Archives

At this point, Square Enix has practically squeezed every possible note out of the rock that is the Final Fantasy series. With several piano, orchestral, remix, and vocal soundtracks vying for elbow room on collectors’ shelves, Square has found itself relying on the ridiculous for fresh ideas. Sporting two 13 minute tracks, SQ Lovers ranges… Read More »

What is a vocal-heavy soundtrack without the voice? What is a talking book without the talk? Grimoire Rubrum is the book featured on the front cover of this new piano arranged album. Unlike Noir and Weiss, Rubrum (“red”) is unable to talk. Fitting that she be given the nod on this fully instrumental album. Somehow,… Read More »

When it comes to RPG music, I think the most important pieces are battle themes. After all, RPG players spend more of their game time locked in combat than anywhere else. Boss music is especially important because a great piece of music makes a major battle that much more memorable. This brings me to Tales… Read More »

Nobuo Uematsu ought to have a catalog of tribute albums at this point. The man is a legend, and even if he hasn’t lately eclipsed his older work, he still deserves recognition and attention. It’s a shame then that Symphonic Odysseys, a tribute to the grand master of RPG music, isn’t infused with the same… Read More »

Mami Horie holds a special place in my heart. She was one of the first vocalists to work on the Atelier series. And while she hadn’t done much work on the series in some time, it’s not like she forgot, or that Gust forgot her. This whole album is a collection of vocal tracks from… Read More »

Skyward Sword marked The Legend of Zelda’s first foray into fully orchestrated music. The result was impressive, and the 25th Anniversary Special Orchestra CD will make you wish full orchestration had been implemented earlier. The eight tracks on the album make the most of classic Zelda themes, old and new, by translating them into symphonic… Read More »

The Nier Gestalt and Replicant OST is probably one of the most well crafted soundtracks ever composed. The transcendent pieces worked throughout the album lift listeners out of an ordinary life and into an audio fantasia, a world built on sweet promises uttered by gentle voices and dark secrets layered in bass vocals. Nier Echo… Read More »

It’s about time! The original trilogy of Final Fantasy titles are getting piano arrangements thanks to Piano Opera Final Fantasy I/II/III! When Square started their Final Fantasy Piano Collections series, they started at IV and generally moved forward sequentially (VII got skipped, but was then recorded prior to the Advent Children film, and we’re still… Read More »

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked (or “Over Clock” in Japan) turns our expectations around on us and makes us question why we accept repetition. Unlike its JRPG brethren, Devil Survivor opts for serious decision making, non-linearity, and purposeful battles. However, the quality of its story and mechanics aren’t the only way in which it… Read More »

Black Rock Shooter is an interesting phenomenon. It started off as a piece of art that inspired a song that begat an anime, manga, and now a video game. This action RPG features a stylish soundtrack by Manabu Namiki that complements the look and feel of this cyberpunk girls-with-guns adventure. Electronica is the order of… Read More »

Ever17 is a game close to my heart. If you’ve been lucky enough to play through this deeply thought-provoking, emotional, and beautifully written visual novel, then I’m sure you feel the same way. When the game was rereleased on Xbox 360, the Ever17 Original Sound Tracks album was included with the game in Japan. Unfortunately,… Read More »

SQ Chips VV was distributed as a bonus CD for customers who bought Square Enix’s (excellent) SQ Chips album from Japanese bookstore Village/Vanguard. Unfortunately, this side dish does not live up to the high standards set by its main course. Its six tracks are largely uninspired, feeling like a halfhearted release of songs that were… Read More »

I don’t envy Bethesda when it comes to crafting a soundtrack for a game like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Every player has a completely unique experience in quest order, item acquisition and general discovery, making the creation of a musical score a seemingly impossible task. Yet the latest Elder Scrolls title succeeds in using… Read More »

A limited edition CD version of the Morrowind soundtrack was released alongside the game, but that soundtrack was definitely incomplete (and also, initially, came without a tracklist). Later, using DirectSound, Jeremy Soule would release a more complete digital-only soundtrack. That’s what we’re talking about here. What motivated me personally to write this review? I’ve been… Read More »

I noticed the music while playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a sadly rare occurrence with Western RPGs. The orchestral soundtracks given to these games are all too frequently ordinary and forgettable. They all sound the same. Many WRPG music composers favor atmosphere over melody, which makes for effective soundtracks, but not ones that can… Read More »

While Morrowind has an (incomplete) CD release alongside in addition to digital release, and Skyrim has a full four disc soundtrack in physical form, Oblivion’s soundtrack was only available as a digital download from DirectSong. In terms of distribution, the collector in me would love to have a physical artifact. Form and format aside, this… Read More »

It only took three notes from a guitar before the audience at Blizzcon 2008 knew what was coming. The familiar theme of Tristram from the original Diablo is about as iconic as video game music gets. It’s up there with the Zelda theme, the Prelude from Final Fantasy, and numerous other tracks from our childhood.… Read More »

Western-style fantasy RPGs tend to follow a pattern when it comes to music — atmospheric and ambient, cinematic rather than melodic. For that reason, the music tends to be more of a complement to the game rather than a core component. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning‘s soundtrack is a classic example of this — sweeping orchestral… Read More »

Compared to Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 may have a more technically impressive and complex soundtrack, but I’ll always like this one a little more, I think. Perhaps part of this arises from my memories of Mass Effect, my first foray into the current generation a few Christmases ago that made that winter very special.… Read More »

Final Fantasy Legends: Hikari to Yami no Senshi (Warriors of Light and Darkness) is a relatively unknown entry in the long-running RPG franchise. The game was released episodically for the Japanese i-mode and EZweb distribution platforms in 2010, with iOS and Android ports planned for release in 2012. Upon localization, the game was titled Final… Read More »

I call lots of game music composers “veteran composers,” because this industry has not yet lived long, and anyone who’s been at it for more than a decade deserves the title. But there are true gurus who have been at it, consistently, for nearly 3 decades. Guys like Nobuo Uematsu, Koichi Sugiyama, and of course,… Read More »

To the Moon is a game that has been lauded up and down here on RPGFan, and with good reason. The game excelled at creating an emotional atmosphere and story without becoming hokey. For me, it was able to do that for two reasons: the writing and the music. Of course, the latter is my… Read More »

So good, and at the same time, so unsatisfying. Truth. If you’ve followed BioWare’s other soundtrack releases, you’ll notice a trend: they release one “OST” followed by a number of add-on soundtracks, mostly for DLC and to release some b-side music that didn’t fit on their official soundtrack. Take note: I hate this method of… Read More »

Self-arranging is a tricky task, and one that I wouldn’t recommend most composers attempt. Most VGM arranged albums are found to be superior in the hands of an objective third party, or sometimes, a whole group of people. But when it’s been 20 years since you first wrote the music, revisiting your old scores is… Read More »

Taking the time-travel trip into the obscure reaches of the Megami Tensei franchise has been a great experience, and I owe it to SuperSweep for publishing these albums. The Game Boy soundtracks for Last Bible I (localized on GBC as Revelations: The Demon Slayer) and Last Bible II are some of my personal favorites. Now,… Read More »