Archives

“It’s at its worst when waking, when your self has spent many dark hours recalling what it felt like to be real, to be a person, to be in a body that was indisputably yours.” Right from the opening lines of solo developer Jump Over the Age’s (Gareth Damian Martin’s) Citizen Sleeper, the theme of… Read More »

Released months after the physical CD (Breath of Fire 6 Original Soundtrack -Pulse-), Breath of Fire 6 Original Soundtrack -Soar- served as a digital-only follow-up soundtrack, volume two of a live service title that could have had many more volumes of music. However, given the game’s servers shut down one year later, this soundtrack presently… Read More »

It’s been nearly eighteen years since Square Enix released their first Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy album in concert with, well, their worldwide concerts, which have continued near-continuously since. It was both a novelty and a delight to hear so much beloved music freed from the constraints of chiptune and synthetic instruments to be… Read More »

What’s this? You say you’ve never heard of Final Fantasy Grandmasters? That’s alright. I’m an avid Final Fantasy XI fan, and even I forgot about this one. Final Fantasy Grandmasters was a Japanese-only mobile phone MMORPG that served as a kind of Final Fantasy XI lite, in preparation for a full mobile port that never… Read More »

The perpetually successful Final Fantasy XIV has so much great music to offer. Not only have Masayoshi Soken and team written over 30 hours of music for the MMORPG’s ever-expanding OST, but Square Enix Music has published so many arrange albums that I can hardly keep up! In the case of Piano Collections Final Fantasy… Read More »

French studio Sandfall Interactive appears to have hit the motherlode with their debut title, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. As I write this review, Clair Obscur has the highest number of concurrent players on Steam that any traditional/turn-based RPG has ever achieved. Additionally, RPGFan’s own review by Zek Lu awards the game a 99 out of… Read More »

The Crystalline Resonance – Final Fantasy Piano Collection CD is a studio-recorded set of music featured as part of the ongoing Crystalline Resonance concert series, performed by pianist Julien Gernay. I had heard nothing but good things about the concert series, so I was very much excited to get my hands on this early 2025… Read More »

You’d be hard-pressed to find a JRPG soundtrack more recognizable and beloved than the original 1997 version of Final Fantasy VII. Much of composer Nobuo Uematsu’s iconic music was carried over to 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake, and 2024’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the latter with an expansive soundtrack of eight discs and over two… Read More »

After hearing composer 2 Mello flex some amazing musical skills in his soundtrack for Read Only Memories, I immediately wanted more. I had to wait a few years, but in 2020, Annapurna Interactive published the indie visual novel If Found…, wherein 2 Mello led the way with another sublime, layered soundtrack. It then took me… Read More »

Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but this soundtrack is on fire! It’s the Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Original Soundtrack! Four hours of music written exclusively for the updated version of Shin Megami Tensei V launched nearly three years after the base game. This album was a huge surprise to me. SMTIII:… Read More »

Shin Megami Tensei V‘s music honors the SMT series’ musical tradition: strange, intense, funky, boundary-pushing. And, in honoring the boundary-pushing tradition, lead composer Ryota Kozuka has taken the baton passed from Tsukasa Masuko, Shoji Meguro, and others as he reshapes the SMT soundscape. As I listen to all five discs of the Shin Megami Tensei V Original Soundtrack, I… Read More »

I decided to familiarize myself with the music of Shin Megami Tensei IV: Final (known as SMTIV: Apocalypse outside Japan) after listening to the expansion content for SMTV: Vengeance. One thing Final and Vengeance have in common is the singular focus of one composer: Ryota Kozuka. The base soundtracks for IV and V feature Kozuka… Read More »

Many gamers long for the classics. And yes, many developers have capitalized on that by making games with pixel art and a retro aesthetic that often hearkens back to the NES or SNES. In the case of developer Julia Minamata, the retro inspiration was classic Sierra graphic adventures. We’re talking about the glory days of… Read More »

I wasn’t familiar with Flint: Treasure of Oblivion upon release in late 2024. In early 2025, however, the soundtrack (by Wizardry remake composer and Grammy award winner Winifred Phillips) dropped, and I had to check it out. Phillips’ past works, going well beyond Wizardry all the way back to early LittleBigPlanet and God of War… Read More »

If you had told me a year ago that SHIFT UP’s Stellar Blade would be offering up one of 2024’s most compelling soundtracks, I might not have believed you. And yet, not only did the soundtrack intrigue me, the whole game did. Its futuristic, glossy aesthetic and story and setting that is exactly to my… Read More »

After dashing (sans Pegasus Boots) into the jazz scene with their debut Zelda & Jazz in June of 2024, The Deku Trio are back with a bigger and broader sophomore release, appropriately titled Zelda & Jazz II. If the debut’s twelve tracks of largely classic, if low-hanging, picks from Ocarina of Time was proof of… Read More »

When I read the news about the digital EP YIIK: Electric Soul Archives featuring SuperSweep artist Ayako Saso, I leapt for joy! Ayako Saso is one of my all-time favorite composers, but I rarely get to write about her work on RPGFan, as much of her music appears in arcade games (fighters, racers, shmups). Saso,… Read More »

Visions of Mana is the latest game in the long-running Mana series and the first new entry in several years. I was particularly excited to dive into this game, having only experienced a couple of other entries but enjoying my time with them very much. In terms of this game’s soundtrack, I had a decent… Read More »

Released one year after the original Slay the Princess, Black Tabby Games published Slay the Princess: The Pristine Cut, a massively upgraded version of the original in every way. This upgrade was a free content update for existing players. The Pristine Cut also expanded the game‘s release from PC to all current consoles. This was… Read More »

Unused and early concept tracks from Slay the Princess? Don’t mind if I do! Seriously though. It is rare for a composer to pull back the curtain and share what didn’t make it past the cutting room floor with listeners. If there’s any game where I appreciate the endeavor of documenting the draft, in-process, and… Read More »

When Metaphor: ReFantazio launched in late 2024, I was immediately smitten. However, I was less smitten with the woefully incomplete Special Soundtrack: pay 150 USD for the game’s limited edition, get a two-disc set of music when the full OST is actually five discs. Not exactly a winner in my book. Therefore, I decided to… Read More »

For the past few years, Square Enix Music has been producing some exclusive arrangement/performance content on their YouTube Channel. Then, for the 2024 Fall Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix compiled 15 piano solo performances from their channel and put them on one CD. That CD is, of course, Piano Cover Collection from Square Enix Music… Read More »

Well folks, here’s something I didn’t have on my 2025 bingo card: a Glory of Heracles III: Silence of the Gods and Glory of Heracles IV: Gift from the Gods orchestral music concert, all live recordings from September 2024, across three discs! These Super Famicom titles have never had official English language releases, but these… Read More »

As the Nintendo Switch goes into its later years, I find myself reflecting fondly on one of its earlier titles: Pokémon Sword & Shield, the entry that ushered in Pokémon‘s eighth generation. Despite the game releasing in 2019, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company saw fit to delay the publication of the game’s soundtrack until early… Read More »

NieR Orchestral Arrangement Album – Addendum Special Disc is essentially an addendum to the addendum. It’s addendum squared. And in some ways, this disc’s existence is especially cruel. With a runtime of 14 minutes, it could have easily fit on Addendum as one complete single disc. Instead, it’s a first-press bonus disc that has become… Read More »