Club Ctesiphon - Shmup Discotheque (Vol. 02) - G-Darius - KIMERA II

[SEIZURE WARNING FOR SENSITIVE VIEWERS - CONTAINS STROBE EFFECTS - FOR STROBE-FREE VERSION CHECK BOTTOM OF DESCRIPTION] Good mornin', Silverhawks! This mix in today's volume of Shmup Discotheque we're doing things a bit differently and to keep things interesting. Previous volume was a potpurri of different tracks from unrelated games mixed together, sort of a small spectrum for the sheer variety that the genre offers to the player (and to the listener). This time around, we're featuring Taito's 1997 arcade title G-Darius, a peculiar prequel entry in the Darius series following the massively appreciated Darius Gaiden and canonically the first in the series' timeline. It would later be ported to the PlayStation in 1998, generally considered faithful to the arcade original. A second port for the PlayStation 2 was released in 2006 as part of the Taito Legends 2 compilation. Later on, it got an HD re-release as part of the Darius Cozmic Collection resp. Darius Cozmic Revelation for the PS4 and Nintendo Switch. Anyway, we're not doing a sound test run. No, no, no... I'm doing something I've wanted to do for years. This is my love letter to ZUNTATA, the in-house composers for Taito, founded by Hisayoshi Ogura (AKA OGR). It is said that each Darius game has one true stand-out track. And there is one stand-out track in the entire G-Darius soundscape - KIMERA II This is the single most unique piece of music ever made by that band. And that's saying something. They go out of their way to craft something insane and it's always risky from a production standing point, but the result is always precise and perfect. KIMERA II is a triumph - Describing it with simple words is difficult. It is dissonant, industrial and hauntingly beautiful. The Darius games have a surprisingly complicated story (Partly made complicated due to the often confusing nomenclature used for the games and their copious re-releases and re-labeling), for a game that revolves around controlling a spaceship fighting against giant alien space fish. We get the first true glimpse of that in Darius Gaiden, but it is in G-Darius we get to the origins of the existential struggle between civilizations of Darius and Belsar - The original conflict between Amnelia and Thiima. And once you've peeled off the surface of the goofy early CGI cutscenes, you'll see that there is real heart to this game. Whereas the Belsar in (canonically) later entries are entirely cast as evil, the Thiima are simply the enforcers of the cosmic balance. KIMERA II is beyond simple remixing - It is elegant storytelling, operatic in delivery, but without a single (coherent) word being uttered. The only way it can be done justice is to unpack the imagination and expand upon what it is and what it represents in the game and in the storyline. And here I unpack it to the sequence of the game's last levels, from Zone Lambda to Omicron, and splitting out the body of the theme into two acts, separated by the warning chime of Darius Gaiden. I attempt some light and indirect storytelling through light effects interspersed throughout the video, intensifying in the latter half. I hope this synthwave panorama does the original justice, and if not, we've all had a good time trying. See you all in the next mix, enjoy! Tracklist: ACT I 00:00 - Un Guardian 02:40 - Hard Armament 06:38 - Dream Tender 10:08 - Accordion Hazard 15:06 - Heavy Arms Shell 19:04 - WARNING ACT II 19:10 - Lightning Coronatus 24:28 - Great Thing 27:50 - The Embryon 30:38 - Disco Epilogue Strobe-free version:    • Club Ctesiphon - Shmup Discotheque (Vol. 0...   All rights reserved, 2026. #tunasashimi #gdarius #darius #shmup #shmups #taito #playstation #turbografxcd #turbografx16 #turbografx #sega #segagenesis #segamegadrive #megacd #segacd #zuntata #kimera #dariusgaiden #proco #tiat #thiima #belsar #hisayoshi #ogura #hisayoshiogura #retrowave #synthwave #clubctesiphon #videogamemusic #italodisco #italodiscomix #disco #discomusic