PSC

The Episode Aegis OST is now up on the channel in the Persona 3 Reload playlist. I will mention that Ryota Kozuka, Kenichi Tsuchiya, Shoji Meguro, Toshiki Konishi, and a new composer Reina Ashikaga are listed to have worked on the soundtrack as arrangers possibly although there is currently no track by track breakdown of the songs. While I don't know for certain I think I can make at least 3 plausible gusses for who did what tracks:

Snow Queen's Theme - Reload = I can't decide if its Kozuka since it sounds a bit like his style, or Tsuchiya since he is the composer for the original theme in P1 and has remixed it before

Persona - Reload = I am certain this is Meguro and he is the composer for the original theme in P1.

Time Castle - Reload = The guitar sounds like Konishi

I will leave the composer credit as Kitajoh until I can get a confirmed answer.

3 months ago | [YT] | 269

PSC

I do this with every release but as a reminder I have no set date for when I will post the Episode Aegis OST. I have it and have listened to it but I can't say when I will upload it, it could be tomorrow or it could be next month, it depends on whether or not I feel I can without Atlus nuking the channel so just be patient (as well Atlus does post osts to Youtube and Spotify these days as well).

As for the soundtrack it self, I have no strong opinions on it so I am not going to do a review, if there is any nitpick I could make its just the drums on like 1 or 2 songs thats it. I did enjoy the Snow Queen Theme though.

4 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 247

PSC

Random Thought: If Atlus ever decides to remake P1 and take another crack at updating the soundtrack (and you know include the entire soundtrack this time) in my opinion the composers that should be tasked with the job are Ryota Kozuka and Kenichi Tsuchiya. Kozuka because to me he is realistically the only composer at Atlus that could do Aoki's work justice and maintain the ethereal sound of the ost's more ambient songs and the dream like atmosphere of the game. Tsuchiya because he is the only composer left at Atlus that worked on P1 and composed the battle themes and character themes. Not only could he remake his own work but since he worked on the original he would be the most knowledgeable about what the whole of idea and sound for the original soundtrack was and could relay that to Kozuka. If necessary you can also include Kitajoh to handle the shop themes since those would be more his style. Of course the original soundtrack should also be included with any P1 remake but knowing Atlus they will charge extra for that.

So the composer list would be as such:
Ryota Kozuak: Aoki's songs, Ambient tracks (e.g. City 2 Accident)
Kenichi Tsuchiya: Battle Theme, Character themes
Atsushi Kitajoh (if necessary): Shops

9 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 431

PSC

It's been nearly a month since my last ost review so I thought it's about time for another. I have given you an "it's alright" review (P3R), and a "I love this ost" review (P2IS) so it's only fair I give you a negative review. This dubious honour goes to Persona 5 Tactica.

Toshiki Konishi is the sole composer on this soundtrack although he should be familiar to most of you. He has previously worked on the PSP remakes of P2IS and EP as the lead composer, as well as worked under Atsushi Kitajoh on PQ 1 and 2, Shoji Meguro on P5, and Ryota Kozuka on SMT V. P5T would be Konishi's first original solo project where he not only worked alone but also wasn't remaking someone elses work.

I listened to this soundtrack when it first came out over the course of five days (1 disc per day) and I am not going to lie or mince words with you, but I felt like my eyes had glazed over during most of the soundtrack. The ost opens really strong "Revolution in your Heart" which sounds like a Konishi song and when I first heard it I was like "Oh yea this is Konishi". Unfortunately to me the soundtrack falls off a cliff after this and it wasn't until "Abyss of Despair" sent me on a wild goose chase trying to figure out where I heard that melody before that I finally awoke from my boredom induced stupor. In fact I had completely missed the great "Prison Labor" remix on my first listen because I was so checked out by that point. "Providence" is the only song that I genuinely go back and listen to and for some reason makes me think of Tatsuya's Scenario in P2EPP. It's just a shame that song is all the way at the end of the soundtrack and is a DLC theme I believe so most players likely won't even hear it. I was honestly wondering where was this for the rest of the soundtrack, why couldn't we get this Konishi.

Overall to me it's not a bad soundtrack, it's a boring soundtrack and in some ways that is worse. Nothing truly stands out and I personally couldn't tell most of the tracks apart if you played them for me, compared to the soundtracks for P1 to 5 which all have songs that stand out and are distinctive enough that you know when and where they play when you hear them out of context. I cannot say the same for P5T's soundtrack.

As you can tell I was really disappointed with this soundtrack because I know Konishi is capable of producing better work, be it the remade P2 stuff, the new original tracks he created for the P2 duology, or his work with Kitajoh on the PQ series. P5S proved that you can make a Persona 5 soundtrack with a more rock oriented sound, P5T however is not on the same level. To go from bangers like "Best Friend", "F.O.E", "Inaba Pride Exhibit" in PQ or the Tatsuya Scenario tracks in P2EPP, to whatever the P5T soundtrack is is shocking. I don't know if this soundtrack is just a mulligan for Konishi or if it is a sign he needs a guiding hand above him (e.g. Kitajoh) but what I do know is this OST for me personally was a big miss and we can only wait for Konishi's next solo project to make a firm judgment on him as a solo composer going forward as he presumably takes Kitajoh's spot on spin-off titles while Kitajoh takes over the main Persona games from Meguro.

Hopefully my next review will be more positive as I plan on talking about Persona 4.

9 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 255

PSC

Someone pointed out that the P3R tracks that I have uploaded are a bit quiet, and they are right, I'm not sure how I didn't notice this. For whatever reason volume on the music files I have have been turned way down. I have better ones now with proper volume so if you notice me reuploading the 10 tracks I have already uploaded you now know why.

10 months ago | [YT] | 275

PSC

You guys seemed to have enjoyed the last one post so I thought I would give you another quick review if you're interested; this one on the Persona 2 Innocent Sin soundtrack. I have over the years made it no secret that P2IS has my favourite OST in the franchise and it is why this channel exists so if I come off as a biased boomer I apologize in advance. I am a real sucker for this late-90's sound and Tasaki's P2 and Soul Hackers OST's specifically just really resonate with me.

The lead composer for P2IS is Toshiko Tasaki who previously worked under Tsukasa Masuko on the original Devil Summoner, and was give the lead role on Soul Hackers. She is joined by Kenichi Tsuchiya and Misaki Kurokawa. This soundtrack is very much a Tasaki soundtrack as it has her distinct sound which is largely created by the samples and reverb she uses which gives all her songs this "airy-ness" to them. Tasaki largely handled the dungeon themes on the soundtrack, with Tsuchiya being responsible for the character themes and battle themes. Shop themes, and event themes were largely split between Tsuchiya and Kurokawa.

As for the soundtrack itself, it really has something for everyone because I don't think a Persona soundtrack has covered this many genre's at once since. To some this may not be a good thing since it may feel the soundtrack lacks a central theme and focus but to others the variety is welcomed. The dungeon themes are my favourite part of the soundtrack, it's just a shame you have to stand still to hear the damn thing in-game. Songs like Smile Hirasaka, GOLD, and Mt.Katatsmuri are particular standouts for me, but they are all great. Tsuchiya once again delivers great battle themes and characters themes with Knights of the Holy Spear, and Maya's Theme being arguably the two tracks that have transcended P2 and entered into the collective consciousness of all Persona fans (Tsuchiya really is underrated for the amount a songs he was written that are still with us today). Of course there are many good shop and location themes provided by Tsuchiya and Kurokawa with ROSA CANDIDA - Aoba Shop being a stand out track (this is also one of the rare times I will say to check out the PSP version as Atsushi Kitajoh does the song justice). Ramen Shiraishi is another track I find my self going back to listen to. Of course we also cannot forget the many Satomi Tadashi themes this game adds and whether you think that is a good thing or not depends on how highly you think of yourself. Lastly this soundtrack would start the trend of Persona games ending with a credits theme with vocals, in this case "Next to You" by Hitomi, which I can't imagine was cheap given her popularity at the time. The Persona 2 Innocent Sin Soundtrack is what I would call a "complete" soundtrack in that it really has everything.

While the soundtrack is by no means underrated in the Megaten fanbase, I would say it is in the largely JRPG space and their are of course many reasons for this. Firstly the game wasn't localized until the PSP re-release, Persona in general was a niche series up until recently, the gameplay is understandably hard for many to get into and of course this game came out in the late 90's during what you could describe as the golden age of JRPG's so there was a lot of competition and of course on top of that no one was going to stop Nobuo Uematsu's ascension to godhood so every other soundtrack was competing for second best. There is more I could say but this post is long enough so I will leave it here. Basically if you haven't heard the soundtrack but are intrested I highly recommend you give it a listen when you have the time. JUST DON'T LISTEN TO THE PSP VERSION! IT'S NOT BAD BUT TRUST ME DON'T UNLESS YOU ARE ALREADY FAMILIAR WITH THE STORY OF P2IS. LISTEN TO THE PS1 VERSION FIRST/PLAY THE GAME OR WATCH A PLAYTHROUGH, THAN LISTEN TO THE PSP VERSION; YOU'LL THANK ME LATER.

10 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 311

PSC

So I just finished listening to the P3R soundtrack and thought I would give a very brief run down of my thoughts if you're interested. (I know you don't come to this channel read my hot takes so I will keep this contained to this post).

Overall I think the soundtrack is fine and it certainly doesn't replace the original. It's a P2 style situation where you have the original OST and the remastered one which has all the same songs, just updated with better sounds and even live recordings. As with P2 while the songs in P3R were translated over well enough there is something lost in translation and it is apparent in some songs more than others. If you are familiar with the og P3 soundtrack than you will notice some songs lack that "punchyness" and there are a variety of reasons for this (equipment used, mixing, live recording vs. samples/synths, and of course the arrangers personal taste in this case Atsushi Kitajoh). To give an example; the remade version of the song "Nyx" the bass strings to me don't drive the song as much as they do in the original. In the remade version they seem a lot quieter and subdued. During I guess you would call it the verse section of "Battle Hymn of the Soul" was the first and only time on the soundtrack I was like "nah this ain't it". Everything else in the song was fine; the guitars, the acoustic percussion and vocals were good, but the choice of percussion sounds for the electronic beat during the verse section just didn't vibe with me.

As for the vocals I will say that I am not sure if it's because I am so used to Yumi singing these songs that I am just thinking eh when listening. Lotus Juice is still Lotus Juice so nothing new there. Overall like I said it's a fine soundtrack and I think it's best to treat it the same way you would the P2 OST's with the matter of which one being better being a matter of personal preference and each song judged on a track by track basis. This is of course my first listen so as I give the soundtrack more time my opinions on it and individual tracks may change. All in all it hits all the notes it needs to and I would have no problem using this OST over the original if given the option to change between the two in P3R but it by no means replaces the original.

11 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 450

PSC

I've had these tracks for a bit now but never "officially" uploaded them to the channel since the game isn't actually out yet. I have added some dynamic processing to increase the quality and looped the tracks that needed to be looped.

www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

11 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 79

PSC

Just a heads up, I have changed the channel layout so now OST's are arranged by game (eg all the P5 OSTs are together in their own category).

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 185

PSC

Just a heads up for those new around here. Even though P5T releases in a couple of days don't expect the OST to be on the channel for awhile since the first couple of days and weeks after a release Atlus like other companies goes around and hammers channels with copyright strikes on the new soundtracks. Sadly Atlus is also very inconsistent about this and some channels get hit hard while others are spared completely. I learned my lesson back in the day when P5 released so I delay my uploads by at least a month or 2 to wait for the storm to blow over. The same rule will apply when P3R releases next year.

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 486