ExtraCareful's Soundtrack Pick of the Week

Giving into cheap thrills, here's a pretty good piece from yet another VN/RPG:

Nanpou no Kaze (Kamidori Alchemy Meister OST)
Kenny K, Zeal Blood 

Percussion to contrast with the brass - nice combo

For a triumphant piece to sound during when the player is viewing the world map, the composers for Kamidori did a great job with Nanpou no Kaze. Usually when a 'wide-encompassing' piece is done, the choice of brass is obvious, but the melody used (0:00-0:12) and the way they used the percussion to lead into the main theme (0:14-0:41) is excellently done; I would switch to the world map just to hear the piece once or twice. Although it does get a repetitive sometimes, it IS meant to be background music, and having a "complex majestic" theme is, to be quite honest, an oxymoron. A simpler majestic theme accentuates the melody much better and fits the mood. So enjoy this theme - think of it as an alternative to that Jurassic Park theme at Universal Studios.

For those of you who don't know what Kamidori Alchemy Meister is, it's a pretty good hybrid between a visual novel, a 2D dungeon turn-based RPG AND a shop/restaurant simulator. The characters are cool, new stuff appears the first couple of times you replay it, and the main plots/graphics/sounds are nicely done (although the arcs with the supporting characters tend to fall out more, they're buffeted by the minor characters in the cast). The only drawback is the stupid amount of grinding and hacking and slashing you have to do to get to some cutscenes, in addition to the random requirements necessary for some quests/scenes. Luckily though, there's a trainer out there that'll help you blitz through the game, so check the English version of this game out when you have the time.

That's all for now. Have fun!