My Thoughts on Triple Threat, Klace's Album Created for a Character in Komorebi

Disclaimer: this article contains minor spoilers for the first Fragment Map (chapter) of Komorebi, including information about a character that gets revealed and a bit of their backstory. All of the details in the body are something you'll know relatively early in the game. I wouldn't say any of the spoilers are considered significant, but it's a warning worth giving to those that want to experience the game completely blind.

Alongside the code for their game, the creators of Komorebi also sent me an album — Triple Threat. This eight-track collection is composed of songs created by one of the in-game characters: Klace. This young prodigy used his vision of the future to steal some of his best tracks to be able to create a best-selling album and get a jumpstart in his life, something that is often mentioned in the game as relatively common for artists that get a vision of their future.

Although I have no experience in reviewing albums and have the musical expertise of an armadillo, I still decided that I would listen to the album twice: once before I knew Klace and once after. This gave me the capability to experience both how I would feel about the character as an artist in the outer world and how my personal opinions would change my viewpoint of the character.

I first listened to the songs before I interacted with anything in the world of Komorebi. The lack of context on Klace as a character gives an impression of a seemingly party-oriented artist, focused on heavy pop music and very focused on their artistic career, almost infatuated with it.

After playing the game through, I revisited Triple Threat to learn more about what possible hints and details there were available in the album. Aside from the jarring change of voice (because they are very different), one of the things I most noted was the vast difference between his in-character persona and his artistic one.

The character profile I created for Klace of a person that is addicted to his fame is hilariously inaccurate. Although at first, this might seem like a bad decision by the team, a quote shortly after meeting Klace gives an interesting insight into his character development both in the later stages of the game and his personality on- and off-stage. In it, he explains that Argus controls a lot of him and his personality, and he must put on a front to seem like more of an artistic figure and a possible idol than his generally nervous self.

I found it interesting how Klace takes the time to inform Delta and the group that a lot of his songs are of made-up events because he wanted to keep disconnected as much as he could. He explains that he didn't want to immortalise anything that he wouldn't want attached to his career permanently, but some of his songs are actually based on personal things (one of which he names directly).

After playing through Komorebi and listening to all of the songs, I enjoyed the way that some of them were clearly disconnected from his story, whilst others were very evidently connected to his past. Casual mentions of Komorebi made an appearance, and even his own future — in a subtle way — gets mentioned in a manner that I genuinely appreciated. 

Triple Threat as an album is sort of within the type of music I do listen to, but although a lot of the songs are things I can't relate to personally (I went through the trouble of getting the lyrics myself... that took forever), I enjoyed the more personal ones, especially once I got to know Klace. After playing through the game and familiarising myself with both the artist and the personality behind these, I found a new love for a lot of the eight tracks, even if a lot of them are made-up moments that he personally didn't feel connected to.

Triple Threat gave me a unique insight into Klace and let me learn a lot about the character in a way that I have never been able to before, and this unique experience is one that I'll remember fondly. If you have the opportunity, make sure you check out Klace's album, Triple Threat, on its various available storefronts after finishing the game; it's an exciting experience you'll likely never be able to recreate.