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Suite Wizardry II ~ Legacy of Llylgamyn :: Review by Calvin
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Album Title: | Suite Wizardry II ~ Legacy of Llylgamyn |
| Record Label: | Apollon | |
| Catalog No.: | BY30-5209 | |
| Release Date: | March 5, 1989 | |
| Purchase: | Buy at eBay |
Overview
Suite Wizardry II ~ Legacy of Llyllgamyn is the second arranged album of the original Wizardry trilogy. This album resembles a style like its predecessor, We Love Wizardry, especially how it uses orchestrated synthesizers instead of real instruments. Combining with change of mood in darker tones, this album fell to category mediocre. Compared to the first Wizardry album, I found the second to be less enjoyable due to the lack of memorable themes. These who love tunes in the original Wizardry probably would be disappointed.
Body
The CD opens strongly with a new Wizardry main theme. Its opening part is reminiscent of the first Wizardry theme and maintains the dramatic atmosphere as a prologue to a grand saga. It is also accompanied by harpshicord and synthesized oboe, which help to build a Baroque atmosphere. The next track, "Legacy of Llylgamyn", is a witty tune composed in a music box style to accompany Llyllgamyn Castle. The style of the music is pretty much combination of classical and pentatonic impressionism, sounding like a Maurice Ravel work.
If you loved the light-hearted tunes for Gilgamesh's Tavern and the Boltac Trading Post for the first Wizardry, you will be disappointed here. Instead of composing something lightful and comical, Haneda made both of these tracks in the CD appear like filler — they don't have particularly strong melodies and are only fleshed-out with the addition of several string passages here and there. Compared with these two, the change of Inn music in the eleventh track is better and is the sweetest music compared to the rest of albums. The violin solo is treated perfectly and it sounds almost real. The Temple of Cant music is a brilliant combination of a harpshicord solo with soft percussion accompaniment; it sounds powerul and builds a dramatic atmosphere.
"Edge of Town II" is my favourite track in the album. It's the only track that is sufficiently catchy to satisfy and is arranged especially beautifully. The main melody is clear and the chord progressions are gorgeous compared to the dissonance scattered on other tracks. The dungeon theme is creepy and mysterious music that builds the atmosphere of a graveyard. The music is quite melodious, but sadly the theme is not clear enough. As for the game over music "All Is Dead ~Requiem~", it's another catchy piece; this track has a solid opening, using effective modulations and very good chord progressions. The use of synthesized choirs also makes the music much stronger as it progresses.
The battle themes are probably the worst tracks in the whole album. The "Fighting Sights" theme is sadly not powerful enough and reminds me somewhat of the pathetic battle themes Sugiyama composed for Dragon Quest II. Dissonance dominates the track and, despite the attempt to increase the drama, it fails in terms of its melody. The same also goes for "L'Kbreth". It's another battle theme that lacks clarity and is dependent on its chord progression. The melodies of these two tracks just go nowhere. And after listening to those crazy string progression, the dramatic ending is featured. Composed in style of anthem, the grand end marks the end of third episode of Wizardry trilogy.
As bonus addition, the last musical track in this album features non-stop medley of original 8-bit famicom tunes of Wizardry II music. Even though the quality is fine, it is questionable why there are continuous occurences of annoying sound effects in middle of the music and a lot of sudden abrupt of track change. Along with the arrangement version, the original music is pretty much enjoyable. Haneda's brilliance in composing could be seen from the original sound version, even without arrangement, the music is highly pleasure to my ears. It's amazing how with limited sound driver, he could compose numerous complex melodies.
Summary
My feelings on this album are quite mixed. The lack of solid themes and dominance of dissonant chords makes this album less enjoyable compared to the first one. There are nice tracks with strong musicality such as the main theme and the music for the inn, temple, town, and game over scene. The rest are pretty mediocre and some are hardly enjoyable at all.
Even with the presence of nicest tracks in the album, the poor synthesizer quality and lack of melodious themes make it inferior to the first Wizardry album. But then again, there are some higly memorable and touching pieces in this album. The inclusion of the half-hearted original sound version with those annoying sound effects also could become a better experience for listening. This CD is obviously not for everyone and it took quite time to appreciate the music. However, if you love Baroque music, you will probably enjoy this one as well despite its mediocrity.
