“Warning!, War Oh!” starts with a now-famous alert sound that is very characteristic of the series, and is shortly followed by an unusual boss theme, with an almost “island” feel, complete with synthesized steel drums. “Muse Valley,” Mercury’s stage, is drastically slower, with minimal percussion and abstract synth melodies, and “Jamming,” encompassing Venus, picks things up again with some sweeping 80s rock.
A fairly standard rock sound (as far as Darius goes) accompanies the opening stage, set above the surface of the sun, and around the 1:30 mark is a nice break with some impressive keyboard work. The soundtrack is more melodic and less obtuse than the later, more experimental Darius soundtracks, but still rather strange when compared to other games in 1989.Īfter the mysterious “Opening” and “Coin” chill your spine, standout tracks include the famous “Olga Breeze,” named so for the planet where humanity has temporarily taken up shelter after the first game. There is also a hint of 80s anime flavor within Darius II‘s music, both in terms of instrumentation and writing style. Present in Darius II are the series’ musical staples – spacey, operatic vocals, unusual synthesizer effects, and a good mixture of beat-driven tunes alongside some atmospheric, eerie songs – something fairly unique among shmup soundtracks, which lean towards the fast-paced side. The underlying melodies ooze the “Darius sound” mentioned in Carl’s Darius Burst interview, but in a very gritty, stripped-down style than the later, more epic soundtracks of Gaiden, G-Darius or Burst.
The game itself even seems to scroll slower and more deliberately than other shmups, with a vibe of fearful exploration rather than guns blazing. However, the sparsity works here, adding to the game’s distinctly eerie atmosphere. Much like the first game, the musical soundscape in Darius II (pronounced duh-RYE-us, unlike Darius the Great) is hollow, tinny and empty, especially compared to the rocking melodies of its contemporaries, such as Gradius III and Xexex. Hit the jump for an in-depth look at this strange and historically significant soundtrack.
Gradius 2 ost series#
Taking a look back at the series and its accomplishments, it’s easy to see that the three-screen-wide Darius II was a landmark worth revisiting.
Though the series has been mostly dormant since 1997’s G-Darius, it recently came back to life with the release of the brilliant Darius Burst. While the OST was originally released in the late 80s, and is therefore very much out of print, it was recently added to Taito’s expanding iTunes catalog for digital distribution, making it cheaply and readily available once again. Included with the album is a double sided insert, with one side featuring a close up of Ian Wilding's cover artwork and the other side featuring liner notes from Retronauts' Jeremy Parish.Darius II, released to an unsuspecting world in 1989, followed the footsteps of original Darius – a strange, atmospheric arcade shooter with an equally unique soundtrack. Faster and more driving than the Famicom version, GRADIUS 2 remians an absolute treat for VGM and retro synth fans. Containing deep, humming synth lines that are more in line with the Konami Kukeiha Club's arcade output. Only released in Japan (and in Europe as NEMESIS 2), this version of the soundtrack is a completely different beast than the Famicom counterpart. The B-Side contains the lesser known soundtrack to the spin-off GRADIUS 2 for the MSX computer. Where the original game's soundtrack was a high watermark in the early days of video game music, GRADIUS II pushes the Nintendo Entertainment System's humble audio chip to it's limits, creating memorable, improvosition based tracks that listeners will be humming long after the record stops spinning. The A-Side of this record contains the original soundtrack to the Famicom/NES version of GRADIUS II. Further developing the sound of GRADIUS, Part II continues with the hard driving sound that the Konami Kukeiha Club became world famous for. Is proud to present, for the first time on vinyl, the soundtrack to Konami's classic shoot-em-up GRADIUS II.
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