It’s damn important.

During the last few reviews I’ve often mentioned the importance of music in eroge and visual novels. So I’ve decided to just talk about that for now.

I feel that you can list out some basic requirements for the music in games.

1. It should be have decent length so it doesn’t loop
2. The tracks should have some variety, though having the same “motif” can sometimes be alright.
3. There should be a lot of tracks so that you can give specific scenes some unique tracks.
4. Obviously the track should fit the scene.
5. The track you here most often should at least try to be catchy (especially for strategy-themed eroge).

Rather than just go on a long rant about music. Im going to just go through some games and rate their music.

Utawarerumono

Utawarerumono’s music is actually not that bad.
However it does fall into using the same tracks a lot, such as using the same theme when something tragic happens. I don’t much like the motif of the tracks though, a lot of tranquil scenes are fitted with the same type of music (as seen here) The main battle theme isn’t too bad but I feel it lacks a certain intense feel. Also, it is in fact the only one of two battle themes you here (the other one being for bosses)

Overall: Music is barely acceptable. But not really bad.

Tsukihime and Kagetsu Tohya

I know I just wrote about Tsukihime just last week, but oh well. Like Utawarerumono, Tsukihime uses alot of tracks for similar scenes (if I recall there are only 12 tracks). But for some reason I am much more forgiving to Tsukihime. Im not sure whether it’s because Tsukihime was among the first visual novels I ever played, or if I just prefer the motif of the music more.

Kagetsu Tohya adds more to the 10 tracks, thus there is more variety and such.

I think I ultimately found the music very catchy and set the mood nicely. This track makes me feel heavy in my heart. This track reflects the dreamlike nature of the story. Of course the visual novel doesn’t just rely on music, sometimes it relies on a single repeated sound effect..

Overall: Music is good though there there aren’t many unique tracks.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni

Umineko sets the ground for good visual novel music. Not because I consider Umineko to be one the best visual novels of recent years, but because Umineko is a doujin-game, ie. a game that does is not give massive funds to be produced. If A whole bunch of doujin music artists can make awesome music, I’m confused as to why non-doujin games sometimes have …less than perfect music.

There are so many tracks to show off. Umineko has a song for every situation and then some
1. hope – for happy and dramatic scenes
2. worldend dominator- for action scenes
3. Dread of the Grave- whenever Battler does his thing.
4. Dark Engraving – one of many horror tracks.

Overall: Umineko raised my standards for visual novel music, nuff said.

Fate/stay night

Also by Type-Moon. Fate has alot more tracks than Tsukihime. Most notably there is the addition of many different action themes and battle themes, something which Tsukihime lacked. As I mentioned before Colliding Souls is one of my favorite tracks from the game. Some tracks are very clear in what they present, such as Church on the Hill which is always played when you are in the church. I feel there is a lot of power in the fact that some tracks are not often played, such as Emiya which by my count is only played three times throughout the all the routes. Of note, I think the fact that most of tracks have many beats is significant. It makes even the everyday tracks (such as Peaceful Scenery and Our Time Together) a lot more fun to listen to.

Overall: Good track numbers. Music has nice quality.

Sengoku Rance

I’ve been playing this non-stop for the past three days. Being a strategy game I was not expecting the best music (though Meishoku no Reiki had good music). But there are quite alot of tracks, atleast 4-5 different battle themes, all of which are rocking and catchy (example) . I particularly enjoy Rance’s main theme , which is good cause it’s played very often. Other than the rock motif, there are also a bunch of tracks that try emulate older Japan (1, 2). There are even some tracks that sound very different from the others, yet don’t feel too out of place.

Overall: Alicesoft make more games with music like this….or games like this period.

Thats all I can write for now. But this was pretty fun for me to write so I might do another list of games when I have time.