Sekaiju no MeiQ II Original Soundtrack :: Liner Notes Translated by PQTN

	Album Title:	Sekaiju no MeiQ II Original Soundtrack
	Record Label:	Five Records
	Catalog No.:	VGCD-0135
	Release Date:	March 21, 2008
	Purchase:	Buy at CDJapan

Commentary

Shigeo Komori - Director

Novel yet nostalgic — that's the concept of Etrian Odyssey. Not needing to be told by me, you all know we hired Yuzo Koshiro for the first game and requested that the soundtrack featured today's kind of FM sound.

When developing Etrian Odyssey II, there was a major source of concern — we mustn't change the basic concept of Etrian Odyssey as long as it's a series. However, it would have been demanding for Koshiro to have been asked to score a soundtrack with the same concept as its predecessor while making it even more novel yet nostalgic.

I still remember how reassuring it was that Koshiro readily embraced the project when I proposed it to him. I told him whatever I wanted, like "in the same style yet a different mood to the predecessor..." or "make more impressive melodies". Koshiro hung on and carefully examined each of my words to proceed with the task. Please hear the results for yourself.

Yuzo Koshiro - Composer

This soundtrack includes two kinds of sound mainly crafted from PC-88 timbres: the DS version and the original version. The DS version is the same as the DS sound except for the two tracks that were slightly modified due to recording problems. With the PC-88 version, however, I especially elaborated the sound textures and carefully made the FM parts meld with the PCM parts. I was conscious of what exactly is described as an 'old school' texture and assembled a sound that old game music fans would be familiar with. That distinctive sound that cames from the arcade cabinets and consoles of olden days is fused with the dynamics and density of modern game audio.

The concept of the score is old-style game music like the predecessor. It's based on my past reprehensive works such as Sorcerian and The Scheme. Besides them, my homages and parodies for the sound of the arcade games from the mid 80s to the early 90s can be found here and there. I think it's challenging to identify them on the first listen unless you're an extraordinary fanatic. Please try it if you're a fan of old game music!

Editor's Note: Track-by-track comments are currently omitted.