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From the moment I first heard the soundtrack to Valdis Story: Abyssal City (composed by Zack Parrish), the sneaking suspicion that it would become my favorite album of 2013 lurked in my mind. With barely a scant detail on the game it was to accompany, I dove headfirst into this collection of over three hours… Read More »

The Blake Robinson Synthetic Orchestra has become a mainstay on my MP3 player. His incredible arrangements of well-known game music, both within the RPG sphere and beyond, feature high-quality faux instrumentation that sounds like it should cost a boatload of money to produce. My relatively untrained ear can discern virtually no difference between his work… Read More »

Blake Robinson is no stranger to tasteful video game music arrangements. Earlier this year he debuted his talents with a Super Metroid album, and later Banjo-Kazooie. After sampling his previous work, one can safely assume that Volume 1 of his Chrono Trigger Symphony collection will not only satiate, but elate. Though, why assume when the… Read More »

Ragnarok Online II was a sequel to the massively popular MMORPG Ragnarok Online. It gained a loyal fan base throughout the years, so much so that it garnered a re-release in 2012 under the same name, albeit with a different subtitle: “Legend of the Second.” While only lasting 3 years before being shut down, the… Read More »

Life these days is rush rush rush, isn’t it? A million things to do, and everything needs to be done yesterday. You know you need to slow down a little bit, but just thinking about that stresses you out because you just can’t afford to slow down and take a breather, lest something doesn’t get… Read More »

I have a semi-morbid fascination with bad gaming. If a game is deemed bad, I’m curious enough to want to try it for myself just to see how bad it really is. However, after the utter spanking Time and Eternity has garnered from people who’ve played it, I’m actually willing to let that sleeping dog… Read More »

Tales of Symphonia was a fine RPG that pretty much did everything right. I remember the lovely visuals, the quality voice acting, the solid storytelling, and the thoroughly enjoyable gameplay. Unfortunately, I don’t remember anything about the game’s music. The soundtrack was inoffensive, but not at all memorable. This is precisely why I wanted to… Read More »

Thanks to recent efforts from the likes of Joypad Records and others, we’re seeing more and more officially-licensed “cover” tunes. In this instance, London-based GameChops DJ Mykah offers a handful of his best arrangements from his favorite trio of Final Fantasy games: VI, VII, and VIII. Mykah previously worked on one of the three Zelda… Read More »

When last we spoke on the topic of Final Fantasy guitar solo albums (as we are wont to do on a daily basis), I inundated readers with a deluge of compliments aimed at Daisuke Minamizawa’s expert string plucking mixed with a passion not often experienced in arrangement albums. I speak, of course, of the second… Read More »

Few game series evoke doom and gloom quite like Shin Megami Tensei, due to its unique post-apocalyptic settings and consistently eerie soundscapes. The long-awaited Shin Megami Tensei IV continues this trend, and thanks to the inclusion of a Shin Megami Tensei Music Collection CD in first-edition copies of the game (called Shin Megami Tensei IV… Read More »

Falcom’s hot, new music series, the “Zanmai” albums, is in its fourth installment with the debut of Sora no Kiseki Zanmai. The scope of the album is the Sora no Kiseki trilogy proper: no Ys vs SnK, no Ao, Zero, or Nayuta. And that’s perfectly fine with me. This trilogy of music, written in the… Read More »

Editor’s Note: Regarding the tracklist used here, fans have had long-standing translations for many of these track titles. Because this album was released not just as a CD in Japan, but also digitally via US iTunes, we’ve used the official iTunes tracklist on our page. So, just as an example, the track which we would… Read More »

Editor’s Note: Regarding the tracklist used here, fans have had long-standing translations for many of these track titles. Because this album was released not just as a CD in Japan, but also digitally via US iTunes, we’ve used the official iTunes tracklist on our page. So, just as an example, the first track is known… Read More »

When Falcom started their “Zanmai” music series, released at Japan’s twice-annual Comiket, they started with a humble offering: five versions of the same song. “Hoshi no Arika” (which translates to “Where the Stars Are”) is the ending vocal song from The Legend of Heroes VI: Sora no Kiseki. This was a pivotal release for Falcom;… Read More »

The Triforce of Bass is an interesting album for me. While I’m not normally a fan of electronica, the best way I can describe most of the album is a mix of classic Zelda music intermingled with some electronic flavor. This album is a compilation of three artists, each of whom takes a slightly different… Read More »

In Skyrim’s soundtrack, From Past To Present is a fairly soft piece that features a full orchestra. It is clearly meant as background music for walking the world and enjoying what there is to see there, not an accompaniment to battle. Kyle Landry’s version of the track retains much of that feeling, but it does… Read More »

The in-game version of The Dragonborn Comes is very bare, sung by Skyrim’s bards unaccompanied by any instrument. And because each line of the song is a separate dialogue bit for them, it’s filled with awkward pauses that stop it from being a very toe-tapping tune. Tera Catallo and Ro have, thankfully, filled things out… Read More »

Joypad’s latest properly-licensed, fanmade release makes up for lost ground that Square Enix didn’t properly leverage. Now I know what you’re thinking: “Square Enix totally milked FFVII, are you crazy?!” Yeah, sure, Compilation of FFVII. I hear you. But from a musical arrangement perspective? They missed their shot, over and over. A quick history for… Read More »

The best video game soundtrack fits perfectly with its game. It sets the tone, establishes the world, and brings life to something that, by its very nature, lacks any tangible quality. In this way, the soundtrack for Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch stands out as some of the best work in the… Read More »

Heartstring Bugs is a curiously titled indie otome (girls-side) dating sim with a goofy premise. Elly is the shy protagonist determined to make her remaining three years of high school better than her miserable freshman year. She has a chance encounter with a juvenile alien virus that “infects” her with the ability to catch glimpses… Read More »

As anyone who has listened to me or read my scribblings on the music of the Kingdom Hearts series, they know it’s something very near and dear to my heart. I’ve heard my fair share of arrangements and remixes, some great, some not so impressive. I’ve been aware of and a supporter of pianist/composer Kyle… Read More »

The original version of the Skyrim main theme practically screams “Epic Fantasy.” Strings, horns, forceful but unintelligible chorus of singers… this song has all of the boxes checked. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It fits the game and gets it started off on the right foot. Lindsey Stirling and Peter Hollens’ cover of… Read More »

I loved Torchlight. I played it on XBLA and on PC, then played Torchlight 2. I love Diablo. I’ve played all three and had a good time with all of them. And I don’t think the fact that I am a fan of both series will surprise anyone reading this, since they both fit into… Read More »

Code of Princess is a fun, side-scrolling action RPG for the 3DS by Agatsuma Entertainment. The average player would likely refer to Code of Princess as a spiritual successor to Guardian Heroes (some of the Guardian Heroes staff are part of Agatsuma), which is just fine, because Guardian Heroes was a good game. Code of… Read More »

“They just might be our future…” It’s hard to listen to Chrono Trigger‘s “The Day the World Revived” and not be reminded of the impoverished inhabitants of 2300 A.D. Doan and his people had given up on life, until Chrono (yes, I say “Chrono” because real life isn’t limited to 5 characters), Marle, and Lucca… Read More »