Search - Game Music :: Valkyrie Profile

ODIN WOULD BE PROUD

EMAN NEP | 01/12/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Playing an RPG can be a long an tedious task. So imagine the difficulty of the task of a Japanese composer making not just 2 CD's, but 2 GOOD CD's for a game steeped in Norse Mythology. With that being said, Motoi Sakuraba, while not overall as good as well-known Nobuo Uematsu, definitely fulfilled this task.



Let's see how one-eyed Odin grades this . . .



EMOTION: 4/5

For me, what makes a truly great game soundtrack are tracks that capture what I like to call, "The Emotion of the Moment". If you're fighting a huge battle, the music itself must be huge and epic. If a character has just died, then the music needs to be more soft and woeful to capture that and draw the gamer further into this imaginary world.

Some highlights are . . .

CD 1, track 4 (the music played when you first meet Odin in Valhalla sounds fit to be played in a huge cathedral and indeed Valhalla is as big as a cathedral in the game).

CD 1, track 19 aka "Confidence in the Domination" (is a great battle theme, full of adrenaline).

CD 2, track 24 aka "Behave Irrationally" (is by far the most beautiful track on either CD and sounds wonderfully retrospective/sad/mournful, like a lullaby you'd sing to a dead child (morbid thought, yes, but I think it's fitting).



VARIETY: 4/5

As seen above, you have your battle themes, boss battle themes, slower and more repetitive cave-exploring music, storyline-progressing music and shorter transitional pieces. For each of these styles there is probably at least one track that sticks out for me as being good enough to listen to by itself.



SOUND QUALITY: 5/5

One of the great things about the game Valkyrie Profile is that it allowed you to listen to the whole soundtrack on the game itself. But if you no longer have that game then know that this game soundtrack sounds exactly as you remembered it.



OVERALL: 4/5

This soundtrack has 60 to 70 tracks on it, of which I found 14 tracks to be exceptional. This is not uncommon with video game soundtracks or even mainstream music in general. It's not that the other pieces aren't necessarily good (although there are a few "blah" ones), but that they aren't that interesting unless you're listening to it while playing the game.

As a guideline, my highlighted tracks are:



From CD 1--tracks 1, 4, 9, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 32

From CD 2--tracks 1, 4, 9, 20, 24



Lifting his mighty spear Gungnir, Odin stamps this game soundtrack with his seal of approval!"