Game info: website
Listening/music info: VGMdb
Info
A third AI game just came out with more music by Keisuke Ito, so you know we gotta do it. This one’s kind of a spinoff game by a different writer/director set in between the original and nirvanA Initiative; I haven’t played it yet so I don’t know how it differs from the main series tonally or experientially, though my understanding is that it’s more linear and has some more traditional room escape sequences in it besides the wacky dream-logic Somnium sequences.
In the album commentary, Ito said that since the escape rooms are a new element, he “took a bit of a different approach to the compositions, aiming to build up the excitement of tackling real-life challenges as opposed to fantastic worlds inside people’s dreams.” Well that’s pretty abstract, what does that mean concretely? It means there’s a lot more EDM this time around. There was definitely a little EDM here and there in both of the earlier Somnium Files soundtracks, but when they got electronic they tended to be more downtempo or ambient. And there’s still a little bit of that here of course, since we still have mysteries and dream worlds and all that jazz, but starting with track 2 here we’ve got plenty of four-on-the-floor drums, trance riffs, breakbeats, wubs, and other assorted EDM noises. This is all mixed with a good amount of the fun sound design and Nice Chords™ from the first two soundtracks, so while it may not be immediately obvious that this music is part of the same series if you didn’t already know, if you do know I think you can probably see the connections right away.
The end result is that I think this soundtrack in its intensity and styles sounds a lot more like the music to the Zero Escape series by Shinji Hosoe than the first two games did, and that’s not a bad thing at all because Zero Escape music also rules! As a whole it’s probably a little less weird than nirvanA Initiative’s soundtrack, which for story reasons got extremely weird a few times, but there’s still some weird here and there, and I’ll always love me some weird. I’m just an incredibly big fat sucker for Keisuke Ito, this should be plenty obvious at this point.
Recommended tracks:
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“Broadcaster” has a nice ambient bit at 0:28 with confusingly phrased chopped-n-slowed drums and a transposing metallic synth plonk
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“The Third Eye” has a nice 5-5-6 riff at the start and a bunch of fun random noises throughout
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“Decadent Knell” is one of a couple of tracks that has smokin’ noir sax in it for some reason
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“Curse” is probably the most random track in the game
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“Distortional Knighthood” is probably the chordiest track in the game, it’s also one of a few tracks with vocals but no credited lyricist (scat vocals maybe?)
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