For over 15 years, the Super Robot Taisen franchise has grown. It’s a well established series in Japan, but it was virtually unknown here until 2006 when Atlus released the Original Generation games to give Americans a taste of the series. The original series started back on the Game Boy and ended roughly around the end of SNES’ life. The games 2, 3 and EX received a complete makeover on Sony’s Playstation known as Super Robot Taisen: Complete Box. Later on, the OST was released with a fancy makeover too. There are a lot of goodies stored within this one disc.
It starts off with some cool, original songs, but most of the disc’s first half are anime songs. It mainly consists of themes from Go Nagai’s works such as Mazinger and Getter Robo with bits of old-school Gundam and other Tomino works. While all of the anime songs may have been re-used in future SRT albums, it’s nice to hear how much improvement, quality-wise, these songs have gotten as gaming technology advances, and how they sound in new hardware. Personally, I find the synthesized versions of Go Nagai songs more likeable than the later versions. The synthesized versions had more creativity to them while modern ones are on the generic, smooth-jazz side. There is a lot of nostalgia to be found in these anime themes, but it applies mostly to those who grew up watching the series and/or been a long-time fan of the games. I’ve only gotten into the franchise a few months ago so there’s not much nostalgia for me.
As usual, I’ve enjoyed the original portions most of all. The majority of them were new to my ear. For a series that has reused music for decades, it’s very refreshing. The only familiar songs are the character themes which they’re all classics in my book. I still enjoy Masaki’s “Scirocco! Gale! Cybuster” with this version’s melody being a lot different than how it’s used today. Lune’s “Flapper Girl” is still a fun listen and I still have a soft spot for Shu’s “Dark Prison.” It’s been a while since I’ve heard the themes from the other Masoukishin (Elemental Lords) whom I hope to see in a future Original Generation installment. I enjoyed “Traditional Song: Mio’s Jongara Song” more, partly due to how abrupt it ended in Alpha Gaiden’s version when it really got good.
>he remainders of the original songs are used during fields and dialogue. Quite a few of them are superb and it’s unfortunate how these particular songs were left in the dust. The majority of these songs are actually soft tunes with a few gritty ones to mix things up. Some of my favorites are “THE UNIVERSE” which has an enigmatic style, but has quite an interesting melody. The following song “VIRTUOSITY” is a beautiful piano piece that would serve well as a tear-jerker. “CLOUD LAND” is a short but a beautiful song with an angelic melody. The style is a lot more suitable for a Mana game rather than SRT. There are also both versions of “ReviB Soldier,” which contains a very addictive, upbeat melody. While they’ve might’ve been a lot different than the usual SRT tracks, they were all great listens.
This was certainly one of the better soundtracks I’ve heard from the series. While a lot of other albums carry over many songs, it’s still worth a purchase, if only for collection purposes. It has good quality anime themes in synthesized form, and having the best and final versions of several of these original songs are also great. It’s become another difficult find, but it’s bound to be out there, somewhere within this vast world. I definitely recommend this one.
