Tokimeki can’t be contained in a mere two discs. It takes at least four, right? Well, looking at a full discography, it takes hundreds of compact discs to contain all the audio produced for this series. It’s so overwhelming.
Just looking at a “Volume 2” of one OST for one entry in the series makes the task of collecting and digesting all Tokimemo music seem ridiculous. And anyone who would get that into the music, particularly when they haven’t even played the games (as none of them haev been localized), may come off as obnoxious. But that wouldn’t be the first time for me, so I’m boldly and foolishly pressing forward. Let’s take a look at the second half of the Tokimeki Memorial 2 soundtrack.
I mentioned in my review of this soundtrack’s first volume that taking a look at any Tokimeki OST will, by definition, mean that you’re looking at the “lowest common denominator” of the music. That same sentiment applies, though with one caveat: there’s a lot of traditional/classical music being arranged for VGM here. Even more than in Volume 1. Even more than in the first Tokimeki Memorial game. So that’s definitely something to take into consideration.
Let’s just start with a note about all the classical music. It’s weird to see this adoption, and adaptation, of such highly-rated Western music in a Japanese dating sim. Yet, it works. It works really well, I dare say. Even the Christmas songs: Jingle Bells and Silent Night, they have a refined sound for the PS1. I know I sound crazy, but I mean it. The Saint-Saens, Debussy, even the Bach stuff, all sounds great as well. Few games do this, at least to the extent that Tokimeki Memorial does it. And I have to admit that I enjoy it.
“Combat with the Gang Leader,” one of the game’s few battle themes, sounds strikingly similar to the Final Fantasy VIII battle theme at times. I wouldn’t call it plagiarism, but then the accompanying victory theme even uses a variation of the Final Fantasy victory jingle. Coincidence? I think not. And then, the defeat jingle? It uses a variation of the Final Fantasy prelude (arpeggiated chords with the 2nd/9th added), but with an emphasis on the minor key. I really wonder how Square didn’t take issue with this. It isn’t straight plagiarism, but it sure as heck is on the borderline. And while I understand the concept of choosing to parody FF when doing a traditional RPG battle, Konami has so much music within its own body of work, why not parody Suikoden instead?
A large portion of disc two is a jingles / music effects collection. That’s why there are so many tracks: half of them run under a minute in length, some under 20 seconds.
Because of the spread out nature of the tracks, it’s hard to find the good stuff. I recommend the in-game vocal tracks, particularly at the beginning of the first disc and end of the second disc. I also liked some of the original instrumental character and event themes. The tracks sampled are a good start. If you’re going to start looking into Tokimeki soundtracks, and you want to get specifically into Tokimeki Memorial 2, you should get this as a counterpart to a purchase of Original Game Soundtrack Volume 1. Everyone else, just take note of the weird Final Fantasy oddity, as well as all the classical music, and enjoy the audio samples!
