“Boss Music (Modern/Classic)” samples, The Dark Spire.

Coming stateside in March courtesy of Atlus, this Etrian Odyssey/Wizardry-style first-person RPG’s standout feature is its two dungeon modes: Modern Mode offers 3D environments and more detailed art, whereas Classic Mode presents the dungeons as 2D wireframes with simplified character sprites.

But more interesting to us, at least for this post, is the game’s excellent soundtrack, composed by Kenichi Arakawa. As you’ll hear in the audio snippets above, there are also Modern and Classic versions of the music.

There are no song samples at The Dark Spire’s English site yet, but the Japanese hub has previews from the region’s preorder CD, as well as an audio player that you can use to compare the Modern/Classic versions of three songs.

I hope Atlus will include a CD with The Dark Spire’s preorders in the U.S., as it has with some of its recent titles. Apparently, Success, the game’s publisher in Japan, also released a two-disc soundtrack for ¥3150 ($34). It’s unlikely we’ll ever see that brought to North America!

tags / the dark spire / atlus / success / soundtrack / preorder / ec