Falcom Ending Collection is one of the more obscure Falcom CDs…Not seen much on auctions, impossible to buy through online stores (as are most Falcom CDs)…But there’s something unique about this little set.
This soundtrack is a tribute to a special type of videogame music…Not a genre or style, but a type. That would be the famous “end-of-game” music. This is the big finale of the game, and most games have some of their best music at the end of the game. That’s what this soundtrack is all about. What’s more, because almost every game Falcom made has multiple endings, there are multiple ending songs to hear!
The first disc is a collection of music that can be found on various OSTs. The Ys tracks can be found on Music from Ys, the Sorcerian tracks on Music from Sorcerian, the Ys II tracks on Music from Ys, the Sengoku and Pyramid Sorcerian tracks on Sorcerian Super Arrange Version III, the Star Trader track on Music from Star Trader, the Ys III tracks on Music from Ys III, the Dragon Slayer tracks on Dragon Slayer Perfect Collection, the Dinosaur tracks on Music from Dinosaur, the Lord Monarch and Advanced Lord Monarch tracks on disc 1 of Falcom Special Box ’93 (which is the OST for those games), and the Brandish tracks on disc 2 of Falcom Special Box ’93. Nothing is new on the first disc: nothing at all. However, it is a nice collection of ending music to have. The real treat, however, is disc 2. While it is only higher quality synth with some new arrangements, these “Official Arrange Version” tracks that are disc 2 can be found on NO OTHER Falcom soundtrack, making this soundtrack incredibly unique, and very much so worth finding. The arrange tracks are in the same order of the exact same songs as the OST, with almost the same track time on each track. While this may seem like not much of an arrangement, I can assure you that it really is much better. I did sample track 18 on both discs so you can hear the difference in quality.
Also, don’t be misled into thinking that there’s a Falcom Ending Collection 2 because this only covers 1987-1992…This is the only one in existence. This set is a new favorite of mine in the world of Falcom, one of those sets I’ll think twice about before selling so quickly. Again, this one’s hard to find, so if you do manage to find it, I say “buy it!”
