Overview

Produced by Hayato Matsuo, Ogre Battle Image Album ~ The Entrance has actually relatively little to do with the original game score. Instead it is an original album featuring a couple of game-related pieces. Regardless of the source material, the content of the material is generally unimpressive.

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Ogre Battle Image Album ~ The Entrance does have two saving graces — two great tracks. "Innocence" is a beautiful song; though it has nothing to do with Ogre Battle and contains awkwardly written English lyrics, it is redeemed by the excellent vocal performance of Lisa Ooki. Another track worth listening to is "Megalo Syntaxis tes Astronomias". This 21:44 minute track contains eight of the game's best melodies upgraded with a cool funk-rock style, while remaining true to the original composition.

So what is wrong with The Entrance? For starters, it is, well, a complete mess. The album just basically consists of dissonant cacophonies, along with two intolerable songs featuring poor English writing and a male vocalist (Moto Hara) with a weak English accent. Although it begins with a promising introduction, a spectacular upgraded version of the Overture over Paul Fitzgerald's fluid narration, "Constellatus," it immediately dissolves into more intolerable cacophonies.

These cacophonies continue throughout the whole album, and they never seem to come to an ending result. For example, on the last track, the music doesn't "end" — it just stops and we suddenly hear a loud explosion. Boom! That's the end of the album. A treatment such as this is enough to leave a bad taste in one's mouth, especially since the game itself had such incredible music.

Summary

The result of all this is an uneven image album that is only average. The two highlights of the album are the jewels, but whether they're worth the treasure hunt is up to you.

Overview

Ogre Battle Image Album ~ The Entrance: the title of this album sounds mysterious and attractive when you've never heard about it before. Composed by Hayato Matsuo and Hitoshi Sakimoto, it exclusively contains synthetic arrangements, and strangely enough, has very little in common with the original music from Ogre Battle.

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The first track of the album, "Constellatus", starts in an unorthodox way, with a ridiculous synth brass section playing the overture theme. Meanwhile, a clear male voice starts narrating "The Legend of Ogre Battle." You might think that this would sound decent, in fact, right after the introduction, a messy background music pops up and loops while the voice continues to talk. One minute later, another person starts singing, and thus strikes the last blow to this track, turning it from strange to ludicrous. It is definitely a bad start for this album.

"Spectrum" is an instrumental track that could have been the world map theme of Ogre Battle. The leading theme, caught somewhere between an epic and a happy atmosphere, is performed by an electric piano. An effective reverb effect is applied to each of the background instruments, and this gives an impression of space and freedom. I consider "Spectrum" as an original and pleasant piece of music; a kind of surprise inside this album. Moving to "Textures", experimentation' would better fit this piece of music. While a bass goes wild throughout, a synth lead, an organ, and a fiddle relay each other and improvise a melody. The overall atmosphere is strange and quite close to the funk genre. I personally don't like it because of this, but it is a worthwhile track to listen to.

"Innocence" is the second vocal track. But don't panic, this one features no less than Lisa Ooki, who sung on both Final Fantasy vocal collections. Once again, the tune doesn't remind me of any Ogre Battle theme, but the whole effect sounds very nice. Even if you're used to listening to Lisa Ooki's voice over real instruments, this synthetic arrangement won't disturb you at all. "Shade Over" is another vocal track, performed in Japanese and English by Moto Hara. I cannot see the purpose of this track, apart from highlighting the terrible English accent of the singer. The melody is not particularly appealing, and the arrangement behind the voice is quite poor. To put it in a nutshell, this is an unworthy track.

In case you were wondering where the Ogre Battle spirit has gone, the extended medley "Megalo Syntaxis tes Astronomias" is for you. It is not only a simple 'copy & paste' medley, but a real remix of many of the Ogre Battle tunes. Starting with a slow-paced melody which quickly gains intensity, the first theme bursts suddenly into an astonishing synth lead improvisation. The following sequence is much calmer, and fades progressively into the well-known "Revolt" (aka "Thunder") theme, which is then performed with a funky and surprising style, until it fades out to give place to a second serene sequence. The real battle only starts in the middle of the track, after a suspenseful snare roll. Unfortunately, the major part of this action music sequence consists of unpleasant piano and brass roars. After a while, the "Revolt" theme comes back, but the atmosphere stays the same; quite chaotic and uneasy to listen to. The second theme ("Go Go March"), however, marks the return of real and rousing battle music. It is all the more pleasant as it is preceded by a somehow disturbing passage. The fadeout to the next sequence is slowly operated, so that one can hear another, darker theme emerging step by step. This boss-like music has some points in common with the first part of the battle sequence, while being more appropriately arranged. Finally, after a last burst of action, the overture theme closes this track in an epic and funky way.

The final track of the album is a dramatic tune taken from the Troubadour series that sometimes sounds too much like the central part of "Megalo Syntaxis tes Astronomias." The main melody is led by flutes and strings, with tribal drums and piano in the background. "A Planet's Death" probably refers to the atmosphere of despair and destruction that is supposed to come out of this track, and although this can be felt, the arrangement is not convincing.

Summary

The first, and biggest, flaw of this album is the obvious lack of original Ogre Battle themes (featured on only two out of the seven tracks). The second problem is the low quality of the two male vocal performances. In my opinion, this album has too many average tracks to be considered as a must-have. The exception here is the medley ("Megalo Syntaxis tes Astronomias"), which is a really interesting track if you like synth-only arrangements.