MIDI Week Singles: "Birth of the People" - ActRaiser (SNES)

 

"Birth of the People" from ActRaiser on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1990)
Composer: Yuzo Koshiro
Album: Actraiser, and ACTRAISER Original Soundtrack & Symphoic Suite
Label: G.M.O. Records, and Wayô Records
Publisher: Enix
Developer: Quintet

As far as I know, there has never been a game like ActRaiser since ActRaiser was released 34 years ago.  Yes, there's ActRaiser: Renaissance, but from what I understand, the city-building sim portion adds a tower-defense element as opposed to strictly city-building and a little angel destroying monster nests; I haven't played it yet.

For "Birth of the People," I will always have engrained in my memory, beating the first boss in Fillmore, then being taken to the first temple, and after the first two people are lightninged into existence, the music 0:11 happens and it genuinely sounds like a dynamically scripted moment where the music and the animation line up perfectly.  Apart from that, the rest of the song is gold in that despite only being 40 seconds long, you end up listening to it for literal hours as you build and destroy cities and civilizations for the entire game.  The only time the overworld theme changes is in Kasandora when the people there discover "music" as a way to celebrate and remember the life of the wanderer who died in the desert, and then again in Bloodpool towards the late game when the people start fighting amongst themselves; we'll have to cover "Sasegemono" at a later date.

I love this music.  I love this game.  I love this introduction to Yuzo Koshiro.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Und die alte Lebensart