World Map (Onimusha Tactics [2003])
1st off, a little backstory to how I discovered this track: One of my brother’s friends from several years ago sold a bunch of random games lying around in the house’s collection for just 1 dollar. My brother chose this one, although I may or may not have had a say in the matter when asked if we were sure about buying it. Do I regret playing the game we got afterward? Well, sorta…
For a 1 dollar offer, I got 4 tracks worthy enough to call favorites, and I can’t act like the idea of a tactical-RPG take on Onimusha of all things isn’t the least bit interesting of an idea. This listing is 1 of those 4, showing off how awesome the game’s Horns and long Strings are, in a linear stage select theme that you have to go out of your way to hear all of, which is surprisingly likely; great example where the music overshadows the actual game by far.
The aforementioned melody started by the Horn also stays throughout the entire track, start to end, just shifting between different pitches to fit the current mood, which is one of my favorite trends in music, simply because of how it can prove its own versatility, done to great effect here! Also worthy of mention is the catchy Drum rhythm to pump you up, and an epic “Bell”, both completing the adventurous mood the whole track emanates.
Make no mistake though, the games goes right to my bottom tier list, deserving no more than a 1/5 rating, riddled with unbalanced gameplay that gives little to no space for actual team variety (All 5 “chosen one” characters are forced to be used in certain stages, and have special abilities so powerful that not having them is a serious handicap, and there’s only one good healer character, so whoops, now you have only 2 of 8 slots to put in characters of your own choice).
The problems don’t just end there, because it also focuses on an odd story that takes itself way too seriously for how much it overuses the same tired tropes that lesser RPGs were known for, except ten times over. The most blatant example of this is the motion of “introduce a character by having them strike a supposed threat out of nowhere”, only for them to never develop beyond that. A game as crappy as that has no right having music as good as it is, but it IS a Capcom game, so the good music's not unexpected either
(Length before loop: Nearly 2 minutes)
