Stellar Blade has one of my favourite soundtracks of recent years (if you didn’t already know this, where have you been?! Check out my review of the full experience here). The PLUS bonus set of tracks was not quite as essential, but still contained some pretty great tunes that deserve your time. When I heard there was an arranged album on the way, I wasn’t particularly surprised, but I was certainly curious as to how the predominantly electronic original tracks would sound when performed in this new way.
The first of the fourteen tracks here opens the album with a solid jazz rendition of “Don’t Forget Me.” I was initially a little taken aback by the jazz sound here, which, in hindsight, maybe shouldn’t have been a surprise considering the smattering of jazz-tinged tracks on the actual OST. “Don’t Forget Me” has a really cool momentum to it that carries through to the end of the track and nicely into “Flooded Commercial Sector”—the original version of which is a personal highlight. Here’s a fitting jazz-ballad sound, with the piano in particular giving the song a deeper, more emotive sound.
The next couple of tracks follow a similar trend—”Clock Tower” and “White Night” keep that stripped-back jazz sound and while not really offering anything new are enjoyable in their own right. “White Night” in particular is a standout, slowing the tempo and turning the original into a very luxurious and romantic number.
Track five is the first to feature a more notable shift in sound, with the album’s only piano solo, “Wasteland Reboot.” I am a sucker for a good piano track, and this one is great—delicate at one moment, powerful at others, all the while very beautiful and holding my attention for its full runtime (not always an easy feat when a track is stripped back to just one instrument). It also leads wonderfully into the gentleness of “Oasis.”
At the heart of Stellar Blade Arranged Tracks is a second version of “Don’t Forget Me,” this time including vocals by Hakyung Park. This song comes at the perfect time to break the calm of the last couple of tracks with a danceable, swinging beat, and vocals that are of absolute quality and very fitting for this overall sound. The track also acts as somewhat of a divider, splitting the jazzy first half from the more orchestral second half.
“The Song of the Sirens” is the first of the orchestral arrangements and is a great opener to this sub-collection, employing one of the most memorable motifs from the main Stellar Blade OST. This lovely rendition features an acoustic guitar melody that reminds me a little of music from Final Fantasy XVI. “Star Descent” carries on this guitar-focused sound but less effectively. In fact, I found the multitude of layers, rhythms, and melodies change a bit too much, giving it a chaotic feel that lacked clarity and unfortunately lost my attention toward the end. Its six-minute run time certainly doesn’t help!
Thankfully, the remaining four arranged tracks are more successful. “Democrawler” is a particular highlight that steps away from the very prevalent jazz inspiration on this collection more than any track before it. Elements of it even reminded me of the stellar (pardon the pun) soundtrack for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, by going for distinctly traditional European-sounding motifs. “Everglow” moves things in an alt-pop direction, and the epic “Hypertube” mixes rock with electro-pop and jazz to create one of the biggest, brashest, and loudest tracks here—I love the song and how it segues neatly into the final track.
“Hypertube” also bridges everything that came before it to the last track, a third version of “Don’t Forget Me.” This version features vocals again but switches out almost all of the orchestra for what the Stellar Blade OST is most known for: catchy pop melodies, smooth electronics, and a pounding dance beat. As someone who definitely prefers this kind of sound, the final take on “Don’t Forget Me” is probably my favourite song on this album and will likely be the one I revisit the most. It’s just a shame it’s so short, clocking in at only two and a half minutes.
For Stellar Blade music fans, the Arranged Tracks collection is an intriguing and necessary listen, similar to the PLUS collection. While the mileage you get out of these tracks will mainly depend on how much you like the dominant jazz inspiration, it is great to hear new takes on some of the game’s most iconic songs, and there’s even a handful here that I’d rank just as highly as some of my overall favourite tracks across all of Stellar Blade’s music.
