I find this soundtrack to be quite a strange one. Released months after the original Alpha Gaiden OST (which was awesome) had come out, it was marketed a “complete” collection of songs from Alpha, the Dreamcast version of Alpha and Alpha Gaiden. Listening to the Alpha Gaiden OST the very least, I can safely say that the word “complete” is false. It is missing quite a lot of songs from other various OSTS or songs included in the game.
So I ask you, reader: what’s so complete about that?
It starts off with the Alpha Gaiden opening (game version) “Steel Messiah” by JAM Project. Of course, anything JAM Project is good to me, and it is still a nice song. Does this soundtrack have the ending song “POWER?” Of course not. Well, there’s a piano version, but not the actual song in itself. Complete it is not.
What to say about the first half, the anime tunes…? Most of the time, they are anime songs I have already heard from another OST. Sometimes there are some nice songs I have not heard, being that some mecha anime come and go throughout the series or have alternate themes. Among the anime songs, I enjoyed “Fly, Dunbine” which is an opening to the Dunbine anime. It was one of the few Tomino works I actually like. I also liked the game version of the Gundam Wing opening, “Just Communication.” Even without the lyrics, it is still an enjoyable listen, but it does not beat the other opening “Rhythm Emotion.”
There were also some other enjoyable songs, but otherwise, it’s mainly the same songs I have heard before. The remix version of that opening “White Reflection” is not featured in this soundtrack, along with a few other cool anime songs featured in Alpha Gaiden. Again, why call it complete if there are a number of songs missing?
The second half covers original theme songs, and they are songs not heard in the later Alpha games. Some are familiar to me, playing Original Generation for the GBA, and fun listens, but most of them have some freshness to them. While I liked several of the themes, they didn’t make much of an impact for me overall. The biggest con is that there are no character themes in this soundtrack. Where did they all go? No SRX, no Masoukishin, nada. Only a boss theme was included in the middle, and that’s it. Once again, the “completeness” of this album is nowhere to be found.
While it was still an enjoyable soundtrack, there are better ones out there. I highly recommend Alpha 3, having the majority of the anime songs featured here, plus so much more. I also recommend Alpha Gaiden for containing a lot of music that the rest of the Alpha series lacks. The three Original Scores are also worthy listens, having not only some character themes, but nice vocal versions of them too. Plus the fact that it is NOT complete hurts this soundtrack’s credit. Unless you are a soundtrack collector, you’re better off with any of the soundtracks I mentioned.
Note that there is another Alpha soundtrack from First Smile that contains 18 original tracks and 7 arranged tracks. It, too, is woefully incomplete, but the addition of the arranged tracks may well make it more worthwhile than this album.
