last 7 tracks, where are all arranged. Four are performed live, and the last three are “high quality” (but still synth) arrangements. All three of the Layton OSTs have these bonus tracks, and they are truly enjoyable additions to the repertoire. The live version of “A Moment’s Rest” is almost as good as the opening (title) track! Pretty fancy stuff right there, my friend.
At 75 minutes, this one disc is packed with goodies, though one might also argue that it’s packed with filler. The DS sound source isn’t that great, but the arranged tracks (particularly the live tracks) tend to make up for it.
