Eschalon: Book I & II Soundtrack Review

For music aficionados, Original Sound Version published a short review of the soundtracks of the indie RPGs Eschalon: Book I and Eschalon: Book II.

I love simple, slow-paced melodies as much as anyone. But this soundtrack could have used some variation. And by that, I mean variation in very fundamental ways. Change up the time signature now and then. Find effective use of modal scales for your melodies. Hand off the melody from one instrument to the next (well actually, they do this pretty well at this in a track or two).

Where the music does leave an impression is in its consistent style. This is a very traditional blend of Renaissance and Baroque era music with the trappings of modern, Western commercial score.

For the most part, I found a marked improvement in Book II, but I also love the title theme music to Book I. The non-lyrical vocal part in the title theme really brings something special to the track. It’s used in a very sparse way: it’s not LotR-clone overkill. It’s just right.