I honestly give it okay grade... Wish it would show more characters that just line art.
Wish it would tell what would happen in the games too. Certain scenes, carefully chosen to be shocking but spoiler free too.
(P4G's opening had those hanging bodies - for the longest time, I thought of those as characters doing hand-stand dancing)
Probably the game doesn't have big budget to pour in. But then again... I do appreciate that they put it in at least.
(I'm little pissed that Falcom didn't even put an opening FMV for Ys IX Monstrum Nox... although over the years, I've been less and less impressed with their Ys openings, becoming more and more Flash slide show type things. It's been my tradition since original Ys2 - that when I start a Ys game for the first time, I would sit back and enjoy opening music and movie in its whole, which sets me into the mood.)
Color scheme and all matches rest of the art direction of the game itself (very white/pale gray/black/red accent) + splash of cyan works well enough though... but it feels the general design direction seems to be style over substance or functionality. I would have to look more closely on the actual game interface, but if what's out there so far... looks clean, nice & disigned - but not so sure about user-friendliness.
Anyhow... So this bird flies in (why always a bird! symbol of freedom?) ... and connects to the protagonist. He walks around, looks into a class room and gets sad (Put in some line art). He looks into another class room, he's shocked. (put in another line art of other characters in succession) Then at the climax of the song, protagonist tears inner self apart with angst-y hand, and suddenly standing calmly on top of large open area (ruined school rooftop, I'm assuming, gaining the freedom again). In a way, I guess it tells the game's general storyline, but I think it's little to A-Z fomularic & safe.
Plus that vocal - have to be honest, that not my favorite type of voice.
I'm wondering why they chose all those raspy, squeaky high-tone female vocal for every single character themes for this game. Quite a few of them too. I liked the one for the heroin Nozomi - (performed by this artist Ciel), but rather cringy lyrics though.
Non-vocal BGM, however does sound pretty good to me.
BGM Sample:
www.siliconera.com
