Wind and waves rendered in PC-88 FM synth, somehow it works. Daikoukai Jidai is KOEI's first Uncharted Waters game, a 1990 Age of Exploration sailing sim, and this soundtrack smells like salt air and old maps. "Stormy Voyage" is frantic FM chaos, the chip rattling like a ship in a gale.
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"Mediterranean Sea" opens up into something broad and adventurous, the kind of track that makes you forget you're listening to an 8-bit computer. "The Queen" carries unexpected elegance. The Grade Up Version Medleys bookend the album, giving you polished takes on the same material.
"Bar" and "Northern Harbor" fill out the port-town atmosphere between voyages. Even "Arrest" has personality. Put this on if you want to feel like an explorer charting unknown waters from a 1990 Japanese PC.