Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis: Frozen Resolution (PC/PS4/XBO, 2022)

Game info: update post
Listening: soundtrack album

Info

OH BABY IT’S PHANTASY STAR ONLINE 2 TIME AGAIN LET’S GO. The game received two major expansions in 2022, Frozen Resolution and The Hellfire Vanguard, and they finally just released soundtracks for both of those in December. It usually takes SEGA a bit after the initial release of an expansion to release the music, to account for further updates, though two years is pretty long for them. I was getting a little worried! But I shouldn’t have been, they finally came through in my time of crisis.

Frozen Resolution adds in the new Kvaris region, and if you guessed from the expansion title that it’s an ice region, you’d obviously be correct. The instrumentation for the new area themes that make up the first half of the album hits pretty stereotypical ice notes with plenty of piano, strings, wispy synths, and sleigh bells, so even if you were listening to this without knowing anything about the expansion or looking at the song titles, you’d be able to tell pretty quick what kind of environment this is. It’s not the most inspiring music direction in the world, but there are some nice mixes of electronic sound design, and of course the tracks are packed with incredible chord changes, as is to be expected from the main composers of Hideaki Kobayashi, Mitsuharu Fukuyama, and Hidekuni Horita.

The back half of the album gets into more traditional Phantasy Star Online 2 electronic stuff that’s frequently hybridized with orchestra or guitar, the kind of material that you’ll find in just about every single album released for this game. It’s still good! Their mix of dance music with big jazzy chords that change dizzyingly and nice sound design continues to be extremely to my taste, and I’ll still eat it up every time.

Recommended tracks:

  • Kvaris Lodge – Snow-covered town – Day” (Kobayashi) is a cozy and romantic piano-violin duet

  • Silence in the Snowfield – Battle” (Horita) has a nice syncopated bit at 0:48 before switching to some suspended three-bar phrasing at 1:06 for a bit

  • Rayjord Gorge” (Horita) really sounds like Horita started listening to Chimeratio, with the piano riffs in the background at 0:16, panning IDM drums, and faux-polymetric detuned bit at 1:29

  • Frosty Incarnation” (Fukuyama) is your classic epic multiphase boss theme; love the aggressive transposing orch hit bit at 2:14 that sounds like The Simpsons arcade game and the bubbly synth at 4:08

  • FloWarrior – Ams Kvaris – Unleashed” (Kenichi Tokoi) is the biggest version of the one theme written by Tokoi; this also has a really gnarly background piano riff in it that I like

  • The Enigma” (Fukuyama) was the most ambient sound design track of the album

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