Recommended Soundtracks: The Musical Styles of the Etrian Odyssey Series

Atlus’ Etrian Odyssey franchise has been around for eleven years, and it’s unsurprisingly gone through several changes in that time. It started as an homage to classic dungeon-crawling RPGs, but unlike other examples of the genre, it includes modifications that make it more palatable to those adjusted to newer and more polished RPGs. The games have also become more accessible as the series has progressed, and its production values have moderately increased.

One of the most notable changes the franchise has received involves the music, composed by Yuzo Koshiro. The games originally relied on FM synth soundtracks, made to mimic the music from old dungeon crawlers from the PC-88 era of the late 80s in Japan. The series switched to an orchestral synth for the music when it moved from DS to 3DS with Etrian Odyssey IV, which contained only that option for the soundtrack. But subsequent titles provided both the orchestral and FM soundtracks, both made with synthesizers. I’m going to chicken out and not say which soundtracks are definitively better, but the purpose of this post is to highlight some of the best examples of both styles, and compare some FM tracks to orchestral iterations.

The first EO title was remade for 3DS in the form of Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl. It featured several upgrades, including a full story mode with premade characters who could talk, outside the silent protagonist, and a new dungeon. But one of the biggest changes was a remixed soundtrack that utilized the aforementioned orchestral synth. The original soundtrack is great stuff, so it seemed like it would be a real treat to hear a remixed version. But I say “seemed like” because while the remixes are good, they pale in comparison to the original.

Specifically, the orchestral synth tracks are held back due to being close remixes of the original. Compare the track for the first labyrinth, aptly named “Labyrinth I” (though it’s also listed with other names). The original FM version makes great use of the limited variety offered for a PC-88-style track, which Koshiro notably composes using the actual system. He’s been known for this style of music for decades, and westerners mainly know his style in this form from the Streets of Rage games:

Compare that to the remix from Untold, which relies on a wider variety of instruments throughout its duration, but uses piano more than any of them:

The track feels like it’s held back by being a remix, though it didn’t have to be that way. It’s like either Koshiro or other members of the development team didn’t want the remix to outshine the original, and decided on a 1:1 adaptation. Koshiro has a little habit for this, which made several think he was a much more capable composer when using old hardware instead of using modern equipment, a frequent argument when comparing his original and remixed tracks for Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.

But the new tracks for the brand-new areas show what he’s more capable of when not having to abide by a remix. Take Recollection – A Thousand Years of Solitude, which is clearly intended to invoke a mysterious atmosphere, intensified with its very subtle ominous chanting and drum use:

That’s a little tougher to do with an FM soundtrack, which follows the general beat but drops the subtlety:

Koshiro is even better at an orchestral-esque soundtrack when he knows he doesn’t have to work on an FM arrangement afterward, and that quality shines throughout EOIV’s soundtrack. One key example here is “Area II – The Red Stone Forest,” the theme for the game’s second overworld:

The fusion between Koshiro’s usual melodic composition style and the orchestral synth used gives this track a cinematic feel, and wouldn’t be out of place in a Ghibli film. It matched the concept art released early in the game’s promotional period, which channeled several fantasy Ghibli films like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Castle in the Sky.

(Both those movies, it should be noted, were inspirations for several Japanese RPGs.)

It was confirmed a week ago that Atlus will be continuing the Etrian Odyssey series beyond the recent Etrian Odyssey X on 3DS. The latter title is a “festive culmination” for the series, which includes several elements from the EO franchise’s lineage. This means future titles will go in a different direction, but precisely how different it will be from its predecessors remains to be seen. But in terms of its soundtrack, there’s a good chance it will be closer to EOIVs, with the game’s potential new school feel.

This era might mark the end for the use of an FM synth for Etrian Odyssey’s soundtracks, and if so, I wanted to give the era a proper sendoff with this post. But if that’s the case, some new school tracks show that future soundtracks won’t be so bad, and that Koshiro is perfectly good outside PC-88-style tracks.

P.S. If you can believe it, this is the first “Recommended Soundtracks” installment I’ve posted since the end of 2012, over five-and-a-half years ago. There was no way I could bring this back with a “traditional” entry, where I only featured one game’s soundtrack. But I’ll consider returning to that format soon, meaning I’d like to bring it back as a regular feature. I’m not making any promises, though.