This is a brief diversion post looking at the symphonic suite for ActRaiser. It's part of a series of reviews of five games developed by Quintet - ActRaiser, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma, and The Granstream Saga.

Information

Don't ask me how it happened, but, not even a year after the game came out, so too did appear a symphonic suite of Koshiro's music, orchestrated and conducted by Kaoru Wada, and played by the Shinsei Nihon Symphony Orchestra.

Review

For all of ActRaiser's flaws, this album truly shows the scope of Koshiro's achievement. The SNES original and this one often have little difference beyond quality of instrumentation because Koshiro's original soundtrack was already so well orchestrated. That said, there is one track which is notably different.

And that is, naturally, "Fillmore". The original was a fast-paced piece mixing synth bass, percussion, organ, and orchestra hit. For obvious reasons, however, only the percussion could really be carried over. So instead, it's reinterpreted as a far more classical-sounding piece for strings. It's also a slower piece then the original.

In my opinion, it's an excellent adaption. A straight adaption of the original for orchestra would've been a disappointment because of how the original exploited the sound capabilities of its instruments. There are no similar sounds in the standard classical orchestra. (The name of the orchestra hit, you see, is, well, a misnomer.)

What we have in place of the original is something unique and different which can be appreciated on its own terms.

"Birth of the People" has the organ element removed in favor of woodwinds and strings. Another fantastic arrangement, but not as different as "Filmore" from the original. This one shouldn't cause any problems for fans of the game.

Elsewhere, powerful tracks are made more powerful thanks to the usage of genuine, rather then sampled, instruments. Woodwinds especially sound much nicer here then in-game, while the trumpet lacks the looped vibrato. "North Wall" is a massive step above the original thanks to the powerful orchestra behind it, making an already Romantic piece even better, thanks to its gentle harp and lush strings.

Concluding Thoughts

There's not much I can say. There is an impressive lack of true difference in the conversion - everything sounds much better, but there are few tangible differences. So, as I rated the original 7.3, I think I'll rate this one 8.0 out of 10.

My apologies for both the brevity and the tardiness of this post. School is occupying a lot of my time and I expect to do so for the forseeable future. I do not expect the Illusion of Gaia review to come out any faster then this post did. I haven't had the chance to even begin listening to it.

However! You are not abandoned. I have no intentions of leaving this blog to die. My posts will come slower, but they will come.

Anyways - did you listen to ActRaiser or the Symphonic Suite? What about the other games of the Quintet Quintet? What videogame soundtracks would you like to see me review in the future? I make no guarantees I will, but I'd love your thoughts regardless.