“World Map” is another of the atmospheric tracks, you can easily imagine the wind blowing into your face as the wanzers travels through Huffman’s Island while listening to this music. Another of the updated Front Mission tracks found here is the jazzy “Counter Bar,” which stays true to “Shop” of the prequel. “Arena” starts off with organ and percussion and carries that airy feel in the music, which I find very enjoyable. And of course, the battle theme is still serious and epic. I found that quite amusing, although it does make that one track stand out from the rest. You can hear Hirota’s stuff in “Enemy Battle (Swift Attack),” which mostly sounds like a voice effect at a point you hear a yell in the music. This is one of the few soundtracks in that he incorporated some of his work directly into the music (in my knowledge, the only other soundtrack that he played a part in was Final Fantasy 7). An interesting note I want to mention now is that Yoshitaka Hirota (yes, the same Hirota whom is mostly responsible for the Shadow Hearts score) is accredited as the sound effect creator in the liner notes. “Sorrow” starts off eerily, but then a quiet but saddening melody takes its place, something Matsueda really exceeds in getting through. Now I will mention the tracks of which I chose to sample. “Shock” will most likely surprise many, as it is a wonderful updated version of Front Mission’s “Terrible Density,” and keeps the epic feel of battle perfectly. You can hear an example of the airy sound in “Silence,” a gripping ambient theme that has some sound effects in it. It still holds strongly the epic feel of the first, mostly in the event and battle themes. The score to Front Mission 2 is still quite different from its prequel, in that Matsueda incorporates an atmospheric, airy sound to most of the tracks. Later on, she will compose for Racing Lagoon and The Bouncer (I have yet to hear both of those OSTs). Not only did she succeed flawlessly in making an excellent soundtrack, but she also manages to keep the feel of the prequel. A year later Matsueda was presented with a challenging task: write the score to the sequel of Front Mission 2, on her own. While the game itself was never popular, it allowed Matsueda to polish her skills as a composer. In late 1995 ~ early 1996, Matsueda finally got to do her first solo project, Bahamut Lagoon. Matsueda’s next job, although very small, was to compose one of the boss themes to Chrono Trigger, for them only to be arranged by Nobuo Uematsu. While the game may have have been a success, it was never released in North America. Shimomura had mostly taken care of the fast-paced themes, while Matsueda took care of the moody tracks. One of Square’s most underrated and often overlooked composers, Noriko Matsueda, started her career at Square in 1995 to compose for the Square/G-Craft strategy-rpg Front Mission along with the highly talented Yoko Shimomura.
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