Overview

While Hitoshi Sakimoto is principally known for producing tactical RPG scores, he has produced a handful of excellent shooter scores during his career too. One of the most important of these was 1996's Terra Diver (aka Soukyugurentai), a military space shooter released by Eighting for Arcades and the Saturn. Sakimoto created an intense and dynamic soundtrack for the title using a range of electronic and orchestral fusions. The resultant score was considered ahead of its time with its elaborate composition and rich synthesis. The score was released on a soundtrack album back in 1996 and has more recently been reprinted. How does the original version of the soundtrack fare?

Body

Right from the introductory tracks, Hitoshi Sakimoto reflects that Terra Diver will be quite a ride. "S.O.Q. Scroll" features the intense fusions of orchestral, electronic, and percussive elements listeners should expect from the soundtrack. "Ignition, Liftoff, Injection" is a brief yet awe-inspiring track that captures the vertical-scrolling action with its succession of ascending synth glissandi. The fleshed-out first stage theme "Ota City Sky" is featured immediately thereafter. Opening with an fantastical array of synth arpeggios, it soon transitions into a punchy anthem featuring jazzy piano lines and rich electronic undertones. While one of the more tame and anthemic tracks on the album, it formed a prototype for the dense and exuberant fusions featured in Basiscape's current shooter soundtracks. Continuing to impress all these years later, it's easy to see why Sakimoto still loves this soundtrack.

As with many of his soundtracks, Sakimoto integrates a familiar melodic fragment throughout Terra Diver's score in an interest way. Technically speaking, this pentatonic fragment is rather simplistic, yet it enhances the aggressive and suspenseful feel of the game with its unusual rhythmic features and suspended phrasing. Building on the approach of the opening themes, the track is presented with synthetic timpani on "Gale of Don-Ryu", reversing the traditionally supportive role of the instrument in a highly effective way; it's an excellent depiction of a ferocious beast in a suspenseful boss encounter, and are also potentially very enjoyable out of context too. That said, Sakimoto does incorporate the theme into some more conventional tracks too. For example, the motif serves as an unconventional yet catchy hook at the climax of "On a Satellite's Orbit", a particularly dazzling electro-orchestral fusion.

The most impressive tracks on the soundtrack are the most intense entries. The third stage theme "Asteroid Belt Region" provides one of the most jaw-dropping reflections of Sakimoto's supreme musicality on the album. Here, Sakimoto segues from an emotional cinematic introduction into a fast-paced techno-orchestral hybrid featuring unrelenting beats and heavy percussion. It makes the visuals of the third stage all the more epic and exciting, while serving as a great listen in its own right. "Entering Mars" is one of the few truly orchestral tracks on the soundtrack and achieves a giant sound despite its dated samples. In fact, with its dense orchestration, momentous thematic reprises, and discord-based climax, it seems to have inspired some of Final Fantasy XII's most enormous tracks. Also impressive are two interlinked boss themes, "Appearance of Kokubetsu" and "Reappearance of Kokubetsu", both of which blend ascending discords with static bass lines to scenic effect.

Despite such pioneering stylings, Sakimoto still ensures this soundtrack is quite accessible for a mainstream audience. For instance, "Arctic Oil Field Base" is one of the most groovy tracks on the entire soundtrack and also one of the most goofy. The novelty synth sounds, bouncy harmonic lines, and over the top timpani runs provide a welcome break from the more serious tracks. "Assault of Akitaka-kun" also has that refreshing 'it's only a game' feel, though its exterior is still impressive with its discordant orchestral hits and intense synth glissandi. Among all these highlights, couple of tracks do fall short towards the end of the soundtrack. Most notably, "Gunpowder Warehouse Bakuzan" focuses too much on a slightly irritating pizzicato string motif, while "Shield of Earth's Surface" is too similar to earlier boss themes and labours the main theme. Such tracks are obvious blotches on an otherwise refined soundtrack, but don't detract too much from the overall experience.

Despite being overly relied upon, the main theme makes a welcome reappearance in the final stage theme "Descent Into the Sea of Clouds". An encompassing track on the soundtrack, low strings present the fragment while timpani pound away and synth arpeggios run wild. The augmentation of the fragment at the centre of the track is also very impressive and resolves some of the suspensions featured in its initial entries. This rendition certainly doesn't disappoint. The theme is also recapitulated within the symphonic ending theme, "Beginning of Great Retirement". Here, Sakimoto actually interweaves the fragment with a more deep and extensive melody, finally resolving some of the suspensions featured in earlier appearances. "High Score Team" concludes the soundtrack with a moody military orchestration. While the stylings aren't as impressive in composition and production as those of the Valkyria Chronicles soundtracks, the track still provides a suitably powerful conclusion to the game and score.

Summary

Despite being a lesser-known title, the music for Terra Diver is worthy of a place in the shmup hall of fame. Sakimoto offers various innovations on the soundtrack, ranging from his electro-orchestral hybrids to his integration of the percussive main theme, while still presenting a sound that will often be familiar and accessible to followers of the composers wider work. Though the soundtrack was most impressive at the time of its release, it still proves to be an engaging and impressive experience. That said, it is better to head for the recently reprinted version of this soundtrack than the original version; the new version is more widely available and has some excellent bonus remixes too.