Archives

When Square Enix announced Octopath Traveler 0, my first read was that they took the mobile game Champions of the Continent and un-gachafied it. That, on its own, would be a grand achievement. Even though I loved my 100+ hours played in Champions, a true single-player campaign sounded like a great idea to me. My… Read More »

I’m not sure if I have mentioned this before, but Final Fantasy VIII is my favourite Final Fantasy. I adore its more realistic take on the party members, I eat up the weird story (despite its quirks and plot holes), and I appreciate how much the game experiments with its mechanics and tries to shake… Read More »

An orchestral concert for Chrono Trigger, you say? Sounds like a lovely affair! But, wait a second… is Square Enix really doing a full orchestral arrange album for this classic game less than ten years after their last one? Yes. Yes they are. Not only that, but this new Melodies Across Time album features the… Read More »

Chrono Trigger, a true classic in the Square Enix library, hit store shelves in 1995. That means 2025 was its 30th anniversary. As part of the 30th anniversary celebrations, Square Enix published Chrono Trigger Piano Soundscape Arrangement. When Square Enix Music first announced this album, all my neurons lit up. I’ve been wanting this for… Read More »

I only know a handful of Aretha fans. No, I don’t mean Aretha Franklin. I’m talking about the trio of Game Boy games (and, later, a follow-up trilogy of Super Famicom games) from the tiny dev team Japan Art Media. For decades, I’d only known about this series because of an arranged album for the… Read More »

At this point, New York-based chiptune rock band Anamanaguchi has defined the bulk of the Scott Pilgrim franchise’s sound. Starting with the soundtrack to Ubisoft’s 2010 beat ‘em up Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game and continuing on with the original manga’s sequel anime Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023), Anamanaguchi’s vibrant, hyperactive blend of… Read More »

I recently learned about Aether & Iron after reading my colleague Jerry’s review of the game. The game itself looks cool. But when I read that the Aether & Iron Soundtrack was co-composed by *the* Christopher Tin and another formidable orchestral guru, Alex Williamson, I had to check it out for myself. My first impression?… Read More »

If you haven’t been following their work over on YouTube, Square Enix has been championing the VGM community with their aptly named SQUARE ENIX MUSIC Channel (no, you don’t need to shout that). There are two thousand-plus videos with everything from mood playlists to orchestra concerts to “Video Soundtracks”—entire classic game soundtracks paired with clips… Read More »

Released exactly one year after the NieR Re[in]carnation servers were shut off, NieR Re[in]carnation Original Soundtrack: The People and the World contains all of the music for the third and final season of the mobile title. I have been methodically working my way through all of the NieR Re[in]carnation soundtracks over the past year as… Read More »

In reviewing the second volume of MONACA’s NieR Re[in]carnation OSTs, I continue my grieving process through reflection. Yes, I am referring to the live service mobile title in the NieR series that had its servers permanently shut down in April 2024. I have been grieving the loss of this surprisingly robust, story-heavy title. Yet, the… Read More »

Though its time has come and gone, NieR Re[in]carnation‘s soundtrack remains with us always. Yes, I am referring to the live service mobile title in the NieR series that had its servers permanently shut down in April 2024. I have been grieving the loss of this surprisingly robust, story-heavy title. Helping me through the grieving… Read More »

A soundtrack 27 years in the making: folks, I give you Infinity! Okay, that’s not quite the whole story. In truth, this soundtrack was nearly complete by 2001. In 2002, after the game was canceled, the team self-published a digital collection. Then, in 2016, Materia Collective worked with the team to publish an updated version… Read More »

An arranged album exclusively dedicated to the NieR series mobile game, NieR Re[in]carnation? Well, bust my buttons! I would not have expected this. Among Square Enix Music’s many arrangement series, the “Chill Out” series has had a fairly limited outing. First, they brought the Around 80’s Mix, featuring music from early NES and Game Boy… Read More »

We’ve reached our final stop: the end of Sean Schafianski’s full Final Fantasy VI remastered project! In my review of Disc 1, we looked into Schafianski’s scope and process in these upgraded arrangements. Reaching Disc 2, we identified key points in the FFVI OST that Schafianski handled in perhaps divisive ways—particularly the Opera sequence and… Read More »

When Incube8 Games finally published the long-awaited Infinity for Game Boy Color in 2026, they pulled out all the stops. You want a physical copy of a game for a handheld device that has been dead for decades? You got it! Original soundtrack? Heck yes! ARRANGED SOUNDTRACK? Well, why not? Having written about the game… Read More »

The middle child in Sean Schafianski‘s Remastered Soundtrack: Final Fantasy VI series, Disc 2 continues from where Disc 1 left off. Be sure to check out the linked review of Disc 1 for discussion about Sean’s general process for these Remasters. In this review, we’ll dive deeper into the musical content! The heart of Remastered… Read More »

At Unicorn Overlord’s release in 2024, I became unexpectedly absorbed into its strategic, brain-itching teambuilding and gorgeous aesthetics, and blasted through Alain and company’s world-sprawling campaign for liberty. RPGFan’s resident VGM wizard Patrick Gann called Unicorn Overlord’s OST a “strong contender for best soundtrack of 2024,” and I agreed in my end-of-the-year list. In 2025,… Read More »

Editor’s note: this album is the 2024 updated version of the Joypad Records release Final Fantasy VI Remastered Soundtrack: Disc One, originally released in 2013. Arranger Sean Schafianski completed his three-disc remaster project between 2024 and 2025, including this upgraded version of that 2013 Remaster project, which encompassed only the first of three discs. So,… Read More »

Normally, when someone tells me to “GET GOOD,” it’s because I’m complaining about difficulty in NES-hard games (or Souls-like games). In this case, however, I think they’re telling me to jam out to the second album from 8-bit & The Single Players. Not to be confused with the also-excellent 8-Bit Big Band, the artist in… Read More »

Not only did Final Fantasy VII finally bring the iconic series to a unified worldwide release staggered throughout the year 1997. It also, more importantly, brought JRPGs into the Western zeitgeist. Reviewing Nobuo Uematsu’s original score for FFVII is akin to reviewing the soundtrack to The Empire Strikes Back—these songs are so embedded in my… Read More »

2023’s Lies of P, a dark, Souls-like twist on Carlo Collodi’s classic 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, is all about exploring what it takes to turn a cold, mechanical heart into something human. Sure, some of that involves slaying giant, demented puppets and zombified beasts to an epic, dread-inducing score. But a bigger part… Read More »

As a teenager, I pilgrimaged to the Nintendo Store in New York City with my parents as part of a family vacation. My most distinctive memory of that visit is of “Terra’s Theme” blaring inside, and of my father, a gamer but certainly no RPGFan, whistling the iconic melody. That’s the compositional power of Nobuo… Read More »

In summer 2000, at the young age of 16, I wrote an embarrassingly terse review of the Final Fantasy V soundtrack. Granted, everything about this entry in the acclaimed series seemed novel at the time, given its lack of official localization until around the same time as Final Fantasy VIII. But there was, and is,… Read More »

Final Fantasy IV’s OST brings together the game’s 44 tracks across almost an hour of music. This is my first time hearing the soundtrack in full outside of playing the game, and I’ve found it a great listen both from a purely musical perspective and from its ability to trigger reminiscences of my time with… Read More »

In summer 2000, at the young age of 16, I wrote an embarrassingly terse review of the Final Fantasy III soundtrack. Granted, everything about this entry in the acclaimed series seemed novel at the time, given its lack of official localization (until the DS version release in 2006). But there was, and is, so much… Read More »