Actraiser Renaissance Soundtrack

Actraiser Renaissance Soundtrack, Yuzo Koshiro, 2021

One of the most fondly remembered games from the SNES’ first generation is Actraiser. Only the fourth SNES title released in Japan, it was also developer Quintet’s first project, marking the beginning of an auspicious run that would produce some of the console’s most memorable works. Actraiser offered something genuinely unusual at the time: a combination of side-scrolling action and city-building simulation. The whole concept was held together by the game’s mythical narrative, which pits a god-like protagonist against the forces of darkness. Unfortunately, 1993’s Actraiser 2 met with a much cooler response after abandoning the simulation elements entirely in favour of punishing platforming. The series then seemed to vanish altogether, apparently forgotten by new rights holder Square Enix – until, out of nowhere, the company announced remake Actraiser Renaissance in September 2021.

Despite the more than 30 years separating original and remake, composer Yuzo Koshiro returned to arrange his classic SNES score for the new title – to the delight of a great many players. Few SNES soundtracks, after all, have attracted quite the same level of adulation as Actraiser. The fact that it received not one but two orchestral arrange albums, in 1991 and 2021 respectively, is testament enough to its place in game-music history. Having already established himself as a master of FM synthesis on Japanese PC platforms, Koshiro was fascinated by the SNES sound chip’s ability to sample orchestral instruments – a major innovation at the time. Trained in classical music by his mother, he chose to write his first orchestral game score. According to interviews with the composer, the writing came easily; it was the hardware that posed the real challenge.

Used to the flexibility of deploying his own programming language on the PC-88, Koshiro found SNES audio programming far more rigid. On top of that, he had to contend with the system’s severe memory constraints, which limited music samples to 64KB. Koshiro and Actraiser’s lead programmer overcame this by devising a system that could swap samples from the ROM on the fly, thereby improving their quality. The result was the most convincing approximation of orchestral music yet heard on a non-CD game platform – yes, even more so than Wing Commander. It was a towering technical feat, one Koshiro would match the following year in a very different idiom with Streets of Rage. More importantly, his command of orchestral colour, dynamics and counterpoint allowed him to write for this virtual ensemble as if it were a real one.

Seeing one of the foundation stones of orchestral game music rearranged decades later was therefore a tantalising prospect, especially since the two live-symphonic arrange albums had ultimately disappointed with their low production values and soporific performances. Clearly, the Actraiser Renaissance soundtrack was a labour of love for Koshiro. Not only did he rearrange his classic SNES compositions, he also wrote an entire soundtrack’s worth of new material. On top of that, he created SNES versions of both the rearrangements and the new cues. Unsurprisingly, getting the most out of Actraiser Renaissance’s music therefore takes a bit of work. Koshiro’s new pieces mostly tend to meander prettily, not unlike some of Jeremy Soule’s early-2010s output. They are pleasant enough, but often feel aimless, though there are exceptions. And while the SFC versions are welcome, they remain low-fi renderings of the fuller orchestral arrangements.

That leaves Koshiro’s rearrangements of the original Actraiser material as the soundtrack’s true main attraction – and on that front the album delivers at every turn. Put simply, these pieces have never sounded better, surpassing even the live orchestral versions. It should be said, however, that Actraiser Renaissance rarely offers major surprises. With one exception, Koshiro’s arrangements of the stage themes do not depart far from what could already be heard on earlier arrange albums, beyond thicker string writing and more emphatic dynamic shaping. He generally reorchestrates the SNES material faithfully, repeats it rather than reclothing it in fresh colours, and then adds a new section before the loop returns. That extra material does not necessarily cast the piece in a new light, but it does successfully broaden the emotional terrain already established by the original.

In other words, music that was already great simply becomes greater. “Bloodpool ~ Kasandora” retains its whirlwind energy, which at times almost tips into the carnivalesque, creating an unexpectedly elegant contrast with the turbulence of the brass and percussion writing. “World Tree” likewise benefits from heightened contrast, here between the tempestuous, unmistakably Star Wars-inflected opening and the eerie, exhausted calm into which the music eventually sinks. The finely judged sense of hushed awe, mystery and longing hanging over “Aitos ~ Temple”, “Pyramid ~ Marana” and “North Wall” – differently inflected in each case – has never sounded more potent or moving. The one level cue that does merit replacement by a new track is “Fillmore”. “Alcaleone” essentially presents the same power-metal amalgam, but dares to embrace the genre’s gloriously overblown tendencies more wholeheartedly, reinforced by even more blazing orchestration.

Where the Actraiser Renaissance soundtrack truly goes above and beyond is in its treatment of the shorter cues from the original game. Not the triumphant ending pieces, admittedly, but those compositions that genuinely benefit from more extensive reworking. Led by a tinny and not especially expressive woodwind line, “Birth of the People” was brief and charming on the SNES, but hardly exceptional. Here, Koshiro not only produces a much richer arrangement that draws out the cue’s Baroque inflections; he also writes enough substantial new material to double its running time, all while preserving the original’s spirited character and melodic grace. It is impressively colourful work. “Offering”, likewise somewhat undernourished in its 16-bit form, becomes a more fully realised composition. The arrangement preserves the original’s wistful delicacy while effortlessly broadening its scope, culminating in a cosmic close for chromatic strings and wordless female choir.

Action material such as “Powerful Enemy” and “Tanzra” benefits just as much from its Actraiser Renaissance overhaul. Once little more than a collection of crisis motifs with scant melodic or rhythmic interest, “Powerful Enemy” suddenly makes a real impact thanks to its more forceful orchestral palette. Just as important is Koshiro’s more melodic new material, which confirms that he still knows exactly how to write brass lines capable of triggering a first-rate adrenaline rush. “Tanzra” was already the original soundtrack’s finest battle cue, thanks to its progression from raging opening to a B section full of dissonant brass cries and despairing string melodies. Koshiro’s new version turns it into a thrashing orchestral tour de force, twice the length of the SNES track and always balancing ostinato-driven hammering with enough melodic profile to keep the music focused. Actraiser Renaissance, in other words, succeeds in making what was already a game-music classic sound even better.