Game music of the day: Ar Tonelico

Welcome to GamesRadar's daily blast of all things pertaining to the ever-growing field of game music. Each post will introduce new sounds, games, composers and fan-made remixes of gaming's greatest aural achievements.

July 16, 2010

Game: Ar Tonelico

Song: Singing Hill

Composer: Akiko Shikata, Gust Sound Team

Above: Singing Hill from Ar Tonelico

In the world of Ar Tonelico, singing is the most powerful form of magic. Musicality is a major theme of the series, so it's no surprise that that Ar Tonelico has an absolutely top-notch soundtrack. A synthetic race created to maintain the precarious technology of the floating world, magical girls called Reyvateils can harness powerful song magic when they become emotionally bonded to a human companion.

Since singing is so important to the storyline of Ar Tonelico, we had to pick the opening theme, Singing Hill, which features awesome Reyvateil vocals in both Japanese and Hymnos, afictional language constructed for Ar Tonelico byAkira Tsuchiya.Hymnos puts a lot of emphasis on emotion, andhas twodifferent writing systems associatedwith it.It'sa suprisingly complex and detailed language for a game, andlinguistics enthusiasts cangoherefor a detailed description of the Hymnos language.

Above: Japanese opening for Ar Tonelico 3, another variation on the original Singing Hill

Besides the awesome vocal tracks, the rest of Ar Tonelico's soundtrack is strong too. Here's an energetic trackcalled Vidarr to get you pumped for battle:

Above: Vidarr from Ar Tonelico -note therockin' guitar solo

Who Am I? by Olivier Derviere

Overworld theme by Kondo, Minegishi, Tominaga and Ota

Neon Night by Martin O' Donnell and Michael Salvatori