Ururun Quest is another of many love adventures to be published by D3. The soundtrack caught my eye because it was published by Team Entertainment, a group who regularly releases excellent soundtracks.
The bad news I have for you all is that, sadly, I have no idea who composed the majority of these songs. And that’s because, apparently, no one cared to name themselves for having composed this music. The vocalist who performed the opening and ending theme songs (Showtaro Morikubo) is the only person accredited to having written anything.
To whoever the mystery composer(s) may be, I applaud your efforts on this soundtrack, and I loathe you for remaining anonymous. While I didn’t think the vocal tracks were anything special (even though the bit of acclaim this soundtrack has received from its Japanese fanbase usually involves said performer), I do think that the BGM tracks are excellent.
I’ve found that this (the high quality BGM) is not uncommon for the genre. As most visual novel-type games go, much processing power is left over and can be put into the music; superior music, at least in terms of sound quality, is the norm. Though the synth on this album, I believe, is still sequenced (rather than streamed), the quality of the synth is beyond that of most traditional RPG peers.
Most songs have simple, touching melodies with intricate background parts: catchy rhythms, complex musical patterns, that sort of thing. Though various ethnic musical styles do find representation, the traditional Asian string parts take the cake on this album. Pitched percussion (xylophone, marimba) also have a strong showing on some of the songs.
My favorite tracks include the ones sampled (except for the ending vocal: that was tacked on just so you could hear why I didn’t find much special in it). My pick for best “soft” song goes to track 29, which shows strong ties (particularly in harmonic structure) to the music of Joe Hisaishi.
In searching out good, obscure VGM, you could do a lot worse. I’m still upset that the composers of Ururun Quest aren’t listed with the soundtrack, but the developers at Vingt-et-un clearly have an excellent sound team.
