Game info: MobyGames
Listening: extracted audio
Credits
Main Theme Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Music: Takashi Kokubo
Sound: Toshiaki Sakoda, Shigeki Hayashi
Info
ZIRIA had a 3D remake in 2006 with a new soundtrack that rearranges about half of original soundtrack while adding a lot of new tunes, this time crediting only Kokubo so I guess he did this all on his own? The arranged tunes stick pretty closely to the original music but with a wider variety of synths instead of chip sounds, though some have more substantial alterations and a bunch of tracks are extended with new material and key changes. I think in a few cases the reinstrumentation loses a little bit of the charm of the original pieces by dropping the characteristic spikiness of the TG-16 sound chip, but others have a nice new ambient or new agey sound to them that works, so it balances out. The extra material added to tracks is also pretty decent, especially since the original music is for the most part really short.
The new compositions are tonally a bit broader than the original soundtrack, giving a bit more depth to characters, areas, and event emotions that weren’t covered previously. They’re all instrumented similarly to the arrangements and fit in quite well compositionally, and I like about as much of them as I do the arrangements, so I don’t have any complaints. All in all, it’s a solid remake soundtrack.
Harukanaru Jipang also just directly reuses the three CD audio tracks by Ryuichi Sakamoto from the original game, crediting him with the more specific “main theme composer” in the opening credits this time.
Recommended tracks:
Tracks marked with a ❖ are arranged from the original game.
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“Ziria’s Theme” has a fun prog bit at 0:45
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❖ “Orochimaru’s Theme” is one of the most new age tracks in the game, Kokubo letting loose a little on this one
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❖ “Hoteimaru’s Theme” wasn’t originally the theme song of a weird Catholic missionary who only vaguely speaks Japanese, instead playing in certain shops, but it fits him pretty well on account of being goofy
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“Daimyo’s Theme” is just a pleasant orchestral mood piece
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❖ “Castle Theme” harmonically expands the original in a way I like
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“Edo Castle Dungeon” is a new theme for the game’s final dungeon, it’s suitably spooky
(track titles are unofficial translations by me of the game’s sound test)
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