Yuzo Koshiro was 18 when he composed his first soundtracks at Nihon Falcom, he started composing as a hobby in high school. His list of game soundtracks is insane 🤯 #StreetsOfRage, Ys, #EtrianOdyssey, Dragon Slayer, Revenge of Shinobi, Trials of Mana, Tales of Phantasia, Sonic the Hedgehog, Shenmue and so many more (Wiki link below).
This is the music that plays for the Sandy Barrens, which is a desert as its name implies. It's my favourite stratum in the game. Frankly, the contrast going from the previous stratum to a desert had a bigger impact on me than entering the 5th stratum.
It's also the point where navigation gets significantly trickier and the enemy encounter music changes, thereby marking the start of the second half of the game.
Got my video games out of storage today, so here is my almost-complete #EtrianOdyssey collection. EOIV was my first and blew my mind, I had never played anything like it. Then I went on ebay and got the first three, then every one thereafter (except for the recent remaster 😔). The ones I haven't played are EOI & II and Persona Q2 which is still shrinkwrapped!