Game info: Wikipedia
Listening: extracted audio, YouTube (tracks 1~35)
Credits
Music Composition: Kenji Yamamoto
Music Arrangement: Takeshi Abo
Info
Once again, Takeshi Abo’s remake soundtrack doesn’t add any new pieces, but it does cover almost every single piece from both earlier versions of the game. Omitted are a couple of Disk System jingles which were reproduced in the SNES remake as part of a fakeout opening: the game presents a fake Disk System interface with chiptune music and starts the original FDS title animation before switching into SNES music and graphics. It’s a little funny, actually.
Abo didn’t drastically change his arrangement style for the second game, though he did end up following Yamamoto’s lead with the SNES instrumentation in a lot of cases, meaning his tracks ended up being a bit funkier than the first game’s soundtrack. When the SNES arrangement diverged from the original FDS track, Abo stuck closer to the original rather than the altered version, so it’s an interesting kind of hybrid approach between the two. Unfortunately, Abo didn’t really drop the Metroid Prime-ish sound design like he did for the first game, possibly because he reserved that for the darker tracks and this soundtrack doesn’t get as dark as the first game. As a result I didn’t really like this remake as much either, but it does still have a few good Abo moments in it.
Recommended tracks:
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“On-the-Spot Inspections” is definitely the kind of track Abo would write in his own original soundtracks, so he gives it the full VN treatment here and it sounds great
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“Utsugi Detective Agency” is a surprisingly delicate theme
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“Witness” has a great chord pad at the very start, I also find it really easy to lose the downbeat as the song progresses
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“Approaching Footsteps” adds a bunch of weird, warpy noises on top of the track; I especially love the mallety plonk flurries like at 0:17
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