Taikou Risshiden V Soundtrack

Taikou Risshiden V Soundtrack, unknown composer, 2004

There’s no doubt that Koei’s most prominent franchises of historical war simulations are Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga’s Ambition – both of them spanning several dozen games and ports. However, Koei worked through this particular subject matter in other games as well, for example the Taikou Risshiden titles. The first game in this particular franchise – almost unknown outside of Japan – was released in 1992 for PC-98, Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. The series continued up until Taikou Risshiden V, which saw the light of day in 2004 – and apparently concluded the franchise. The Taikou Risshiden games set themselves apart from other Koei history simulations through their sandbox-style gameplay that gave players greater freedom in choosing their path to victory. For example, available job classes included not just samurai but also pirates, merchants and blacksmiths, while gamers were free to roam the game’s world at their leisure.

Musically speaking, the Taikou Risshiden franchise had always held promise, but ultimately failed to make waves – despite renowned anime composer Michiru Oshima scoring the first game in the series early in her career. Finally, the Taikou Risshiden V soundtrack managed to unlock the potential that lay dormant in these games, producing one of the best orchestral PS2 scores that charms listeners with an exquisite wealth of melodies and colours. Unfortunately, there’s no information in the English-speaking parts of the internet about who composed the music – and while the game’s Wikipedia page details a score album, such a release isn’t confirmed by any other sources such as VMGdb.

It’s a frustrating situation, but that shouldn’t stop us from enjoying what’s on offer here. While the Taikou Risshiden V soundtrack lacks the longer running times and sustained musical development of the best works in Koei’s more famous franchises, it still delivers a splendid listening experience. The game’s cover gives a good idea of where the differences with other Koei history games lie. Instead of featuring warriors in battle-ready poses or staring into the distance, Taikou Risshiden V’s cover is downright genial and light-hearted.

The Taikou Risshiden V soundtrack mirrors these sentiments beautifully. Of course, the music doesn’t entirely dispose of martial elements, but they feel a lot more welcoming than the usual battle cries. “Track 02” gives a good idea of the score’s approach to the often stale and inflexible format of march compositions. With its jolly timpani rhythms and noble, warm horn and cello melodies, the cue is suitably bombastic yet always approachable. Other marches on the score equally benefit from the composer’s superior orchestrational talents – for each grand brass statement, there is a seamless breakdown into sometimes cheerful, sometimes moving woodwind interludes. “Track 12” highlights how much the music benefits from its luxurious orchestrations as woodwinds dart around the smartly layered brass fanfares and soaring strings. “Track 19” then has no trouble turning the music’s good-natured bluster into something more sincerely grandiose to conclude the album on a fittingly spectacular note.

Given the at times outstanding subtlety and richness of expression evident on these compositions, it’s no surprise that the Taikou Risshiden V soundtrack is equally adept in other emotional registers. The welcoming nature of its march tracks translates with ease into a number of homelier pieces that likely underscore village life. A cue like “Track 04”, with its lyrical clarinet melody against layers of pizzicato strings, captures the idyllic, placid aspects of roaming through a hamlet. “Track 06” marks the other end of the spectrum – no less charming, but far busier, with virtuoso woodwind orchestrations that segue into a swooning string episode. That the composition marries first-rate development of its material with a myriad different shades of instrumental colours, while always retaining its light touch, is quite astounding. “Track 13” nicely adds more variety still with its cheekier woodwind leads, before once more leading into a nostalgic string melody.

Other pieces on the Taikou Risshiden V soundtrack take the composer’s proclivity for heart-warming melodies and amplifies their romantic character to evoke the kind of cinematic sweep befitting a historic epic. “Track 05”’s plaintive cello solo develops with care against a simple orchestral background, before the music once more blooms into something more elaborate and expansive. Again, the composer’s ability to carefully shape the music is on constant display, from the interplay between strings and woodwinds that lead into the cue’s passionate outburst, to the bassoon counterpoint that grounds a particularly lofty violin melody later on. “Track 12” benefits from material that’s melodically equally rich and complex, while “Track 14” is a poster child for the score’s habit of flawlessly developing its pieces, moving from folksy woodwind soli and playful percussion into an opulent string melody backed by bells.

The music’s abundance of colours is of course enhanced by its carefully integrated local influences. Arguably, the Taikou Risshiden V soundtrack is largely steeped in Western orchestrations. However, the composer weaves enough trademarks of Japanese and Chinese music (pentatonic scales, particular instruments) into the music’s fabric to give its symphonically-styled compositions the required historic and geographic specificity. Cues that more strongly rely on Far Eastern musical elements are rare. The most obvious example is “Track 08”, featuring sparser orchestrations and more monolithic melodic utterances. Through this approach, the music smartly harnesses its solemnly repetitious sounds to turn the inevitable melodic breakthrough into something more abstract and exalted than usually.

All this is not to say that there’s no overt drama to be found on the Taikou Risshiden V soundtrack – the score does have it’s fair share of heavier, sometimes sombre compositions. Curiously enough though, these pieces often fall short of the standards set by the rest of the album, with uninspired melodies and simpler orchestrations that feel one-dimensional compared to the soundtrack’s better, more mellifluous moments. That being said, “Track 16” and “Track 17” do manage to transpose the score’s wealth of creativity into an action setting, hypercharging the score’s flow of ideas while still adding more colours to the soundtrack’s vast palette. On “Track 16” it’s a choir, while “Track 17” ventures into Gothic territory through mighty brass declarations. The Taikou Risshiden V soundtrack takes a bit of curating, but the result are 50+ minutes of excellent orchestral music that really deserves to be better known.