I've been a Touhou fan for roughly five years now, but I've never really thought to look into its weird sister series, Len'en, and I'm not really sure why. I've never been one to look down on games for taking inspiration for others, rather I encourage it and relish in seeing people put their own spin on familiar concepts. And after taking the time to check out the series, yeah, creator Jynx does a lot to make their series stand out from Touhou. A stronger focus on continuity with actual consequences for the protagonists being jerks, more humans to counterbalance the youkais, a cast of entirely gender neutral characters, flashier patterns and more options for casual players, and in the case of the recent games, a visible willingness to experiment not just with mechanics but with entire genres.
And the same applies to the music. Despite using many of the same instruments, once you've heard a few Len'en tracks, you'll immediately understand that Jynx has a vastly different musical style than ZUN. It's hard to really describe without just listening to it yourself, but Len'en tracks quickly develop their own unique chord progressions with a moodier vibe to them, and Jynx is also a bit more freeform in terms of genre experimentation. I also think it's kinda funny that I tend to prefer Touhou's stage themes over its boss themes, but Len'en's boss themes are far and away superior to its somewhat uneven-stage themes. I'll always have more attachment to ZUN's series and music, but Len'en's got some great soundtracks and a good amount of bangers so I wanted to give them the respect they deserve.
Evanescent Existence
Evanescent Existence is far and away the weakest Len'en soundtrack in my opinion. The sound quality is noticeably weaker than the later scores, it can be quite loud at times, and you can definitely tell that Jynx's is still figuring out their style. There are still plenty of really solid tracks like Lost Anchorage, In This World, and the stage 4 boss/theme duo, but there's also a fair amount of duds that don't really work for me like M-Theory and The Untruth Patronizes The Truth. The final and extra boss themes are particularly great, but even they don't quite reach the high points of the later games. It's a solid soundtrack overall, but the later games just sound more refined to me.
Highlights: Empire Power - Eternal Force is a pretty good first final boss theme. That tense piano build-up at the start is pretty fantastic, and once the drop hits, the main melody is a real banger.
3/5 Stars
Earthen Miraculous Sword
Earthen Miraculous Sword's soundtrack is a solid improvement over its predecessor. It sounds crisper and it's more consistent in that there aren't really any weak tracks, though it also takes a while for the tracks to become truly amazing. I also don't feel like Jynx fully nailed their style yet either mostly because of how many tracks sound very ZUN-esque, as they're still using the tried and true Touhou chord progressions for a lot of the tracks. However, what really pushes EMS's score over EE is the incredible final and extra boss themes which easily rank as two of the best tracks in the series. They're phenomenal musical climaxes to this very game and feel like the turning point for where Len'en music becomes something truly special.
Highlights: Below A Deep Vanishing Cloud - Mow Down is my favorite Len'en track, at least right now. It's a fantastic final boss that hits like the best of them, boasting so much grandiosity in its piano, violins, and ZUNpets, and that chorus where that distinctly brisk piano melody combines with a heavenly ZUNpet melody is truly transcendant. Honorable mention to Mono Eye though.
4/5 Stars
Reactivate Majestical Imperial
Reactivate Majestical Imperial is my favorite Len'en soundtrack so far, Jynx truly refines their style with this one. This is the score where Jynx starts really leaning on those new Len'en chord progressions, along with playing around with some of the other instruments. Despite the story of an endless winter being quite similar to that of PCB, Jynx immediately differentiates this game by heavily using sleigh bells in many of its tracks, and it works! It lends the score a really cohesive feel, and weirdly enough gives me some Crash Bandicoot 2 vibes at point. And that's not even mentioning how good the second half's music is. It's got some of the best stage themes in the series, some fun fusion remixes for the rival fights in Stage 4, and an incredible triple whammy of great boss themes for Shion, Tenkai, and Sese.
Highlights: Moon Child is my second favorite Len'en theme, and an overall fantastic boss theme. That intro has so much energy coming out the gate, and the track maintains that momentum with its catchy central melody and brisk tempo. Honorable mentions goes to the breathtaking wintery track Each Of Their Thoughts And Footprints, and the... infamous Present World Overhaul, aka ZUNpet spam incarnate (not that its a bad thing).
5/5 Stars
Brilliant Pagoda Or Haze Castle
Brilliant Pagoda Or Haze Castle is a wild game. Jynx really went all out to differentiate this one from not just the previous three games but from the Touhou series entirely by implementing this new roguelike system with three different routes, twelve possibles stages, and multiple potential bosses per stage. And while most shmups boast soundtracks clocking in at around 15-20 tracks, BPoHC has a whopping 54 tracks, around 30-40% of which are remixes of boss themes from previous games. It's a truly staggering achievement of a soundtrack and packs in a bunch of truly fantastic tracks... but I think RMI is overall the better musical package.
As usual, the stage themes tend to be a bit hit or miss and it's particularly noticeable in a game with twelve of them, and while there are plenty of truly great original boss themes like Killing Superior, Lost Jackpot, and MO-NA-D-1, even they can often feel overshadowed by the remixes. That being said, the sheer scale of the score, the generally high quality of the remixes, and the big jump in terms of sound quality and musical variety still makes this a close second in terms of my favorite Len'en soundtrack.
Highlights: As far as the original tracks go, Haze Castle - Phantom Road stands out as easily one of Len'en's best stage themes for its intense melodies, suspenseful piano riff, and blaring ZUNpets, and Lost Jackpot is a uniquely jazzy piece of chiptune jazz that sounds straight out of a Toby Fox game. However, my absolute favorite track in the game is Necromaster, a similarly jazzy and upbeat remix of Those Dwelling In Unreality. Jynx really nails the jazzier pieces in this game overall, I think it could be an interesting direction for them to explore musically.
4/5 Stars
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