Weekly Video Game OST Discussion 2 - Radiant Historia

[Lord Raven]

Previous Discussion
Week 1:  Pokemon Black & White

In week 2 I will take a look at a more obscure game named Radiant Historia, developed by Atlus Inc.  Because it is obscure I will give as much background as possible.

It's a JRPG in a steampunk setting, where legends of the Apocalypse are foretold and the main character, Stocke, is given the ability to alter the course of time to prevent it using a book known as the White Chronicle.  It's intriguing because it involves two timelines that Stocke must hop between - one in which he becomes a spy working for a man named Heiss (the agency is known as Specint) and the other in which he joins a faction of the military led by his best friend Rosch (known as the Rosch Brigade).

The OST is very compact (~25 pieces) so I will sample around 8 pieces for you guys, and of course Kay can chime in again with more pieces she likes.

This piece is known as Radiant Historia which is, of course, the title of the game.  The flavor text reads as follows:

The Chronicle tells of history engraved by man into the memories of the stars above.  The Chroncile searches these engraved histories for a pen that will rewrite them.  It falls to thee to become the time's master and carve a path to the future.

It gives a serene yet sorrowful vibe, and the background seems to attempt portray a clock.  This is what Historia (which is a place in the game) looks like:



Mechanical Kingdom is the theme of the first town in the game, and Stocke's hometown, Alistel.  Much of the plot of Radiant Historia centers around Alistel or coming back to Alistel, and it's where both the army and Specint are located.  It's a very steampunk-y town but it's where a whole bunch of people seem to exist - including the prophet who will save humanity from the apocalypse.  At any rate, here's a picture for reference.



Blue Radiance is the name of the primary battle theme.  I'm not quite sure why it's called Blue Radiance, but it's quite melodic and it's relatively fast paced.  It seems to get more urgent as it progresses through, and to top it all off it's one of those few themes that doesn't get on your nerves after a while.

The boss battle theme, The Edge of Green gives a very heavy militaristic vibe while remaining with the melodic theme of the soundtrack.  A lot of pieces here seem to give a sense of urgency but they are also very smooth and flowing, which seems to fit with the feel of the game.

The Garden Where the Celestite Lies is the town theme of Celestia, where the Satyros live.  A big theme of the game is the war between the beastkind and the humankind, and the Satyros are among the beastkind that live in isolation (due to their hatred of humans).  They're also magical beings; I guess that sense of wonder is in the background (I can't recognize the instrument).  At any rate, you can kinda feel it; it's a bunch of pissed off people that just want to be left alone.  It doesn't help that you hit the village at a rather depressing part of the game, where Rosch became severely injured and Alistel is in a state of chaos.

Fun fact:  around a minute in (thanks to a youtube comment) it changes time.  They say 3/4 but it has a very triplet-y vibe, and it feels more like a 1/4 or 3/8 to me.

I can't find any good shots of the village so here's the inn.



Where the Wind and Feathers Return is your typical "sad moment" theme.  At the beginning of the story, for instance, two of your party members are killed so Stocke uses the White Chronicle so he could change history in a way that prevents their deaths.  There are also many bad endings that this plays in, and I can't list any of them in fear of spoiling the game, but some of the bad endings involve a party member's death or someone losing hope.  And by the way, there is a lot of death in this game, so this piece ends up playing quite a bit.

An Earnest Desire of Grey is the final boss theme and it's quite possibly one of the most powerful final boss themes I've heard.  You can tell it's the pinnacle of all of this chaos created by the Chronicles just by the music, and it's definitely a pumping song that leaves you with a lot of emotion.  This boss fight is long but not too repetitive, and the piece is capped off by one of the best endings in a JRPG I think, and I'm definitely not going to spoil it - play the game yourself and get all 270 nodes like I did!  Or look up an LP.  It's really an amazing game.

The final boss says "He is the only hope left in the world... If I can't protect that hope, then what other use is my life?"  Doesn't make much sense out of context but it's the most powerful quote in the game.

-Historia- Words of Songs is the credits theme.  I'm not huge at all on japanese music but this one is something special.  It's very soothing, very smooth, flowing, and her voice is ethereal.  Not aggressive, not trying too much, just soothing to listen to and beautiful.  Here's a rough translation of the lyrics if anyone wants to see them.


There you go.  Hopefully you guys have some context behind the music if you've never played the games, but at the worst just enjoy the music; it's really really nice.

[Kerou 犠牲]

Alright, since this is my first introduction to the game I will do a 'post as I listen' sort of thing =]

Track 1 - Very soothing and atmospheric, there's a lovely mesh of instruments to create this relaxed sound whilst also having that underlying sadness to it, almost a fixture for JRPG it seems haha. But yeah, it sets the scene well, an enjoyable track ^^

Track 2 - It definitely fits the sonics provided in the first track linked which makes a lot of sense based on what you've said about it. I prefer this to the first track actually, I love how it progresses and it just sounds so luscious to me, felt a little upset that it ended haha

Track 3 - Solid battle theme, has that hype about it whilst being very nice from a music perspective too. I think that's always the problem I've had with battle themes generally, a lot of them get a bit ehhhh over time but this is a lot nicer than a lot I'm used to? I dunno, I quite enjoyed the track nonetheless. So far I'm enjoying the progression in the soundtrack =]

Track 4 - Like the battle theme, there's hype to it and it progresses nicely but I dunno, for me it's not really hype enough, especially at the start. It doesn't seem the type to really get me into "oh this is a massive battle, let's get serious" sort of vibe which I always used to get myself into. It was a problem I had with the Kingdom Hearts soundtracks; whilst I enjoyed them musically (and I do enjoy this musically too) it didn't feel intense enough. What I will say is that again, it's very consistent with the sound throughout the soundtrack so far at least which is a great thing but I'd still want it to be heavier, a bit more dramatic.

Track 5 - Quite like this one, it almost has that forest-y feel to it (which I guess fits in with the Garden in the track name, and the story you've highlighted). Enjoyable really, could imagine happily spending time in this village as the story goes on and whatnot.

Track 6 - Immediately get that sad vibe, was great when the strings came in followed by those few piano keys before returning to the original motif. Enjoyable track again.

Track 7 - I was a little worried at first it wouldn't be intense enough but it really kicked in as it went on in the first minute and after that it got even better. Really good track, has that big fight feel which I felt was lacking in the regular boss theme (whilst again it does match the rest of the soundtrack, if anything this soundtrack is really cohesive).

Track 8 - I dunno what it is about this song but I just didn't really enjoy it. The beat that kicked in didn't really feel all that natural to me and compared with the others felt the most out of place because of that beat. The strings and the little guitar that comes in at about 1:30 was nice but the beat kinda distracted me a bit from it =[

But yeah, as tracks for the most part I enjoyed them musically, even the Boss Battle theme even though it didn't really captivate me in the way I wanted it to. I could happily put some of these songs on in the background whilst I'm working on some things which is great haha

Unfortunately, there's quite a few games I haven't had chance to play that would be ahead of this on a "will finally play" basis so I won't be able to experience it in game (which I think is usually the best way to appreciate it as a soundtrack rather than as a piece of music) but yeah, great piece nonetheless and I think it's great that you've done one mainstream and one obscure so far =]

[Lord Raven]

It was a problem I had with the Kingdom Hearts soundtracks

Fittingly enough, the composer for Radiant Historia was Yoko Shimomura - well known for her works with Kingdom Hearts.

[Kerou 犠牲]

Fittingly enough, the composer for Radiant Historia was Yoko Shimomura - well known for her works with Kingdom Hearts.

Huh

I know she's doing Final Fantasy 15 too xD

[Lord Raven]

Do people want to see more of this series or is it going to stay a back and forth between GL and I?  Sorry if I sound like I want attention for this - it comes off to me that this has no feedback.

[Richard and Blaziken]

After taking some time to listen to these tracks, I actually have to thank you for making me - track 2 in particular is beautiful, and Where the Wind and Feathers Return is also really pleasant to listen to. The boss battle music felt right for what it's trying to achieve, and I... have a genuine desire to play this game now, from seeing screenshots and hearing some of the music. If only Nintendo would stop stealing my money, I could spend my money on this game for one of their systems.

More people should take the time to listen to these and read them tbh, you really got me interested in this game just with what you posted on this.