Shining Force Feather Original Soundtrack
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Album Title: Shining Force Feather Original Soundtrack |
| Record Label: Geneon Universal Entertainment |
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| Catalog No.: GNCA-7135 |
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| Release Date: June 24, 2009 |
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| Purchase: Buy at CDJapan |
Overview
Many Shining followers were grateful that Flight-Plan’s Shining Force Feather restored the series to its original strategy RPG glory. However, an aspect of the experience that didn’t receive much praise was the music. Rather than seek the talents of Eternal Poison‘s Takashi Okamoto, Flight-Plan assigned a relative newcomer to handle the title, Kenjo Sakurai. The artist produced a range of effective background music, but little is enjoyable on a stand-alone basis.
Body
Sakurai diverts from the series’ rich orchestral roots in favour of upbeat pop flavours. “Splash”, for instance, features a simple combination of jubilant synth leads and easygoing guitar chords. While this approach has worked fine for numerous dating simulator scores over the years, it feels rather tacky here. What’s more, the melodies are too weak and the interludes too barren for the track to be particularly enjoyable. Other tracks such as “Happy”, “The Ship”, and “Length” build on this approach in a range of ways. But with their superficial stylings and repetitive features, they’re hardly enjoyable to sit through. And digging deeper into the soundtrack, there are even more vapid compositions to be found like “Meeting” and “Alvin’s Theme”. It’s especially unfortunate that Sakurai relied on such dated samples when implementing tracks like these for the DS.
Outside its candypop core, Shining Force Feather features sufficiently diverse music to complement various happenings in the game. Heroic military orchestrations such as “Hit!” and “Training Place” evoke some memories of the traditional stylings of the Shining Force series. In contrast, “Decision” and “Don’t Turn Around” are reminiscent of old-school battle themes with their thrashing guitars and upbeat melodies, while yet others such as “Break Battle” motivate gamers with bubbly techno beats. During the game’s dark event scenes, tracks such as “Boss” and “Different” turn to gothic organ and chorus — conventions that are still quite effective in context. It is clear that Sakurai is capable of writing in a range of styles for a range of contexts, clearly having studied various RPG scores preceding this one.
The problem is that most of these compositions lack the creativity to be anything more than pale imitations of existing approaches. “Training Place” might aspire to Motoaki Takenouchi’s orchestral masterpieces, but its predictable palette, thin textures, and bland melody means it lacks the same charm. “Four Generals” is a little closer to the mark, but still rambles during its development section. The passionate intent of “Mutual Love” is also completely lost through yet more vanilla melodies, while event themes like the mysterious “Plot” and the feathery “Nostalgia” are too measured and samey to hold one’s interest. The rock and electronic tracks suffer from similar problems, while also having such dated stylings and samples that they sound contrived in 2009. Slow synthesizer melodies and chugging guitar riffs aren’t enough to yield the emotional sound desired in “Don’t Turn Around”, for example.
The soundtrack is rounded off by two vocal themes. “Fly On” sets the tone of the game with lyrics conveying determination against hardship. Junko Kuzumaki carries the song respectably, but could have been stronger in places, while the guitar-focused accompaniment is underwhelming right through to the solo. The ending theme “Clumsy Heart” is predictably a soft ballad featuring longing melodies above unobtrusive piano chords and light R’n’B beats. Shizuka Ito is considerably better than the opening singer, but still gives a half-hearted performance. The track is also featured in an instrumental rendition, where a badly synthesized flute clumsily replaces the vocalist. Unlike most Shining soundtracks, the full-length vocal themes are featured here and thus it is not necessary to purchase a single to hear them.
Summary
Shining Force Feather is one of the least impressive soundtracks of the Shining series, only rivalled by Shining Force Neo. Though most tracks serve their purpose in the game, they consistently lack the musical substance or memorable melodies to have any stand-alone appeal. It seems Kengo Sakurai didn’t take any steps to assert his individuality here. Clearly, it requires more than composing-by-numbers to produce a satisfying and rounded RPG soundtrack.
Do you agree with the review and score? Let us know in the comments below!
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Posted on August 1, 2012 by Chris Greening. Last modified on August 1, 2012.
About the Author
Chris Greening I've contributed to websites related to game audio since 2002. In this time, I've reviewed over a thousand albums and interviewed hundreds of musicians across the world. As the founder and webmaster of VGMO -Video Game Music Online-, I hope to create a cutting-edge, journalistic resource for all those soundtrack enthusiasts out there. In the process, I would love to further cultivate my passion for music, writing, and generally building things. Please enjoy the site and don't hesitate to say hello!
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