The soundtrack to the Korean MMORPG “Red Stone,” featuring one arranged track from Motoi Sakuraba, packs in almost 80 minutes of music on one disc. Across the 16 “main” tracks on the OST are songs that help paint pictures of various parts of a fantasy world. Like many MMORPG scores, it’s important to have a diversity in the soundscape. Such is the case with Red Stone.
However, even though there’s plenty of substance here, I am tempted to label the soundtrack as “generic.” The production value is definitely high, but the compositions themselves are, sometimes, rather boring. I enjoy the lighthearted town themes, but some of the dungeon themes equate to atmospheric noise rather than actual music. As standalone compositions, they are weak.
Sakuraba’s arranged track is a nice addition, though I would’ve liked for him to pick some other tracks to arrange as well, particularly track 9 (which is a battle theme).
The Image Song for Red Stone appears once in Japanese, and once in Korean. Both performances are adequate, though I do prefer the “original” work of the native Korean vocalist.
All in all, it’s another MMO soundtrack, and it’s not that great. But the art on the packaging is cool, and if you’re a super-duper Sakuraba collector, that one track might be enough to win you over. As for me, I’d rather not have it cluttering my collection.
