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Culdcept Saga Original Soundtrack :: Review by Chris
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Album Title: | Culdcept Saga Original Soundtrack |
| Record Label: | Five Records | |
| Catalog No.: | VGCD-0064 | |
| Release Date: | December 22, 2006 | |
| Purchase: | Buy at CDJapan |
An Unlikely Fantasy
Released on the Xbox 360 at the end of 2006, Culdcept Saga is the third in a line of card-dominated magic-meets-monopoly games. Culdcept Saga features 27 worlds from deserts, plains, canyons, and mountains to palaces, mansions, arenas, and ruins in coloured and colourless variants. The 104 track score mostly consists of trios of tracks that represent the first half, second half, and battle of each stage; there are 23 other themes that are used principally for storyline purposes. Like Culdcept Second, SaGa and Mana composer Kenji Ito is responsible for most of the creations here, though the Joe Down sound team, who recently arranged the terrible score to Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon, fill in big gaps with respect to the stage themes.
The Wandering Showman
Kenji Ito is responsible for the overriding thematic material of the soundtrack. The opener "The Road to SAGA" presents the game's main theme; it's a strong one that is maturely shaped and carefully structured to attain an adventurous and hopeful feel. This initial orchestra, piano, and chorus rendition is the most colourful and refined of its interpretations. The theme is thinned down and quietened in the reflective "The Road to Hope", moulded into a militaristic preparation theme with "Rising Fighting Spirit", and given some 'new age' styling in "Determination" and "An Encounter"; none are particularly inspired, but the strength of the melody makes the deficiencies of the arrangement forgivable. A secondary theme is also exposed in the simple but pleasant solo piano work "A Sorrowful Thought". While the treatment isn't bad, the wandering yet predictable melody seems to be based on "Never Ending Sadness" from Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Gushing orchestral arrangements filled with parallelisms like "Dinaar Mountain Range (First Half)" and "Insufficient Magic Power" further reflect a sad theme without substance or individuality. More interesting are the more subtle references to the theme in the epic "The Ancient Temple of Holy Yujia Isle (Battle)", "Stairway to the World of Gods (Second Half)", and "Vast Darkness". Beyond that, there are no other reused themes, though "To the Battlefield" and "The Wheel of Fortune" both stand out for their sensitively crafted melodies and courageous but saddening sounds. The ending theme, "Dearest Feelings", is also decent; it simultaneously provides a sense of reflection and relief and references to the two main themes to make the soundtrack a little more coherent melodically.
Ito integrates electronic samples in a lot of his works here mostly to create an uplifting effect influenced by 'new age' music. They demonstrate a composer with a degree of competence in the area but little individuality, subtlety, or empathy. "Trial" centres upon lavish orchestration of a predictable, boring, and cheesy melody that could have been composed by the average infant; it is accompanied by electronic effects throughout that are intended to create an epic sound, but sounds inappropriate. "Dinaar Mountain Range (Second Half)" adopts a similar approach, made worse by addition of a synthesized chorus in an attempt at profundity during the development section. "Future's Memory" sounds like bad lounge music with its cheesy melody, poorly chosen synth effects, and sickly slow strings accompaniment. Electronically-influenced stage themes are often built upon repetition of superficial ideas and lack the charming melodies needed to avoid the trash can. As examples, the 'Brumeer, the Misty Country' themes blend piano work with a chillout bass line, the 'Veinis, the Heavenly Fountain' themes use dreamy synth pads and novelty sounds to achieve a sense of elevation, and "Brobudin, the Sun Palace (First Half)" is more fast-paced and jagged; beyond these plain statements, there's nothing remarkable about them. Some of the electronic experiments are more successful. "The Altar of Blessing (Second Half)" benefits from a strong wind melody and some beautifully assimilated electronic effects, despite a cringe-worthy string- and piano-led secondary section. "Phoenikion, Mountain of the Phoenix (Second Half)" boasts a hard techno bass line, an unpredictably distorted bass line, and a plethora of electronic effects to create an oppressive sound.
Ito's battle themes are mostly disappointing. The battle themes for the first stage, arena, Dinaar, Veinis, and Kalgad are all dominated by blaring orchestral discords, repetition of crisis motifs, and emphasis on a solo wind instrument. These Itonian features reflect a guy who fits music to scenes, but doesn't really make creations with artistic merit. Their sole appeal come from catchy rock-influenced melodies; while that would be enough were there a few less stages, their formulaic nature is very exposed given the soundtrack's format. Furthermore, they're surprisingly brief; all the tracks end before or around the 1:30 mark and some loop after just 30 seconds. Some of the battle themes are among the biggest highlights of the score, though. 'Brumeer, the Misty Country' has a gliding flamenco battle theme reminiscent of Minstrel Song's "Passionate Rhythm" except with panpipes and accordion replacing vocals; very catchy and excellently done. "Lalasadi, the Garden of Lamentation (Battle)" hybridises elements of Baroque and Romantic courtroom dances to fun effect; driven throughout by a vivacious string accompaniment, the antecedent phrase is a fine sedate flute melody, while the consequent violin phrase is brisk and punchy. The battle theme for The Ancient Temple of Holy Yujia Isle brings an epic chorus into the picture but is as catchy as the two aforementioned themes due to its rhythmical profundities. Also awesome is "Brobudin, the Sun Palace (Battle)", a witty rock-electronica-piano fusion with great rhythmical emphasis, while the experimental "Phoenikion, Mountain of the Phoenix (Battle)" will appeal to some. "Stairway to the World of Gods" is quite a strong final battle theme, principally thanks to its rampant chord progressions and accompaniment; it still feels like an anticlimax, though, and its predecessor, 'The Altar of Blessing', exacerbates this and totally sucks in the battlefield.
Ito also creates a few interesting fusions throughout the score. "Phoenikion, Mountain of the Phoenix (First Half)" combines driving rock riffs, orchestral discords, and peculiar sampled voices; despite its repetitious qualities, the outrageousness of its fusion is a testament to Ito's creativity and it really does rock. A testament to its wondrousness is the inclusion of a Phoenikion mix in the recent EXTRA ~ Hyper Game Music Event. "The Ancient Temple of Holy Yujia Isle (First Half)" is a similarly upbeat track that is written in an even more unlikely style; a guitar riff blends excellently with powerful orchestral work and some catchy panpipe melodies while ululation and the sound of warriors chanting is also integrated to reasonable effect. Its counterpart revolves around a hilarious tribal ostinato that, while repetitive, becomes interesting when brass and string melodies proudly resound from it. Also impressive is the integration of the Baroque chamber orchestra in the lyrical 'Lalasardi, the Garden of Lamentation' themes. Some attempts at creativity are shamelessly derivative, though, like "Holy Melody" on the pipe organ, the light Iwadare rip-off "Time to Think", or the overbearing brass-led nationalistic themes "Complete the Element and "Complete the Universe". Those stage themes that haven't been discussed, i.e. the first stage, arena, and Kaningan, the Lunar Tower, mostly fall into the quasi-orchestral category most would anticipate from Ito; they're meticulously composed and enjoyable enough, but nothing endearing, new, or worth shouting from rooftops about. All in all, Ito's contributions range from the inspired and daring to the desperate and fraudulent, but are mostly enjoyable, fitting, and varied.
Magicians and Imitators on Hire
The seven contributors from Joe Down Studio compose in a wide variety of styles and are responsible for a mixture of masterpieces and complete stinkers. Let's start negatively... Atsuko Kuwaiti's 'Melkizekia, the Blue Jungle' themes all create an exotic feel with all sorts of percussion, sound effects, and fragmented wind phrases, but are just too random for their own good, often lacking direction or dynamism; given the soundtrack's presentation, listeners have to endure three themes for Melkizekia consecutively. Atsufumi Sorai's two 'Hermit's Mountain on Mount Eternal' themes are effectual at times thanks to some gorgeous synth swells and fantastical tuned percussion use, yet feel completely lifeless in the sections where a melody leads; there's no bite, no tension, and certainly no entertainment. Worse still, Makoto Igarashi's 'Batooan, the Golden Desert' themes are dominated by a sitar that uses pentatonic scales to present deeply unpleasant music; these incoherent and often nonsensical themes butcher the music they are derived from and insult the culture of India.
Yuuki Watanabe shines for his percussive compositions. The 'Alcion, the Imperial Capital -I'm Ticomm-' themes all constitute 'toy music' — really amusing light-hearted themes that use phrasing and instrumental samples that sound infantile and mechanical. They're pretty intricate tracks with some deliciously crisp phrasing and wild chromatic progressions. The 'Bashisk, the Ruined Country' pieces reflect an exotic culture in ruins through more idiosyncratic percussion use and lovely assimilation of timbres. Watanabe's final contributions, to represent The Altar of Vast Darkness, offer grandiose Gothic progressions, amazing timpani use and sound effects, and some unexpected chord changes as the compositions alternate between presenting divinity and darkness. Chiemi Takano similarly embraces the darkness with his eerie 'Gravestone Canyon' and 'Zenador, the Great Temple of Darkness' themes; epic melodies, bold progressions, and percussive use of sound effects, piano, crisis motifs, and, of course, percussion make these themes delicious from both a superficial and intellectual standpoint. The battle themes, especially, are merciless. By the second half of the score, it's clear that Joe Down's capabilities extend well beyond plain and pedantic stylistic experiments without integrity; they can produce some very rich music too.
Takano and Ito drive the soundtrack to a climax dominated by Yuzo Takahashi and Kenjiro Hiwatari. Yuzo Takahashi's creations are the most ambitious on the score. As an example, "Belzelback, the Castle of Darkness (First Half)" opens weirdly with an oppressive repeated ostinato and some oriental melodies, but then takes an unlikely tangent into a dark electronica rhythm fest. Its counterpart gets straight to action with a pounding techno-chorus-orchestral combo that is rapid, unpredictable, and often distorted. "Omengald, the Great Temple of Light (Second Half)" is a 5:20 masterpiece dominated by electronic beats, grungy guitar riffs, lengthy timpani rolls, and dissonant orchestral chords. As for Hiwatari, he's dramatic... "Alcion, the Imperial Capital -Capital Siege- (Part One)" opens with repeated choral chants and orchestral hits before becoming dominated by an uncompassionate brass melody; it couldn't contrast more with Watanabe's comical interpretation of the same world. Part Two gains a mechanical inclination and becomes darker, deeper, and more frenzied, dominated by an ascending succession of suspended discords in one place. 'The Shining Altar' themes would fit in the Drakengard games given their exuberance. Anticipate wailing male choirs, intense romantic piano work, and agonising full-orchestral ritardandos. Marvellous... While the final six scene themes are actually less remarkable Ito creations, the disturbed dramatic arch does not undermine the strength of the early climax.
The End of the Road
The road to Saga is a lengthy one with a roughly equal mix of interesting and bland stops. Culdcept Saga's score is impressively diverse, incorporating a wide range of symphonic, rock, electronic, and multicultural influences to interpret a wide variety of worlds. It features many excellent stage themes and sounds wondrous at its lengthy dark climax thanks to the talents of Kenjiro Hiwatari, Yuzo Takahashi, Chiemi Takano, and Yuuki Watanabe. However, Ito's trite new age tracks, numerous disappointing battle themes, and use of a plain orchestral style makes the score quite boring and directionless in places. Joe Down sometimes exacerbates this, particularly with the dodgy oriental-influenced themes. It's certainly nowhere near as focused and refined as Koshiro's effort for the first Culdcept. Despites it inconsistency, Culdcept Saga is a satisfying and impressive work, ranking as one of Ito's best contributions to game music and one of the most comprehensive and experimental soundtracks released in recent years. I've compiled my fifty personal favourites from this CD into a 'Culdcept Saga Best Soundtrack' that I find satisfying from start to finish even with many listens. Even though many won't want to embark on the Culdcept Saga's journey, the gold will make the journey worth it for the patient.
