Game info: Wikipedia
Listening: soundtrack album (tracks 5.01~28), extracted audio
Info
Scarlet & Violet was divided plotwise into four episodes, and the DLC likewise featured three episodes (or more like two and a half, judging by Wikipedia’s summaries and the amount of music?) which were released sequentially under the umbrella title The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero. The first episode, The Teal Mask, takes place in a Japanese-themed region, so understandably a few tracks incorporate instruments like shamisen and pentatonic melodies, all those things that immediately come to mind when you think of Japanese-mode video game music.
No new audio staff in this first episode, all the composers from the main game returned except for Toby Fox (whose “Area Zero” theme is referenced in a track here) and Yuri Habuka. The majority of it was handled by Minako Adachi, who did a solid enough job, probably the set of her music I’ve listened to in the past couple of weeks that I enjoyed the most overall. Got to flex her electronic production and jazz fusion writing alongside the Japaneseisms, often in the same track. She also wrote another one of those nice little town themes in 3/4 with pretty chord changes which I guess are her thing now, I’m not going to post it this time but it’s there!
Recommended tracks:
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“Ex-c-c-change” (Minako Adachi) is a quirky electronic character theme with some fun filtered chords in the second half
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“Crystal Pool” (Go Ichinose, orig. Toby Fox) is a more ambient take on the “Area Zero” theme with some cool background noises
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“Battle! (Ogerpon)” (Adachi) mixes Japan.mp3 with some really fusiony chords
(track titles are unofficial translations from Bulbapedia)
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