Game info: The Cringe Gamer
Listening: extracted audio + CD audio
Credits
Sound: Masanori Hikichi, Takako Ochiai, Akihiro Juichiya, Naoki Kaneda
Info
Real fans of the blog might remember that one of the first things I did here two years ago was go through a few random late ’90s and ’00s works by Takako Ochiai, because she was half of the sound team of one of my favorite games and soundtracks, Planet Laika, and I wanted to try to get a little bit more of a sense of her style. Which is hard because there’s not a lot of songs specifically attributable to her! This is not one of the games I went through back then, but if I had known it was a racing game with visual novel cutscenes then I definitely would’ve, because I absolutely need to know what the Quintet sound team would’ve done with a racing game.
Though I guess I still don’t really know all that much about what the Quintet sound team would’ve done with a racing game? Because it seems that the only tracks that were actually used in races are the three CD audio tracks, and the rest of the 70+ tracks are used in the VN portions. The CD tracks are a lot more energetic and fusiony than the rest of the soundtrack, which are mostly shorter and chiller/laid-back pieces that hit the various standard beats you’d have in a game like this like “cutesy” and “emotional.” The music is all streamed, though you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s sequenced for Saturn YMF292 playback because it almost all sounds like MIDIs played with basic samples, with the CD tracks being produced a little bit better than the rest.
The music is for the most part just okay, these folks have definitely produced more interesting stuff with better sounds. There’s a decent amount of jazz influence in the VN soundtrack, not a ton of outright jazz music or anything but there’s some along with sax leads, funky bass, and jazz chords in slipped into other tracks as appropriate. The three racing tracks are a bit more developed and arranged a bit more fully than the rest of the soundtrack, it’s not a massive difference but it’s clear they put a little more effort into making sure the audio for that part of the game stands out.
Recommended tracks:
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CRADX06 is the one track I look for in every Takako Ochiai work with a mystical feel and polymeter or pseudo-polymeter; this one’s got a bit of a fusiony feel with the movement up and down and the fretless bass
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CRADX16 has a nice syncopated bit at 0:14
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CRADX26 is one of the more mysterious tracks
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CREVE70 starts off kinda cartoony before settling into a bit more of a sneaking groove
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Track 2 was my favorite track in the game, honestly feels more like an RPG battle theme than racing music with the dramatic brass/strings and guitar solo
(tracks are referred to by their filenames/track number)
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