Overview

Shining Tears opened and closed with vocal themes featuring vocalist Soichiro Hoshi. The full versions of the songs were released on a vocal single, while short versions also flanked the game's soundtrack release.

Body

The opening theme, "Shining Tears," composed by Go Takahashi, sounds like a very sappy love ballad that you may have heard on the radio during the 1990s. There are some R&B rhythms that accompany piano and strings harmonies to create the opening theme. However, it does feel out of place with the rest of the soundtrack. Compared to the soundtrack's version, there is considerably more development and the recapitulation is quite passionate.

The closing theme, "Silhouette of Light," composed by Masaki Iwamoto, sounds more like cheesy 1980s rock/pop. It is definitely more classic in nature, at least given the genre it is trying to emulate, with its choral accents, simple drumpad, and piano harmonies. Throw in some guitar work that is used to add to the atmosphere, rather than be flashy, and you end up with a rather generic ending theme. The full version develops much more than the short version featured in the soundtrack release, but it's not much more impressive.

The single is rounded off with karaoke versions of both of these songs in what has become a convention for vocal singles. Most won't need these.

Summary

I am not impressed with either of these songs. They rely on popular genres of earlier decades to give off a very generic opening and closing for the game. There are audiences that will love such tracks, but they're too dated and cheesy for me.