Takayuki Iwai, Tetsuya Ahibata - Star Gladiator 2 ~Nightmare of Bilstein~ Original Sound Track mp3

Death, taxes and sequels. While two of the three are inevitable, oftentimes it seems sequels to our favorite movies and games are mere formalities, even if they don’t seem justified. Even to us that are older, sequelitis sometimes seems like a relatively new disorder with IP holders looking for safe and sure bets. However, media companies made a habit of hitting their properties with the sequel shovel long before there was an internet to post complaints on. New experiences do seem in short supply these days and with so many people turning their backs on current releases given a booming retro game market, you’d have to be blind to believe that those behind the entertainment we consume haven’t noticed. As many times as I’ve said it, nostalgia never ceases to be a powerful force regardless of the situation. Despite that the opposite holds just as true: without nostalgia some things fall flat on their face and it’s never truer then when it comes to most of those sequels you never got around to playing.

For example, I love Star Fox. Well, the original SNES Star Fox. Sure, it’s dated but to me it’s an absolute must own and I just melt in my seat when I think about it. However, back when the Nintendo 64 launched I jumped ship to Sony’s machine and never played Star Fox 64. Skip ahead about a decade and a half later to the point where I *tried* to play the game and, you guessed it, I couldn’t see what the big deal was. Deep down I don’t think Star Fox 64 is a bad game yet there is a part of me that feels it was a product if its time. The same probably holds true of the original but because I can reflect on the era of time where Star Fox was ahead of the curve (and you can’t mentally discount such memories short of a case of amnesia) I can’t make an unbiased comparison. The same kind of situation reigns over Star Gladiator and Plasma Sword (e.g. Star Gladiator 2) although unlike the previous example there’s a part of me that can’t give Plasma Sword the benefit of the doubt. Granted, I probably drool over the original a little too much but that’s because it’s an off-remembered title that’s better than its current standing with players would suggest. On the other hand, Plasma Sword deserves to be buried under the vast body of superior fighters available for the Sega Dreamcast.

Unsurprising as it is in the end, this all comes down to what the games offered at the time of their release, but it also highlights why a so-so sequel can be more damaging than a bad one. Plasma Sword (I still hate this pointless name change to this day) isn’t a bad game in the slightest, but in throwing away so elements from the first game to make the second installment more Street Fighter-esque, the game shed a lot of its charm as it limboed under the bar of improvement. The original game was interesting due to its kooky sense of imagination; that well of imagination appears to have run dry with the sequel, but such a statement is inaccurate. It’s almost as if they didn’t go back to the same well and instead drilled a new one, unloading a heap of unrelated mediocrity onto the experience, surprising an unsuspecting fan base.

Regrettably, when it comes to that mass of mediocrity there’s an overwhelming desire to just lump all of Plasma Sword’s missteps together and dismiss the entire package. This is what I did when I sold the game off years ago but there was one element of the game that managed to stick around. Unlike the original game which gave mixed signals on which piece of music constituted the game’s main theme, Star Gladiator 2 made it crystal clear what constituted its main theme from the get-go. It may seem silly to praise Takayuki Iwai and Tetsuya Ahibata’s music for doing something so basic that it should be a given, but the main theme is the “gateway drug” of Star Gladiator 2’s audio; the other dominos falling when the initial one does. In this sense it lies in direct opposition to what Isao Abe and Yuko Takehara wrote for the first game. Because of this it’s tempting to compare the two bodies of work, but regardless of their similarities the soundtracks go about accomplishing their goals in different ways which reinforces the sharp division between this sequel and the original.

One of the most curious decisions made in regards to the music on the soundtrack is the fact that “Prologue” and “Opening Title” are two separate tracks. Played in immediate succession one after the other in the confines of the game, I don’t get the rationale behind this decision. Granted, this superfluous division helped me notice the employment of a key motif that may have gone unnoticed but otherwise it makes little sense. However, when it comes to which is the more pressing segment “Opening Title” contains the all-important main theme. Helping cover the technical deficiencies of the opening intro and some of my personal gripes with what is shows off graphically, you can’t underestimate how crucial it is to introduce this theme at this juncture.

After “Ranking Display” is “Character Select” which is where we can dig into my reservations with the opening intro. The roster of characters has essentially doubled since the last game and the quality of the new combatants is horrible. Whereas thought was put into the original characters of Star Gladiator, the new fighters in Star Gladiator 2 are worthless palette swaps that merely share move sets with the older fighters. Yes, these “characters” have unique stories and plasma strikes (e.g. super moves) but they’re uninspired. Bilstein’s daughter and June and Hayato’s future progeny who traveled back in time to assist them? Seriously, I wish I was kidding about that last one but I’m not. This is the problem with the game’s opening intro; it shows off a bunch of characters I’ll never form any affection for because they’re pale facsimiles of the characters I do care about. Here we see how various pieces succeed and fail due to this. Yes, the game’s intro shows off wretched abominations that are supposed to pass as characters but the music softens the blow; on the character select screen the somewhat mundane selection theme only reminds me of how far gone the creative minds of this franchise are. In an odd way the semi-lazy vibe of “Character Select” is almost like an admission of guilt, like the game developers knew they were unleashing a massive wet blanket on the character select screen. Okay, so it’s not that bad but regardless of how you candy-coat it I’m always going to associate this music with this unfortunate aspect of this game.

Upon selecting your character one is presented with the rocking “Next Stage” which mainly exists to mask the small amount of time it takes to load the upcoming bout. Thankfully, after the disappointing character select audio the game wastes no time revisiting the main theme heard in “Opening Title” with “Illusion of Peace” which most will consider the core rendition of the piece. Given this, most will find it unsurprising that this is the “first domino” I mentioned earlier. The listener can gleam many things about this soundtrack from this piece alone; the unfortunate thing is not all those things are positive. Sure, the track is catchy as hell but “Illusion of Peace” reveals the limitations of Star Gladiator 2’s synth; namely, that it’s probably a little too clean. Some will say the sound is too small or processed rather than “clean” yet I don’t think this is the case. While it very well could be the result of the restrictions of the original ZN-2 arcade board (no modification was done to Star Gladiator 2’s music when ported unlike the first game) the thin nature of the samples feels like a deliberate choice to me; almost like Iwai and Ahibata were afraid that the instruments would trip over themselves if they were thicker. Personally this wouldn’t make me shy away from the material (it somewhat reminds me of S.S.H’s instrument set on the various Lost Child discs) but I could see some turning away. Still, one may not notice this element of the game’s audio until it’s put up against something a little more stout and modern.

Speaking of reserved, after an in-your-face rocker the soundtrack opts to slow things down with the stage two theme “Armament to Battle.” An excellent cool-down track, this piece more-or-less confirms the character/stage theme connectivity idea practiced in the original game isn’t out in full-force here. It’s true that each stage has its own theme, but for the most part you can’t quite pin characters into the overall equation anymore. A few tracks like the aforementioned “Illusion of Peace” can be seen as having loose connections to various fighters (the main theme can be seen focusing on the franchise’s main protagonist Hayato) but beyond this most links are musical, not story based which puts the soundtrack on the opposite side of the spectrum when compared to Abe and Takehara’s work in the original. In one manner of speaking this makes it harder to dig into the underlying context of each composition but at the same time keeps the more important section of the score from focusing on lackluster characters. Crazy as it seems for Star Gladiator 2 to shift its focus given how well the music from the first game turned out, it seems those involved knew this strategy wouldn’t have panned out if it had been employed here.

Things bounce back to the intense with the curiously named “Fade to Silence.” While reigned in from being too wild and free, the track’s title is kind of an oxymoron in my opinion because the track’s very tuned in to the action on the screen; nothing this track does reminds me of silence. Maybe the title’s an in-joke or something? Anyhow, besides overthinking naming conventions, “Fade to Silence” marks the point where the overriding motifs in Iwai and Ahibata pieces start making or breaking the experience. The general rule when it comes to this and the overall quality of the idea is the further away the motif is from the main theme the better; the closer it gets to reprising anything similar “Illusion of Peace” the easier it is to pick apart. Thankfully, the core of “Fade to Silence” is one of the tracks that’s least cozy with the concept of emulating the main theme, containing a very abstract tug-of-war that’s almost akin to watching a heavy-set person running as their weight shifts from side-to-side as they alternate feet. That’s a pretty labored metaphor I’ll admit, but that visual approximation of a lumbering beat isn’t something I pulled out of thin air; it was actually inspired by the animation of some of the game’s heavier characters when they perform certain plasma strikes. Again, it’s a curious comparison that you’ll only see if this track and animation synch up at the right moment but I can’t deny it was minute touches like this that helped me see that Star Gladiator 2’s composers were on the right trail with this one.

Heading south, further away from solidarity is “Lead to Doom.” A track that gives the featureless, alien desert in stage four most of its character, it’s here we see how despite the narrowing separation between the motif and main theme the warbling synth line still has enough of a hook to stand out and not appear phoned in. There’s a theory that the alien-esque vibe of this one could be related to Prince and Saturn but there isn’t enough evidence to confirm that and linking character(s) to this piece wouldn’t bolster it much. Disappointing as that is, the concept of bolstering is on full display with “Story Demo 1” which is used for brief dialog exchanges between fighters in arcade mode prior to the start of stage five. Without knowledge of the game’s layout this rocking aside probably doesn’t make much of a statement, but those that have played the game can probably attest that these small snippets of story are crucial as the game doesn’t provide much context until the conclusion of a given character’s storyline. Easily one of the improvements Star Gladiator 2 holds over its predecessor.

Unfortunately, as much drama as “Story Demo 1” stirs up, “Jungle Distress” squanders it. While a competent piece of music, the theme takes the easy way out with a very stereotypical, jungle-like beat and an accompanying synth line that’s too close to the main theme for comfort. On top of this there’s the feeling those two elements never merge with one another; it’s almost like one’s just being played on top of the other like a DJ that’s doing his job incorrectly. I get the idea of the composers wanting to employ something more lighthearted and up-tempo here to balance out the serious nature of the previous demo piece, I just wish it was done with a composition that wasn’t so fake. However, such illusions aside, you could certainly do worse than “Jungle Distress,” I just wish I wasn’t alluding to some of the upcoming tracks by saying that.

Thankfully, we haven’t reached that point in the soundtrack yet and there are still some excellent surprises ahead. Speaking of surprises, surprising pretty much describes the entirety of “Holy Graveyard.” You may remember that I said the first portion of the game’s opening montage (“Prologue”) would become important. In a clever twist, Iwai and Ahibata use that small aside as a musical prefix for this track. This went over my head when I owned the game and only became apparent to me after buying the soundtrack. Beyond this sly nod, “Holy Graveyard” essentially builds upon the riff-based nature of “Lead to Doom” only there’s a lot more to examine here and it relates to a piece Yuko Takehara wrote for the first game. Those familiar with Star Gladiator’s audio may remember the cryptic, almost lifeless theme she wrote for stage five in that game; it was somewhat of an anomaly when compared to the other tracks due to its “anti-fighting game” feel. Unlike “Stage 5,” “Holy Graveyard” focuses solely on the surrounding environment and doesn’t attempt to dissect a complex character-stage relationship. With such a burden lifted from its shoulders, this similar yet dissimilar track is free in a way the other is not and it solidifies why most stage themes in Star Gladiator 2 are wise to avoid character-stage relationships.

However, just because the majority of tracks avoid character associations doesn’t mean the idea is abandoned entirely. Much like how “Illusion of Peace” can be attributed to Hayato, “Against the Absolute” can be attributed to his friendly rival Zelkin. One of the most important changes of allegiance to note within the franchise’s canon, after the events of the first game Zelkin defected from Bilstein’s Fourth Empire. I don’t know if you can effectively say he joined the Earth Federation because of that, but story wise he does lie in opposition to Bilstein’s desires for galactic conquest. To those familiar with the character, none of this was shocking as the blue-tinted Klondike warrior was always an ally in hiding, and a big audio based hint that this was the case was the theme Yuko Takehara wrote for him in the first game. A major highlight of that score, anyone familiar with “Zelkin’s Theme” (“Stage 6”) will tell you the composers responsible for the follow-up would have the difficult (e.g. impossible) task of topping that iconic piece of Capcom rock. That said, it was never really a question of whether or not Iwai and Ahibata could surpass Takehara’s piece; it was how much strain the resulting piece would show when attempting such a feat.

Of course, once you see the stage that accompanies it, there’s little doubt that “Against the Absolute” was written with Zelkin in mind. With its reflective floor, a fortress in the sky and clouds surrounding it all, it’s clear you’re in the Klondike home world when you reach stage seven. It all comes together like it did in the first game, just not to the same degree; Takehara must have been possessed by a divine spirit when she wrote “Stage 6” in 1996. I can’t say for certain that Star Gladiator 2’s composers were aware of her work prior to composing “Against the Absolute” but the track’s approach suggests there’s somewhat of an unofficial contest between the two. The situation is very similar to the castle theme clash between Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 9. To anyone that’s ever heard Takashi Tateishi’s “Dr. Wily Stage 1” from Mega Man 2, many believe he crafted one of the greatest chiptunes ever. Try as you might to tear that piece down you just can’t; it’s too damn catchy. Skip ahead to 2008’s Mega Man 9 and you’ll encounter the first and only castle theme that seems to directly challenge Tateishi’s piece: Ryo Kawakami’s own “Dr. Wily Stage 1.” I can’t deny that Ryo’s piece is solid and makes a statement of its own (he’s damn good at writing Mega Man music) but because it appears to take aim at a piece with so much history this ultimately boomerangs back on it and makes what may not be blatant seem blatant. This is essentially what undoes this comparable piece by Iwai and Ahibata. I can appreciate the effort, even if there is a pretty stout difference in quality between “Stage 6” and “Against the Absolute,” but short of time travel you cannot undo that powerful pairing that was featured in the first game. You can fight against it, but you’re not going to win.

Speaking of winning, winning will be on one’s mind as stage eight represents the last normal battle in any given character’s storyline. Naturally, this point is driven home with a title like “Fate of the Galaxy,” but before one enters the fray with this pile driver of a tune, one is presented with another dialog exchange. Unlike “Story Demo 1” which didn’t mesh with “Jungle Distress” as well as the game’s composers may have hoped, “Story Demo 2” pushes the seriousness of the moment. Most characters face off against the series antagonist Bilstein at this point (who has been toned down power wise since the first game) which means you can generally attribute these aforementioned tracks to him. Unfortunately, such a link can’t make up for the myriad of shortcomings present in this number. When the track starts out that blast of adrenaline is a rush but it quickly runs through its fuse even though the piece is still going at it. It’s difficult to explain what goes awry here; part of it is the thinness of the synth catching up with the material again and the other half is the sense of haste which isn’t necessarily a mistake in itself. By the end of the track you’re faced with the reality that the track is shallow and cheap. Thing is, there’ll be a part of you that doesn’t want to admit that. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the concluding battle themes in the original game as well, but at least they knew how to pace themselves and didn’t burn through the listener’s goodwill in a blink of an eye.

Such faults aside, even those with the most hopeful of outlooks will probably have to admit that it’s somewhat of a buzzkill that the greater portion of Star Gladiator 2’s audio is relegated to the first seventeen tracks of the soundtrack. There may be forty-one tracks left, but thirty-six of those are ending themes. Thirty-six! There aren’t even thirty-six combatants in the game! Ranging anywhere from twenty-three seconds to a little over a minute long (with each fighter having at last one) you can bet there’s a lot a variety included here. However, as is the case with most fighting game soundtracks, those who haven’t played the game will probably be left clamoring for context. That being said, there are two pieces that stick out: “Ending Theme.1” and “Gore Ending Theme” and they don’t stick out for the reasons you might expect. “Ending Theme.1” is the track a sizable portion of the ending montages default to before switching over to one of the unique follow-ups as a ending unfolds. Because of this it gets old quickly and may cause you to cringe when you hear it start up for the millionth time. Still, overused isn’t the same as being bad. Then there’s “Gore Ending Theme” which may raise an eyebrow in what it presents given what we learned about this character in the first game. Music related to Gore was usually moody and dark and composers like Takehara were able to thrive when expressing that. I'll admit that’s not the most thought provoking formula for an antagonist, but Gore was always a character that could sell his demeanor. Now, it’s not that he’s unbelievable as he’s presented in Star Gladiator 2, but turning an antagonist into an anti-hero is a gutsy move. The gamble works in my opinion; it’s the reason for his defection that doesn’t and this goofy, beach-themed ending piece will always remind me of that. Last but not least there’s “Staff Roll” which'll remind one of the piece that’s usually responsible for spurring one’s interest in the soundtrack.

While not as endearing as Isao Abe and Yuko Takehara’s work in the original game, my time with the Star Gladiator 2 soundtrack has warmed me up to the audio of an otherwise disappointing game and sequel. Most of the issues with Iwai and Ahibata’s work (aside from the slightly underpowered synth) are generally the result of them avoiding the larger issues ingrained in the other elements of the game. Given that, I can’t punish them for such forethought. That said, Iwai’s involvement in Star Gladiator 2’s audio does bear the mention of his participation in the creation of the music of Street Fighter Alpha 3, which is essentially a techno rendition of this rock oriented score in my opinion. Additionally, with the obvious exception of the ending themes, Star Gladiator 2’s music is less dependent on its accompanying context than the 1996 original which is intentional. I’d still be more apt to recommend the audio for the first game, but I don’t think I’d recommend both albums to the same person even though my fondness of this particular soundtrack has grown. That might not seem like much when you consider the big picture, but it’s the little things that matter in this case. Despite the rough nature of its origins, if you can leave behind the disappointment you may have with the product it’s a part of, Star Gladiator 2’s music might surprise you. I’d suggest giving it that chance.