Utawarerumono is a wonderful game. And obviously, for any wonderful game to be truly recognized, they usually must entail music that is, likewise, as iconic as the game’s title, and as memorable as the game’s contents.



The music of Utawarerumono is exactly what you’d expect from a game of it’s genre, plus some more. They are all composed by the musician Suara, who has notable achievements in the JP music scene. The game tracks were released under King Records as official soundtracks for the Utawarerumono series.



It is easy to refer to the music of Utawarerumono as merely generic fantasy themes, and it’s easy to see why. But I personally find them to have a distinct backdrop that is unique to the game’s settings and stories. They all feature a strong sense of identity, and it's appropriate to attribute the tracks as an entire track as a whole piece rather than attributing them as individual pieces.



Not only do they make for great background music for one to passively or actively listen to, they are also musically interesting to dissect. They all feature a melody akin to those you’ll find from certain cultures, and tracks such “Hinautatsugumi” will have something interesting for the listener to pick up as they are listening to it.



I must, once again, emphasize again that it’s easy to pass off the music from this particular series as generic fantasy-esque. It’s hard to describe the certain tint the music of Utawarerumono has, but I believe it’s something that is universally felt for all who have played the games under the title.



Fan or not, I believe the music of Utawarerumono is guarantee’d to be charmful to most who listened to it, even if they don’t find them particularly interesting.




___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________







Released in 2002, the original Utawarerumono is an adult VN with a fantasy war as its backdrop, even back then it has established its own cult following, the story is a must experience and their gameplay for SRPG standard is great, but that’s not the point of this entry anyways. So I’m just gonna get this out of the way.



Do I recommend this game?

Ans: Yes

Should you play it?

Ans: Only if you are willing to sit through 80+ hours of text for the best “isekai” anime story.



That aside, the thing that I want to talk about is the music choice this game chooses, or rather the commitment they have towards their choice of music. Utawarerumono is a game that is set in a fantasy medieval Japan period, and the music doesn’t betray that setting unless it really needs to, which is around 2 to 3 tracks out of 102 tracks in total.



For me that is really important, the amount of time that I’ve watched a movie which is set in the sengoku period, medieval period or feudal chinese period, have tracks that directly breaks the immersion I had with it, so does a lot of games, Eiyu Senki being the main offender in my list. But Utawarerumono, that game sticks to its setting and stays consistent throughout the whole experience, which to me is already something that earns my full respect, and paired with a story that I could say it is the closest thing to storytelling perfection, this is the game I hold dearest to my heart besides NieR: Automata.



Just listen to the OST, Utawarerumono www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCDO5NBk1i4, this itself is a masterpiece with its war drums and wind instrument playing as if a legend just descended upon this battlefield, the most revered person is now in the field, the feeling of dread or hope you would have depending on the context and stance in the situation is awe inspiring, all while fitting with the setting. This is what I would call a directory masterpiece, when you are introducing a hero character make sure its first impression is as impactful as it can get, the music here plays a key role, for example, look at one punch man, no one who watched season 1 would remember how saitama was introduced and how most major characters were introduced. Their soundtrack played a major role in establishing who they are and what role they will play in the grander scale of things when the story unfolds.



The others I want to talk about would be www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPC4nF5_T7o and www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsOjWduYm1Y Amakakeru Hoshi and Kimi dake no tabiji respectively, both tracks which are played in the climax of the story. Heck, if this isn’t the best final boss fight I’ve ever experienced in a video game I do not know what will be, to me this tops even the final stage in trails in the sky sc, the way Amakakeru Hoshi perfectly alleviate the feeling of dread from the scene is nothing short of a perfected scene, the lightness of the shakuhachi paired with the feeling of relief is something very few game ost can make me feel. Then there comes Kimi dake no Tabiji (A journey for you all alone), a perfect song to end it all with, it literally gives you the feeling of this is the end of a long long (140 hr for me) journey, and all of it may lead to nothing, but at least you yourself enjoyed every last bit of it, and instead of lingering on it and stalling its curtains from closing, this song pushes you in the direction of completing this whole journey, and it also symbolic in the context of this game as this is the opening song for this game, it is also the song that starts closing its curtains.