Disgaea: Hour of Darkness Soundtrack

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness Soundtrack, 2003, Tenpei Sato

It is always gratifying to see the little game that could not only succeed, but grow into a thriving franchise selling millions of copies without losing its charmingly eccentric character. Before the release of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, developer Nippon Ichi had been putting out one game a year, always on the precipice of closure should that game fail. All of that was about to change with Hour of Darkness, a zany strategy RPG starring Laharl, son of King Krichevskoy, overlord of the Netherworld – who inconveniently died while Laharl was sleeping for several years. Setting Laharl’s quest to reclaim the throne in the Demon Netherworld gave the developers licence to adopt an “anything goes” approach, according to producer Sohei Niikawa. The result was a strategy RPG as deep as it was irreverent; not many of them, after all, can claim exploding penguins as their mascots.

Like Nippon Ichi, Hour of Darkness also proved to be the breakthrough success for composer Tenpei Sato. Although he had already been writing game music for 15 years by the time he worked on Hour of Darkness, Sato remained relatively little known outside Japan. His most notable credits had been the soundtracks for Nippon Ichi’s Marl Kingdom franchise, scores that were effectively full-fledged musicals – still a rarity in game music. Sato approached Hour of Darkness’s demonic setting with the same idiosyncratic spirit found in the game’s visuals and writing. As he put it in an interview, “[…] in contrast to one’s dark image of a demon world, the music is comical, lively, enthusiastic and intense.” Sato clearly relished the assignment: “Sohei Niikawa asked that I write unique music, so I was able to compose freely and playfully.”

All of those adjectives describe the Disgaea: Hour of Darkness soundtrack perfectly – except perhaps “unique”. That may come as a surprise, given the series’ reputation for quirky music. However, that quality becomes far more pronounced from Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories onwards. Hour of Darkness, by contrast, is stylistically more traditional than one might expect. Yes, compared with a high-fantasy strategy RPG like Final Fantasy Tactics, it is undeniably a wilder blend of influences. Ultimately, though, Hour of Darkness is not a stranger bird than the average JRPG: it is a mostly synth-orchestral affair, with a handful of genre experiments thrown in for good measure. And of course, there are the musical numbers, the one element that truly sets the score apart, even as they also firmly link Hour of Darkness to Sato’s earlier work on the Marl Kingdom games.

Of course, none of that is a problem in itself – it simply highlights that Sato is one of the 32-bit era’s most gifted orchestral composers. His writing for the ensemble is first-rate: fluid, constantly engaging every section of the orchestra, while providing enough melodic and contrapuntal substance to underpin these deliciously colourful compositions. The natural result is a lively, varied soundtrack with an immense expressive range, moving from sincere yet playful bombast to giggling mischievousness and dreamy calm without missing a beat.

In fact, perhaps the most surprising aspect of the Disgaea: Hour of Darkness soundtrack is how much of its running time is devoted to orchestral pieces that drift along in an idyllic mood. “Flowerbed”, “Angel Smile” and “Dear Friends” offer one gorgeous string or woodwind melody after another. At the same time, Sato gives each cue a distinct identity – whether through the swooning melodic outburst that crowns “Flowerbed”, the mandolin accompaniment in “Angel Smile”, or the acoustic guitar duo in “Dear Friends”.

Sato also has no difficulty expanding the melodic grace of these modestly scaled pieces into larger statements that are as moving and stirring as PS2 orchestral scores get. “Eternal Melody” is a beautifully constructed string adagio that closes the soundtrack’s instrumental portion on as majestic a note as one could hope for. “Flower of Happiness” goes one better still: it is simply one of gaming’s greatest vocal ending themes, a contented ballad for female solo singer, solo strings, acoustic guitar and piano. Its transparent textures and delicate tone colours make for a lovely change of pace after the uplifting gravitas of “Eternal Melody”, while allowing the dense contrapuntal writing to shine through. At the cue’s end, Sato beautifully evokes a shower of falling petals as he layers vocalist Sakurako Matsuura’s blissfully charming la-la-la vocals into a gentle wall of sound that envelops and beguiles the listener.

That same creativity and attention to detail serve Sato superbly across the entire Disgaea: Hour of Darkness soundtrack. Given the game’s narrative and broadly comic tone, much of the orchestral writing leans into The Nightmare Before Christmas-style mock-Gothic colour – light-hearted, but never so exaggerated that it tips into mere parody. “Hell’s Whisper” grows from a simple music-box tune into a darkly elegant waltz with a faintly comical undercurrent, while also delivering some of the 32-bit era’s most appealing and intricate orchestration. “A Dark Race Becomes Magnificent” follows suit and fully earns its title, while “Mischievous Demon’s Footfall” and “Beauty Baron” delight in their mock seriousness, prancing tempi, agile woodwind soli and sheer abundance of musical material. “Rosen Queen Co., Underworld Branch” is the soundtrack’s most overtly carnivalesque cue, yet never outstays its welcome; it even finds room for touches as distinctive as sitar leads.

Another surprise the Disgaea: Hour of Darkness soundtrack has in store is its ability to deliver full-bodied orchestral grandeur. As one would expect, some of it is tinged with comic undertones – take “Welcome to the Overlord’s Castle” and “Portrait of the Underworld”, which gently poke fun at the presumed grandiosity of their settings while still providing robust orchestral opulence. More often, though, Sato’s grander orchestral statements are straight-faced barnstormers. “Witch Hunting” and “Fancy Ball” show his knack for action writing that layers urgent bombast carefully enough to give it depth, while also anchoring it with strong melodic hooks. Indeed, Sato masters this register so thoroughly that he can even venture convincingly into space-opera grandiloquence on “Galaxy Wars” and “March of the Planet Earth”. “Galaxy Wars” is especially effective thanks to its Star Trek-inspired brass writing, which is less concerned with counterpoint than with monolithic melodic proclamation.

Of course, the Disgaea: Hour of Darkness soundtrack’s reputation for eccentricity is not entirely undeserved. Much of that comes from its songs, which heighten the score’s expressive range so dramatically that the music often becomes perfectly judged parody. “Marionette of Tragedy”, true to its title, delightfully wallows in Gothic stereotypes, only to undermine that seriousness through unexpected additions such as mandolin and accordion. “Ah, My Magnificent Life” plays to the rafters as a full-blown operatic tenor aria – sung in Italian, naturally – and could scarcely be more passionately overwrought. Meanwhile, “My Comrade” surprises as an upbeat Western ballad full of riding rhythms, acoustic guitar and sweeping strings. Finally, “Lord Laharl’s Hymn” and “Etna Boogie” are sassy, jazzy numbers that Sato treats as spectacular, fully-fledged musical set-pieces with all the irresistible swagger of Broadway curtain-raisers. They are a testament both to his talent and to the irreverent spirit he brings to this score.

Finally, Sato does experiment with genre combinations on several cues, although a few try a little too hard to be humorous and self-consciously quirky. Even so, there are real gems here. “Ray of Light to the Future” mixes orchestral and pop elements, building the latter’s catchiness into the cue’s violin melodies so that they can soar magnificently above the dignified brass. “Underworld” achieves an equally persuasive blend, wringing every ounce of drama from its power-metal stylings as finely crafted orchestration meets powerful guitar riffs and exuberant note-shredding. Most inventive of all are “You Go Girl” – with its 1960s rock influences, zany electronics and mariachi-style trumpet lead – and “The Great Wild”, which dabbles in Arabian colours across an animated, vividly orchestrated cue bounding along on zesty rhythms. It is difficult to overstate the joyful brilliance of the Disgaea: Hour of Darkness soundtrack.