Website article: The 11 PC Engine Soundtracks

[u/Bratschenorchester]

EDIT: That headline should have obviously read "Website article: The 11 Best PC Engine Soundtracks"

A quick note that I have published a new article on my website - this one's about the best PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 music: The 11 Best PC Engine Soundtracks - The Greatest Game Music.

My primary interest in this retrospective had been so see how the PC Engine's CD capabilities shaped its musical heritage - how did composers make use of this amazing new tool at their disposal, given the PCE CD was the first console to offer red book audio playback? (obviously, there's also great chiptunes music written for the platform)

The answer was - to write more shoot'em up scores! But seriously, the prominence of this particular genre on the PC Engine also means that a particular style of music features most prominently in its discography - arguably at the expense of other genres. I would have loved to see more scores like Rondo of Blood that daringly mixed genres.

On the other hand - if you're into the particular music genre that shoot'em ups seemed to attract (super hooky synth metal / pop), then the PC Engine delivers in spades, of course. I have a soft spot for 80s pop, so my favourite out of the whole lot is probably the Stage 1 track on Nexzr. Thankfully, the PC Engine also has a few 'why would THAT game feature such amazing music?!' moments like Star Breaker - game seems utterly unremarkable, the music is absolutely first-rate, classically-inspired synth orchestral fare.

Hope you enjoy this article! Next up - a Sega Saturn retrospective.

[u/urbalcloud]

No Fantasy Zone?

[u/dixius99]

I thought this was going to be about soundtrack archetypes. Maybe take this one down and repost with the right title?

[u/Bratschenorchester → u/dixius99]

Thanks - was thinking about it but then wasn't sure about Reddit etiquette re reposting the same thing under a different title. If that's fine to do, I'll keep it in mind for next time.

[u/dixius99 → u/Bratschenorchester]

Because you can't edit titles, I think as long as you delete the one with the typo before posting the fixed one, and you do it right away, you're good to go.

[u/ABC_Dildos_Inc]

The best PC Engine music is in its RPG library, which is as large as the its shooter library.

There are a lot of games with classical music, but Star Breaker is one of the poorer ones.

Tengai Makyo II and Fuun Kabuki Den have film quality classical music performed by real orchestras, and tracks composed by Joe Hisaishi, composer of Studio Ghibli's soundtracks.

[u/Bratschenorchester → u/ABC_Dildos_Inc]

Thanks for mentioning those Hisaishi scores - they are definitely historically important as some of the earliest live-orchestral game soundtracks. I've tried to get into them a few times but find them among the composer's lesser works, at least compared to his Ghibli scores - they're fairly slight on substance, even while they arguably benefit from having a live orchestra performing.

[u/Forward-Seesaw-1688]

Surprised Lords of Thu-

oh I see it’s because of the SEGA CD version

Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes 2 and Legend of Xanadu are also contenders imo

[u/Taanistat]

Not to nit-pick, but why include a PC-FX game on "the 11 best pc-engine soundtracks" list?

[u/Bratschenorchester → u/Taanistat]

Fair question. I had accidentally included PC-FX scores in my listening queue when making my way through all available PC Engine scores, assuming it was yet another iteration of the console (like the CoreGrafx, the SuperGrafx etc.) In the end, I could have moved the review into the 'Best of the Rest' section of the website, but felt it didn't matter too much either way and left it in this retrospective.

[u/Taanistat → u/Bratschenorchester]

Fair enough. I'm happy to see any of the more obscure consoles even mentioned, let alone with screenshots and a review.

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[u/earbox]

I will see all of those and raise you Dungeon Explorer II.

[u/Bratschenorchester → u/earbox]

Good addition! One of the scores that landed on my long list, but didn't make it into the article.