4 out of 5

Label: U/M/A/A

Produced by: Various

Okay, so: Yuzo Koshiro did the original score for Seventh Dragon 2020 and 2020-II; within those games a character named Hatsune Miku makes an appearance – Hatsune Miku being a virtual ‘mascot’ and voice used in the Vocaloid ‘voice synthesizer software’ – and if you save her in the quests featuring her in the games, it unlocks the ability for the music to switch over to “Diva Mode,” featuring Hatsune Miku’s vocals and remixes the score under the hands of various producers.

You may already know all of this, or you don’t, and/or it doesn’t matter. I’m writing it all out to help me keep it straight, as I purchased this due to Koshiro’s involvement – I haven’t been able to get ahold of the original 2020 and 2020-II soundtracks yet – and all the bits and pieces of the construction have puzzled me a bit.

Though I think it’s helpful context for appreciating how consistent these 50+ tracks are – three discs of material! – given (if my understanding is accurate…) they’ve been touched by a small handful of different remixers / producers. While, to my ear, Seventh Dragon is lacking a strong theme, the music, in its entirety, across two games, is very thematic, and the consistent vocals of Miku, which are often applied as tones, not words, running counter to or in support of the other instrumentation, makes what might otherwise be disparate music styles (pop, rock, hip-hop) all belong under the same gaming roof.

Assuming there’s chronology to the sequence, at a high level, the tunes start as adventurous, dip into electro / club beats, go for some sing-songy pop, and then get “serious” with some more aggressive tunes by end of disc 1; disc 2 has strong Nier: Automata vibes, often combining Miku’s abstract vocals with weightier, classically-tinged compositions; disc 3 ultimately feels a little less inspired, but that’s surely in part because we’ve cycled through much of this before – it feels a bit more “streamlined” with its music. (If I knew more about this series or was better at researching this, perhaps I could say that’s because it’s the score from 2020-II, and is thus lifting from the previous game?)

Regardless, I’m never not impressed by how lengthy some of the scores Koshiro works on can be, and yet how much variety (with tonal consistency) is maintained across the entirety. How far the remixes have pushed this material I don’t know, but I rather like how the above-mentioned styles all end up being linked by Miku, who’s kind of ethereal, paced vocals enforce a solemnity across it all that I’d say maybe strengthens the music a bit, as it otherwise – as mentioned – doesn’t have a very strong “oh, that’s Seventh Dragon 2020” theme to me. This admittedly can lend the music a somewhat ephemeral nature, but I sat with this score for several days, trying to form an opinion, and I belatedly realized that that, in itself, suggested something positive about it; I didn’t dread looping through 3-discs multiple times.

So that, in addition to the various hands working together under one roof to produce something so consistent, heightens my take on this. Expect a generally slower, more contemplative sound in comparison to Koshiro’s 2020s-era VGM, and relatively “simple” in sticking to a beat and a few electronic layers – though that’s not meant to imply that the songs don’t have inherent complexity. Add to this however the tunes have been remixed (I’d assume some beats added…?) and these scores offer a long runtime of quite immersive music.