Overview

Shin Super Robot Taisen was released for the PlayStation in late 1996 and its album release Shin Super Robot Taisen Powerful Music Battle II was published just a month later. The name of the album itself a little confusing, since it isn't a second album for the game, but rather named after the 4th Super Robot Taisen Powerful Music Battle which features the music from the separate 1995 Super Famicom game 4th Super Robot Taisen. Putting the confusion regards the naming of the album to one side, the album features the original in-game music composed by Atsushi Migaki and Mitsuhiko Takano, alongside a few arranged themes too.

Body

The album starts off with a selection of arranged themes from Kakumi Nishigomi and Takaaki Yasuoka. The vocal arrangements of "Everywhere You Go" and "Psychic Energy" are fairly hit and miss, but certainly give different takes on the original themes, and feature a decent selection of instruments. The four other arranged tracks are much more enjoyable though, with each theme having their own unique sections: "The Firebird" features a gorgeous saxophone line, the comically named "Get the Funk Out" has some suitably styled electronic synth, "The Opened Door is beautifully orchestrated, and "Star Emblem" features some otherworldly synth and intriguing vocals. Out of these themes, Nishigomi's "Star Emblem" is actually the most striking, probably due to the fact that it's something which we expect to hear on a game music soundtrack even now, many years down the road after the release of this album. The synth used helps to conjure up an amazing spacey atmosphere and moreover the simple development that the track receives makes it an ambient, but gripping, track.

In regard to the original additions on the album, they are very different to Noboru Yamane and Shinichi Tanaka's contributions to 4th Super Robot Taisen, with the most obvious difference being the style and greater strength of the synth sounds used. The majority of these tracks are very good too, with the best themes taking forms not so far off power pop or power rock. "Everywhere you Go," "Killer Bee," and "In Chains" are the best of these, for the reasons that they all seem to exude their own unique atmosphere, despite being produced through different styles. Out of this selection, "Everywhere you Go" is a favourite of mine, maybe due to the fact that the synth vocals and mad bass featured remind me a lot of Koji Hayama's contributions later in the series.

Alongside these, the album also has a some other decent themes, which are mostly upbeat. "Love Faraway," "Flying in the Sky," and "A Blazing Will to Fight ~ Crossing Over an Awful Destiny" are probably the best examples of these, each featuring gentler synth to what can be heard elsewhere on the album. They're all among the arranged versions of famous tracks from various mecha animes. Out of this selection, "Flying in the Sky" is probably one that you might want to avoid if you aren't in the mood for an extremely upbeat theme, and rather, you'd probably more enjoy listening to the less energetic "Love Faraway." Overall, these themes aren't as well executed as the likes of "Just Communication" or "Everywhere you Go," but are good listens nonetheless.

Summary

The album does feature a number of other respectable tracks, and just like its predecessor, it turns out to be a nice musical journey. This album is in fact more listenable, with the fact that it has a larger ratio of original themes to anime tracks, which tend to be a little less enjoyable. Shin Super Robot Taisen Powerful Music Battle II is a worthy purchase and is one of the series' better early soundtracks. Go and hunt it down!