![]() Coming across the Vagrant Story soundtrack is like finding a watermelon in the orange produce section. There has been NOTHING like Vagrant Story before or after. Hitoshi Sakimoto hasn’t only created a work which defies explanation, he has done so in the presence of an industry in which originality and deviation from normal expectation is not always greeted favourably. I’ve also come to realize that Vagrant Story is one of the most artistically viable works of art in video game music history. What gives the Vagrant Story soundtrack its sense of gravity and purpose, is its very abrasive and unsettling nature. What I’ve come to realize is that the ‘grotesque’ can contain its own inherent sense of aesthetical beauty. My own experiences with the soundtrack largely reflect first impressions of another infamous work, but more on that shortly. After a brief recovery period, of about 3 years, I’ve re-examined the album and have one thing to say genius. Like one who gets ill after being at sea for the first time, Vagrant Story literally made me nauseous and I fled away in terror, sense raped and repulsed. The harmonies, percussion and orchestration were so jarring, so shocking that it literally turned my head on its side and punted it across the room. Final Fantasy Tactics was a brilliant game, backed by beautiful music and when I bought Vagrant Story, I must admit I was expecting more of the same… Boy was I wrong. I picked up Vagrant Story with the premonition that Sakimoto would be composing and it would be similar to Final Fantasy Tactics. I will be honest, I absolutely despised Vagrant Story upon first hearing it. This is a good soundtrack, but it’s not going to be for everyone. To call Vagrant Story a passionately convoluted, head-first dive into untrodden musical depths which fill the mind and heart with utter terror and leave the lungs gasping for air, would be putting it shortly so I will proceed with caution. DigiCube (1st Edition) Square Enix (2nd Edition) ![]()
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