Basiscape teams up with Vanillaware and Atlus once again, scoring the beautiful RPG adventure Unicorn Overlord. Featuring loads of fantasy music that Hitoshi Sakimoto and the Basiscape team are best known for, the Original Soundtrack totals four discs of music, and there are separate arrange albums in the form of the widely available Acoustic Arrange Album as well as a collection of 16-bit arrangements that came packaged in with the Monarch Edition of the game.

Let’s dive in and see what the Original Soundtrack and Acoustic Arrange albums have to offer.

As mentioned, the Unicorn Overlord Original Soundtrack includes four discs, all of which are adorned with the incredible artwork that Vanillaware is famous for. More artwork appears throughout the packaging as well. A booklet includes track titles in both English and Japanese, and commentary and credits in Japanese. Lyrics are also included.

The soundtrack itself is organized in a way to feature a theme followed by day and night variations for the various regions as well as some high-energy battlefield and “Fighting off” themes to accompany battles. These tend to be the highlights of the soundtrack in terms of building cohesion and energy.

The journey begins with an ominous “Prologue” and is immediately followed by the high fantasy choral theme “Farde Mal Diavolo.” Favorites outside of the usual region and battle themes include the angelic “Majestic,” the haunting “Disturbance,” the rhythmic “Peaceful,” the otherworldly “Hardness,” the twangy “Memory,” the somber “Melancholic,” the playful “Quarry,” the crystalline “Evil Ways,” and the bombastic and heroic “Baumratte Coliseum.” Many of the tracks leading up to the ending also stand out, including the game’s main theme and another vocal track, but I’ll avoid spoiling this with track titles.

The Unicorn Overlord Acoustic Arrange album came as a huge surprise to me given the instrumental and folksy nature of many of the tracks on the score. I thought to myself, “What can they explore that wasn’t really offered by the Original Soundtrack?” I was sorely mistaken, however, as I found myself enjoying the eight-track album immensely. There is new artwork to enjoy, along with track titles in English and Japanese along with descriptions of the featured instruments and commentary from the arrangers in Japanese, which was a nice touch.

“Cornia,” provides a great opening, both folksy and soothing, featuring flute, guitar, violin, and plenty of hand percussion. “Drakenhold” ramps up the energy with flamenco guitar and strings, while “Elheim” incorporates a gentle bell tree and low tones on the guitar, creating a slow, serene, and dreamy atmosphere. “Bastorias” and “Isle of Palevia” are both also slower and contemplative, while “Albion” comes as a melancholic march. The rendition of the “Main Theme” builds slowly, culminating in an explosive ending, before “Farde Mal Diavolo” closes the album out with a small ensemble and vocals.

The Unicorn Overlord Original Soundtrack is available for import on CD Japan for about $30 USD and the Unicorn Overlord Acoustic Arrange Album is available for about $15 USD.