Search - Game Music :: Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner V.1

Impressive

A. Griffiths | London | 10/27/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm a new convert to the Shin Megami Tensei universe and this was my second game - and second soundtrack. I have to say that the music in this series definitely has a feel of it's own, as unique as the graphic representations of the worlds in the games themselves. What we have here is all the main themes and music from Digital Devil Saga , and some of the compostions are quite breathtaking.



This is music that invokes a kind of dirty, urban wasteland where a certain amount of beauty can still be found if you look hard enough. Which kind of mirrors the game itself, so we are already off to a good start. English speaking fans may not enjoy the opening track which features Sera's musical hymn, as it's sung by a Japanese vocalist, and is different to the version that appears in the English game release. Apart from that it all sounds the same, some screechy rock-driven tracks for the fights, very similar to those in Nocture, and some gloomy/wistful numbers for the various tribal bases and dungeons. Most of the songs, in fact nearly all of them have an actual melody line that you can hum, which is quite an acheivement when you think of many game soundtracks that are mostly just musical doodling.



Sadly, my major bugbear with game soundtracks makes an appearance once again - the tracks are too darn short! Some of my favourite tracks peter out after barely a minute, which just isn't long enough for the listener to get lost in the music - looped or not, these compositions need a running time that does more than just give you a sample of the mood. That said, some tracks really do stand out, my favourites being the final tower dungeon and all of the base camp themes (the Vanguards theme is wonderful). But best of all is the closing credits theme...an stunning instrumental that uses the "Pray" melody for nearly 5 minutes of length only to explode in the final few seconds into a techno pulse so surprising I stood right up out of my seat. This is a bravado composition, what a shame it stops immediately after its dramatic mood change. But composer Shoji Meguro handles this type of thing wonderfully, in fact he pulled off a similar trick with a piece on the Nocturne soundtrack. It's almost teasing you into listening again and again to recapture the impact of this and other similar transitions that litter the soundtrack as a whole. It's almost a case of "less is more"...and if you feel like me that you want more, you can always press repeat play a lot!



Recommended to all game soundtrack fans."