Album info: VGMdb
While I’ve heard quite a bit of the music from this album already through game rips on YouTube, I’m tagging the soundtrack album as a first listen because it contains a lot of music I haven’t heard before, and because PSO2’s music is heavily dynamic so it’s assembled differently on the album than in ripped versions.
Info
Here it is, the first official volume of music from the “reboot” update of the MMORPG that has my favorite video game soundtrack of all time, Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis. While there are definitely soundtracks I would say I like more on average, there are absolutely none that come anywhere close to maintaining such a consistently high quality over a truly staggering amount of music (we’re approaching 50 hours now with the two PSO2NGS volumes). The works of Hideaki Kobayashi, Mitsuharu Fukuyama, and Hidekuni Horita stand out to me as being particularly incredible, which is great for me because they’ve been almost exclusively the composers since around 2017, and they’ve continued in their dominant role here.
What can you expect? Mainly a mixture of chill environmental themes and EDM-y battle/action themes, with tons of electronic sounds mixed with orchestra (largely strings + brass). Beautiful synth textures and a truly illegal amount of harmonic color. PSO2’s combination of dance music, jazz, prog, and sound design is one of the most distinctive sound worlds out there, and one of my favorites. Highest recommendation.
Recommended tracks:
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“A World Beyond The Sky” (Kobayashi, vo. Kristen Watts) is the opening theme and establishes a ton of what the soundtrack will do musically
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“Establish Yourself” (Horita) is a warm and fuzzy synth piece to create a character to
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“Imminence” (Fukuyama) has some wacky piano lines
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“Resol Forest – Day – Scenery” (Kobayashi) mixes calming ambience with aggressive synths in a way that I find really beautiful
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“Formidable Gigantix – Counterattack” (Horita) is extremely concentrated Horita, this piece cannot have been written by anyone but him
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“Vanford Laboratory Ruins – Battle” (Kobayashi) is real filthy in its sounds and melody
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