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

Information

Soul Blazer, or Soul Blader as it is known in Japan, was developed by Quintet and published by Enix in Jan. 1992 in Japan, Nov. 1992 in North America, and Jan. 1994 in PAL regions.

Overview

Soul Blazer was the first in the "Quintet trilogy", a trilogy of games developed by Quintet which shared a couple of traits: genre, the dichotomy of God and Satan, or a force of good and a force of evil, the character of Turbo the Dog, and typography. The "Quintet trilogy" has been said to be tetralogy, if you include a game developed by Shade, which was founded and staffed by multiple former Quintet staff.

Soul Blazer, the first game of the series, was scored by Yukihide Takekawa. Its sequel, Illusion of Gaia, scored by Yasuhiro Kawasaki, was released in 1993, and Terranigma, scored by Masanori Hikichi and Miyoko Kobayashi, came out in 1995. The final game, The Granstream Saga, cutscenes scored by Kohei Tanaka and the in-game music by Masanori Hikichi, Miyoko Kobayashi, and Takako Ochiai, came out in 1997.

The three previous games I have reviewed here were, in some respect or another, half-formed. With Vandal Hearts, it was variable development of its pieces (consider the difference between "Tension" and "Street Fighting"). With Lufia, it was Shiono's grappling with the SNES' abilities and a wide variation of complexity and development, though it never dipped into anything worse than mediocrity. And with ActRaiser, it was a focus on sound quality which left its soundtrack, however memorable and powerful the compositions were on their own, sometimes more suited to film than game, and often underdeveloped.

None of this is true with Soul Blazer. Composer Yukihide Takekawa arrives with a fully-formed and wholly unique vision of the score, and as a result, the soundtrack is far more consistent in its quality and far more suited to serving as game score than ActRaiser was. While the styles are, indeed, diverse, for the most part it synthesizes styles into one unique whole, rather then scattering them: classical, rock, even folk and popular music, all part of one unique vision.

Track Names

One thing that quickly reveals itself about Soul Blazer's score is that it is curiously inconsistent. Across Wikipedia, SNESmusic, RPGfan, and two YouTube uploaders I have found no more then four variations on the translation. Sometimes the variation is just a couple track names, other times more. Therefore, I present here the tracklist I will be using, alongside all alternative names I know of, in the hopes that this will reduce any potential for confusion.

"Invitation to the Earth" / "Invitation to the Overworld" / "Main Theme"
"The Shrine" / "The Shrine of the Master" / "A Small Shrine to the Gods" / "God's Shrine"
"Lonely Town"
"Underground Castle" / "The Mine"
"Into the Dream"
"Leo's Painting" / "World of Dreams" / "World of Demons"
"Boss Battle" / "The Battle for Liberation"
"Lively Town"
"World of Soul Blazer"
"Lostside Marshes" / "The Marshland of Lost Sight"
"Temple of Light" / "The Three Temples" / "Rotting Temple" / "A Temple in Ruins"
"Seabed of St. Elles" / "The Depths of the Sea of Saint Elle's" / "Sea Bed of St. Ellis"
"Solitary Island" / "Tropical Island" / "Southera"
"Ice Field of Lanoyle" / "Mountain of Souls" / "The Icy Fields of Lenoire"
"Leo's Laboratory" / "Basement of Leo's House"
"Magridd Castle" / "Towers of Maggrid Castle"
"World of Evil" / "Dazzling Space" / "Bewitching Space"
"Battle with Deathtoll" / "Demon King Deathtoll"
"Peaceful Days" / "Ending Song"
"Ode to Lisa" / "A Night Without Lovers" / "Kobito no Inaiyoru"
"A Night Without Lovers" / "Ode to Lisa" / "Kobito no Inaiyoru"

Review

The influence of ActRaiser on Soul Blazer is obvious from the outset. "Invitation to the Earth" lines up to "Opening", "The Shrine" to "Sky Palace", the town variations to "Birth of the People". But don't let these initial similarities fool you: Soul Blazer is very distinctly its own beast.

Where "Opening" was a grand, brassy fanfare, "Invitation to the Earth" opens with a build-up of string chords (and trumpet) against an exciting, heroically martial snare beat, leading up to a string melody against woodwinds. It comes up to a string-lead melody against a four-square rock beat with the addition of high-hats, an exciting bassline and contrapuntal trumpet lines.

Likewise, "The Shrine", a piece played purely on the organ, is also faster and often darker, basslines and a constantly moving ostinato and a melody which ends up playing scale runs, as though the organist was showing his virtuosity. It's a tense, exciting piece. Its opening resembles Bach's famous D minor Toccata and Fugue, but make no mistake, this is not a conversion.

"Lonely Town" is a peaceful piece which opens with a simple flute motif against motion in the string line and an active bassline, and a descending harpsichord section later on. Its variation "Lively Town" keeps the flute motif but makes for a much brighter feel with lines that rise more than they descend, and a cheerful trumpet line added on later on.

"Underground Castle" goes in a far different direction from the preceding tracks - a bassline against a simple rock beat, a harp later joining in. It's a simple track. A trumpet plays melody eventually, a break, reprise, a break, and a different melody.

"Leo's Painting" is one of the few tracks to truly irritate me, between a dull melody and the grating vocal runs and the sudden string rise. Moving on. "Into the Dream" is an almost aquatic piece between the steady string lines, the harp and fretless bass. It's a piece which creates a hazy atmosphere, suitable to its name.

"Boss Battle" is another less then stellar piece. Bassline, percussion, and constantly rising orchestra hit lines to a boring trumpet playing purely rhythmically. It's a grimy, ugly piece. Surely the player was motivated to beat the boss just to escape this music! I jest, but only in part.

I can only assume the overworld theme is "World of Soul Blazer". It's a surprisingly light piece, opening with a motif that one could almost describe as flighty. Takekawa keeps things fairly light throughout, even while cultivating a musical arc to a more mysterious section, but it's never so dramatic as to truly steal the listener's attention. It's actually quite relaxing.

The vaguely 'pop' vibe of "Underground Castle" would be fulfilled in "Lostside Marshes" but for the presence of "Solitary Island". The trumpet melodies and bassline, the constantly glissing trumpet beat in the right ear - it's certainly a unique approach. Not, I'm afraid, as likeable as either of the other two tracks I mentioned.

"Temple of Light" is one of my personal favorites from the soundtrack. The percussive beat and the harpsichord(?) melody in the A section, the B section with the strings backing. It's another peaceful track. "Seabed of St. Elles", with its lazily arrogant plodding bassline, is unlikely to be anyone's favorite.

"Solitary Island" is the peak of the 80s' influence, I'd argue, opening with a very poppy trumpet melody against that bassline. The part evolves to a swiftly moving trumpet line, before a darker section with the trumpet playing very darkly against a stream of strings seemingly building up to a dissonant climax. A percussive break takes us back to the beginning.

"Ice Field of Lanoyle", with its meandering "Seabed"-esque melody may initially strike one as a variation, but it soon becomes much better, with a vocal melody taking over, then harpsichord. It's effective, but not particularly exceptional.

"Leo's Laboratory" is an interesting one, with its orchestra hits against what is either some rhythm guitar or some unusual synths. A trumpet takes it over, playing another poppy melody against synth glissandos up and down (those synth glissandos may remind one of EarthBound).

"Towers of Magridd Castle" is another favorite track with its bassline and clicky synths leading to one of Takekawa's nicer melodies, followed up by slow scalar walks by the flute. It's a uniquely quirky piece. Following that is the very odd "World of Evil" with its jolly opening and jolly follow-up and synth elements. It sounds almost spacey, especially with the dissonant vocal rise. From there it becomes much darker, the same rhythms and synths, but descending and snarling, rather then rising. (Perhaps the alternative name "Bewitching Space" has something to it.)

For "Battle with Deathtoll" Takekawa brings back the martial snares of "Invitation to the Earth" and pits it against a dramatic string ostinato and trumpet melody. It's an exceedingly dramatic piece, but it lacks a certain fullness that would really give it the intensity it deserves.

"Peaceful Days" opens with a mournful, yet hopeful melody, which transforms into a joyful ending, its melody a transformation of the earlier one, now played with strings rather then flute.

The greatest gem on the soundtrack, though, is "Ode to Lisa", of which there are two versions - the in-game one, arranged by Kazz Tomaya, and one with vocals by Takekawa and played with a variety of live instruments. It's kind of incredible, listening to "Ode to Lisa", how full it sounds compared to almost all of Takekawa's other tracks. It opens with an emotional ostinato followed by another great melody (if Takekawa can do one thing, it's write fantastic melodies) and the melody then goes to strings. It's exceptional in its layering. One almost wishes Tomaya had arranged the entire score.

Even better then the in-game version is the incredible four-minute vocal version, with actual, genuine drums, bass, and guitar, and vocals by Takekawa. All of this backed by an array of synths. The layering so stunning in the SNES version is even more complete here - the strings, electric guitar, bass, percussion (and Kazz Tomaya, who arranged both versions [and produced this one] uses an impressive array of percussion). To be sure, it's a track which solidly comes from the 80s. But it does so in the best way. It's fantastic, in my humble opinion.

Concluding Thoughts

I said earlier that Takekawa and Soul Blazer was the first "fully-formed" soundtrack to be presented thus far. I'm sure, then, that my review must come as something of a disappointment. But I stand by my words: it is fully-formed. It is merely inconsistent in quality. And Takekawa does show much promise here. No composer knocks it out of the ballpark on their first try.

Nobuo Uematsu had written for a dozen games before Final Fantasy. Kouichi Sugiyama, besides the film and television scores, had scored at least a few videogames before Dragon Quest. Takekawa had no prior experience - and the product is consequently mixed. But it shows promise. "Towers of Magridd Castle" is marvelous, as is "World of Soul Blazer" and "Temple of Light". It is something of a disappointment that Takekawa didn't have any videogame project of note after this one.

According to those translated liner notes from shmuplations.com Takekawa scored the game because Enix Producer Yasuyuki Sone was a fan of his work. For their part, both Takekawa and Sone were quite pleased with the result.

In the end, though, Takekawa's grand vision is a flawed one, marred by the composer's inexperience with the medium. Many tracks are somewhat grating to the ears, and likely to get irritating after a long time listening. Furthermore, being an early SNES score, there is less music then, say, Vandal Hearts did. It lacks the length of that score. It lacks any equivalent to the magnificent "Filmore" from ActRaiser. So for the final score, 6.7 out of 10.

Next Time

Illusion of Gaia or a diversion for the ActRaiser Symphonic Suite. Which will it be? Even I don't know yet.

Your Thoughts

Did you play Soul Blazer when it originally came out, or have you played it since? Do you, too, enjoy videogame scores? What did you think of the Soul Blazer soundtrack - do you agree that it was fully-formed but flawed, or do you share the opinion of many that it was sub-par Koshiro imitation? Finally, once the 'Quintet Quintet' is finished, what game scores would you like me to review?