Game info: Wikipedia
Listening: Steam, physical album
Info
PEPOSOFT is the somewhat secretive composer of two recentish soundtracks I super enjoyed: Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth and DRAINUS. This is a slightly older work of theirs, a fan Metroidvania based on the Touhou series. As such, almost all of the soundtrack is rearrangements of music from various Touhou games, but there are four tracks not explicitly marked with source tracks that may be original compositions. I’m pretty sure the “Event – Pre-Boss” tracks are also referencing Touhou music, though, so they may all just be sneakier rearrangements.
In terms of instrumentation and compositional approach this soundtrack is relatively similar to the music from Deedlit except not quite as good, but Deedlit was my second-favorite soundtrack of 2021 so “more stuff that’s like that” is still great for me. The style I’d describe kinda like “electronic-leaning RPG music with progressive compositions infused with jazzy bits and cool synth noises,” a winning combo in any context. There’s also a little bit of Japanese traditional music influence in this soundtrack as well, which makes sense given the Touhou setting. PEPOSOFT’s music is often kinda chaotic in just throwing a bunch of nice compositional and sound design ideas out there, sometimes at the same time in a big overstimulating pile I find enjoyable.
Recommended tracks:
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“Event – Restlessness” is a funky piece to get the game started on the right foot
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“Stage 1 – Lunar Clock ~ Lunar Dial” has a fun bit at 0:54 and elsewhere mixing a distorted synth with piano mashing
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“Final Stage – Flowering Night” starts off with a nice jazzy reharmonization of the original melody
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“Final Boss 1 – Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s ‘Kappa’ ~ Candid Friend” has an incredibly cool first 15 seconds, and the rest of the track has FM bass for some reason so it’s still good
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“Extra Boss – Maiden’s Capriccio ~ Dream Battle” is the most overtly Japanese-style track in the game and I really like the dramatic ritardando at 0:32
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“Boss Room – Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s ‘Kappa’ ~ Candid Friend” is a much spacier take on the same melody from two tracks ago
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