Radiant Silvergun (ABCA-5043)
 

I recently stumbled on this one and I have to say it is a work of genius. It makes me wonder about other OST's of Hitoshi Sakimoto. Most of the songs sound really like Final Fantasy Tactics.

There are two parts of this OST. Sakimoto begins really quite with the themes in concert hall style. Then there is a place of silence which gives the return to a more exhilarated version of the presented themes in the first section of the OST.

This soundtrack was for Sega Saturn, which is the main reason why I didn't bother listening to it, because the sound would be of low quality. But as I was curious about Sakimoto's works it seemed that you could do a lot with low quality sound too. It also reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance OST where you also have the orchestrated version and the in game version of the soundtracks.

I have to say that every soundtrack on this CD is epic with a huge sense of rhythm. The harmony sounds like Vagrant Story and the rhythm reminds me of FFT. Also very important is the use of violin pizzicatos just like in FFXII. I especially like "Debris".

I account this OST as one of his finest works, you should try out this OST and tell me how you like it! It's especially for the FFT OST fans!

There is also another catalog number, I think a re-release of the OST, I'm not sure: TYCY-5613

Is THIS why the Saturn failed?

Saturn was dead mainly because it had been weaker in terms of 3D rendering and thus Square had decided to release thier franchises in PSX. Music-wise, despite the fact it had a 32 channel sound processor, since Saturn couldn't compress instrumental data into ADPCM and decode it, its synthesizer might be a bit weaker too.

RS is an above-average Sakimoto's soundtrack for me. If you have a liking for it, I recommend you hear the rip of Kusen that was released in PS2 2001, since it was entirely a rehash of RS, as far as the leitmotiv goes. =D

Actually the Saturn sound chip was a monster and could pull off incredible effects. The only problem with it was the lack of RAM available for samples, and this memory problem was worsened by the lack of hardware compression (all samples had to be stored in raw format, making them much bigger).

This was rectified later with the RAM cart, games like Marvel vs Street Fighter and Vampire Savior actually had the synth soundtrack going on (MvsSF used that completely, Vampire Savior only used it for char select and VS screens), and they were spot-on identical to the arcade original versions.

Many games could pull off awesome soundtracks without the RAM cart though. Panzer Dragoon 2, Cotton 2, and Radiant Silvergun also belongs here.

So, other than FFT, FFTA, BOF5, Vagrant Story, FFXII and this. Which of the other older soundtracks of Sakimoto would you recommend me?

I like battle music and rhythm.

Actually, ABCA-5043 (2004) is the reprint of TYCT-5613 (1998).

Where exactly did this misconception start anyways? Call me crazy, but when I listen to music from a Sega Saturn game versus a PlayStation game, the Saturn stuff generally sounds better. A perfect example is Lunar: The Silver Star Story, as the PlayStation version of the game sounds bad in comparison to its Sega Saturn counterpart (special exception to Burg, the PlayStation handles that song better).

I mean, I listen to J-E-N-O-V-A and picture Nobuo Uematsu mashing down on a cheap Casio keyboard. His compositions are really awesome and come to life in orchestrated form, but the quality of the sound samples are pretty lousy as far as trying to emulate actual instruments. This isn't an attack on you by any means, it's just kind of depressing to read the same old misconceptions about the Saturn's audio quality after a decade. The Saturn seemed to handle MIDI better, especially games that utilized the Cybersound MIDI wavetable software such as NiGHTS.

By the way, we seem to share the same love for the song "Debris", as I think it's Sakimoto's best song from Silvergun. Sakimoto's alright, though I kind of put him alongside Motoi Sakuraba in the whole "a lot of his music sounds the same" category. You can recognize certain composers and their styles, but when I went into my first combat area in Final Fantasy XII, the first thing that came to mind was "wow, this sounds kind of like Debris from Radiant Silvergun" and I just find Sakimoto kind of lacking as far as variety goes.

If you want to hear something else from Sakimoto, give the Gradius V soundtrack a look.

The saturn was actually fully MIDI compatible btw. All the synth tracks in it are MIDI files with custom sound banks. NIGHTS used that as well, for the nightopian "mood changes" they just switched one of the channels into a different tune (as shown in the Xmas Nights sound test mode).

My favorites in Radiant Silvergun are Debris (fast, catchy tune) and Origin (real end-of-the-world music). I don't really like the rest of the music, not catchy enough. It fits the game I guess, and the game wasnt about being catchy.

On the subject of NiGHTS, I hate that the official soundtrack release that Sega did has this cheap MIDI sound to it for all the stage themes. I don't understand why they didn't just stick with the Cybersound wavetable software for the soundtrack release when it sounds waaaaaaaaaay better. They did the same thing with Dragon Force as well... I was almost pissed when I heard the first few tracks on the Silvergun soundtrack, then calmed down when I heard the original sound versions in the latter half of the CD.

At least they left the Panzer Dragoon series soundtracks intact...

I even composed a song in the style of Radiant Silvergun, anyone care to listen and give an opinion? It's called "Pride" and stands on number one of my list. (see signature) Don't worry, it sounds even better than some of Sakimoto's works, so it's not a low quality midi file or something.

Debris has an unusual, creative rhythm that I adore!

Sega Saturn sound: I never listened to any Sega Saturn music. But I just "assumed" it was bad, because Saturn failed the market and Playstation didn't. Wrong logic, I know.

Is THIS why the Saturn failed?

Phew, what a track. I'm in the middle of playing FFXII right now, and I always look forward to Sakimoto's deep, rumbling notes. Glad to hear them in this track too. Those bassy sounds are enough to stir even the meekest of librarians.

Sakimoto is brilliant... sometimes. To me, he is becoming a bit erratic of late. I feel that his earlier compositional style was a bit more formidable than what it seems to be evolving into now. As one of his earlier works, Radiant Silvergun is very good in noting how Sakimoto began maturing his orchestrational technique.

My favorite theme from the game is "The Stone-Like". While I have never played the game, I imagine that this would make the perfect 'Final Boss' music. The choir sings so beautifully in such an isolated way...there is such a majestic power to it all. Thats really what Sakimoto does best with his music, IMO. To instill an unequaled amount of wonderment, mysticism, majesty and power. I have yet to uncover a style quite like Sakimoto's.

So who's played the game? My favourite tracks are coloured by context. Number 1 would be 'Evasion'. The way it kicks in in-game is sublime. Debris, a no hoo-ha track that bubbles under the action, starts you off on stage 4, which has a slow beginning, then the track dies out. A brief moment of calm, before the storm. Suddenly a boss ship zooms into the screen in impressive style out of nowhere, your first sight of it coinciding with the first loud blasting note of Evasion. It's like getting fucked in the ear. The track epitomises 'upbeat', perfect for the insane action which begins with that first boss ship and continues on for most of Stage 4.

Do you have a track which you think works really great in-game?

Played the game extensively, yet still kind of suck at it. I turn the game on now and then, even with all the new consoles we have. The funny thing about Radiant Silvergun is that unlike 99% of the games from the 32-bit era, Radiant Silvergun still looks pleasant and remains easy on the eyes, while games like Final Fantasy 7, Shining Force 3, and others haven't aged well at all.

Radiant Silvergun's definitely got the full package going for it, probably why it's still worth a lot of money on eBay.

Yeah I'll absolutely agree with you on the full package-ness of Radiant Silvergun. The presentation of the game, the unique novelty of certain moments in the design of stages and bosses, the undeniable 'cool' factor of huge polygonal beasts swinging and rotating around the screen to a high-speed scrolling background, and of course the marriage of great music into the action as with moments like I highlighted in my last post - it all gives Radiant Silvergun this great overall cinematic experience which I've never seen in another shoot-em-up.

I half agree with you on the Shining Force 3 point: its graphics aren't technically outstanding, it's not eye-candy by any means, but they do have this simple charm to them which means it never looks 'ugly' so to speak. And despite what I said about eye-candy, certain specific examples can still impress me, like the insane light shows of Thanatos and Tiamat.

Do any of you think that we'll find an "experience" shooter in this console or arcade generation? That is, though we've experienced the minimalist shooter in Ikaruga, will any developers push a maximalist, wholly encompassing shooter with bombastic, engulfing graphics, art, music, sound, design, and structure?