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Keita Egusa joins up with Hiroyuki Nakayama and Masato Kouda to form “The Pia-Coms.” In doing so, they’ve created a sequel to Pia-Com I. And instead of being an EP, this is a full-length (>40 minute), 10 track piano solo arranged album of classic NES music. RPG-specific, we have three tracks to talk about. First… Read More »

Has the world turned upside down? I’m listening to Chiaki Takahashi‘s vocal single for an MMORPG called Key of Avalon Online, and it’s written by Hitoshi Sakimoto. Wait… Sakimoto? Harp-glissando-loving, Ivalice universe composer, Sakimoto? Writing vocal music? You better believe it! The two tracks on this single are beautiful. Basically, it’s classic Sakimoto-style music (FF… Read More »

Ys SEVEN didn’t get an arranged album after its release. This album, Falcom vs. jdk Band 2010 Summer, may be the closest we get. And if it is, I’m satisfied, because the four Ys SEVEN tracks on the most recent JDK Band release are the best tracks on the disc. Though this album mostly represents… Read More »

A Capcom Graphic Adventure, from the team that brought you the Gyakuten Saiban series – it’s a spirit-filled whodunnit, and it’s got music from Masazaku Sugimori, who wrote the original Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney) soundtrack. Go-go Ghost Trick! Frankly, I’m happy to see (technically, “hear”) Sugimori-san back at the helm. Iwadare did a… Read More »

Theme songs are just going downhill from here, aren’t they? I thought the Japanese FFXIII single was vanilla garbage. Then comes along Superfly’s “Eyes On Me” for The 3rd Birthday (aka Parasite Eve 3). It has nothing to do with FFVIII’s “Eyes On Me” by Faye Wong, and it is clearly inferior to that classic.… Read More »

The Age of Conan soundtrack is awesome. I love it. However, when you start shoving multiple prints out the door, it gets a little confusing. This particular version came with a second disc: bonus tracks, if you will. Arranged tracks, remixes, and stuff not released the first time around. Let’s start with these tracks from… Read More »

It’s amazing how much great music I’ve found in a game genre that I thought would have very bland, repetitive music during its heyday. That genre is the MMORPG, and in this case, the great music is the soundtrack for Funcom’s Age of Conan MMORPG. There are two key players for this soundtrack. First, there’s… Read More »

Holy moly, I’ve been craving some Shiren music. The soundtrack in Shiren the Wanderer 3 (released without the number in North America on the Wii) was one of the best games I’ve played on the console, and it had an incredible soundtrack. Handled primarily by Hayato Matsuo, with theme music handled by Koichi Sugiyama, that… Read More »

PRESS START (noun) – A Japanese game music concert series. Something gaijin Japanophiles would probably love to see, if they even knew about it. Compare to PLAY!, Video Games Live, A Night in Fantasia, etc. These songs, for the 5th anniversary CD, are recordings from two different concerts (2008 and 2009). The album starts off… Read More »

Note: an “official” translation of the game (and soundtrack’s) full title does not yet exist. If one were to try, the soundtrack title would come out something like this: “Tokyo Spirit Exorcist: The Crow’s Sacred Forest High School Mystery – Musical Idea.” Here’s a soundtrack that’s both good at being consistent and consistent at being… Read More »

The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm OST perfectly melds high production values with cliché to create music that players won’t mind hearing for a thousand hours, if they hear it at all. The soundtrack features 17 tracks, each of which is well orchestrated and recorded, yet totally forgettable. This is the sort of music one might… Read More »

The “Narikiri Dungeon” gaiden series that was spun off of the very first Tales game, Tales of Phantasia, has had long-running success in Japan on handheld platforms. The latest title, “Narikiri Dungeon X,” is the first to have its own retail soundtrack release. And while you may be thinking, “isn’t the chief soundtracks reviewer at… Read More »

Ever since I started writing soundtrack reviews for the ‘Fan, I have learned so much about the industry that I had never thought about. My tiny world of Uematsu, Mitsuda, and miscellaneous RPG music that I would off-handedly mention that I liked suddenly exploded into a breadth of names I had never heard before, but… Read More »

Febian Reza Pane performed the limited promotional piano arrangement for Radiant Historia which includes five tracks. Typically, I thoroughly enjoy piano arrangements for any RPG’s soundtrack, and often enjoy them much more than the originals. However, whether or not Shimomura’s intended format is not to be tampered with I cannot say. Pane’s performance is good,… Read More »

I was worried that this soundtrack would be weak. I don’t know what I was worried about, though. Minako Adachi is a great composer. Summon Night X ~Tears Crown~ is a DS title and a follow-up to the DS game Atlus USA localized (Twin Age). Look at the tracklist, and you may think “how boring.”… Read More »

Since I have not played Pokémon Black or White I will have to judge the Super Music Collection based on its intrinsic value and perhaps how I could imagine the music working in the game. That shouldn’t be difficult: what Pokémon game in the main series is really much different from old Red and Blue?… Read More »

Square Enix has released holiday-themed singles in the past. But a whole Christmas album of arranged VGM? How exactly do you do that? Hint: it requires sleigh bells and various crystalline synths. I suspect very few Square Enix fans will jump at the opportunity to listen to such an album. I’ve been a fan of… Read More »

Question: how do you make the best soundtrack of 2010 even better? Answer: you don’t, because you can’t. This collection of music isn’t any better than the OST. In fact, it’s worse. But then, on a complete BS made-up subjective scale that I invented, most things are worse than the NieR OST. You can still… Read More »

VGL has been touring for years and years now. They’ve gone from being a “new thing” to a well-established part of the gaming community. Not only that, they’ve begun to market themselves on music alone. The Bluray/DVD video release of the concert associated with this CD was filmed in New Orleans and was broadcast in… Read More »

Editor’s note: the PSP remake was localized in North America with the old subtitle “Let Us Cling Together.” However, said remake had a new subtitle in Japan: “Unmei no Wa,” which translates to “Wheel of Fate.” Everybody loves the Final Fantasy Tactics OST. But before the founder of the Ivalice franchise, Yasumi Matsuno, was with… Read More »

Square Enix has released holiday-themed singles in the past. But a whole Christmas album of arranged VGM? How exactly do you do that? Hint: it requires sleigh bells and various crystalline synths. I suspect very few Square Enix fans will jump at the opportunity to listen to such an album. I’ve been a fan of… Read More »

Chantelise is the 2006 Action RPG from independent Japanese developer EasyGameStation, who some gamers may have heard of thanks to the 2010 English release of Recettear. Chantelise shares common elements with Recettear such as the graphical style, character art style, and combining the names of the human girl and companion fairy protagonists (in this case,… Read More »

So the Hymmnos Concert albums for Ar tonelico III weren’t too great. Perhaps to make up for it, Akiko Shikata released this surprisingly lengthy image album for AT3. These six tracks are some of the best I’ve heard in the whole series. The opening track is a new version of AT3’s opening track: added vocal… Read More »

If this review reads as an advertisement for preordering NISA products, know that I’m doing it for your sake, not theirs. Importing a two disc soundtrack from Japan is usually an expensive endeavor: $30 minimum. If you don’t mind having a full two disc OST cut down to its most memorable tracks on a single… Read More »

Aw man, I love hearing three versions of the same song. Don’t you? End sarcasm. Well, I thought Atelier Rorona had been put to bed, so to speak. The game has been around quite some time in Japan, and already had its sequel (Atelier Totori) released. Nonetheless, here we are with an arranged album of… Read More »