Twelve ~Sengoku Fuushinden~ (Legendary War of the Sealed God) was released on the PSP from Konami in 2005. It’s definitely on of their games that fell beneath the radar, and it had no chance of being released in the US.
But, it’s an RPG, and it’s got music, and Konami’s behind it (with support from TWO FIVE). How can you pass that up? Well, we did pass it up for over a year, but it’s time to look into another soundtrack that “got away from us” at the time of its release.
It took me three listens through the soundtrack to decide that the game’s standard BGM wasn’t anything special; as a Strategy RPG, the music was written in a style similar to Konami’s past efforts in the genre (such as Vandal Hearts). The intensity of the music reflects the small-scale military skirmishes that take place in common Tactical RPG scenarios. I was impressed with the sound quality, considering the game is a PSP release, but the compositions aren’t anything to get excited about. Well, a few songs were really pretty, and I sampled some of them (such as the ending music).
Even though the majority of the BGM wasn’t exciting, there is something that kept me listening to this soundtrack many times over: the vocals. Performed by Saori Goto, these songs are strangely addictive. The opening theme “Fragments of You” (in Japanese, “Kimi no Kakera”) is a mid-tempo pop song, but the melody is very catchy. Goto’s voice keeps the song alive, and I was especially impressed by the song’s chorus. Even better is the ending theme, “dejavu,” where Goto takes the “breathy” approach to singing to create one of the best vocals I’ve heard from Konami in a long time.
Ms. Goto has two other songs tacked on as bonus tracks, and while I found these songs to be somewhat inferior to the opening and ending, they also demonstrate her unique talents.
Is it worth paying retail price for just the vocal tracks? Probably not. These were the songs that I found most worthwhile, but I would have been just as happy seeing them on a single. Then again, I also despise having to pick up a single separately from the OST, so we can be happy to see full versions of these songs included with the game’s OST. If you’re a fan of Konami, particularly their smaller projects (in corrolation, this time, with TWO FIVE), picking up an album like this is actually a nice way to show your support. Plus, it’s an album that very few people have heard, because very few people even knew about the game at the time of its release. If you’re feeling adventurous, check it out.
