Our twelfth foray into the many, many music tracks of Super Robot Wars was our first entry that was from a licensed property. And one that has so far only appeared once in the SRW series. That particular music track was HEROMAN’s OP, Roulette, as heard in SRW UX. And we’re once again returning to the original music tracks with our thirteenth foray.

Day 13: Orchestral Version of a Main Theme – Rocks (Ver. OG) (SRW Original Generation Gaiden)

My first encounter with the idea of using an orchestral composition of the main theme of a video game for the final boss encounter was all the way back in 2008 with Sonic Unleashed. And while nowadays you’ll find the main themes themselves being used for final bosses in Super Robot Wars, back on the PS2 it was the same modus operandi.

Depending on the sub-series, these songs would be titled Version Alpha, Version Z, or Version OG. If you remember, our entry for Day 7 was indeed the Ver. Alpha of GONG, Alpha 3’s main theme. The thing is, when SRW Original Generations, the compilation/remake of OG1 and OG2, there actually wasn’t a Ver. OG of that game’s main theme, Rocks.

Instead, we had remixes of Alpha Gaiden’s OP, Advance’s Main Theme, Compact 2’s Main Theme, Impact’s OP and ED, and even the OP for a three-episode Super Robot Wars OVA. Yeah, that’s a lot of orchestral power packed into the final boss of OG1 and the last few stages of OG2. But we didn’t have to wait too long, because the following game, OG Gaiden, also had Rocks as it’s main theme. And in the last stage of that game, we were finally treated to the Ver. OGs of Rocks.

Now, in my unprofessional opinion, any time a song with lyrics is given an instrumental remix, it is essential that the vocals get replaced with some sort of instrument. Otherwise, I find that nine times out of ten the resulting song just feels weak. Luckily, every single Ver. Alpha/Z/OG covers this extremely well. Go take a listen to any of them.

Well, in the next entry, we’ll be getting back into licensed music with a track that’s been around since the early days of the series. In fact, we’re looking at the way that it sounded way back then. Look forward to a classic 8/16-bit tune, next time.