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.
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