This is the first in a series of reviews of the soundtracks of five Quintet games: ActRaiser, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma, and The Granstream Saga.

Thanks to The Cutting Room Floor for the title screen snapshot.

Information

ActRaiser was developed by Quintet and published by Enix in 1990 in Japan, in 1991 in North America, and in 1993 in Europe. It was scored by Yuzo Koshiro.

Overview

ActRaiser was one of the first third-party games released for the SNES, as it was released barely a month after the SNES was launched in Japan. A reasonably good platformer elevated by the inclusion of city-building simulation elements (I can not speak to how this works, having not played this game, but I've heard good things), the soundtrack represented an enormous milestone, really pushing the SNES's capabilities early on with high-quality samples. And it's still impressive how good it sounds for an SNES game of such vintage.

It's an epic, cinematic score of quality which will likely remind one rather a lot of John Williams (and, through that, Gustav Holst), even though there is a great diversity of music here.

What makes ActRaiser all the more an impressive achievement is to consider its composer, Yuzo Koshiro. While now it is taken for granted that Koshiro is an immensely talented composer, if you go back to the 80s and 90s, there's not much in Koshiro's catalogue of works that would seem to suggest he would be capable of such an incredible, orchestral soundtrack. His previous work was for Japanese microcomputers, such as the PC-88, which used FM synthesis, which, whatever its other capabilities, doesn't lend itself to orchestral music. (Examples of his FM work include Ys, The Scheme, and Streets of Rage.)

And yet, further listening reveals that perhaps this ability was always there, hidden by unique sounds produced by FM synthesis. Certainly the numerous orchestral arrangements of many of his Ys tracks (I say many, rather then all, and many tracks received rock arrangements for reasons obvious upon listening to them) would suggest this.

Certainly, in these liner notes translated by shmuplations.com, though Koshiro does not outright say it, his words certainly suggest that he simply hadn't had an opportunity to write such a soundtrack:

I had been wanting to make orchestrated game music based around strings and woodwinds, so this was the perfect hardware for me.

Tracks in Ys undoubtedly suggest that Koshiro, though using FM synthesis to its fullest capabilities, was thinking in something of an orchestral or instrumental vein: "Fountain of Love", "Tears of Sylph", "Zepik Village", and "Rest in Peace" are all suggestive. "Fountain of Love" especially sounds as though it's begging for orchestral arrangement.

But, enough of Koshiro's previous work. Time to dive right into ActRaiser.

Review

Right off the bat we're lead in with a mighty overture, the "Opening", fully showing off the powerful brass, strings and timpani that'll be used throughout the score. The section repeats before a small woodwind section and then loops back around. Short, and not as developed as it could've been. It's a bright and cheerful way to begin.

The second track departs from the orchestra entirely to utilize the sound of 'God's own instrument', the organ. "Sky Palace" is another powerful piece of music, with great diversity thanks to its dissonances, making the consonances all the more striking.

It's on "Filmore" that much of ActRaiser's soundtrack's reputation is founded upon, and one can see why. It's an astonishing piece, organ and bass and percussion before a sound acting similarly to an electric guitar (though I believe it may just be an orchestra hit with some attack). It's a piece which is catchy and, more than that, fun.

"The Beast Appears" follows and those Star Wars influences make themselves well-known here, between the brass attacks and string staccatos. At :18 we get a melody on the strings, but it's short. Not a truly exceptional track, but fitting.

"Bloodpool ~ Casandora" is even more Star Wars inflected in some ways - the brassy opening followed by a descent (accompanied by the orchestra hit masquerading as a guitar) down accompanied by xylophone trills (a unique touch from Koshiro) and ostinato in the bass. From :18 we get a slower, somewhat awkward build-up before it loops back around at :37. It's tragically short and undeveloped, but it sticks in the head.

"Aitos ~ Temple" with descending low string phrases and timpani before moving into a more powerful and ominous section which sounds like it could build up to something epic. It doesn't, instead going in the other direction - something slower, moving to another string-focused section which repeats a few times before a rising trumpet leads to a long chord. If not for that it plays again from the beginning, it would not be difficult to believe it was film music, rather then a game score.

"Powerful Enemy" is a short :20 long piece, which, while certainly effective, again is on the short side.

"Pyramid ~ Marana" is, though again very filmic, also very well-developed, starting out with a low brass ostinato accompanied by a Middle Eastern-esque melody. The strings come in at the :30 mark, leading to a short harp arpeggio as the oboe takes over in a slower, more emotional melody. String chords swell upwards before disappearing again as the oboe plays, and then again rising, before the flute takes over the melody as the strings play a hopeful ostinato leading to purely strings. But for looping straight back to the beginning, it would again work excellently as film music.

"North Wall" is a wintry piece, its pizzicato strings and harp arpeggios against the flute melody. The strings reprise that melody, and Koshiro even pulls off some glissando on it! The clarinet joins in. The piece continues and the layers of instruments build up before looping back to the beginning, leaving me wishing Koshiro had continued. It almost sounds incomplete that way.

"All Over the World" is perhaps the most obviously Star Wars-influenced piece on the score, spinning strings against low, quiet staccato brass, snares, and trumpets, timpani occasionally adding some punch to it. A transition leads into a darker section with staccato strings, before the trumpets and strings build up to another section of just the strings against trumpet chords. It fades entirely, quiet, a harp arpeggio leaving you questioning what happened.

And then it loops back around!

"Satan" is often dissonant between the flute trills and low string descents and blasts of the trumpet. There's a brighter section that quickly darkens as it loops back around - this time the seam not quite so obvious.

And so, another piece of ActRaiser's reputation enters in: "Birth of the People", a piece with Baroque and Classical styles - harpsichord, piano, strings, all joining an organ sound (though it does sound a little 8-bit) and each moving quite contrapuntally. It's lovely, even beautiful, even if, like "Overture", it ought've been more developed.

"Sacrifices" is a far sadder piece, for strings and the organ. It's a beautiful piece, even with its brevity, but unlike before, here the piece feels well-developed, and the listener isn't short-changed because of its length. I shan't comment on it looping back around.

"Peaceful World" is another beautiful piece for the same ensemble as "Sacrifices", but far brighter and happier. I could swear I've heard the organ melody before - it sounds like a national anthem.

"Ending" makes the film influences of the entire score blatant with - well, it's plagiarism, really, all 10 seconds of it. It's the opening fanfare for 20th Century Fox. Koshiro quickly moves on from this with strings against snare, even if the flute does a quiet reprise of it. The remainder of the strings join in with a trumpet arpeggio (another flute reprise). It's very upbeat. At 1:06 it drops all of this very suddenly for what seems to be a reprise of "North Wall". It transitions back to the standard orchestra, complete with flute runs and trills, before reprising the fanfare a few times, and then, with but two chords, concluding.

A Few Words on ActRaiser 2

Though I'm not reviewing the soundtrack as part of the 'Quintet Quintet', I felt I could not just completely ignore ActRaiser 2, which was again developed by Quintet and published by Enix, released firstly in Japan in October 1993 and then in North America the very next month, and making it to Europe a year afterwards, in November 1994. It was, like its predecessor, scored by Yuzo Koshiro.

Whereas ActRaiser was, while often underdeveloped, a powerful and memorable soundtrack with a diversity of styles - sometimes, admittedly, an almost jarring diversity - ActRaiser 2 seems to have been the result of asking Koshiro "do it again". Which is to say, he turned out a score far less inspired and interesting.

The "Titles" for it are a reprise of the opening from ActRaiser with a few alterations in the accompaniment. An evolution of it, you might say. And "Mini Boss" is shockingly excellent, building upwards from nothing with spinning strings and storming timpani against the backdrop of low brass chords chords.

The remainder is unexciting and often dull, feeling more like work churned out for the paycheck then for the genuine joy of composing. The "Ending", too, is not merely unexciting but uninspired, sounding as though it could fit decently into any old JRPG.

What of the Symphonic Suite?

I'm not entirely sure when, but before the 'Quintet Quintet' is over, I will post a 'Diversion' post reviewing the Symphonic Suite.

Concluding Thoughts

In the end, ActRaiser is a stunningly powerful score aided by filmic music masterfully composed by Yuzo Koshiro. Though in debt to John Williams (and Alfred Newman, who wrote the 20th Century Fox fanfare), it's been painted with a unique brush, perhaps aided by the SNES' natural limitations. Of the 'Quintet Quintet', ActRaiser's score is probably the best loved and most remembered score.

And it's not hard to see why: it's filmic, epic in its scope, incredible in its soundfont, which is surprisingly good for an SNES game of such vintage.

But, at the same time, its filmic nature works against its function as a game score. Tracks, complete in and of themselves, loop straight to the beginning, a seam of silence between it. Sometimes it appears that it would work better as a film score then a game score. Its best tracks, unsurprisingly, are those with more natural loops: "Opening", "Filmore", "Sky Palace", "Birth of the People".

The disparity between the rock-esque "Filmore", the organs of "Sky Palace", the orchestral might and fury of "All Over the World", and the faux-Baroque stylings of "Birth of the People" create an immensely varied score, but one, too, that's almost jarring in how swiftly it changes. The filmic nature of the tracks (that matter of looping I mentioned) further creates disjunct.

In the end, we're left with a score that's probably been overrated. What is the reason for the disjunct? Luckily, we can refer back to shmuplations.com's translation of the liner notes:

Given those circumstances, in creating the music for Actraiser we focused not so much on the compositions themselves, but rather on getting the sounds to be as close to “real” instruments as possible.

My final score for this soundtrack is 7.3 out of 10.

Next Time

It really is Soul Blazer this time.