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Every instrument has its calling, and the synthesizer was made to illuminate the alienation of the computer age. The soul-tugging, heart-drowning, breath-arresting sounds championed by artists like Vangelis can’t be reproduced with strings, pianos, and flutes. Those are more organic instruments, and our new alienation is anything but natural. The Primordia soundtrack, while not wholly… Read More »

Humbled. That’s how I feel after listening to Rainbow Moon Melodies. I’ll begin by saying that I try to have an open mind when I review anything, soundtrack, game, or otherwise. That said, when I was approached to review the music of Rainbow Moon, a game that I truthfully had no interest in based on… Read More »

The crimson-haired swordsman Adol Christin is driven by insatiable wanderlust. According to official Ys series lore, his escapades number well into the three-digit range, though we (as players) have only experienced seven of those tales thus far. Actually, in America, we’re still missing Ys IV and V. I weep for their absence, but I’m still… Read More »

For various reasons, I have yet to enter the abyss in which Artorias makes his home. There is always a nearly equal sense of attraction and repulsion connected with Dark Souls, but listening to the soundtrack for the DLC expansion has upset that balance, and I want to take the plunge into sweet, mad hell.… Read More »

For a game that can be beat in around six hours, a one hour, 36 minute soundtrack—about a fourth of Crimson Shroud‘s length—is almost ostentatious. Hitoshi Sakimoto, of Final Fantasy XII and Tactics (among many others) fame, leads a small team of composers in creating a classic orchestral sound befitting the JRPGs of the golden… Read More »

The Final Fantasy remix drought we’ve experienced of late has finally come to an end. If you’re anything like me, you’ve asked yourself, “With such a powerful library of music spanning 25 years, why has this series gone so neglected?” All sarcasm aside, the variety and nigh-perfection of this famous series receives yet another tribute… Read More »

It seems the time has come for Nobuo Uematsu to become more a music supervisor than a day-to-day composer. His last full score was for “The Last Story,” and even that had all of its arrangements handled by Uematsu’s young friend and protege, Tsutomu Narita. Enter Idea Factory. They’re apparently looking to get some star-power… Read More »

The Suikoden series of JRPGs has built a passionate following of fans since its debut on the Sony PlayStation back in 1995. It has seen five main installments: a pair of visual novels (Genso Suikogaiden vols. 1 and 2 for PlayStation), a tactics game (Suikoden Tactics for PlayStation 2), a card-collecting video game (Suikoden Card… Read More »

Not only did Atelier Ayesha launch with a 3 disc OST, but a separate album was released for all the vocals. Only the opening and ending, “Flower Sign” and “Altair,” are found on the OST. So that’s 7 new tracks for those of you who purchase this album. And while they’re hit-or-miss, I think it’s… Read More »

Project A14, Atelier Ayesha, marks a continually evolving Gust. Especially in their music. Long-gone is the Nakagawa/Achiwa/Tsuchiya trio that made their sound team huge. Daisuke Achiwa is still around, and actually did a fair bit of Ayesha‘s music. Yanagawa-san, who joined up for the Arland trilogy (Rorona / Totori / Meruru) is on point as… Read More »

Final Fantasy XII is a game that I initially felt indifferent to, but have come to love in recent years. As I became deeper entrenched in the lore of Ivalice, I found myself connecting with the game’s music and art design more than any other aspect. Today, I hold its soundtrack in high esteem, and… Read More »

This entry exists for purely informational purposes. This package contains the Final Fantasy XII Original Soundtrack bundled together with the recently released Piano Collections Final Fantasy XII album, arranged and performed by Casey Ormond. The individual reviews for those albums are linked in the preceding sentence.

The Scythian Steppes, an album of remixes based upon Jim Guthrie’s already stellar Sword and Sworcery LP soundtrack, is a vast and diverse sonic journey that is utterly unforgettable from start to finish. I can say without hesitation that this is my favorite album of the year, thus far — and unless something incredible comes… Read More »

Genso Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki is a gaiden Suikoden game for the PSP that was released in Japan February 2012. While the Suikoden games themselves haven’t always struck the right chord with players (i.e. the backlash toward Suikoden IV), it is difficult to argue that the music in this series hasn’t always been good.… Read More »

You know what I love most about this 4 CD soundtrack? That it exists. That might sound like a stupid thing to say. But let’s face it: this is Jeremy Soule doing fantasy RPG music. We know he can and generally does do an amazing job. He has a style for these games: see Icewind… Read More »

Kenji Kaneko has held out for over a decade now as the chief composer over at Idea Factory. And, for the second game in the Neptune (Hyperdimension Neptunia) series, he’s not holding anything back. Just from the sheer number of layers of audio found in each track, it’s clear that time and attention was put… Read More »

Editor’s note: this soundtrack was printed as a LE bonus CD for the American version of the game. Compared to the Japanese bonus CD, the key difference is that five extra tracks were added to this disc. They are: The Four Felons (03), Play With A Toy ~Lowee~ (10), Scamper (12), Dancing Girl (15), and… Read More »

Ka-ka-ka-Kaneko Chameleon! That’s my new theme song for Kenji Kaneko, lead composer at Idea Factory. Some of his more recent works are the soundtracks to the two Neptune titles (and, I assume, he’ll be on for Neptune V as well). The second Neptune title got its soundtrack published with the LE box in both JP… Read More »

Dust: An Elysian Tail is 2012’s indie darling. The result of a one-man development house, Dust is an eye-popping game that easily stands toe-to-toe with Vanillaware titles such as Odin Sphere. Not only does the game look stunning and play responsively, but its music is just as lush and gorgeous as its visuals. It’s difficult… Read More »

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy is one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard this year. There, I said it. Now that it’s out of the way, we can move on. It’s difficult to avoid superlatives when talking about a release like this, but that’s because, by and large, it earns them. Square Enix turned to veteran… Read More »

“Listen to my chiptunes. This may be our last dance.” The Final Fantasy Chips onslaught continues with ten deconstructed tracks from one of my personal favorites, Final Fantasy X. Does the music of Spira hold up after being put through the retro grinder? I’m sad to say that this album is fairly hit-or-miss, though I’m… Read More »

Square Enix arrangements, ho! Even after a summer that was packed with releases, including the (originally misnomered) Final Fantasy XI Chips, Square Enix Music is showing no signs of slowing down. This month has seen the appearance of four new Final Fantasy-related chiptune albums spanning the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 eras. These albums are… forget… Read More »

When our Soundtracks Head, Stephen Meyerink, agreed to send Final Fantasy VIII Chips my way, I was absolutely stoked. Upon receipt, however, grave disappointment struck: this was not a delicious, salty treat. It was music! Fortunately, that is only one of few complaints with this fantastic demake of music. Granted, when the source music not… Read More »

If you always wanted Final Fantasy VII to begin with the sound of a synthetic cricket, this album is for you. FFVII’s original soundtrack ranks almost objectively among the greatest video game soundtracks. To attempt an arrangement album is to tamper with Uematsu’s finest. To turn that work into 8-bit chiptunes might seem a minor… Read More »

Ah, Persona 4. It’s easily one of my all-time favorite games, with a gripping story, lovable characters, and great music to boot. Luckily for fans like me, the upcoming PlayStation Vita version of the game features a glut of new content, which of course includes new music. Despite the fact that it was composed by… Read More »