Game info: Wikipedia
Listening: original physical release (missing two tracks), box set (disc 23, missing two tracks), iTunes/Apple Music (disc 3), Amazon (disc 3)
Info
In 2006, KOEI released an MMO installment in the series for PC called Shin Sangokumusou BB, with “BB” being short for “broadband.” Over the years they released it on other systems and added expansions, updating the title a few times as well when there was a big content update. In 2012, one of those major title-altering expansions came out: Shin Sangokumusou Online: Ryuujin Ranbu. I’m checking out the soundtrack that KOEI TECMO has noted as specifically pertaining to this game, so I’d assume these are the new tracks for it.
Naturally, we’re back to hard rock for a lot of this soundtrack, though I’d say it’s slightly slower and less hard than Dynasty Warriors 7, and also quite a bit synthier: a lot of the tracks incorporate at least one or two background synths, and there are night variations of some of the battle themes that are decidedly in electronic rock territory. I’m still not super excited about it, but instrumentally and tonally it’s a little more to my taste, so I got along with this one a touch more.
After the standard rock block of battle music by some of our usual suspects like MASA, Masato Koike, and Haruki Yamada, we’ve got the standard non-rock block of town and menu music by some of our usual suspects like Takashi Yoshida, Masako Otsuka, and Shin-ichiro Nakamura. I thought these were rather nice this time! Definitely the block of music that was the most consistently compositionally interesting to me in these Dynasty Warriors listens so far. And the night variations are really pretty when they exist, I’m all about the nighttime on this soundtrack apparently.
The digital releases of this soundtrack include two tracks that weren’t on the earlier physical releases: “SPRING GARDEN” and “GARDEN OF NIGHT” by Shin-ichiro Nakamura. I couldn’t find any good info explaining why these were previously omitted; it’s quite possible they were added later in an update, but surely they could’ve been included in the 2018 box set if that were the case? Maybe it was just an oversight.
Recommended tracks:
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“WEEP FOR WIND [Battle – 2 – Night]” (MASA, arr. Haruki Yamada) brings in a cool syncopated synth riff at 1:24 that hangs around for a while
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“EVIL CARNIVAL [Warrior Free-for-All – Mid-Match]” (Yasuhiro Misawa, arr. MASA) is the heaviest the soundtrack gets
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“A FESTIVAL AT SHAMBHALA [Tougenkyou – Warrior Free-for-All]” (Takashi Yoshida) is this hyperactive fusion of Chinese festival music and oldies rock and also like staccato cutejazz??? There’s a lot going on here
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“ARCADIA VILLAGE OF NIGHT [Tougenkyou – Night]” (Masako Otsuka) brings triplets in and out of the piece, sometimes setting them against 2 like at 1:02 which is a nice moment
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“GARDEN OF NIGHT [Garden – Night]” (Shin-ichiro Nakamura) busts out the wonky chords at 0:43
(track titles have unofficially-translated subtitles from VGMdb)
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