Breath of Fire IV Original Soundtrack :: Review by Chris

	Album Title	Breath of Fire IV Original Soundtrack
	Record Label:	Suleputer
	Catalog No.:	CPCA-1043/4
	Release Date:	May 24, 2000
	Purchase:	Buy at eBay

Overview

The fourth entry of the Breath of Fire series featured an unusual premise. It allowed gamers to play as both the protagonist Ryu and antagonist Fou-Lu across two huge continents that would eventually collide for the final battle. The music for the game, scored almost entirely by Yoshino Aoki, focused on portraying the contrasting, converging scenarios. Following the stylistic anomaly of the jazz-oriented Breath of Fire III, Yoshino Aoki decided to restore the quasi-orchestral routes of the series. However, plenty of world music elements are integrated throughout to portray the contrasting worlds and characters. The resultant score is deceptive but brilliant...

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The breathtaking opening animation of Breath of Fire IV is underscored by a heavyweight film composer, Taro Iwashiro. The composition is tragically brief, but each of its 97 seconds is fulfilling, largely due to the heavily hybridised nature of the theme; it is impressive how Iwashiro combines orchestral, choral, and traditional Asian elements to depict a world that is vast, organic, and beautiful. A modest exposition of the game's main theme in "The End and the Beginning" introduces the composer of the rest of the soundtrack, Yoshino Aoki. Through interpreting the melancholic melody on an ethnic flute and rich strings, she reflects the emotional intensity and Eastern stylistic influences. While the melody isn't exposed long enough for it to be a tease on the first listen, the theme receives far longer and more fulfilling subsequent renditions on the score. Most notably, the ending version bonds bonds together the score with its similarly styled but more elaborate arrangement. Evidently, the thematic definition and beautiful orchestration of the score are among the reasons it is so satisfying.

It is perhaps the battle themes that best reflect the remarkable quality of Aoki's orchestral compositions. "It's an Easy Win!" uses conventional orchestration to create a less than ordinary battle theme. The deceptively dark string-led opening bars of the piece briskly lead to its more motivating body. The bold string melody indicates impending triumph, but their sparse stabbing 'cello accompaniment and sombre cadences add anxiety and depth to the theme. The best part of the piece is the development section that starts from 0:30; from a straightforward but evocative melody, the development builds into a clamour of discords and other frills as the percussion part finally gains momentum. The boss theme uses the initial melody of "It's an Easy Win" but puts new twists on it with thunderous percussion and brass accompaniment, before heading through more erratic dissonant sections and even a calming interlude. The result is slightly less coherent, but still highly effective due to the power it creates. Indeed, Aoki's approach to both themes is relatively straightforward, typical, and unpretentious, yet the results are entirely striking and elegant.

Moving into the setting themes of the soundtrack, Aoki is able to offer plenty of diverse and charming themes. "The World Beneath Your Feet", for instance, provides an interesting intermediate piece in the series. Aoki sues mostly jazzy harmonies and melodies, like she did on the Breath of Fire III score, but makes the stylistic references subtle with more conventional rhythms and the use of an orchestral ensemble. "Tiny Village in the Desert" features a more diverse palette of orchestral and Eastern instruments here, but rather than throw everything together, chooses to briefly utter each leading instrument in a way against a simple but charming accompaniment. "The Landscape" and "Like the Sun, Like the Moon" are also major highlights, for the way Aoki artistically integrates traditional Japanese elements such as shakuhachi within the established orchestral setting. "How Long Will the Rain Last?" meanwhile is written in the style of a Baroque dance in quadruple metre and, though the synth is somewhat detractive, the underlying beauty of the composition is highly evident.

The theme for the game's megalomaniac antagonist Fou-Lu is completely unconventional. Using a mixture of percussion, prepared piano, and minimalistic ethnic instruments, the soundscape created is exotic, dynamic, and unpleasant. The art in this theme is the way the instruments emulate the rhythms and, to an extent, the timbre of footsteps. Despite a tendency to split opinions, it's impressively implemented and very effective. The boss theme when played as the antagonist, "A Warring God", is a fascinating multicultural hybrid. It combines female chants, shakuhachi passages, sitar solos, electronic polyrhythms, and Asian percussion into a single track. Each force adds something new to the composition when a phrase is dedicated to them, due to both their timbre and Aoki's witty execution. The final battle theme "A Raging Emperor's Banquet" provides the culmination of the soundtrack, combining the stylistic elements featured in the defining themes for the protagonist and antagonist into an intensely rhythmic work. The soundtrack concludes with a bizarre remix of the final battle theme and a soothing vocal theme sung by Aoki herself.

Summary

There is something very special about the Breath of Fire IV Original Soundtrack. On face value, the soundtrack comes across as a mediocre RPG score mostly written for small orchestra in an ordinary and derivative way. On closer listening, however, it's clear that Yoshino Aoki knows how to use orchestral in a very effectual way, providing the soundtrack with booming action tracks, delightful lyrical themes, and a moody main theme. Though not all the ambient experiments pay off, Aoki succeeds in integrating multicultural references throughout the score, especially in the spectacular themes for the Emperor. Overall, a well-rounded, emotional, and inspired score with a multitude of highlights. Hardcore Breath of Fire fans should take note that it is now also available as part of a limited edition 12 CD boxset, which includes the music for the four other instalments to the Breath of Fire series as well.

Overview

There's something that eludes me about the soundtrack to Breath of Fire IV. Sure, at face value, it can be shrugged off as a featureless RPG score as you'd find in any other game of its genre; even as the first notes of Taro Iwashiro's "Opening Animation" begin, certain expectations are fulfilled as premeditated patterns of countless game score openers fill out right and left with the onscreen cues. And following that, there are certainly tunes that wouldn't have been missed had I not ever heard them in the first place. So, what's escaping me? I've been thinking, maybe taking things as they we hear them, at face value, is all part of a composer's master plan. Because somehow, some way, Yoshino Aoki has caught me off guard with just the right number of unremarkable imitations of the ordinary and mundane. And then, as my back is turned and my mind ready to dismiss, my ears pick up a sound that stops me dead in my tracks. Whatever was dwelling beneath the surface had cleverly lulled me into believing there was nothing to be found. Good thing I took the time to have a closer look.

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Aoki walks a fine line between the modern mainstream RPG sound and her own carefully plotted image of a fantasy adventure; and while standing in between the two, she scoops up a bucket of musical mannerisms from one side and throws it like a can of paint across the border, drenching tradition with a strange yet delightful amalgam of various lights and darks. Thus, what we may recognize in general shape and size is now reflecting colors that don't quite add up as being correct; our minds struggle to ascertain what it is we're looking at, trying to figure out why this is here and that is there, why these are so something but those so something else. It's that uncertainty that buys Breath of Fire IV the time it needs to fully explain itself, and, while it may not be worth the wait for some listeners, I know that it's had a lasting effect on me.

There's a reasonably wide variety on this album, certainly wider (if more 'normal' by RPG standards) than what you'd get out of Breath of Fire III. Yet at the same time, there's plenty this soundtrack presents that distinguishes it in its own right. Take for example the regular battle theme "It's An Easy Win": the first two bars of strings and horn don't even hint at the idea of a battle theme. And even when it does start to sound like viable battle material, the surprisingly minimal percussion and melancholy melody tend to make you think twice. Yeah, I can definitely call this one of my all-time favorite RPG battle themes. And while the notes of "The World Beneath Your Feet" seem to drift along like feathers over the jazzy harmonies of a small orchestral ensemble, the ghastly ambience of "Destruction" seems to methodically claw at your psyche with malicious intent.

Aoki's creative energies shine brightly in selections like "Men of War" and "God of War", both battle themes for the Western continent. In the game, this continent is home to the Fou-Lu Empire, a faction heavily inspired by ancient Asian military society; and as if the game had a musical history of its own, these battle themes play an exotic combination of shakuhachi, sitar, and various Asian percussion against electronic breakbeats and bass. The atmosphere of these tunes is reprised later with tracks like "First Emperor" and "A Raging Emperor's Banquet", and all contribute vital color to the soundtrack as a whole.

The Celtic "Yet the Merchants Will Go" is a lively and witty tune representing a hub of merchant activity in the Eastern continent. The fresh brass harmonies in "Bastard Sword" make for a unique (and memorable) boss battle theme, again reinforcing the already distinctive image the soundtrack brandishes. "A Bitter Atmosphere" really does possess the air of physical tension with its ambient backdrop and occasional hum of a muffled bell strike. "Landscape" paints a perfect image of pastoral Japan as woodwinds trade beautiful verses over a bed of hushed synth. Aoki even borrows from Ravel's Pavane pour une infante dfunte for a piece of the nearly the same name, certainly fitting perfectly with the poignant corresponding scene in-game.

"Turismo" is a clever techno tune with a groovy bassline surrounded by syncopated dabs of synth, while the carefree "Seagull Flies" features a lazy acoustic guitar solo complete with fret noises, harmonics, and a laidback rhythm in four depicting the sun-soaked harbortown Shikk. Two tunes from Breath of Fire III even return for a cameo, namely "Go by Ship" and "It's A Faery", both pleasant reworks of the originals. Aoki finishes strong with some agreeable final battles followed by a satisfying trio of epilogue selections. Now, the soundtrack could've very well ended with the third movement, but it doesn't: there's still the exotic remix of the penultimate battle music, the questionably sane remix of the Pabu-Pabu Puka-Puka song, and of course, the obligatory ending vocal. To its merit, "A Little After the Dream" relies on a small ensemble of acoustic guitar, piano, bass, flute, and drum set (don't worry, the rock-ballad beat doesn't last very long, and even when its there, it's pretty minimal). Way more tolerable than the trainwreck at the end of Breath of Fire III. Oh yeah, and after a minute of silence at the end of the song there's some random guy singing the tune's melody a cappella for some reason or another. Don't ask me.

Summary

In short, this is an RPG soundtrack that is different while still being very much an RPG soundtrack. Of course, Aoki had already outsmarted the genre once before with Breath of Fire III's soundtrack (which she composed alongside Akari Kaida), so it's hardly a surprise that she's back with more new ideas and sounds for Capcom's treasured franchise. It's a welcome break from the norm, and although not for everyone, can definitely stand on its own feet. I definitely hope to see more of Aoki in RPG soundtracks in the future, but really, she's welcome anywhere.