So, someone uploaded the Sega Saturn version of the Vandal Hearts soundtrack to Zophar's Domain. As I had thought, it does indeed include a number of new pieces of music, unfortunately untitled, as they were never officially released. The names are generally "SEQ38_03" and indeed it goes up from "SEQ38_03" to "SEQ47_03", the only outliers being "SEQ38_02" and "SEQ48_01".

I have not been able to find information about who converted the original tracks, nor about who wrote the new ones.

My thanks to UVList from who I grabbed the photo of the cover.

The Conversions

Unlike the PSX Vandal Hearts - an accomplishment in virtual orchestration utilizing the sounds of the Emu Proteus 2 - the Saturn version is a straightforward conversion of the tracks to whatever MIDI the Saturn uses. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound half as good as the PSX originals.

The soundfont is, for one, far weaker. Instruments lack the clarity of the Proteus 2's original sounds, where the only true deficiency was in the french horns. And little effort, it seems, was put in to re-balance the orchestration. In tracks such as "Mountains" and "Crisis", some instruments are buried in the mix, barely audible. The reverb is a mess - sometimes there seems to be less then the original, sometimes more. In any case, it's poorly applied and muddles an already poor mix.

"Tension", my favorite piece from the PSX original, is badly messed up. The timpani is far louder then the original, and far more striking, totally obscuring the bassoon part. The french horn sounds like a trombone. The tuba is far louder then the original.

"Cultivation Village School", my favorite town theme from the original, goes from light to comical thanks to a bassoon sound which can only be described as "goofy". The initial flute melody becomes an initial clarinet melody, and so loses some of the lightness in the original.

"Crisis" is badly underserved. The opening with the recurring 12/8 ostinato bouncing between oboe, tuba, and trumpet, is badly damaged thanks to the weakness of the trumpet sound and the volume of the oboe. The reverb is especially detrimental to the oboe, which remains persistently irritating through the 3rd section climax.

The instrumentation seems to have been fiddled with. Bassoons are replaced with trumpets, horns undergo a dramatic transformation into tubas, and the timpanis, though far larger then their Proteus 2 originals, are far too much for the music, overpowering other instruments with their decays and the effect of the reverb.

One can only assume that Tamawari was not involved, as literally none of his other work bears such sloppiness.

Original Tracks

Aside from the conversions, what about the original tracks? "SEQ38_02" is a remix of "Enemy Turn" using a fuller orchestra including brass instruments (unlike the original for woodwinds, xylophone, and percussion). It's pretty good and not as muddled as the conversions.

"SEQ38_03" sounds like something Yoko Shimomura might've written for Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - the bouncy bassoon beat, the marimba accompaniment, the clarinet accompaniment, even the strings (I am not sure if it is strings, admittedly, again due to the soundfont's lack of clarity) melody. From that it shifts with the addition of brass and woodwinds, which is an interesting feeling as it retains the marimba and bassoon beat.

"SEQ39_03" remixes the main theme before a woodwind melody takes over. Decent, but unexceptional, and its usage of the main theme is far darker the Tamawari ever made it sound. "SEQ40_3" again remixes the main theme, and while it's not as dark as the previous track, its usage of the main theme still sounds wholly unlike any usage of it by Tamawari. It's a bit of a meandering track that doesn't seem to go anywhere.

"SEQ41_03" sounds more like something Tamawari might've written, with the continual crescendos from nothing in the tambourine and snare section. Besides that, it again sounds like Shimomura. Decent, but unexceptional.

I'm wonder who wrote these additional tracks - it surely wasn't Tamawari. And while they do sound like Shimomura, they are not nearly as good as much of her work, so if they are written by her, it surely must've been either rushed or written purely for financial reasons. And, there is further evidence against that already thin possibility. Shimomura, in 1997 when this Saturn port was released, was still an employee of Square. She did not begin working as a freelancer in 2002. It is, therefore, extremely unlikely she wrote these tracks - Vandal Hearts being a game developed and published by Konami - as, during her time at Square as well as her time while at Capcom, she wrote for no games outside of those which she was assigned (e.g. Street Fighter 2 and Parasite Eve).

It is all speculative. No conclusions can be reached. So, continuing on with the original tracks.

"SEQ42_03" once again sounds closer to Tamawari, but it still sounds like Shimomura. It has been remarked to me that Tamawari and Shimomura sound similar, but there is a great distinction between them. Tamawari's work is far more contrapuntal and classical in style then Shimomura's has ever been. The track also sounds closer, at some points, a generic fantasy score. Perhaps they brought on Higashino, who contributed to the first game. I guess we'll never know.

"SEQ43_03" is, I assume, a town theme as it has the slower pace. It sounds surprisingly full, much closer to Tamawari's work. It morphs into a much more dramatic piece part of the way through, and there is an accompaniment on, I believe, the kalimba (though it may yet be marimba) during it. It climaxes triumphantly before a very short glissando loop transition to the town theme section. An interesting piece - the best of the original tracks I've heard thus far. It could've almost fit into the original game - and that's the highest compliment I can pay any original track from the port.

"SEQ44_03" is a tense piece, again reminiscent of Shimomura's work, but another surprisingly good piece, much better orchestrated then the conversions. "SEQ45_03" is similar to "SEQ38_03" with its Super Mario RPG feel to it. One can only wonder what instructions the composer of these new tracks was given to depart so much from Tamawari's contrapuntal, somewhat dissonant, wind band style! While these tracks are, for the most part indeed wind band, they have far more pitched percussion then Tamawari generally used. "SEQ45_03" builds up to a dissonant, tense, uneasy climax.

"SEQ46_03" is another Shimomura-esque piece, and again, it's not very distinctive. "SEQ47_03" is a surprisingly charged piece. Far from Tamawari's style again, but closer to a standard RPG score. "SEQ48_01" is just "Vicissitudes of Fortune", the solo melody on an ocarina, except even more abbreviated.

Concluding Thoughts

Sloppy, careless conversions and mediocre, largely uninspired originals mean this isn't worth the time to download and listen to it. It's essentially a historical curiosity, an exercise in what not to do when converting a score to another platform with a different soundfont. 3.4 out of 10 is really all I can give it.

What Happened to the Soul Blazer Review?

Long story short, I found the Sega Saturn Vandal Hearts port. I had the thought to review the other two games of the Quintet trilogy. After that, I figured, why not review the soundtrack to The Granstream Saga as well? And then I figured why not ActRaiser too? And this gave me a very clever title indeed for the name of the review series. The Quintet Quintet.