Tracklist:
01 - Minefield
02 - Canyon Crow
03 - Rise to Action
04 - Advanced Guard
05 - Mercenaries
06 - Take the Offensive
07 - The Evils of War
08 - Decline
09 - Force Stall
10 - Manifold Irons
11 - Bloody Temperature
12 - Relative Thinking
13 - Holic Shot
14 - Hard Drug
15 - More and More
16 - Win Back
17 - Raise a Flag
18 - The General Situation
19 - Shallow Twighlight
20 - Optical City
21 - Coaxial Town
22 - Field Hospital
23 - Arena
24 - Shop
25 - Bar
26 - Setting Up
27 - Military Government
28 - Ominous
29 - Martial Ecologist
30 - Rage! Rage! Rage!
31 - Tension
32 - A Person Easily Elated
33 - Kalen
34 - Elegie
35 - Natalie
36 - Fear
37 - Terrible Destiny
38 - Mad Pressure
39 - Destructive Logic
40 - Defeat
41 - Within Living Memory...
42 - Next Resolution
Total Time:
67'54"
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The Front Mission OSV is a very good soundtrack featuring my two favorite female composers: Yoko Shimomura and Noriko Matsueda. The music has a clear futuristic-militaristic style to fit the kind of strategy-RPG that Front Mission is.
I think it would be fair to say that the FM OSV is one of my favourite SNES soundtracks from Squaresoft. The best tracks are from Shimomura, like the majestic "Take The Offensive." I really like the flavor of her more electronic tracks, like "Canyon Crow." It’s decidedly different from her later electronic output. While Parasite Eve and Legend Of Mana used some dark techno, Front Mission uses more EBM/industrial kind of beats. The aforementioned "Canyon Crow" and other tracks like "Coaxial Town" and "Setting Up" wouldn’t be out of place on a Front Line Assembly album, for example.
Matsueda takes care of the calmer themes. Her "Optical City" is very beautiful. She also made some faster themes like "Rise To Action" and the deliciously dark "Relative Thinking." But where Matsueda really shines is on the jazzier tracks like "Shop" and "Bar." In fact, I have a bold statement to make; I think that her "Shop" is one of the best pieces of jazz ever heard in a game! It’s just so incredibly funky I can’t see how anyone can dislike it. Even though Shimomura took the spotlight on this album and delivered the higher percentage of memorable themes, I still feel that Matsueda made some very brilliant and important contributions. The composers complement each other very well, and the OST probably wouldn’t have turned out this well if any of them had been asked to do it single-handedly. I think that this was actually Matsueda’s first game music project, and knowing that just makes the impression greater.
In conclusion I would like to say that this CD is a very cool addition to anyone’s collection. Even though it is hard to find nowadays, it is sure worth looking out for if you enjoy some nice, fast techno or smooth jazz. A great soundtrack! I just hope that Shimomura and Matsueda will team up sometime again with their new matured abilities and experience. It would no doubt be interesting to see what they would come up with.
Reviewed by: Daniel Kalabakov
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