Overview

After the great success of Suikoden Tierkreis three years ago Konami made another entry in the popular RPG series about the 108 Stars of Destiny. Genso Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki (lit. Suikoden: The Woven Web of a Century) was released on February 9, 2012 on Sony's PlayStation Portable. While the reception wasn't big for the game itself, the music was mostly well received. While Norikazu Miura returned as audio director, he made no direct contribution to the score sadly. Instead he outsourced the sound production to SOLIDTUNE's Seiichi Takamoto. While the company are little-known, they have contributed music and sound effects to numerous casual console games and low-profile RPGs in the past. Now, is their score worthy of the series' tradition or is just a low-budget imitation? Approximately half of the score was released in a three disc set by Konami. Let's check it out!

Body

The opening theme "The Giving Tree" is sung by Chiaki Ishikawa, who anime fans may remember from her work with Yuki Kajiura on See-Saw. In similar fashion to its predecessor "Tears in the Sky" from Suikoden Tierkreis, the song features an uplifting pop texture with catchy melodies and soft organic instrumentation. Ishikawa's mature voice is well-balanced and suits the overall image of the song pretty well. It reminds me a bit of works from Elements Garden, even if it can't reach it in term of quality. A nice opener, definitely, though it's sadly featured in its shortened game version here. With "Door of Truth" we're softly introduced to the musical universe of Genso Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki. An acoustic guitar paired with lush orchestration and soft choir interludes accompanies the title screen for this game. It reminds me a little bit of John Williams' fantasy scores, which is definitely a good thing.

However, the real fantasy starts with "To the Unseen World". A fantastic track with a lot passion, it nearly rivals the excellent field themes of Suikoden Tierkreis. The addition of the exotic female vocals is especially enchanting. I daresay that this one reminds me a bit of Yasunori Mitsuda, who happens to be one of my favorite game music composers. Other fascinating additions include "Age of Flowing Green", another fresh and bouncy theme that introduces the Celtic aura of the score, and "Branch-Colored Past", a more dramatic rendition of the theme with marching percussion and orchestral background. For a bit more diversity, check out "Dungeon Field" with its playful pizzicato and woodwind ensembles or "Timid Winged People" with its exotic escapades of flutes and xylophone. As a huge fan of Celtic music it was a pleasure to encounter all those little gems within the score.

The setting themes incorporate a rich palette of traditional sounds like acoustic guitar, recorder, violin, and dulcimer. "Usual Crowd" for example sounds like a typical bustling town theme and is reminiscent of the glory days of Miki Higashino's beloved contributions to Suikoden or even the various Celtic Collections of arranged music. Another prominent addition is the headquarter theme. There are actually four renditions of the main motif, most of them minimalistic arrangements for various environments. The theme is heard in its full glory in "Flourishing Lakeside Fortress", one of my favorite tracks. Moving on, "Ruins of the Large Tree" features a total different atmosphere with its mystic aura created through choir, recorder duet, and dulcimer, while "Lakeside Fortress" features a natural acoustic guitar solo of the memorable melody. If you're familiar with Kumi Tanioka's work in Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, "Material Gathering Hunting Field" should definitely remind you of this style.

Others like the beautiful "The Snowy Mountains Can be Seen" or the peaceful "The Place We Want to Protect" are also enjoyable. However, they only satisfy for a while, because there simply isn't enough variation within the soundscape and its development. It's almost as the composer was sometimes trying too hard to imitate the music of the past without creating anything new and refreshing. "Wind Blowing in the Harbour" sounds like something from Suikoden Tierkreis, which isn't a bad thing, though like others it suffers from lacking refinement. A further example is "Merchant of the Earth of Scorching Heat", which is reminiscent of a certain village theme from the first Suikoden score. As we talk about reminding, it's also of note that two of the series' most famous tunes are arranged here, namely "Beginning Theme" and "Victory Theme". While they feature a more militaristic atmosphere, they overall stay true to their originals.

The score for Genso Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki has also a lot of military and dark material to offer. This is one of the sections where the soundtrack suffers the most, because the lack on diversity. The normal battle theme "Enemies Blocking the Path" is definitely a step forward compared with Suikoden Tierkreis' lackluster "Rushing into Battle!". Nevertheless, the dramatic and pompous atmosphere sounds way too sterile for my tastes. "Fighting Spirit Running About the Front" and "Overcoming Difficulties" sound like something Hitoshi Sakimoto would write for his tactical RPG scores. They manage to motivate and encourage the listener for the situation with its build up of drama and bombast while keeping a steady pace. Way more interesting is "Attack of the Curious Looking Demon", one of my favorite action cues from this score. The percussion and brass parts are nicely done, but the addition of bagpipe and sitar really makes this one stand out as a devilish good — but all too brief — theme! In similar fashion, "Violent Soldier of Rage" is another frantic and suspensful action theme with fantastic string and percussion segments.

There are plenty of additions to the score that don't quite reach their potential. These range from "Plan and Passage", a combo of percussion and brass segments that grows far too repetitious, and "Capital Where the Scars Remains", whose lyrical and graceful trumpet melody is let down by a somewhat colourless arrangements. Likewise, "Safeguard of the Impregnable Fortress" gets lost a bit in its bombastic and military nature. The piano at last gets a chance to shine in the beautiful solo "The Meaning of Tradition", underlaid with solemn choir and chimes. While not emotional as the beloved "Reminiscence" from Suikoden II for example, it still manages to create a feeling of nostalgia and relaxation. While a nice way to end the soundtrack, sadly the experience is made all too incomplete. Not even the ending and staff roll music is featured on this physical release.

That said, yes, there is one disc more... A CD packed with over an hour of drama dialogue (all Japanese of course) and snippets of background music? For fans of the game and drama productions, it's definitely worth checking out. But without understanding the language you just sit there and say: what the heck? Just for note, I absolutely adore Japanese voice acting! But I regret that Konami didn't they pack the remaining tracks onto this disc instead of releasing them online and release the drama CD separately like always. Why did this do this? I guess we'll never know...

Summary

Overall, the score for Konami's latest entry of the beloved series is definitely a mixed bag. Seiichi Takamoto simply didn't put enough emotion or exuberance into the music, which can easily be heard at some tracks. As a long time fan of the series and its music, I praise them for incorporating a lot of the traditional styles, which is reminiscent of the glory days of the series. Still most of the pieces simply lack on depth, refinement, and, especially, diversity. Neverless, I think it's very hard to stay true to the series' musical style while being original and creative. Takamoto, under direction of Norikazu Miura, ultimately made a compromise. The final result works wonderfully in context and is still quite satisfying on a stand-alone basis. Also I must criticize the physical CD release — featuring two soundtrack discs and one drama disc — where over the half of the music is missing. However, note that a complete version of the soundtrack with all 76 tracks can be downloaded via the Japanese iTunes store.