Dracula Battle 2 Perfect Selection

Catalog #: KICA-1162 Publisher: Konami Release date: 6/21/95 Price: 3000 yen Front Cover Back Cover

The original Dracula Battle CD, with its hard rock Castlevania tunes, was cool enough to elicit a sequel, and here it is! Rather than focusing on the famous tunes from the series, Dracula Battle II takes some of the lesser known pieces of music - and it's kind of divided. "Den" from Dracula X and "Thrashard in the Cave" from Dracula X68000 weren't exactly my favorite tunes to begin with, and the arrangement doesn't make that much better. The tracks "Road of Enemy" and "Iron Blue Intention", while very good, don't sound at all likes the pieces of music they were originally based on.

On the plus side, several arrangements are done splendidly. There's a different arrangement of "Beginning" than on the first CD, plus the "Theme of Simon" and "Reincarnated Soul" are just plain awesome. "Theme from Legend of Dracula" is quite a bit slower and relies more on the piano, but it does a beautiful job of sprucing up a Gameboy tune.

"In the Castle" actually does a superb job of taking a track that originally consisted of timpanis pounding and turns it into an excellent tune. But my favorite would probably have to be "Illusionary Dance". This version of the Dracula Battle song is just incredible.

Like the first Dracula Battle, the authentic Japanese copy of this CD is long out of print, and even the SM copies are hard to come by nowadays. Good luck searching for this CD!

The Music