NINJA GAIDEN Σ2 Official Soundtrack

The question “Why is the next review devoted to NGS 2?” has a detailed answer. First, the music of Japanese composers – not only of acknowledged classics – leaves few people untouched. It has lots of new and strange features, especially for a person who got used to European musical traditions. And secondly, the game itself is noteworthy. Watching gameplay videos again and again I gave the soundtrack the highest marks in advance. And so I had to prove my estimates. (I should say at once that I had to do a double work: there was a 3-hour rip with the music from the game in the first place and only after that I succeeded in getting the soundtrack itself – it’s not so long I should say).

All the tracks on the album can be divided into 2 categories: those that as a rule are cut out from the electronic loops and beats, therefore completely lack in its own content and relate to what’s happening on the screen belong to the first category. Names of such tracks correspond to specific game events (like Fighting Soul or Murderous Intent), and these very compositions are purely illustrative. The second category consists of tracks that are contrary to the action. They tend to be connected to the emotional part and inner story of the game and should convey what can’t be expressed in words or via visual component.

Let’s talk about the tracks that fall under the first definition. It’s nearly always urban, entirely deprived of a plot, tightly stitched together of what was near at hand music. The tracks are ‘stuffed’ with electronic, however, quite ordinary samples. All the limits were exceeded so that it would sound powerful and explosive as possible. As a result on the background of beats and other someway musical sounds the idea of the music is being lost. The rudiments of a melody are buried under an avalanche of thunder and rattle. Despite the crazy rhythm and strictly dance nature music is like frozen in one place – no proper development can be traced (of course, there’re some exceptions, for example, Confrontation is an excellent track, though for some reason it hasn’t been included in the OST). It’s impossible to specify the genre of the tracks: the composers are on the path to music hyperinflation mixing incompatible components at their own risk. Thus, we get this typical music which covers 90% of the game time and which could be hardly replaced by anything else. It's a kind of ambient (like in notorious S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) only in an urban-mix form.

Can we talk about the composers’ negligence in this case? Of course, no. Despite the fact that they have not invented anything new, the work is done very and very professionally (quality of the sound provided by Japanese teams is not a matter of worry). Far less tracks can be seen in the second category but their contribution to the album is difficult to be overestimated. Among these tracks there’re the most remarkable and memorable compositions (for example, the main theme or The Hero, the style of which differs significantly). The title composition reminds of a long-lasting rondo, where one and the same theme is being repeated an infinite number of times, gradually acquiring more and more virtuoso passages and new aftersounds.

There’re some more musical episodes designed to replace this theme in the course of development and to decrease the emotional intensity so as to prepare the ground for the next culmination. It’s noteworthy that this very theme resounds in Vengeance and the motive on which it’s built at times appear in other tracks. Made a theme of revenge a main one the composers force us to experience the music as even more malicious, fierce, like the inevitable fate. It’s hard to pick a word that would exactly describe the essence and the nature of all the music – music that has absorbed the whole range of human emotions: from blind rage (Approaching Doom) to contemplation (East Meets West), from a feeling of an imminent death (Apocalypse) to a victorious glee (The Hero). This word should rather convey the skill of the authors working on the album. Their skill can be described as topnotch and in no other way.

The length of the game rip is 3 hours and a half. An intention to listen to all the tracks form the beginning to the end is much of a heroic deed. Besides unlimited free time and iron motivation you should think once again – as during the same time you can listen to the most part of Beethoven symphonies (app. 6 hours), half of ‘The Beatles’ studio albums (8 hours), Handel’s Messiah (2hr 30¬min) or almost all “The Prodigy” (no point in counting the mins, listen as long as necessary). In short, you get to choose. My own advice for those who have not yet come to get acquainted with the album, but who is desperately short of time – if you’re not sure that you’ll be able to listen it to the end, than don’t even try. OST to NGS 2 is so much like one piece, and every track in this game is unique. So, you can form a correct judgment about it only if fully immersed in the atmosphere of the album from the first to the last bars.