Is there anything better than listening to video game music? How about listening to an orchestra play the songs in front of your own eyes? Sadly, we are in the midst of a global pandemic. This makes it difficult to go out and attend live orchestral performances! Fortunately, Monster hunter Orchestral concert 2021 broadcast online. And like past concerts, the event also featured numerous interviews with singers and artists, including those involved in the making of Monster Hunter Risethe soundtrack of.

The program was a standard Monster hunter orchestral concert, with 14 different pieces of various Monster hunter securities. Much of the event focused on the latest iteration, Monster Hunter Rise. The setlist also included choice songs from Monster hunter world and Monster Hunter Stories 2. The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra performed all songs, under the direction of Hirofumi Kurita for the eighth year since 2014. Between each performance there was a short introduction by the main speaker. Brief interviews with artists like Izumi Kato, who provided Hinoa’s singing voice, sometimes followed.

A refreshing element of the concert was seeing some of the traditional Japanese instruments performed by professionals in a live setting. There is something really special about seeing a single Biwa musician playing the Magnamalo theme alongside a full orchestra. While Capcom has uploaded a short “Making Of” video showing some of the instruments used in Monster Hunter Rise, the concert really gives these instruments and musicians the show they deserve. The string sections also had a greater presence than in the original tracks.

It was also fun to see artists talking about their own origins. The Hinoa singer has fun recounting how she thought she was singing gibberish until she found out she was working on Monster Hunter Rise. She then learned that she was singing in Monster hunter Tongue. Series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto also shared how the team chose to use the biwa in the Magnamalo theme. It is an instrument that Tsujimoto described as rarely used in the video game industry. This attention to detail was especially apparent in the thematic performances of Rampage and Kamura Village, where the shakuhachi flute and shamisen played in the foreground. I especially enjoyed the Mizutsune and Rampage themes. Zinogre’s theme was by far the most energetic, however, with Daisuke Miyazaki returning to play electric guitar.

It was a bit of a missed opportunity not to have biwa musician and narrator Kakushin Tomoyoshi at the concert. He was a large part of the Monster Hunter Rise live event at this year’s Tokyo Game Show! Thinking back to the live performance of TGS, I am surprised at the quality of the production compared to the orchestra concert. As it stands, the concert as a whole would have been better if it had focused more on the aspects that made To augment so unique. It was still a rewarding experience that kept its promises, but what if you’ve seen the concerts of previous years? You basically get the same thing.

The Monster Hunter Orchestra Concert 2021 airs online on September 28, 2021. The release of the recorded album has yet to be confirmed.