[Album] Suite Wizardry V ~Heart of Maelstorm~ [APCG-4031]

Suite Wizardry V ~Heart of the Maelstrom~
Catalogue Number APCG-4031
Publisher Apollon
Composition Kentaro Haneda
Arrangement Tamiya Terashima
First Printing December 16, 1992
Price 2800

Download Source:

• Galbadia Hotel
• Wizardry V [SPC Rip]

- Playing Time 48:24
01 Wizardry V Opening Theme 4:06
02 Preparing For Battle 4:10
03 Going Into the Labyrinth 4:11
04 Information Gathering 4:28
05 Battle and Victory 3:07
06 Time For Rest 4:13
07 Road to Total Destruction 3:38
08 Kanto Temple and Castle 4:19
09 Deep Into the Heart of the Maze 4:15
10 Sohn's Theme 5:21

Information is courtesy of GMR Online
http://gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=APCG-4031

In nowadays VGM community, I see that Kentarou Haneda's composition are rather underrated, or maybe some people don't know that he has composed video game music for 5 Wizardry Series in the SNES glorious old days. Apart of this fifth installment not too popular outside japan, and the game is so goddamn hard, it contains a very nice music and classical ambient.

Wizardry series itself held quite popularity in japan. ASCII is the developer that hold the license, since they have published Six Wizardry Games in SNES console. All of the six have the same titles like the original ones, except the 4th installment which labeled "Gaiden". For unknown reason, Kentaro Haneda didnt compose music for the fourth game, instead they hired Ikoku Fujiwara who would compose Wizardry Dimguil in the future.

This CD is orchestration of Wizardry V music using synthesizer as the instrument, some dictionary listed this cd as "Wizardry V Symphonic Suite" (don't be confused since I thought there are two version. Synth and real orchestra).

To be honest, this cd is amazing. I want to say the entire tracks are great. I would say all of the tracks are epical and heroic, giving listener the image of fantasy heroes venturing the mediaval world, fighting off some beast and dark lords to save the world. Most of the tracks are the medley of Wizardry V snes music (You could listen to the SPC set for comparasion).

In the first five tracks we are introduced with an epic overture and preceeded with fast music which intended to give us images what the heroes do, "Preparing for Battle" give me imagination of the heroes going to the armor shop, picking item and stuff for the dungeon.

"Going into the Labyrinth" gives me creepy imagination of dungeon labyrinth which entered by the heroes. "Information Gathering" giving imagination of tavern where you collect information "Battle and Victory" -self explanatory. In the sixth track we listen to slower music "Time for Rest" which might giving you imagination of an inn where characters in RPG usually rest. In short, the could stimulates the brain and giving off fantasies associated with the titles.

The quality of the synthesizer is quite good, even though it couldn't be compared with Hamauzu's Coi Vanni Gialli which sounds much like real orchestra. The Opening theme is as good as the real orchestration in Orchestral Game Music No. V.

Maybe the only flaw of this cd is Terashima arranged the tracks as medley, personally I would love to listen arranged version of individual tracks (such as "artifact", luckily I a doujin version arranged by neko800.). But since the arrangement is done nicely, I dont have much complain.

As conclusion, I really recommend you to give a chance hearing this underrated soundtrack. Not much people in VGM community know the greatness of Wizardry music. This is one of my favorite cd all the time. I have yet to be bored by the music. Just wait for my next review on other wizardry soundtracks.

5/5

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Tamiya Terashima works wonders with an orchestra, synthesized or not. The first composition of his I heard was the "Onimusha 2 Main Theme". Since them I've been totally hooked on his work, althrough when it comes to game music, there isn't a great amount of it. I can't even really pick a favorite from this album because all the tracks are just that strong. I only enjoy medley tracks when the flow and transitions are seamless, and Terashima excels at accomplishing that on this album.

5/5

There's nowhere I can't reach.