[Album] Vagrant Story OST (SSCX-10042)

Composed by: Hitoshi Sakimoto
Publisher: DigiCube
Catalog Number: SSCX-10042, SQEX-10068/9 (re-release)
Released:March 8 2000, March 24 2006 (re-release)
(information courtesy of Chudah's Corner. Some track titles have been altered to reflect the in-game names from the English version of the game.)

Disc One
1) Opening Movie
2) Valendia Knights of the Peace ~ Duke Bardoba's Mansio
3) Climax of the Graylands Incident
4) Preface ~ Investigation Report Regarding the Graylands Incident
5) Lea Monde is Closed
6) Minotauros
7) Reminiscence
8) Catacombs
9) Dullahan
10) False Memory
11) Sanctum
12) Golem
13) Snares Laid by the Rabbit
14) Abandoned Mine
15) Knights of the Cross
16) Wyvern
17) Town of Lea Monde
18) Interview
19) Snowfly Forest
20) Lizard Man
21) Riskbreakers Work Alone
22) City Walls
23) Brainwashing
24) Rosencrantz
25) Undercity
26) Game Over

Disc Two
1) Workshop
2) Tieger & Neesa
3) Karli
4) Joshua 2
5) Nightmare
6) Lidless Eye
7) Joshua
8) Abandoned Mine ~ Second Layer
9) Iron Crab
10) Painted with the Blood of Violation
11) Tattoo of an Unholy Cross Knight
12) Retrospection
13) Limestone Quarry
14) Dark Element
15) Last of Rosencratz ~ Kali
16) Ogre
17) Kilitia Shrine
18) Great Cathedral
19) Ifrit
20) Fanfare
21) Last Power
22) Large Chapel Garret
23) Utata Crude Party
24) Truly
25) Heteromorphic Person
26) Escape
27) Epilogue
28) Lea Monde at Dawn ~ The Story of a Wandering Person
29) Staff Roll
Bonus Tracks
30) Opening Movie "Fight Mix"
31) Dungeon Robot Mix

"Vagrant Story" is a game that's been largely forgotten by the gaming public despite its pedigree as a Squeenix title. It's not hard to see why; the game is extremely uneaven, moving from almost cinematic action to large periods of running about with no clear purpose, and its battle system is extremely complex and unintuitive. Most people who bought it never made it past the first dungeon.

Yet there is one bonus to slogging though; composer Hitoshi Sakimoto's score. It's an incredibly dark and baroque piece of music that rumbles with power and mystery even during its most upbeat moments. The music serves as something of a tone poem, taking listeners deep into a haunted city and impressing upon them the danger and beauty inherent in the undertaking.

The score is built around a few key innovations and motifs. The "main theme," such as it is, is used relatively sparsely, mostly at the beginning and end of the game, with short reprises in the middle. A few other melodic ideas are constant from track to track, but there's no real leitmotif structure at work. Instead, Sakimoto relies on instrument choice to proivde consistency, especially in the form of distant metal-on-metal hits to provide a sense of the echoing depths of the city, and the harp, which might represent the shafts of sunlight peeking through the ruins. There's also a strong atonal influence in some areas, most notably "Rosencrantz," whose howling brass seems to be inspired by Elliot Goldenthal.

Standout tracks include the lengthy beginning and ending suites, especially the battle theme that develops near the end of the intro. The melodic "Snowfly Forest" contributes an atmosphere of strangeness in its beauty, and "Undercity" is strongly reminiscent of Danny Elfman in its portrayal of a spooky envirion.

The atonal music is best represented by the pulsing, tribal fury of "Tieger and Neesa" as well as the howling "Rosencrantz" and "Abandoned Mines ~ Second Level," which uses metal hits and a children's choir to establish a gothic, almost hellish mood.

The only minor drawbacks to the OST are the fact that many of the best songs, especially battle tunes, don't loop. This is especially unfortunate in the case of "Dullahan," "Ogre," and the two final battle themes. The two remixes at the end of the album are awful and unneccessary; I'd much rather have had more looped tracks.

Overall, "Vagrant Story" is highly reccommended for the orchestral VGM enthusiast. Fans of the dark and the gothic will be particularly impressed, as will fans of Wagner, Elfman, or Goldenthal.

5/5

Jam it back in, in the dark.