Game info: Wikipedia
Listening/music info: soundtrack album
Credits
BGM: Masahiko Kimura, Takashi Yoshida, Michiru Yamane, Keiko Fukami
Theme song: Yoshiaki Hoshi (HIMEKAMI)
Info
Moving on to another Suikoden game, a main series installment this time. The lead composer for all the Suikoden games up to this point, except for the GBA card game which I only found out exists right now while fact checking this sentence, was Miki Higashino, but she wasn’t involved in this game at all, I’m assuming because she left Konami some time before or during development (she had already left by April 2002 at the latest). Instead, the soundtrack was handled by three people with previous series experience, Masahiko Kimura (that GBA card game), Takashi Yoshida (Suikogaiden Vol.2), and Keiko Fukami (Suikoden II), and one veteran Konami composer who was completely new to the series, Michiru Yamane. Though Fukami was left off of the game and album credits. Probably because she also left Konami before the game came out? Sucks ass when companies do that. Don’t do that.
This soundtrack is in a familiar style to the last one: orchestral with some synth accents and occasional folk instrumentation like guitar and hand percussion to remind you that we’re in medieval times. It’s pretty decent, not super remarkable to me a lot of the time but it did throw in enough interesting chords or quirky whole tone bits into the occasional track to keep me engaged through the whole thing. Generally my favorite tracks were the battle themes and the short, generically-titled event themes with names like “Conversation 1” and “Pinch 3,” though there are a few synthier area themes with mallet percussion that I also found pretty nice.
There’s no composer breakdown of any sort on the soundtrack album, though we do have specific credits for more than half of the soundtrack from a combination of arrange albums and an interview with Yamane. Of the tracks that are known, the vast majority of my favorites are by Takashi Yoshida. He’s known to have handled most of the battle themes, which are in the same chaotic, aggressive style as his boss themes for Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (though maybe slightly less polished?). That’s a good style! His area themes are quite nice too, showing off some contrapuntal complexity and some other fun stuff.
The game’s opening theme song was composed by Yoshiaki Hoshi, who operated under the name HIMEKAMI for twenty years before passing away from heart failure only a couple of years after this game came out (his son took the name after and has been using it ever since). I’m not familiar with their music besides what I skimmed through on YouTube just now, but my understanding is that it’s generally synthy world music/new age stuff, and the opening theme here is definitely some synthy world music/new age stuff.
Recommended tracks:
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“Bridge Town (Zexen Knights’ Fortress BGM)” (Yoshida) is a bit fugue-y
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“Raging Soul (Battle BGM 1)” (Yoshida) switches between comical, triumphant, and menacing airs
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“Pinch 1” has kinda wonky phrasing in the first half
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“Karaya on Fire (Karaya Village on Fire BGM)” (Yoshida) was the most Aria of Sorrow-coded Yoshida track, frantically all over the place
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“Ducklings (Duck Village BGM)” (Fukami & Kimura) is a supremely chill town theme
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“Great Hollow (Great Hollow BGM)” (Fukami) has a bunch of fun syncopated lines layered up
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“Mixed Feelings (Ceremonial Site BGM)” (Yamane) busts out the beats at 1:38
(track titles are unofficial translations from VGMdb)
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