Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key (PC/consoles, 2023)

Music info: VGMdb
Listening: physical album, iTunes/Apple Music, Amazon

Credits

BGM: Kazuki Yanagawa, Kosuke Mizukami, Reo Uratani, Yuki Matsumura, Masako Otsuka, Asami Mitake
Theme songs: Kosuke Mizukami, Ryotaro Kagaya, Hisanobu Notsu

Info

Back to more 2023 video game music wowie zowie. Up next we’ve got the six hundredth installment in Gust’s long-running chill RPG series about anime girls who do alchemy or something. I have basically zero interest in the games, except for how they’re a venue for Kazuki Yanagawa to keep writing music once a year. The series had a stable set of four to five composers for a number of years, with occasional guest composers, but Gust has since its acquisition in 2011 been slowly subsumed into parent company KOEI TECMO, and as such I’m not sure “Gust” even has any sound team members any more; all the composers here are either external (Yanagawa & Reo Uratani) or general KOEI TECMO audio staff who had never written for an Atelier game before the first Atelier Ryza.

The genre is generally kinda lighter orchestral, strings and winds mixed with piano and guitar and other acoustics. I mentioned Kazuki Yanagawa specifically because I find him by far the most consistently good composer for Gust games (Hayato Asano being second); he loves cramming odd time and sick chord changes into every song he writes. Though I don’t think his contributions to the first two Ryza games really showcase what I like about his music, and that’s true with this latest entry as well. In fact, I think I might like his tracks the least out of any of the composers. Alas!

Kosuke Mizukami’s tracks have a notably more jazz/rock edge to them than everyone else’s. Masako Otsuka has the biggest orchestrations out of anyone on the soundtrack. The other three composers—Reo Uratani, Yuki Matsumura, and Asami Mitake—did less to distinguish themselves to me from the general sound of the soundtrack than the rest, but they all had tracks that I enjoyed a lot and in some ways demonstrated more of the stuff I like about Yanagawa’s music than Yanagawa did. I think this one is pretty easily the best Ryza soundtrack of the trilogy!

Recommended tracks:

  • That Summer Hideout” (Mizukami, vo. reche) is the opening theme; I feel that Gust games typically have better than average vocals

  • Under the Shimmering Sky” (Otsuka) is a very pretty, romantic orchestral piece

  • A Cat and Teaspoon Are Both Borrowed Things” (Matsumura) is a nighttime variation of a quirky piece by Matsumura that swaps the piano for some nice metallic pitched percussion

  • Cat’s Eyes” (Uratani) is one of the more sinister pieces on the soundtrack

  • Diffused Reflection Refrain” (Mitake) has a really cool first ten seconds (and the rest is good too)

  • I’ll Take You Down” (Mizukami) is one of those rock pieces I mentioned earlier; my favorite part is the 7-9 bit at 1:14

  • Epoché” (Yanagawa) is a trademark Yanagawa dramatic boss theme

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