I'm late, but this arrangement was done by Yoshiyuki Ito, who was one of the arrangers. Aoki is likely credited since he wrote the original composition. His work was still amazing though R.I.P.
That is true. The more I think about it, despite my gripes about the gameplay, Majin Tensei easily features one of the most individualistic and accomplished ambient scores on the Super Famicom. It’s fascinating to me how well he was able to deviate from the norm of ambient music by hybridizing more typical elements with sound effects, funk elements, orchestral, and electronic distortion. He manages to simultaneously entrance and entertain listeners on a stand-alone basis while subtly enhancing the mood of the game. Just very experimental. The fact that this released in the same year as Final Fantasy 6, Super Metroid, and Donkey Kong Country is insane. An amazing feat on such a primitive console.
Go through it, but have a fast forward button installed, it's not that hard but it's kinda tedious. I say it's worthwhile, it's a unique experience in the smt universe. Majin 2 is also really good but the ost doesn't slap nearly as hard.
It takes the sound effect usage present throughout the entire score and manages to up it to an insane degree as well as the rock and funk influences. How did this come out a few months before SMTII? I like SMTII’s score but if I have to hear the 30 second 3D Center again, I’ll go insane
I get more of a Machines Of Loving Grace X KMFDM X Thrill Kill Kult feel from this more than NIN PHM era X Depeche Mode. Though I could kinda see a little bit of Broken era NIN because of heavy processed guitars and the use of static for snares and misc noise (Kinda reminds me of Top Of The Hour - the super obscure NIN song Trent did for MTV JP (NIN X Shinya Tsukamoto)) How fucking amazing would it have been to hear a collaboration between some old school industrial musicians and the old Atlus sound team? Maybe in another universe.
