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I was watching a friend play the first game and I thought the music was absolutely bizarre. I haven't decided yet whether it improved the game or distracted from it...

I enjoyed the music in both Digital Devil Saga games immensely. However, I did think DDS2 had a much better score than DDS1 by a large margin.
I am also a pretty big Shoji Meguro fan, in general.  His work in Persona, Maken X, Soul Hackers, and especially SMT3, has all been absolutely wonderful.

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Heh, I hate to start my presence on the new forum by disagreeing with someone, but I definetly disagree with you here, Conn.

I agree that the 4-disc-set is pretty good, but I've been listening to it on and off over the last 2 weeks, and I'm quite disappointed with it. There is no way the DDS soundtracks top SMT3: Nocturne (not to mention the pure awesomeness that are the Persona soundtracks). For several reasons: the battle rock tunes are much tighter and better in SMT3, the 4-disc DDS set is littered with useless and boring 10-30 second cutscene music, and Kenichi Tsuschiya and Toshiko Tasaki (that both played significant parts in SMT3's soundtrack) are nowhere to be found on the DDS soundtrack (apart from a few tracks from Tsuschiya on DDS1). The only thing that DDS has going for it over Nocturne is that is has loads of great dungeon themes, a department in which Nocturne was pretty poor.

Anyway, this is of course all personal opinion. But at least no one can say that I'm biased by playing experience: I haven't played a second of either SMT3, DDS1, or DDS2.

Lastly, can people PLEASE stop perpetuating the myth that Shoji Meguro is the composer of the Persona soundtracks...? PLEASE...? He did *nothing* on either Persona 2: Innocent Sin or Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (those soundtracks were done by Toshiko Tasaki, Masaki Kurokawa, and Kenichi Tsuschiya), and he was a junior composer on Persona: Be Your True Mind, composing only a handful of tracks on a soundtrack which had a total of 110 compositions (the vast majority of tracks were done by Hidehito Aoki and Kenichi Tsuschiya). Also, for Soul Hackers OST, the majority of the tracks were done by Toshiko Tasaki, and Maken X's main composer was Takahiro Ogata. You can check up all this in the liner notes of the various soundtrack releases: most of them list track-by-track who the composer of each piece is.

Sorry if it seems like I'm bashing Meguro here - I'm definetly not! He's an awesome composer. But it irks me quite a bit that people seem to think "Atlus music = Shoji Meguro". It's so damn simplistic. Being a huge fan of just about all Megami Tensei soundtracks out there (enough of a fan to hunt down a copy of most of them, even the obscure ones), I feel due credit should be given to the entirety of the awesome sound team over at Atlus - please don't forget Tsukasa Masuko, Hidehito Aoki, Misaki Okibe, Toshiko Tasaki, Kenichi Tsuschiya, Masaki Kurokawa, and Takahiro Ogata. At least Masuko, Aoki, Tasaki, and Tsuschiya have done *more* work on the MegaTen series than Meguro (in fact, the only soundtracks were the main composer was Meguro has been SMT3: Nocturne, DDS1, and DDS2 - by no means something to smirk about, but there's a whole awesome music legacy before those 3 soundtracks). Personally, I consider Hidehito Aoki (Majin Tensei 1 & 2, Persona 1), Toshiko Tasaki (Persona 2: IS, Persona 2: EP, SMT3: Nocturne), and Kenichi Tsuschiya (Persona 2: IS, Persona 2: EP, SMT3: Nocturne, DDS1) to be better composers than Meguro, but that is just my personal opinion, and no doubt dependent on the fact that I enjoy hard techno-ish/industrial electronic music more than guitar-driven music (albeit by just a hair). My favourite composer of all over at Atlus is probably Toshiko Tasaki, mostly for her work on both Persona 2 soundtracks - if this girl isn't already taken, I'm gonna marry her (Tsuschiya is awesome as well, but I prefer girls, hehe)!

If that is directed towards me, please note that I did not say "2."  Shoji Meguro worked on every single game I mentioned, though I never mentioned how large his role was, I just said that I enjoyed the tracks he did do.

Do not mistake me for one of the uninformed masses.  This thread is about DDS's music, which is primarily by Shoji Meguro, so he is the person I mentioned.

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In my opinion, Tsuchiya's best work was in SMT1 (and some of SMT2)... and I still like Masaki Kurokawa's tracks better. He hasn't grown very much since then, though, and it certainly shows in his SMT3 pieces.

Persona 2 has some of my favorite tracks from any videogame period; but Tsuchiya didn't compose the ones I like, either.

First off: tz: no, it's not directed to you. I understood you meant only the tracks Meguro worked on for Persona 1 and the other games.

Conn: Glad you didn't take offence from my post. Just as I posted it, I thought that I might have sounded too harsh or elitist or something. I really didn't mean to. We're not enemies here, nor even in much disagreement, I also think the DDS music is awesome (but just not as much so as the Persona soundtracks or SMT3: Nocture, nor for that matter SMT: Devil Summoner, which is an awesome soundtrack that has been overlooked even by MegaTen fans).

My main gripe was this part of your review: "He’s an accomplished musician, having written the excellent Persona and Soul Hackers soundtracks, as well as the more recent Nocturne."

C'mon, admit it - this clearly sounds like you saying that Meguro was the head (even sole) composer of the three Persona soundtracks and Soul Hackers, when in fact he had nothing to do with Persona 2: IS, Persona 2: EP, only wrote a few tracks for Persona 1, and wrote at least less tracks for Soul Hackers than Tasaki did. If you (and Ramza) are candid, you should edit that comment in the review. Give composers credit where credit is due.

Lastly, I do agree that DDS2's music is way better than DDS1's. When the 1-disc DDS1 soundtrack came out last year, I was very disappointed, expecting the same level as SMT: Nocturne. DDS2's music surprised me very much, especially since it has so much cool techno stuff, a style which was (almost) entirely missing in DDS1, and which I didn't expect Meguro to be so good at. Really, the rock battle themes are great, but the techno dungeon themes is the thing that really does it for me on this soundtrack. I still feel DD2's techno is somewhat inferior to that heard in the 3 Persona soundtracks, but it's no doubt awesome. And yes, Tsuschiya's tracks on DDS1 were hardly up to his old standard. My main gripe with this 4-disc DDS set is that Meguro stretched himself too thin. There's a lot of great stuff in there, sure, but I think there are also many boring tracks. I can't help thinking (and don't kill me now!) that if a few of the other composers over at Atlus were also involved, it would have turned out even better (even Meguro's tracks, since he could have had more time to focus on each piece).

BTW, anyone looking forward to the next musical excursion of this great series - "Devil Summoner: Kuzunoha Raidou", released in March...? No info on who the composer(s) is yet, but the music I heard in the trailers sound like Meguro's trademark rock. Whoever it is, I'm certainly looking forward to it.

Actually, neither Tsuschiya nor Kurokawa composed any of the music heard in SMT1 or SMT2. ALL the music in those games was composed by Tsukasa Masuko. Tsuschiya and Kurokawa only arranged the music for the PlayStation versions - the liner note markings in the "Shin Megami Tensei Sound Collection" CD-set refers to who arranged the music. The original SNES music the arrangements were based on were all Masuko's work. Irritating that they didn't specify that more clearly. The credit for SMT1's and SMT2's music clearly belongs to Tsukasa Masuko, as Tsuschiya and Kurokawa didn't alter the music much for the upgrades.

That's strange, but I believe you.  However, I certainly hear a lot of SMT1 in Tsuchiya's later pieces; perhaps he was influenced by Masuko, in that case.

There were separate soundtracks released for the original SNES SMT games back in the day, which specified Masuko as the composer. The SMT2 one is currently for sale at VGMWorld.

Also, about Tsuschiya: didn't you like his Persona 1 tracks? I think they were awesome, most of them. Tracks like "Elly", "Ayase", "Snow Queen", and the boss battle themes, and many more.

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I admit I haven't listened to this nearly as close as I should have...Something about this type of constantly dark music I can only stand in limited doses at a time. But I generally agree with two main things that have been said:

1. DDS2 > DDS1. I expected this from the start, given the 1 disc soundtrack releases. A lot of DDS2 tracks just succeeded in grabbing my attention more.

2. The constant 30-40 second tracks are annoying. I mean, they're good, but also too short for their own good and are more like annoying pauses between the more developed tracks.

Still, I'd definitely put this in my top 5 releases of this year. Seperately, I probably wouldn't say that, but combined and complete, it's a no-brainer. Meguro's work rarely disappoints, even if it isn't my most-listened to stuff.

I'll probably delve into the music a bit closer once I finally start playing the games. Too bad (like most Atlus games) their damn prices don't seem to want to drop...

I wasn't any more impressed by the two disc version of the DDS2 soundtrack than the 1 disc version.  The DDS1 soundtrack never did it for me.  I'm playing through 2 right now and really can't wait to the point in the game where "The Sun" plays...that's probably my favorite track in an OST from the past year.  Don't know why.

I'm glad to see the MT soundtracks finally getting their due...I remember getting the Megaten World and old MT sets that nobody had ever heard of, and being in shock they had never gotten their due.  Nice to see that change.

<<Strohmie>>

The soundtracks for Megami Tensei and it's various spinoffs might just rank second in "most chronically overrated", right below Ys.

Don't you mean to say "Final Fantasy"? At least Ys/Megami Tensei fans have to do a little more digging before they can start proclaiming the music as the "best evar".

Soto/Strohmie's post is basically right...I can't recall any meaningful discussion about the series' music before he posted something about Megaten World and (I believe) the Megami Tensei 1 and 2 album (the one with the disc of Yonemitsu arrangements). Funny thing was, the SMT Sound Collection and SMT3 OST popped out of nowhere for release shortly after that.

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Tuning in....I didn't care for the first one, and this, while better, just didn't do it for me. Not to say I find it bad, there are occasional sweet moments, like some of the techno-ish tracks ('The Sun' is great). But far too many tracks that start out good, but then just end up swerving into nothingness. And Meguro's rock is cool, but I can't take more than two tracks at a time. I might not fit in with the people that dig megaten. In fact, so far there hasn't been a single new megaten OST that I thought was really great. I remember Dais making a poll about favorite OST's, couldn't think of one, truelly unfortunately. Persona 2 EP is imo the most solid OST of all the megaten and spinoff series . But the old stuff (like Majin Tensei 2 SN an Megami Tensei 2) is where it's at people, despite the 1 minute-composition syndrome.

I'd be cool if they'd do another arrange album -a la Megaten World- that covers ALL of the recent MT stuff.

EDIT: I meant Majin Tensei 2, not 1.

I find pretty annoying that, despite of being labeled as "integral", the OST isn't complete (much like the SMT3 OST...). It's still missing some tracks, mainly the "first movement" of "Hideout of the Chickens", "Sweet Home" and "Tower of Reunion", a few variations in the (DDS1 only?) main battle theme, the "rare devil" battle theme in DDS2 (!!!), and a some sub-parts in "Man's Tomb",  "Spider's String - TSM" and others (in the game the dungeon music is segmented in subsections, but these parts are mixed in the OST). The song order is sometimes wrong (ie.- "Spider's String - TSM" is the last dungeon theme and should go last, etc.) and not all tracks fully loop even if there is more that enough playtime. Plus tracks that already were in the separate DDS1 OST seems reused as-is, unchanged. This OST seems a bit cheaply but together to me.

Also, Daniel K, could you elaborate about Maken X? I'd love to know a more specific per-track composer info, if you could check the liner notes. Several tracks in Maken X and specially Maken Shao sound like things Meguro would compose, with several hints of his style switching to a more SMT3/DDS sound (this is more apparent in Shao). If anyone wants to check Maken Shao (the PS2 remake of Maken X, with all new/remixed stage music) I'm sharing a rip of it in the VGMCentral DC hub.

BTW, anybody noticed the "subtle" similarities between DDS's "Blade" (the hunting field track) with Maken X/Shao's "Sicily"? ;).

Hmmm, that's weird. It seems that Shoji Meguro did the majority of tracks on the Maken X OST. Very strange, since Takahiro Ogata is listed as "Sound Director & Music Composer" before Meguro. I guess I just drew the conclusion that he did a bigger part of the OST just because of that (since that's the way it usually goes). Anyway, according to the liner notes, Takahiro Ogata did tracks 1, 2, 10, 18, 19, 31, 32, 33, and 39, and Shoji Meguro did the rest. Please observe though that their names are written next to the *comments* of each track, which doesn't necessarily mean that person composed that track (although I find that most likely, or would they comment on each other's tracks...?).

I find it a little strange, I must admit. I can't agree that most of the stuff sounds like standard Meguro - the electronic music in Maken X sounds to me much rawer and more hardcore than his other stuff. And while there is certainly difference between for example his SMT3 work and DDS, it's not as pronounced.

While this would seem to make Maken X very much Meguro's work, I'd like to point out that despite his apparently weak presence on the OST, Ogata actually composed my 4 favourite pieces: "Mist", "Risky", "The Forbidden City", and the absolutely awesome "Boss".

All that is of course just up to personal opinion (right, Dais...?). But personally, I can't agree. First off: I don't see Megami Tensei as especially highly rated (especially not when compared to the likes of Final Fantasy, Ys, and Dragon Quest). In fact, it seems as there are very few people around that have explored more than a couple or 3 titles in the series (whether it be the games or the music). I agree that there is a lot of hype around Megami Tensei, but that is just to be expected when a series starts "emerging" from the "underground" and slowly captures the attention of the community.

Personally, I've been very positively surprised about the quality of the music of this series, ever since I first started exploring it. It's been consistently excellent to a very large degree. From the wonderful, classical 8-bit melodies of the original Famicom games, through the smooth jazz of Devil Summoner, the awesome techno/pop of the Persona soundtracks, and the hardcore electronica of Maken X (which admittedly isn't really part of the series, but it shares so many similarities on so many levels that it could as well be), up to the hard rock of SMT3: Nocturne and DDS, most of it has been great. I think the reason I like it so much is that it puts focus on genres of music that I like very much, which doesn't usually happen in RPGs. I'm not a big fan of the orchestral/epic and "adventure pop" flair in most RPG music, the distinct contemporary and modern flavour of Megami Tensei music appeals to me much more (this is also why I'm a big fan of the Shadow Hearts soundtracks).

You know you really like a series' soundtracks when you love most of them despite hardly having even played any of the games.

Don't get me wrong, I love the music in the series.

But only about 40% of what is on the average Megaten OST actually IS music. Everything else is just.....filler.

I like music.

New forums hurt my head.

Glad to get your review posted Mr. "McCall" (shhh, no one knows your real identity).

Ramza

Yea, that's the other big one I posted about.  Along with those two was the Devil Children arranged CD that had Sakuraba arrangements on it, which I got around the same time.

We're coming to the point in this community where not much is getting past us, and very little is being overlooked anymore.  Of course, the popularity of each series will wax and wane depending on recent releases...MegaTen is near a peak right now, which is probably what Dais is getting at.  Just wait until the FFXII soundtrack comes out...

Thanks for the composer info, Daniel. About Maken, I think you can see hints of his guitar-driven stuff subtly in several tracks (I don't think there are many guitar-driven songs in the Megaten series, if at all), though indeed it's still much rawer than his recent stuff. But specially in Maken Shao you can see how he starts to use less techno and more guitar. I uploaded a few Shao tracks here, should anybody want to check them: http://s51.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1ELO … ZLP56K9KZM
Too bad Shao never got a proper OST...

Also, I am the only one that likes DDS1 OST *more* than DDS2's? Sure, DDS2 has great tracks, but the overall uniqueness and the mellow but still powerful tracks of DDS1 instead of DDS2's more common "Megaten-esque" techno (and specially compared with other, more generic, RPGs) made DDS1 a winner to me.

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Thank you for the mp3s! I remember playing Maken Shao years ago, my brother had it. I just played the first stage, but the moment I put on "Research Institute", the memory of that song immideately hit me. For years I thought that Maken X and Maken Shao were identical games with identical scores (just renamed).

It seems the Shao soundtrack is a lot more mellow and smooth. I still prefer Maken X's more frantic, hardcore pace, but this is good stuff as well, and I agree that this should have been released. When I think about it, it's not really strange that Maken X had such a fast-paced score when compared to the Megami Tensei games: Maken X is a real-time action game, while the Megatens are RPGs (this is also why the upcoming Kuzunoha Raidou OST could turn out to be Maken-ish, since I heard it's a live-action game).

As for DDS1 vs DDS2, like I previously said, I prefer DDS2. It's true that DDS1 sounds much more unique and DDS2 is more "typical Megaten" music, but DDS2 wins in my eyes becuase of the techno dungeon themes, most of which are really good. DDS1 is unique and has some good stuff as well, but I just can't bare to sit and listen through the 1-disc release, and much less so the 2 first discs of Integral. Come to think of it, I really can't sit through the entirety of the 2 latter discs of Integral, either: too many stinkers. I really think the most worthwhile of all DDS music CDs was the 1-disc American promo release for DDS2, it had basically all the good tracks from DDS2, minus the forgettable stuff. Screw completeness (and Integral wasn't even complete, it seems).

I'm thinking quite along the same lines. DDS1's melodic melancholic rock hit me way more than DDS2. I still like both of them, but 1 is just especially good in my opinion. :)

McCall, I'm pretty sure the DDS2 rare devil song isn't there. Somebody from the OST staff must have noticed they messed up, because they uploaded an MP3 and WAV here: http://www.5pb.jp/records/works/exive/dds/dds.html

About the "hideout of the chickens" and others, well, it's just a little "mystery" song played before the game's first battle. Not very interesting but still... I uploaded some of these missing tracks: DDS PSF2. These are PSF2 files, with guessed reverb so they sound quite bad, sorry :(. 54_1 is "Hideout of the Chickens", 5A_1 is "Sweet Home", and 57_1 is "Tower of Reunion" first parts. Others are random location songs in DDS2, I think

And the Kuzunoha Raidou OST... I think it's going to be more like Persona 2. From the videos, it would seem other Megaten composers returns (the first and third videos sound like Meguro stuff, but the rest doesn't?). Given their absence in DDS, I'd guess Raidou would have several composers again.

It just might be. I hope so, like I said, I dig Meguro, but his presence has been too heavy in the last three Megaten soundtracks... I really hope the other composers get a chance to shine again, especially Toshiko Tasaki. The only clear indication I heard in those movies was the Meguro-style guitar riffing, I'm not sure about who could have made the other compositions.

On the subject of the Kuzunoha Raidou OST... Anyone know if Five Records has set up a page for this OST on their site yet? I know they set up a page about the DDS Integral OST some months in advance (with tracklisting and info), so there should be something there. But I can't seem to find it, and their site is confusing, I think. Anyone found anything yet?

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I'm going to have to dust this off and second Henri's opinion. Some of the area themes from DDS1 really make the set worth the purchase.

The jazz is much more interesting in DDS1, and the techno better in 2.  Almost all the cutscene music is absolutely terrible.

Someone seems to have confused the Raidou and Persona 3 soundtracks.  The Raidou soundtrack is by far THE WORST Megaten OST yet, and is entirely (the seemingly tired) Meguro, but Persona 3 sounds like the return of the Persona regular composers.