Before I get started, I would like to remind everyone that reviews are merely opinions, and can highly differ from one person to another as you’re going to see.
I’ve always liked Kenji Ito’s compositions a lot, and I was very found of the music of Romancing SaGa as well after playing the game; with that in mind, I thought the arranged CD could only please me.
Well, I was wrong. Romancing SaGa: La Romance comes as one of my biggest game music disappointments. My first impression of the music was altogether bad already, and as I listened to more of the CD, it was starting to sound like a joke.
The concept of the CD is this whole ‘French’ theme, hence the accordian and violin sounds here and there, which unfortunately usually get covered up by disgracefully arranged percussions. The thing is, it didn’t quite sound French to me at all… It’s a little bit jazzy, I could see it labelled as maybe European, but it doesn’t match my personal vision of French-style music…. (I am French, by the way). The tracks range from plain boring, making me really want to turn the music off, to somewhat enjoyable, such as Track 06, or the Tango (#08). Unfortunately, this doesn’t make it enough of a reason for me to enjoy the CD. I just don’t like it…
One more gripe I have against the CD is the arrangement; I’m no expert in the area but the arrangement of La Romance sounded very mediocre to me.
As strange as it may sound after the praise Patrick gave this CD (see his review as well), this is my least favorite game CD and I really can’t recommend it. To me, it’s ruining the Romancing SaGa themes I loved more than anything else. The choice of instruments, the arrangement and the pace of the CD just didn’t sound good to me. If you want to enjoy SaGa’s music, get the OSV or one of the other arranged CDs instead, and if you want French-sounding music, well, get some Yann Tiersen CDs instead.
