The seventh album in Media Ring's "GM-Progress" series, Genesis of Dragon Force is a half-drama half-arranged album in a style similar to Lunar's "Lunatic Festa" albums.

As the album's title suggests, the drama tracks tell the story before the game's introduction, giving a Genesis account of how the current events came to pass. It is because of this that the ending track "Legend of Legendra" (a redundant title indeed) strongly reflects the introduction with the sounds of clanking swords, burning villages, women and children screaming, and other near-apocalyptic sounds. I wouldn't call it a happy ending, though it certainly is dramatic.

Only five of the album's thirteen tracks are purely instrumental. These are the tracks I have sampled. The arrangements only feature slight augmentation and enhancement from their original counterparts, with the greatest achievement being a guitar solo in track 13 "New History."

The drama tracks also have music playing in the background, though only a few songs are selected from the OST, and they become downright boring. For example, tracks 3 and 4 both open with the same droning melody that marks the inclusion of the villain Madruk.

If you know Japanese, the drama portion to this soundtrack is certainly more entertaining than a lot of other drama CDs, which are accustomed to presenting a lot of fan-based humor and silliness. This is a serious album, and it was meant to invoke serious feelings. The accompanying music helps to do that, but unfortunately, the music is not the main attraction of this album. What's there is decent, but there simply isn't enough emphasis on Maeda's work to make it a worthwhile addition to most VGM collector's libraries.

Reviewed by: Patrick Gann