One of the nice things about Super CD-Rom titles is that the game disc can be inserted into a CD player to hear the video game's soundtrack. This might have seemed like a nice deal, getting both the game and its music on CD, until one factors in the huge price tags of these discs. In fact, this one originally retailed for ¥8,200 (or $76 back in 1994). Anyway, this disc clocks in at about 35:44 with the audio tracks, although there are data portions of the CD that will translate into dead space when played through a CD player.
As for the music, it's actually composed by a trio: Yumiko Morinaga, Takuya Yasuda and Yuji Yoshikawa. This is the same trio that would work on the themes for the Super Nintendo game Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters. Of the three, Yumiko is credited as the music director too. As a result, I credited the music to her as I'm not able to find anything that breaks down who specifically composed what. In terms of the music itself, it's enjoyable for those who like 1990's video game soundtracks. In fact, there are a couple solid cues for those who dig game music from this period.
To dive deeper, the first track is simply a notification where a woman in Japanese relates how this is in fact a game for the HE System PC Engine (Turbo Duo). The next track is then dead space before the actual music starts with "Stage Select." Now as noted, there are a couple of solid themes here. The breakout star, though, is the "Character Select" music, which would wisely be reused for Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters. A few others are interesting, like "World Children's Land" for Gigan and "Base of Mount Fuji (Daytime)" for Rodan, but if I was making a best of collection for Godzilla video game music I think the "Character Select" theme would be the only one here that would make the cut.
Probably not surprising, but the Godzilla theme appears on this disc a few times. In fact, track 16 is the Godzilla theme by maestro Akira Ifukube, with this particular cue being taken from his Ostinato work that was also used in Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989). The "Opening" track is another one that features a modified version of Ifukube's Godzilla theme, although it's worth mentioning that this track has sound effects overlapped on it that play in the same fashion that they do during the opening "cutscene" before reaching the main menu. Finally, track 17 is a cue that appears exclusively in Versus mode and is a heavily modified version of the Godzilla theme, complete with a short guitar riff… well a heavily synthesized guitar riff. Anyway, although taking inspiration from the Godzilla theme that aspect is really only recognizable in a few parts. It's still energetic and a new cue.
Overall, this is an enjoyable collection of music for fans of game themes from this era. If someone doesn't like that kind of music it's definitely not going to change their mind, though.
As a side note, it should be mentioned that the tracks have no titles. As a result, the site's staff has compiled the ones below using primarily just the stage names or what screens they are tied to. Speaking of titles, I'd also like to take this opportunity to talk about the title for the game itself. Years ago, in fact over a decade ago, we began referring to the game as Godzilla: Battle Legends when we started our coverage of it. That title certainly has taken off, and I rarely see it referred to in English as an alternative unless it's using the Romaji title. To be frank, though, the literal translation of the game's title is something more akin to "Godzilla: Bursting Battle Violent Legends". That's both a mouthful and a little redundant, so we shortened it to just "Godzilla: Battle Legends". If I was able to go back and do it again, I probably would go with a slightly longer title, although that might be me also realizing that today it shares abbreviations with the game Godzilla Battle Line. That said, I'm hesitant to change it on the site at this stage just because it feels fairly known now by that shortened title. |
