Valkyria Chronicles Soundtrack Review.
By vidiot 9 Comments
My new computer arrives in a few days. I'm excited. I've probably refreshed the tracking order a billion times. I wish someone could strap a fucking rocket to the UPS truck, Monday couldn't come sooner.
In the mean time I've been struggling, just a bit, in terms of trying to find stuff to play.
There's only so much Brutal Legend achievement grinding I can take. :/
Anyway, I've decided to take this opportunity to do something a little more creative for this blog post. Something other than the traditional introspective academic ventures of whatever the fuck is on my mind.
A few years ago, I decided to venture into videogame soundtrack collecting. My collection, is modest at best. Primarily because of the steep import fee's. Regardless it's felt really awesome to finally have physical copies of game soundtracks versus obtaining them by other means. So I thought today, instead of doing the traditional Brain Dump I would attempt at writing a soundtrack review. I picked Valkyria Chronicles to be the subject of either my first...or last(?)...review after subjecting it to a series of tests.
(Okay, I lied: I closed my eyes and grabbed the first soundtrack off my shelf.)
I didn't want to do a "traditional review", because I like to ramble. So I gave it some more thought, and sat alone trying to find a good name for whatever written experiment this was going to turn into. It was a really interesting, and dare I say, a spiritual process. Days of meditation juxtaposed on days of deep and intricate debate....with myself....outloud...
...
Yesterday, I finally stumbled upon the name of this written experiment. I am quite happy with it.
Intro
I think my history regarding listening to Hitoshi Sakimoto's work, like a lot of people, began with the release of Final Fantasy Tactics years ago. He did a phenomenal job back then, and his role of stepping into the series that Nobuo Uematsu is most known for, would be something he would do again. Final Fantasy XII was the first real entry in the series to be completely devoid of Uematsu in the soundtrack, and in this void Sakimoto walked in.
I never felt he got a fare shake regarding his work on Final Fantasy XII.
Like the game itself, the soundtrack was up to quite a bit of scrutiny from fans. I felt bad. I felt anyone walking into that job was subject to the range of over-the-top scrutiny. Everyone has an opinion how a Final Fantasy soundtrack should sound like, and to jump into a game like Final Fantasy XII that was simply all over the place in terms of fan acceptance...Ugh, I kinda feel bad just thinking about it.
Especially, when I personally think it was quite the competent soundtrack. Not excellent, nor his best, but quite listenable. A few themes really struck out to me, specifically the main theme. Certain themes were used quite liberally in the soundtrack. You either interperate that as being lazy, or interperate as simply being confidant with your composition. Just because you use it a bunch, doesn't translate into: you've run out of ideas. Which is something that the soundtrack of Valkyria Chronicles proves.
Packaging
Valkyria Chronicles (Senjou no Valkyria Original) comes in a traditional plastic CD jewel case. It's two disks, with the traditional CD paper flap on it's side.
It's nothing to write home about. I like the front picture with Welkin and Alicia. The back (not pictured for some stupid reason.) Has the track listing and another neat pose of Welkin and Alicia.
I should take the time to point out my pictures are taken from a cell-phone, and thus retain the "quality" you would imagine. My apologies.
It's when you open it up where the fun starts.
The booklet inside, (The picture of the silver haired Selvaria is the back of it.) contains some neat art from the game. The art is fantastic, although there doesn't seem to be any exclusive artwork in the booklet. But my main point of interest is the really neat art on the first disk, which is quite in congress with the actual game itself (Watercolor sketch). I don't know why, I really like looking at it.
Everyone knows the fictional land of Europa where Valkyria Chronicles takes place is based off of Europe. I wasn't aware of the geographical comparison you could make. You saw quick glimpses of a map in the game, but now we can sit back and get a really good look at it. Crap, look at that third picture. I don't know whether to laugh, or like it in a nerdy way. Perhaps both?
I wish there was more attention to it's packaging. It's good stuff, but I've seen better. Especially with a visually stunning game like Valkyria Chronicles, I would have liked to seem some sketches or something exclusive in there. That's probably why I like the CD artwork so much.
Notice for non-English speakers: You will have to download an English tracklisting online.
The Music
If you listen to some of his early work, you can tell Sakimoto has developed over time his own style of music. To put it simply: I think Valkyria Chronicles is some of his best, and most focused work to date.
The first piece of music I want to focus on is the main theme. It's in a word: Amazing.
The piece of music does a great job at embodying what Valkyria Chronicles at it's core is. A fictional anime take on World War 2. The first thing I thought when I heard the music was how bit's and pieces felt...western... When we think of war movies, specifically war movies that take place in World War 2, our mind usually thinks of liberal uses of drums and horns. The main theme not only has both, but uses them in ways you would expect them to be used, it sounds military. At the same time, there is most certainly a sense of fantasy to be had heard here, overtly epic like a traditional JRPG theme. It works on multiple levels, and does exactly what it sets out to do: Sell you a fantasy World War 2 game.
It's also used all over the soundtrack. I never felt though that the repeating tracks were repeating. Empty Loneliness is the main theme in piano form, but it does it's job as an emotional theme for certain characters in the story. It sounds like it's own thing.
Sakimoto cheats a bit with the final boss theme. Like Final Fantasy XII, the final boss theme is essentially yet again, a variation of the main them. Unlike Final Fantasy XII, the final boss them is done with a full blown orchestra.
It fucking rocks.
The interesting thing about Valkyria Chronicles as a game for a composer, is it's emphasis of focusing the entire weight of your mechanics into the game's battles. In other words: You better have some catchy tunes to listen too when your playing out a three minute turn. Each opposing faction has their own piece of music to accompany there turn in gameplay. It's here where your opinion of Valkyria Chronicles might override the soundtrack. Why is fighting to the death accompanied by such a soft and catchy tune? Because it accompanies the game's presentation, and dare I say mechanics. When I'm looking at a map, planning my moves, I don't want to listen to something depressing or too dramatic. That's what the enemies themes are for. :P
Desperate Fight is a great track, but my favorite battle theme will probably be Street Fighting. The theme really makes you feel like your making an epic advance upon the enemy.
Valkyria's Awakening is another of the few orchestrated tracks, it really captures the sheer power of what the Valkyria can do.
The story based music, and the character themes are excellent. Thematic and strong, the bulk of the music is simply excellent. It has the quality of a great JRPG soundtrack: It's great to hear such a varied score, and yet have a great sense of unity among most of the tracks.
Chronicles of the Gallian War is probably the most memorable to fans of the game, and quite possibly my favorite track of the entire soundtrack.
The vocal stuff is...eh.
The soundtrack begins, and ends with your obligatory JPop theme, No Matter the Distance. I personally didn't care for it, and it seems...out of place with the rest of the music. You hear an instrumental version of Succeeded Wish when you start up the game, the actual song has lyrics. It's not bad, but I would have liked a track I was familiar with. Again personal taste.
Final Thoughts.
This was fun for me to write. It's an excellent soundtrack. Aside from some few, very minor blemishes you might not even consider, Valkyria Chronicles was quite possibly my favorite soundtrack of last year. If you have the extra money and are a fan of the series, I wholeheartedly recommend a purchase. It's quite listenable outside of playing the game which is rather neat too.