The fourth in a series of reviews of five games developed by the company Quintet. This time, Terranigma, scored by Miyoko Kobayashi and Masanori Hikichi.

Information

Terranigma was developed by Quintet and published firstly by Enix in Japan, where it released in October 1995, and secondly by Nintendo, in PAL regions, where it released December 1996. The decision to not release it in America is certainly a curious one, likely influenced by the release of the Nintendo 64 in September 1996, whereas it didn't release in Europe and Australia until March 1997. The composers for Terranigma are Miyoko Takaoka, under the name Miyoko Kobayashi, and Masanori Hikichi.

Overview

And here we are on the fourth game of the Quintet Quintet. I'll freely admit I've been more excited for this one than any of the others. I apologize for disappointing fans of the previous games' soundtracks, but in my opinion, Terranigma is not only the best of the Quintet Quintet soundtracks but an A-tier score in its own right, one of the outright best scores of the SNES.

With Terranigma the Quintet Quintet has finally made it to an RPG score. Kawasaki's work, whatever its weakness, took the first step in that direction, and with Terranigma we get a far better culmination that could've ever been expected based on any of the series' previous scores.

Let's leap right in.

Review

Right off the bat we open with "Origins", a quiet piece with a solo clarinet (really more of a fancy sine wave than anything) against a ticking clock which creates a sense of anticipation, an effect heightened by the tempo slowing as it goes on. It leads us to rising string chords against a choir. A prologue, if you will, to "Light and Darkness", which introduces the game's main theme.

It opens quietly, a harp and choir expositing the melody. Strings rise and it becomes a triumphant overture of warm, major-key harmonies and the main theme on trumpets, this time. It leads to a quieter section, but this leads us back to brass - but not for long. The theme gets played on solo horn, showing how it can be used to a more emotional effect. There's more, but I shan't go on. It's a fantastic opening, the main theme instantly memorable. There's no way of knowing who wrote the theme, as the soundtrack release (itself incomplete) credits both Kobayashi and Hikichi for it.

The next track is "Hometown", another calm piece with gentle guitar providing the foundation for the melody, which - based on it reappearing later in the game - is likely an important leitmotif in the game. It's lovely to listen to, very much cultivating a sense of home.

"Yomi" I initially wasn't planning to make much remark on, but it sounds a lot like something you'd hear in EarthBound with its bass, trumpet, and synths. No idea what it could possibly be used for. (Heads up: here's where I start going out of order.) "Yomi" seems to be one of a number of tracks in a similar vein (character theme?) and of similarly short length. The next one, "Zue" - hilariously the long one out of them - is my personal favorite with its fantastic ostinato and string melody. "Fyda" is an orchestral one with a heroic snare beat and a 'heroic' quality to it. "Perel" is a jazzy number with a quirky flute motif going on. "Royd" is another more orchestral one about the length of "Yomi" and not particularly distinctive.

The two overworld themes are "Dark Side Field" and "Light Side Field". The first, "Dark Side Field", is suitably dark, bells providing a undercurrent of darkness. The melody is a little grim, but nevertheless brims with hope. In its latter half it brightens, flirting with major but almost always resolving down to minor. "Light Side Field", naturally, is the polar opposite, opening heroically with a galloping rhythm on the brass. Even so, it's not as straightforwardly upbeat as other overworld themes for a decent part of its duration.

There are, naturally, a number of dungeon themes. The first of these is "Tower of Trial", a consistently dark piece with a consistently dark melody, which opens especially ominously. "Underground" is, similarly, also rather dark, adding in a timpani for effect. My personal favorite is "Top of Saint Mountain" which very effectively conjures the intimidating nature of a mountain with a formidable opening. It continues, keeping things understated before leading into a faster, more... exciting, you could say, section complete with an almost joyful strings melody and a swift drumset beat. Another favorite is the dark and foreboding "The Castle of Dragoon" with its timpani beat and excellent melody. "Laboratory" I'm assuming to be a dungeon theme as it doesn't have the 'quirky scientist' feeling to it (like "Lairl Shaia Labs" in Lufia & the Fortress of Doom) but instead a darker atmosphere. In its latter half it goes for an almost apocalyptic doom-and-gloom mood, which is quite striking.

One of the most emotional pieces on the score is the beautiful, gentle "Elle". Its melody is a striking variation on the main theme, exploited for all its worth. It's heartbreaking, yet hopeful at the same time.

There are a number of short 'scene' themes across the score, as well. "Unforeseen Occurrence" is one of them, a reprise of the main theme with a mildly anticipatory quality. "Open the Door" is another short one with no real melody to speak of. "Present" is a music box variation of the main theme. "Awakening of Earth" is short and peaceful. "Good Night" is, as its name suggests, peaceful and nightly. "Green Returns" is a decent harp and flute piece, but indistinct. "Revival of Plants" is similarly peaceful, "Revival of Birds" the same, likewise with "Revival of Animals". "Revival of Humans" is over a minute long and is, contrary to the other 'revival' tracks, rather scary and ominous.

"Ever Green" is another relaxing piece, its celeste arpeggio reminding me a little bit of Undertale. It's got a lovely melody, accompanied by some string harmonies and percussion, which creates momentum otherwise not suggested by the other elements in the track.

"Sanctuary" is a lovely waltz track complete with a lovely slow little melody. "Flying to the Sky" is one of the more interesting airship-type themes I've heard, thanks to unique instrumentation. Many airship-type things go for strings-and-brass with snare marches, whereas this one goes for taikos (toms, actually, but they're not used the way toms typically are) and wind instruments such as the oboe.

"Town" is another waltz-type track, this time with an accordion melody. It's naturally very peaceful, especially as the melody is taken up by the flute, the strings come in, and the glock/celeste provides accompaniment. "Shopping" is a typically short but fun and bouncy little ditty, while "Castle" is much more minor-key than expected. It retains the faux-classical stylings, naturally, and the melody is carried in turn by flute and oboe before strings take it. Even a triangle appears at one point! It's another great castle theme. "Call at a Port" is lovely, bringing to my mind a small chamber group performing.

Finally, a brief mention towards one of the many short tracks on the album. Many I haven't mentioned, but this one I will because it's a personal favorite - "Nomads in a Desert" with its clapping rhythm and acoustic guitar is fantastic.

Before diving into the rest, I would like to note that I've left out a handful of tracks of my review. There are two reasons - one, many of these tracks are very short, and two, track-by-track reviewing is very time-consuming (as mentioned in my Vandal Hearts score review). Let's continue now.

The boss battle theme of the game is "Fight Against Powerful Enemies" and it's absolutely excellent. The opening is fiercely stormy, strings and bass flying around and turbulent timpani while a choir provides low chords and orchestral snare and percussion create tension. This only continues, melody taken by synth while timpani and snare continue, high rising strings creating further. It's only just barely longer than "Guardians" from Illusion of Gaia but it really is infinitely better. It feels like a complete composition.

Preceding the final battle is "The Gaia Stone" an eerie, creepy dungeon track, focused much more on atmosphere than melody.

"Overcoming Everything" is the final battle and boy is it a doozy, clocking in at 2:22 before looping. The opening is quieter and less immediately turbulent than the boss battle track, but it soon launches into a darker section which briefly slows down, broken motifs dotting the sections, and launching into a faster section based on a three-note motif. It's formidable and imposing, launching into a stormier section marked by timpani beats. Finally, in its latter half, it smartly employs the main theme to create a sense of heroism. At the end it seems to wind down only for it start again. It's a fantastic piece, occasionally a little underdeveloped, but nevertheless fantastic and a personal favorite.

"Rest" brings things to a calmer tone with a reprise of both the main theme and "Hometown". It's beautiful, melancholy but hopeful, a beautiful ending theme.

Finally, the staff roll gets the - in my opinion rather epic - "The Way Home", aka "Return to Mother Earth". It opens right off the bat with a swift harp ostinato against a slower flute motif borrowed straight from "Light and Darkness". It's a beautiful track, brimming with feeling.

Arranged Tracks

Included on the original score were arrangements of a handful of tracks from the game. While they don't quite sound up to the strength of being played by a full orchestra, I think it's fair to say that they're about at PSX level. "Opening Theme" is an arrangement of "Light and Darkness" and the composers clearly enjoyed not having to be limited by the SNES' sound channels, adding in whole new music lines that weren't present in the original.

"Overworld" (arranged from "Light Side Field") is dramatically different from the original, using many more synths in its tone. It's a dramatic reinterpretation of the original and definitely worth a listen with its jazzy inflections in the percussion section. Only in the latter third do strings carry the melody and the galloping rhythm of the original appear.

"Zue" must've been a favorite of the composers as it, too, has been arranged, again with more synths, and this time also with more marimba. It's another unique arrangement, the composers very much enjoying the lack of restrictions. Also arranged was "Ever Green" into a much more New Age-y style track with its synth pads and flute. The New Age style is only reinforced by the percussion introduced in its latter half.

"Boss Fight" is a somewhat more awkward arrangement than the others as the snare beat is played not by an orchestral snare but a rock snare, which isn't as smooth as a sound. The choir, too, is cut out almost entirely. However, this awkward first half is made up for when it transforms into a rock organ solo playing variations on the track. The choir appears later and it transitions back into a straight reprise of it, though the choir is still lost in the wilderness. However, I have to say, the addition of a piano for the chords adds a lot of intensity to it.

"Ending Theme" continues the synth-driven arrangements with a synth harp (at least initially) and New Age-type vox pad, later joined by flute. At 1:20 roughly it introduces a piano in addition to the instruments that had already appeared. It continues growing from that with many new flourishes. It winds back down again to just the harp, woodwind, and piano. It's a lovely arrangement, again providing a new perspective on the piece that a straightforward arrangement might not've.

Certainly, these tracks won't be to everyone's taste, but for my part I think that they're quite good.

Concluding Thoughts

I'm sure you can tell how enthusiastic I am about Terranigma's score simply by how quickly I finished this review. But Terrangima deserves it. It's an absolutely fantastic score with a great main theme and fantastic tracks across the board. Even the short minute-long tracks are all listenable. The battle themes are intense and stormy, the town themes calm and relaxing.

In all respects this is a great soundtrack, and, for my money, wholly deserving of the 10 out of 10 I have decided to award it.

Next Time

Yes, the Quintet Quintet shall finally be complete with The Granstream Saga, scored not only by returning composers Miyoko Takaoka and Masanori Hikichi but also Takako Ochiai and Kohei Tanaka, the latter a well-respected composer behind the scores of not merely videogames but also anime series and films, and who scores the cutscenes of the games.

Your Thoughts

Did you play Terranigma? Did you like its soundtrack as much as I did? Do you disagree with me?

Previous Posts in the Quintet Quintet

Soundtrack Review: ActRaiser
Soundtrack Review: Soul Blazer
Arrange Album Review: ActRaiser Symphonic Suite
Soundtrack Review: Illusion of Gaia