Overview

The Legend of Heroes VI Sora no Kiseki First Chapter Unused Music was a bonus album enclosed with the first press edition of The Legend of Heroes VI: Sora no Kiseki when purchased through Falcom Mailorder. When confronted with the album saying 'Unused Music' on the cover, I'm pretty sure most fans of the game weren't desperate to pop in the CD into their player. After all, this music will never be heard in context and is probably on the lower end of the quality spectrum. That said, the 10 pieces on the album are far from bad, just not outstanding like most other pieces in the game's soundtrack.

Body

The first composition "Because He's Father" is a relaxing tropical theme featuring bossa-nova rhythms and Tijuana brass. It develops elaborately and is quite well-produced compared to most game music themes exhibiting this sort of style. However, it doesn't quite hit the mark in terms of memorability or originality as the other more tropical pieces on the soundtrack. Other worldly compositions such as "Mountain Pass 2" and "Cabin Stroke 2" are similarly decent, but not really of the maturity of most compositions from the new Falcom Sound Team J.D.K.

Some tracks were probably rejected for good reason. While not necessarily horrible, "The Usual Feeling" is a good example. The tuned percussion and piano really don't fit the melody, and the overall happy-go-lucky feeling is a little too close to themes from the series' past. "Seeking and Being Sought" is another frivolous theme that could fit somewhat better with the tone of the game, yet feels slightly unfocused as a whole, while "Spirited Scratch" is a bizarre and uncomfortable attempt at hip-hop. The 28 second long "Stars" was probably best omitted as well.

It also seems that the more conventional action tracks were rejected from The Legend of Heroes VI: Sora no Kiseki. Material like the motivating orchestral anthem "Estelle Punch" or the aggressive organ-based "I Am Agatt the Red" are entirely accomplished compositions. However, they probably did not fit the experimental focus of the soundtrack and thus more unique jazzy themes were selected instead. I still think they could have been integrated somewhere in the game and provided a highlight nevertheless. I also think the new age piece "A Tempo" could have worked beautifully too, particularly with its hints of the main theme.

Summary

This collection of music demonstrates that, even when the new Falcom Sound Team J.D.K. are composing rejected material, they usually exceed the efforts of their predecessor. There are plenty of ineresting experiments and accomplished compositions here, along with a fair few more derivative or jumbled ones. I don't think this collection is worth hunting down, unless you're a really dedicated collector, but those who received it with the game might want to play it through at least once and could find a couple of tunes to put on their iPods.