ASWJP-14071: GUILTY GEAR Xrd -SIGN- ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK

[kosmos]

What is the deal with making it exclusive to ebten?, they did the same with the last concert DVD.

[XISMZERO]

More importantly, is she doing what I think she's doing on the cover...?

[MiLO]

She's asking for trouble, that's what she's doing... when she's doing what she's doing.

[GoldfishX]

Wow, I didn't realize there was so much music in the game. Especially with a much smaller cast (which will, of course, be rectified over time with the upcoming sequels) I'm guessing a lot of cutscene music?

[GoldfishX]

First thing someone needs to do when they get this soundtrack is to analyze it and make sure it extends above 16khz. There have been a few rips floating around that show how low-quality the on disc music is, despite the best efforts of the rippers. If the soundtrack is the same way, a lot of people are going to be seriously pissed.

[Judge Ito]

Originally Posted by GoldfishX

First thing someone needs to do when they get this soundtrack is to analyze it and make sure it extends above 16khz. There have been a few rips floating around that show how low-quality the on disc music is, despite the best efforts of the rippers. If the soundtrack is the same way, a lot of people are going to be seriously pissed.

It's absolutely fine.
Some vocal tracks are a little crowded, like every rock song nowadays.

[GoldfishX]

Originally Posted by Judge Ito

It's absolutely fine.
Some vocal tracks are a little crowded, like every rock song nowadays.

Thanks for confirming. Someone recently confirmed the newer 4-Disc Fire Emblem releases don't go above a certain frequency (16khz or 18khz), so I was fearing the same for Xrd, given the on-disc music quality.

I have to say though, while I like it, the soundtrack seems to be lacking the melodic touch of early Guilty Gear series. At times, it is literally a wall of heavy metal. I'm struggling to pick standout tracks.

[Judge Ito]

I agree, takeaway themes are hard to come by. But the execution is top notch as always.

FYI: Here's the spectrograms for "The Lily of steel"
Gamerip (L) vs. Album (R)
- - -

[razakin]

Removed some trailing spaces? at end of some of the tracks, wouldn't even noticed them without ripping the album and taking the tracklist from here. People should notice those.

[layzee]

To me, Daisuke Ishiwatari is one of those musicians that always tops (or at least equals) his previous efforts and never disappoints. Fortunately, the same could be said of Guilty Gear Xrd. I would say that I enjoyed this album about as much (or just a tiny bit less) as I enjoyed the original BlazBlue album (back in 2008). I have also already listened to the songs here more often than his relatively recent additions to the BB: Chrono Phantasma album.

Seeing as how this game is a Guilty Gear game, I think most people would inevitably compare the music to the past iterations of the franchise (e.g. GGXX). Admittedly, the music in Xrd do seem to lack a bit of character (melody) compared to the music of the older GGs (and BBs). Non-heavy metal fans would claim they are the way they are because they think all heavy metal sounds the same. In that regard, I wouldn't recommend the GGXrd (or Hard Corps Uprising) soundtrack to them, due to the what-could-be-argued generic-and-samey sounding aspect. I would recommend GGXX or the BBs before Xrd - Xrd is what you would consume after you tasted the other stuff first. And even then, it (might) need(s) a bit of time to grow on you, as it did on me.

Instead of comparing Xrd to GGXX (which has had the benefits of time and nostalgia), I prefer to judge it on its own merits. To me, this soundtrack is a reverse Oreo (analogy pending until a better one is found). An Oreo is an American cookie that consists of two round chocolate wafers with cream in the middle. Apparently, American kids like to pull the wafers apart and go straight for the cream (consumption of the actual wafers optional). Thus, a reverse Oreo is one chocolate wafer with cream on both sides. Ergo, I listen to the first 1/3 (track 1: Give me a break to Track 5: Black Blank blah-blah-blah, up to track 7: Flash Hider, if I'm feeling generous); I skip the middle 1/3 (track 8: Destructive Goodwill to track 2 of disc 2: Dirty Drive). Then I listen to the rest (track 3: Does the sheep count the sheep? up to before the cutscene/story music). I stress that there's nothing bad about the middle, I just play them less frequently.

Apart from that, I don't really weigh one track more than the other, they're mainly evenly played. Not like BB where it is compulsory for me to play my standout track (i.e. Rebellion). Having said that, the closest thing to a favourite track is "The Lily of steel" which is ironic because I wasn't entirely impressed with it the first time I heard it (the importance of allowing a song to grow on you cannot be understated). I think that it was a good idea to give the returning cast completely new themes (well almost completely new, a few songs have just a slight musical hint of older themes) instead of recycling past songs.

Out of the new character theme songs, in contrast to "The Lily of steel", the first one to make a(n) (positive) impression was "Does the sheep count the sheep?" but in time, it turned out to be a fairly uninteresting song that doesn't really go anywhere (though the intentionally misplayed piano keys are a nice touch). "Marionette" and "Stolz" are quite superior in comparison. Then we get to the special battle themes starting with "Reunion". No complaints whatsoever on all four of them.

Interestingly, the acoustic (which is also interesting in and of itself) title theme "Django django" and character select "Fizz" are located way later into the album. Finally, we have all the vocal songs starting with "Heavy Day", which exploded into popularity when it appeared on the first GGXrd trailer. What can be said about it that hasn't already been said. If you are of the opinion that GGXrd's music is same-sounding heavy metal, then I would say that applies even more so on the vocal songs. My most played songs here are Heavy Day, Ride the Fire!, Big Blast Sonic, and Six Black Heavens Guns (Karaoke versions if I'm not in the mood for vocals).

[GoldfishX]

Basically, it's a Dynasty Warriors soundtrack.

[Jodo Kast]

This is listed at 7300 yen at Amazon Japan, which is unusual. One can usually buy albums for less than the stated price from them.

It is convenient to buy from AMZ JP, due to DHL, which is an amazing shipping service. However, I had to go to YJA to buy this, which had a BIN auction at 4700 yen (sealed).

[Jotamide]

Marionette is Ishiwatari's best track since his work on BlazBlue Calamity Trigger.