Soundtrack Review: Vandal Hearts | Part Two

This is the second part of my lengthy review of the Vandal Hearts original soundtrack. In this part, I'll review the final three chapters of the game, look at the score as a whole, take a gander at ports, and give my concluding thoughts on the soundtrack.

Chapter 4: The Successor

"The Four Seasons of Man" is one of the few pieces on the soundtrack to utilize the strings in it. It's a dark, slightly unfriendly piece rooted by a repeating horn call. Nothing particularly exceptional.

"Street Fighting" is another battle theme. This one is simpler then any of its predecessors, a single melody reiterated, its only variation coming from the instrument it's played one. It's repetitive to listen to, with even less variation then "Fortress".

Higashino's "Occultist" may remind you of her work on the Suikoden score. The descending arpeggios that feature in the piece are very similar to those from the boss battle theme in Suikoden II. Unlike her Suikoden work, "Occultist" is instrumentally sparse and not particularly interesting.

"Trade City Kerachi" breaks from the duet-and-accompaniment structure of previous town themes, and it's a wise choice. Keeping that format may have become dull over the course of a whole score. "Trade City Kerachi" differentiates itself from other pieces immediately with a quicker tempo then, say, "The Town on the Edge of the World". It starts out with only a couple instruments before gradually expanding to include more lines to enlarge the polyphony of the piece. Even as the forces playing the piece grow, it never loses its delicacy.

From here we make it to the first of three pieces - in this instance, "Bygone Days 2". It's here that for the listener that Higashino's theme for the hero first appears. Here it's set against a simple 8th-note bassline, and, in the reprise of the melody, a warm bass harmony that might remind one of "Harbor City Ports" (another Higashino contribution). It, like most of Higashino's other contributions, is fairly simple and undeveloped.

The same can't be said for "Haunted Railroad", a singularly fantastic example of painting an image with music. The rhythm of a train's motion is very important to this piece, and it's represented by the percussion as well as the tuba. More then that, this is an important precursor to one of the pieces in Vandal Hearts II, "The Two Trains Travel Side by Side", a piece which is similar to "Haunted Railroad" except even better.

"Change of Occupation" is a neat jingle, initially dissonant, but resolving fantastically to a more peaceful chord.

"Tension", like "Warlock", is something of a tour-de-force, and my own favorite piece from the soundtrack. It's a piece at once stormy and bright, raging timpani at odds with the melody, first appearing on horns before its canon-esque reprise on horns and, slightly delayed, trumpets. It builds up to a fantastic climax. It's a magnificent piece, one of the best on the entire score.

The same can not be said for Higashino's "Bygone Days 3", which is purely harmonic, lacking any melody whatsoever. It's undoubtedly a background piece, woodwind harmonies against kalimba arpeggios and timpani.

Chapter 5: Inheritance

"Cultivation Village School" keeps to the mold established by "Trade City Kerachi", but marks itself as superior with its distinctive, light, slightly lilting melody. The piece is without brass, instead confining itself purely to woodwinds, which results in a smaller, more chamber-like expansion of the instrumental palette, but no less marvelous in its effect.

"Suspicion" is not very effective, less a theme for suspicion and more a theme for an awkward, dorky villain with its sax tones and bassoon harmonies against tambourine. Even leaving aside the name, it's a slightly silly piece of music.

"Remote Village", the next piece, is an arrangement of "Genesis" for woodwinds only. It's the first of two arrangements in the game. Aside from its changes in instrumentation, all my comments on "Genesis" apply to "Remote Village".

From the hands of Miki Higashino, another rendition of the hero's theme in "Bygone Days 1". As before, it's very simple - oboe against kalimba accompaniment. The melody's reprise is more emotional as Higashino relegates the oboe to harmony and gives the melody to bassoon. Nevertheless, it still begs for more development, something to give this beautiful melody the greater effect it so clearly needs.

Finally, the second arrangement of "Genesis", a piece called "Ruins", which adds a brass line to it with more motion. Beyond that, however, it keeps the same tempo, same chords. There's not much to say. I'm not sure why there's three versions of the same piece of music here - I suspect it may bear some leitmotivic significance not immediately obvious to me as I haven't played the game.

Chapter 6: Fool's Epitaph

"City of Glassgow" is another woodwind piece like "Cultivation Village School", and as with its other fellow town themes, it's a slowly-paced piece. The expansion of lines is far subtler here but no less effective, and it ends on what sounds to be a bass clarinet solo, which is an unusual choice for a soloist, and something of an unusual moment within the piece. One almost gets the sense that it's an incomplete part of the track left in due to time constraints.

"Vicissitudes of Fortune", meanwhile, is the definitive statement of the hero's theme, and it's very simple indeed, just a single melody line without accompaniment on the ocarina. It's purely functional and begs for more development, even though it works as it is.

"Crisis", the last battle theme on the soundtrack, is the one piece most people will have heard of from the Vandal Hearts soundtrack on the off-chance they know of Vandal Hearts. It's not hard to see why, with its swift tempo and ostinatos, and a great melody. However, to me, it's something of a let down. The first section seems to be building up to a climax, only for it to let you down into the second section. However, it does build to an epic climax let down only by the insistent snares which never once vary as they so effectively did in "Warlock". It's a famous piece, and rightly so. It's that one shade more memorable then the other battle themes. But for my money, "Tension" is the best battle theme in the game.

With "Theme", we get the main theme of the game in utmost clarity. A glance at the soundtrack of Vandal Hearts II, which this piece is arranged for (alongside "Fortress" and "Crisis") reveals that there it is listed as "The Hero's Theme". It leads to an interesting question. Is it the case that Higashino and Tamawari offered competing visions of the hero's theme - and if so, how is it that they have such similarities? Far more likely to my mind is that Higashino wrote the hero's theme first, which Tamawari based the main theme off of. Within the game, then, based on track titles like "Bygone Days", Higashino's version is used for the hero's past, while Tamawari's is for the hero within the game's present day.

As with other pieces, Tamawari likes his dissonant cluster chords in the accompaniment. Similarly to other pieces, the melody is treated in a canon-esque fashion on its second go-around. As it continues, it gets more heroic, the dissonant chords resolving and disappearing, all leading to a heroic conclusion. As with so many other pieces, it's very martial in character, however, here it's a march for the hero, and it could quite rightly be called the main theme.

The game as a whole ends in "Peerless", which reprises several pieces from the game. It opens by reprising, naturally, the main theme, here rendered in full orchestral glory. It moves quickly to a reprise of "Enemy Turn" set against brassy parts similar to the melody of "Tension". From there it transitions into original material, based off the ending of "Theme". It moves into a reprise of "Vicissitudes of Fortune" - a fairly simple rendition, but the presence of the strings to add harmonic color improves it greatly.

It moves into original material based heavily off of Tamawari's town themes, in particular. Then it's off to a double reprise of "Mountains" and "Enemy Turn" - a surprisingly effective combination - followed in short order by another reprise of "Vicissitudes of Fortune". Here a direct comparison between Higashino's renditions of the theme and Tamawari's can be made. Higashino's were all very simple, the melody against simple accompaniment - generally kalimba - which, though effective, leaves one begging for more development and more emotion.

In the course of the second reprise, Tamawari succeeds in doing just that, remaining loyal to Higashino's original with pizzicato strings playing a figure similar to the kalimba, but with more variation, and he soon adds a more layers in the string section and varies the pizzicato accompaniment. It ends on a bright note, transitioning us into "Whole Preservation", now with the force of an entire orchestra. It builds up to an epic climax, a reprise of "Genesis" followed by the main theme over some strikingly dissonant chords. It's a fantastic ending, but the dissonant ending may not be to everyone's taste.

Ports

Two ports of Vandal Hearts were released: a South Korea-exclusive PC port in '98 which I shall ignore and a Sega Saturn-port released only in Japan in 1997.

A cursory YouTube search finds one a special FMV opening created specifically for the port. The animation itself is rather amusing - some would probably find it hilarious - but the quality of the FMV is not the subject of the review. The video is accompanied by a unique piece of music not found on the PSX version, one utilizing the piano - an instrument which never appears in the PSX version. The piece even has a reprise of the hero's theme.

The Sega Saturn version of the soundtrack was never released. This is wholly understandable. There may be no differences between the soundtracks other then the new opening piece. On the other hand, the differences may just be subtle improvements to the sound quality. There may even be new pieces besides the opening. I have no way of knowing, however - I can not find the Saturn version of the soundtrack on the Internet.

Concluding Thoughts

In the end, it would be fair to say that the score is something of a mixed bag. Tamawari's pieces, while generally excellent, vary in complexity and depth, while most of Higashino's contributions are totally unexceptional. Soeda's sole contribution is great, but it's impossible to tell how much of it is actually Soeda's.

The town themes are generally excellent. "The Town on the Edge of the World" is a particular highlight with its atmosphere and slightly mystical air, while "Cultivation Village School" is another fantastic piece for its excellent construction and instrumental variation. Only "Capital City Shumeria" deviates from the chamber music approach of the other pieces.

The battle themes are generally fantastic. "Warlock", "Tension", and "Crisis" form a triad of excellence. "Mountains" and "Enemy Turn" aren't to be discounted either. "Fortress" is something of a letdown due to its lack of variation, while Higashino's "Occultist" is let down by sparse instrumentation. "Street Fighting", too, doesn't have enough variation, despite a fantastic melody.

"Genesis" receives two variations on the soundtrack - three if you count the reprise in "Peerless" - and, while I did give it critique in my review, you can hear why. It's a distinctive chord progression. In that regard, it works, but it also removes room for variation. A melody can be varied easily, but a chord progression relies on its chords, and if you change them too much, it's a different chord progression.

The soundtrack, though sometimes variable, never dips into awfulness. Even at its worst it's merely lacking in variation or boring - "Shoutarou and the Bass Blue" is the low point, alongside "Occultist". "Wilderness", though better then both pieces by a fair margin, nevertheless is let down by its relentless, mindless, driving ostinato.

Nevertheless, it's marvelously listenable, and, aside from "Shoutarou and the Bass Blue", never boring. Despite the presence of Miki Higashino, it's clear from listening that all the pieces of excellence are written by Tamawari. Even Higashino's best is too simple to match up to Tamawari's polyphonic excellence. That said, it's perhaps not for everyone. The sounds, despite their realistic usage, are not in and of themselves particularly realistic, and coming off of other Konami games - Suikoden or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - may serve as a dealbreaker. The dissonances present in many of Tamawari's pieces may not be to everyone's tastes, especially in "Peerless" where it ends on a dissonant chord.

All things considered, I would give this soundtrack 81 out of 100. It's one of my favorite soundtracks, but not every piece is excellent. Certainly, Tamawari, though a skilled melody writer, utilizes much longer melodies then other composers, making it more difficult to linger in the mind. But perhaps that's the intention. Music which is excellent to listen to but doesn't leave a huge imprint. And it's not as though Tamawari is incapable of writing memorable melody. The main theme serves as evidence to this, and the sequel even more so.

Next Time

It's not the sequel, I'm afraid. I'll be leaping from tactics RPGs to their nearby cousin ship, the JRPG. The soundtracks of JRPGs are considered by many as the best soundtracks in videogaming. And it's not hard to see why. Composers like Nobuo Uematsu, Yoko Shimomura, Yasunori Mitsuda, Motoi Sakuraba, and others made their name writing for JRPGs. A JRPG arguably gives the composer more freedom then any other genre of videogame. Is it any wonder that those scores are so good?

But I'm not going to be looking at a soundtrack by one of those familiar names. Instead, I'll be reviewing another less well-known game, better known then Vandal Hearts, and the first in a series still beloved by a small but dedicated fanbase.

Next time, the first of the Lufia series, Lufia & the Fortress of Doom, scored by Yasunori Shiono.