The 25th Ward: The Silver Case - Digital Soundtrack Steam Charts & Stats

pretty cool

The album is great

The music from this soundtrack is *peak*

this release is missing some of the cool remixes but other than that this is like top 5 soundtracks

For the long-awaited follow-up to 1999's [i]The Silver Case[/i], SUDA51 employed the talents of three skilled composers: Akira Yamaoka, Baiyon, and Erika Ito. This was a bold choice, as Masafumi Takada's piano-heavy OST was about as iconic as a soundtrack could be, and while this is a significant departure, it actually makes perfect sense. The sequel to [i]The Silver Case[/i] takes place not in the 24th Ward, but in the 25th Ward, and therefore a different sonic landscape needs to be created. Akira Yamaoka handles the chapters that feature the HC Unit, and creates a nice moody atmosphere. My favourite of his is "Finding My Way": a laid-back piece with some sparse guitar, it goes perfectly with Kosaka and Hatoba's cryptic meetings at Seaside Park. Another nice one is "Crime Lounge", where a flute gives a hint of some old crime drama from the 1970s, before moving to the spacey, alienating electronic sound we're more familiar with from these games. Baiyon contributes a handful of tracks for the RA Bureau chapters: "Citrus Verbena" uses a nice jazzy horn sample, and "Sandalwood" is both groovy and melancholy, with an organ part that could've come from the villain's castle in some JRPG from the 90s. (Note that the track "Lavender Peppermind" is a typo, it should be "Lavender Peppermint".) I think my favourite pieces come from Erika Ito, who does the Tokio Morishima chapters, arguably the hardest task as Tokio is our deepest, most human character in the series. Her pieces are short but very evocative, covering beauty ("LONE", "TRINITY"), fear ("SPELL", "HAZE") and even humour, in the case of "PAL". "DRIFT" is a brave attempt at creating a successor to Takada's "Morishima Tokio". Speaking of Takada, he contributes a nice medley of his best known [i]Silver Case[/i] pieces in "Silver2018 TKD Remix", which plays over the UTSUTSU recap chapter. Sadly, significant parts of the BGM have been left off of this soundtrack. These are mainly Akira Yamaoka and Erika Ito's remixes of Masafumi Takada tracks from [i]The Silver Case[/i] (the same tracks that appeared on the chapter select screen of TSC's 2016 remaster). I'm guessing they were left off because of some publishing/licencing difficulties. If you want these tracks, which are some of the strongest in the game, you'll have to Believe in the Net. That said, this is a very strong soundtrack and well worth the token price. Do your ears a favour and get it now.