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I have a lot of affection for the Persona 4 Arena duology; they are kinetic, beautiful, fundamentally sound fighting games that recently supplanted Street Fighter IV as my arcade fighting fix of choice. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax also has a brief visual novel story mode, an RPG-esque single player Golden Arena mode, and a soundtrack… Read More »

If you think this is a jazz album, you are wrong. If you think this is a brass ensemble album, you have made an appropriate guess, but you are also wrong. For the right answer, you need to know that The Siena Wind Orchestra (which means not just brass, but also woodwinds, percussion, and the… Read More »

The Final Fantasy Type-0 HD soundtrack has a huge amount of music to offer. In the space of over 60 songs, Takeharu Ishimoto builds and expands on a few different musical styles that together form his take on Final Fantasy music. And although it’s a new take on Type-0, this OST sits comfortably alongside much… Read More »

While it seems hard to believe, with the steady flow of releases from Square Enix Music, the bluntly-named Kingdom Hearts Tribute Album is the first full disc of remixes dedicated solely to the beloved Disney mashup series. While many KH arrangements tend to focus on an orchestral or piano style, or on refining the music… Read More »

It’s hard to take A Bird Story Original Soundtrack on its own. The graphic adventure is even more operatic than To the Moon, its predecessor. Every narrative development is intrinsically tied to the music, and every song is designed to evoke specific feelings within that narrative. Together, they make A Bird Story a powerful experience.… Read More »

I feel like I’m heading into the lion’s den here. The fan feedback for TPR’s Melancholy Tributes series is, as Steam would say, overwhelmingly positive. RPGFan has covered five of TPR’s melancholy tributes, and all of those reviews have been overwhelmingly positive as well. With all those good vibrations, I’m struggling to express my honest… Read More »

Okami, a game whose soundtrack utilizes traditional Japanese instruments, may not seem like the most obvious candidate for a jazz album, but that shouldn’t stop you from listening to this fantastic selection of pieces. The album starts off running with one of the most iconic tracks from the game, “Rising Sun.” You’ll immediately know you’re… Read More »

It seems like such a long time ago that I wrote about Spielemusikkonzerte’s Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo. Partially, I think, because so much has happened in just a few short years in terms of the appreciation of video game music as an art form. When I reviewed Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo, I called it one of the… Read More »

For some sad and strange reasons that Atlus USA never disclosed, the English localization of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment’s PSP remake never came to be. As a consolation prize, they did release the original version on PSN as a PSOne Classic. And of course, they did get us the remake of Innocent Sin. But Japan… Read More »

Square Enix continues to regurgitate the music of historical successes, this time with recorders—and some other instruments, but mostly recorders. In fact, I dare say that within the next decade we’re likely to see arrangements featuring bongo drums, triangles, cabasas, and jugs with x’s on them. Regardless, here we are now with Cure SQ, an… Read More »

Yin and yang. Black and white. Two other commonly-associated opposites. It’s the method in which From Astral to Umbral was put together, and it’s obvious from the moment you see the high-contrast album cover. It is, in essence, two short albums packaged together, with another 13 tracks tossed in for good measure. The first six… Read More »

The latest Final Fantasy XI soundtrack release marks the first time that Square Enix has chosen to release a digital-only soundtrack for the game. I think there’s an importance all its own in this decision, and before getting to the content of the music, I’d like to discuss that. Final Fantasy XI has been up… Read More »

Persona 4 Arena probably wasn’t the Persona 4 spinoff that fans necessarily wanted or expected back in 2012, released a few months before Persona 4 Golden for Vita. It’s a solid fighting game with a story mode that plays like a visual novel peppered with poorly explained one-on-one fights. But more relevant to our RPG… Read More »

I’m sure many of us remember marveling at Final Fantasy VII in our youth. The cinematic graphics made our eyes widen and our jaws drop. The majestic soundtrack was a symphony compared to the 16-bit soundtracks we were used to. And the storyline was deeper and more epic in scope than most anything we had… Read More »

Chrono Trigger music is no stranger to jazz. After 1995’s acid jazz The Brink of Time arranged album, I’m not surprised that Sean Schafianski‘s Chrono Trigger: Jazz Arrange Version struck me as sounding very natural. Aside from having impeccable execution, it really succeeded at punching my face with the Nostalgia Knuckles. I went in hoping… Read More »

Fairy Fencer F represents a shift in attitude in the Compile Heart mentality. It’s like a kid in high school: growing up into adulthood in some ways, but still very much a kid in others. Part of maturity is realizing that you don’t have it all figured out and accepting valuable input from others who’ve… Read More »

When I heard there was a jazz album of Nier’s OST, I knew I needed to grab it. The original material is amazing, and it’s great to see how Keiichi Okabe’s work inspires others to reimagine tracks. I had some high expectations for Sean Schafianski’s arrangements, some of which were exceeded while others fell a… Read More »

When Bravely Default’s composer, Revo, isn’t working on game music, he and his rock-orchestra Sound Horizon create concept albums and rock operas, and over the years, they have built a large following. That pedigree is extremely evident in Luxendarc Daikikou, an album of Bravely Default music expanded and reinterpreted in Sound Horizon’s extravagant style. Most… Read More »

When Bravely Default’s composer, Revo, isn’t working on game music, he and his rock-orchestra Sound Horizon create concept albums and rock operas, and over the years, they have built a large following. That pedigree is extremely evident in Luxendarc Daikikou, an album of Bravely Default music expanded and reinterpreted in Sound Horizon’s extravagant style. Most… Read More »

Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire has a remarkable soundtrack. It was the first Pokémon game on the GameBoy Advance, which allowed it to use better quality instruments than its predecessors, but its greatness is not just technical. It is also a result of the innovative use of those instruments within the cherished Pokémon musical style. Composers Go Ichinose,… Read More »

With their recent spate of remasters, Square Enix has taken to tossing in more than just a spitshine and some trophies — most of them also involve some degree of tinkering with the original music. Messing with the subject of many folks’ keen sense of nostalgia is never an easy thing, though. Some folks are… Read More »

This one offers exactly what it says on the tin. Featuring a lovely box that houses the individual packages for both the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 soundtracks, the box set is the perfect item if you’re already in the market for both soundtracks. The design of the box is consistent with that of the… Read More »

The PlayStation 2 release of Kingdom Hearts II was something of a landmark event for me; I’ve written a zillion words about it elsewhere on the site, and gabbed about it endlessly on our podcasts. Setting aside the game itself, I have two vivid, unforgettable early memories of my experience with it. The first occurred… Read More »

There was a lot of promise in Project Destati: Awakening, a relatively brief but supremely exciting five tracks of arranged Kingdom Hearts music. It gave listeners evidence that its creators were deeply ensconced in the world and music of my favorite perpetually spun-off Square Enix endeavor. It showcased careful arrangements and excellent performances, foreshadowing the… Read More »

Kingdom Hearts as a series is no stranger to musical reinterpretations. Countless arrangers, remixers, and composers have paid homage to the house that Shimomura built — something that I believe comes across as a clear testament to the strength of both the music itself and the nostalgia it inspires in huge numbers of people. Project… Read More »