Arpiel was NCSoft's anime-styled action MMO that launched in Korea in 2015 and sadly shuttered its servers a few years later, but its soundtrack lives on as a surprisingly diverse and polished collection. The original score tracks lean into bright, adventurous fantasy territory -- "A New Beginning" and "Home Sweet Home" radiate the warm optimism of a starting village, while "The Last Horizon" and "A Challenge to the Unknown" bring the epic sweep you'd expect from late-game content.
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There's a warmth to tracks like "My Little Town" and "Shining Moments" that reflects the game's colorful, inviting aesthetic. What makes this OST genuinely interesting is the blend of original orchestral/electronic compositions with licensed Korean pop and rock tracks.
CLC, the K-pop group, contributed two tracks -- their presence alongside Broken Valentine's "In My Claw" and Messgram's "Silent Scream" gives the soundtrack a cross-genre personality that most MMO scores lack entirely. "My Name is Bufofat (Feat.
Jahnny Shin)" is a character theme that commits fully to its goofiness, while "La Dolce Vita" featuring tenor Dongwon Kim adds an operatic flourish that catches you completely off guard. The Korean-language tracks and the vocal collaborations give Arpiel's OST a distinctly South Korean identity that sets it apart from the generic fantasy MMO music landscape.
"Courage in the face of Adversity" and "Smoke or Fire" handle the more intense dungeon and combat scenarios capably, while "Summer Breeze" and "The Melody of Peace" provide the kind of ambient town music you'd happily leave running in the background.
It's a shame the game itself didn't survive, because this soundtrack suggests a world that had more personality than most of its competitors.