Archives

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 »

A musty smell hangs in the air. An old man makes his way across the room and gently removes the music box from a gnarled shelf, pausing to blow away a layer of dust that has settled on its lid. Propping the lid open, he returns the tiny antique to its perch, gives its silver… Read More »

My initial thought on discovering the existence of “T. Sekito’s Guitarworks Selection” was, “It’s about time.” See, I think Tsuyoshi Sekito is one of Square Enix’s best kept musical secrets and a criminally underused composer. Brave Fencer Musashi sports one of my favorite Square Enix RPG soundtracks, and I still have songs from that game… Read More »

It is no secret that I really liked Record of Agarest War 2, my favorite aspect of which was its music. I was, therefore, disappointed that the only soundtrack of the game I could access was the 23-track pack-in CD for the European version of the game. One of my biggest complaints for that album… Read More »

Nobuko Toda, known for her work on the Metal Gear Solid series since Snake Eater in 2004, breaks away from her previous and more ambient works in order to venture into an exciting industrial electronic motif for Senritsu no Stratus OST. Most of the 36 tracks are reminiscent of a Matrix or Bourne movie, with… Read More »

Vana’diel is very much alive. Skeptical? It’s easy to be, but Final Fantasy XI has been running for well over a decade, with four major expansions and six add-on scenarios to date. This past week saw the worldwide release of the game’s fifth expansion pack, Seekers of Adoulin. Naoshi Mizuta has returned once again to… Read More »

The Music of Mugen Souls, as performed by the G-Castle Shampuru Philharmonic is a cute title, but a little misleading. I originally thought it was an arrange album, so I was mildly disappointed to hear it was just a selection of 20 tracks from the full two-disc, 51-track soundtrack. I loved Mugen Souls’ music and… Read More »

I’ve listened to the Dragon Quest X Symphonic Suite every day for a month straight. I’ve been waiting for something profound to hit me so I can tell you, dear reader, all about it. That time never came. So then I thought I’d start the review with a quick overview of the series, explain how… Read More »

Having only freshly boarded the love-train for the Zero Escape series, I only recently took notice of veteran composer Shinji Hosoe’s work on both 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward. Despite the relatively low sound quality of the DS original, I was still a big fan of the moody yet memorable tunes that accompanied the game’s… Read More »

Final Fantasy Vocal Collection consists of 10 vocal themes from the Final Fantasy series. But don’t look for anything really old here — the series only began utilizing vocal songs in Final Fantasy VIII, with the love song “Eyes On Me.” Since then, the series has incorporated vocal themes with mixed results. Some songs are… Read More »

Though Daisuke Minamizawa has been composing intermittently since 1996, the Final Fantasy Solo Guitar Collections have been his first commercial performances. However, with string plucking like this, one could easily be fooled into thinking Minamizawa’s created several albums over his lifetime. In the West, few have probably heard of his compositions and arrangements. Still, with… Read More »

The brooding introductory notes take me back to days of portentous rainfall and melancholy. The unique bond between music and memory makes listening a deceptively complicated act. There’s always something else at play: associations — where did the listener first hear this music, last hear this music? Was the listener content at the time, or… Read More »

I’ve played a lot of Pokémon over the years. Every generation, in fact, including the remakes. Even after all of that, I’m still looking forward to Pokémon X/Y when they hit the 3DS later this year. But Red/Blue/Green will always hold a special place in my heart. I played Red for long enough that I… Read More »

The name TPR (of Phoenix Rise Music) might not be immediately familiar to you; it wasn’t one I knew prior to this album. I first spied it only a few weeks ago, in fact, under a newly released Joypad Records album called A Melancholy Tribute To Final Fantasy IX. However, after having listened (again and… Read More »

Masakazu Sugimori, Akemi Kimura, Noriyuki Iwadare, and Johan Sebastian Bach – with their powers combined, we have a varied three-part box set. The Gyakuten Saiban Sound Box, or Ace Attorney Sound Box, contains the WiiWare editions of the original trilogy. Whether these sound any different, I cannot discern, but they’re close enough to the DS… Read More »

Record of Agarest War 2 was a big surprise for me. Instead of being a proverbial Idea Factory mess, it was a surprisingly good JRPG. Sure, it could have been refined further, but it was a step in the right direction, and the most impressive aspect was undoubtedly the music. I absolutely adored every note… Read More »

When I reviewed Mugen Souls a few months ago, I called the game’s sound “its best and most consistent element.” I’m not a hardcore collector of video game soundtracks, like some of my RPGFan colleagues, but I generally love music and I felt like this soundtrack was one that I really wanted to add to… Read More »

Few Final Fantasy titles have been as polarizing to the fan base as Final Fantasy XIII. While not everyone was in love with the game itself, the soundtrack for both FFXIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2 were much more well-received. The Crimson Blitz single gives us our first taste of the music for Lightning’s final story,… Read More »