My iPod just crashed a few days ago, and after taking it to Tekserve to inquire about what the problem was, they told me the hard drive had failed, and sold me a new one... which just crashed again (grr). Anyway! ...while I go about trying to solve this dilemma, here's the last song I listened to before my troubles: a nice long track from the arranged album "Suikoden: The Divine Oath".
"Suikoden", or "Bandit Kings of Ancient China" in the U.S., is another strategy game by Koei, released in 1989 along with its official arrangement soundtrack. Like "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the game is based on another of the four Chinese classics, "Water Margin". (I'm pretty sure there's a "Journey to the West" game out there, so that only leaves "Dream of the Red Chamber" ...maybe a potential dating sim?) Being released in 1989 (only a few years after game soundtracks first started to see releases in Japan) the "Bandit Kings" album has an older sensibility to it. The main theme is crooning ballad sung in Japanese, and the instrumental tracks are performed by a small orchestra, heavy on the brass and underscored with some funk-infused bass lines. It's not the type of music you hear much past the mid '90s, when full orchestral arrangements made a comeback, but it's an enjoyable style nonetheless and one I wouldn't necessarily mind making a comeback.
This track is named "The Ryousanhaku Suite". It's the longest track on the album because it arranges six separate tracks from the game. The tracks featured (rough translations and all) are: "Good China and the Town it Goes", "You Desire to Game", "Decision of Victory", "Leader", "Fanfare of Victory", and "When Resting". The arranger for the album is Norio Maeda, an older composer (born 1934), who sadly hasn't seemed to do produce anything new since 1993. This track is one of my favorites from the album if only for its length and variation. I also really like the xylophone motif that plays from 0:00 - 2:12, and gets reprised at 4:10 - 4:30. The song overall is one of the most upbeat tracks of the album, before bringing the mood way down at 7:14 for a somewhat ominous closing section. Enjoy!
Album info: http://vgmdb.net/album/924
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