In the last few years, we’ve seen Nihon Falcom (a Japanese company) publish a number of Chinese-developed RPGs and Action RPGs in the land of the rising sun. This particular title, Moonlight Destiny (“Tsukikage no Destiny”), was an Action RPG developed by “Season Software.” The soundtrack features a standard and simple vocal introduction piece entitled “Love Relic”, followed by 26 instrumental tracks from the game.
Weighing out the pros and cons of this soundtrack, I do believe the pros win. Here are some positive features to the soundtrack:
– There is consistency in style, though there is variety in tempo and musical genre.
– Sometimes I am fooled by the synth; I actually believe it is a live instrument I am hearing, even though I know that cannot be the case.
– The ethnic “Chinese” sound comes through very clearly on many songs, oftentimes in a way that we have not seen from the Japanese composers who attempt the Chinese sound (such as in Shenmue).
– When 27 tracks comprise a 73 minute disc, you know you’re in for some enjoyable and lengthy songs.
Then, there are the few negatives that I managed to find:
– Some of the battle themes could have been better; I thought that many of them were bland and repetitive, lacking the creativity found in the other songs.
– A second disc of music would have been nice, but I suppose a star-studded one disc of music is better than two discs of filler tracks.
Well, that’s actually it for the negatives. There is one more negative, but it’s not a music problem. The problem is that, like many Falcom soundtracks these days, it was originally available only by purchasing the game. The CD is not for sale separately, though it can be found separately on Yahoo! Japan auctions and some message boards. I have become more and more fascinated by these fringe compositions from non-Japanese Asian composers (be they Chinese, Korean, what have you…). This album only solidified my interest. If you can find it, you may want to invest in it.
