The “Shin Eiyuu Densetsu” (or “New Legend of Heroes”) MIDI Collection was the last of Falcom’s MIDI Collection series, and it is hands-down the most worthwhile of all the releases. For starters, the data track contains a whopping six hours of MIDI data (the others, in comparison, usually had 2 to 3 hours of music). The album’s release was prompted by the PlayStation remake of The Legend of Heroes, and the printing was done officially under Falcom’s catalog with the normal cat. # beginning with NW.
The arrangements are as impressive as, say, The Legend of Heroes III Electric Orchestra, but they’re up there. The MIDI quality and choice of instruments used are way better than the earlier MIDI Collections from Falcom (released only one year apart from this one…). Classic themes like “Opening,” “Field,” “Ship,” “Dungeon,” and the like are all arranged very nicely. What makes this album especially enjoyable, however, are the handful of newly added songs. I’ve sampled two that I’d never seen before, “Final Boss” and “Agunija Battle.” Both are worlds better than the old standard Battle theme from LoH 1.
The ending track, “DraSlay (Dragon Slayer) Theater,” incorporates some really dinky synth sounds. It seems to be a medley of tracks like “User Disk Creation” and songs that I generally never liked.
If you’re going after the MIDI Collection albums, this is the best one of all, so you’d best get it. SC-88 is nice, Brandish is good, and the others are so-so. This is the one you really want; trust me.
