Archives

So Nintendo and Square team up to make Super Mario RPG back in the day. But they weren’t the only ones to take a totally not-RPG-ish franchise and create an RPG. We must not forget about Konami’s Twinbee RPG, after all. “Twinbee” was a decent “shmup”-style series from Konami, like Gradius, Darius, etc. Cute girls… Read More »

Composer Phil Hamilton, head of Deadly Sin Studios, is an up-and-coming composer using his Deadly Sin series of indie RPGs as a vehicle for his music. Although I was not particularly fond of the first Deadly Sin game, its music was easily the best aspect. The second Deadly Sin game surpassed the first in all… Read More »

I picked up the character song album for Death Connection (a PS2 Otome Visual Novel from Idea Factory) because I enjoyed the OST, written by Yuki Sugiura. Of course, I should have noticed that the character vocal themes were in no way associated with Sugiura’s work. Silly me. So the disc has seven songs, and… Read More »

I’ve long held the belief that Motoi Sakuraba has had diminishing returns in terms of his musical output due to being tapped for nearly every entry of the Tales series. Considering that the Tales series has been known to push out at least two or three games per year, it’s expected that at some point… Read More »

I always approach remixes with cautious optimism, although said policy has often led to disappointment in the past. Remixes often are bittersweet affairs for me; some of my favorite pieces of music having excellent complements to their existing composition, but more often than not, beloved songs are mutilated by poor focus, turned into a cacophony… Read More »

The intentional retro soundtracks continue to thrive, and this Classic Dungeon is really going to knock your socks off. If you liked Sekaiju no MeiQ (Etrian Odyssey) or the Dark Spire, you’re gonna love this. Like the aforementioned titles, this soundtrack comes in two equal parts. In the first part (in this case, the first… Read More »

Suikoden Tierkreis was a game that was blessed with an excellent soundtrack that offered music that combined the traditional songs of the series with new melodies to reflect the unique setting of the game. It made for a refreshing soundtrack, as one song would pull you in and remind listeners that this is much like… Read More »

Arc Rise Fantasia is, at first glance, a generic JRPG that could not be less inspired if it tried—which isn’t a bad thing, considering the game is greater than the sum of its parts, though the horrors of the English dubbing tarnish its image a fair bit. However, taking a glance at the composers the… Read More »

For those of you who have read my review of the first Arrange Collection, you probably know that I enjoyed the album and have been really excited for the second. So without additional preamble, let’s dig in. The theme of this second volume is, unsurprisingly, Celtic and Asian renditions of some of the most famous… Read More »

Who is Benyamin Nuss? He’s a young, prodigy pianist that has been performing concerts in conjunction with the WDR Radio Orchestra in Germany for a few years. He’s also an avid gamer and a big game music fan. Who is “Uematsu?” Well you had better know; Nobuo Uematsu is the composer of the vast majority… Read More »

I’m going to keep this short and sweet. I could easily ramble on for pages and pages about this recording, but I won’t. The music speaks for itself. First of all, this is the best game music arranged album of 2010. It may be the best in years, with the only things rivaling it being… Read More »

Note: If you want to know about the songs themselves, please refer to the full OST review. This will cover the selections XSEED made for the domestic release. With the recent release of Ys SEVEN in North America, XSEED offered Ys fans the choice of purchasing a collector’s edition. It includes an artbook covering three… Read More »

Before I write anything else about this album, I need to come right out and say it: I’m a huge Shimomura / Mitsuda fanboy. Many of my favorite soundtracks are by them, and I’m automatically predisposed to feel warm and fuzzy about anything they create. That said, my first taste of the Xenoblade soundtrack was… Read More »

If I weren’t so sad, I’d be angry. Masashi Hamauzu is, in my own opinion, the most unexpected success in game music. His distinct impressionist style wasn’t an obvious fit for game music. But he got his chance in the late ’90s with SaGa Frontier 2, and he won his initial following there. The arranged… Read More »

Also known as Popolocrois 3, “A New Departure” continues the series standard of having light, whimsical music, akin to Yoko Kanno’s “Napple Tale.” Strange, ambient collaborations of natural and artificial sounds and something I can only call “toy music” tend to dominate the soundscape. Okay, well, it’s not all as I described. This isn’t Hako… Read More »

Excluding the PSP port (read: butchering) of the early titles in the series, this PlayStation 2 RPG is the latest (and last?) title in the Popolocrois series. The game’s subtitle translates roughly to “Adventure of the Law of the Moon.” Its soundtrack is composed by the same team that worked on the other games in… Read More »

Man, 1996. That’s just crazy. Popolocrois Story was one of the first RPGs for the Sony PlayStation. It was a light-hearted, pastel-colored romp that demonstrated some of the rudimentary advantages of 32-bit. The sequenced audio, too, showed a noticeable boost from 16- to 32-bit. Your average RPG soundtrack simply wouldn’t be able to sound this… Read More »

The game that takes place in-between the events of Popolocrois 1 and 2, Poporogue for PS1 is often overlooked. So, too, its soundtrack (the fact that there’s any stock of the CD left online is proof that people have ignored it). Surprisingly, though, this quirky RPG and its music are probably worth looking into. Catchy… Read More »

Allow me to breathe a sigh of relief… there, that’s better. After a string of less-than-stellar albums from Gust Sound Team, I had lost faith that they would ever again reach the heights we found in, say, Atelier Viorate and the first Atelier Iris. But the score for Atelier Totori, the second in the Arland… Read More »

Do you work a dull 9-to-5 job? Need something to pick you up while you struggle to stay awake at your desk? Game Music Collection ~Sony Computer Entertainment Japan BEST~ might just be your cure. Another cup of coffee can’t compare to the catchy variety this album has to offer. The album starts, appropriately, with… Read More »

Prior to the Kanuchi -Chapter of White Wing- soundtrack, I was completely unaware of both composer Naotoshi Nishino and the game itself. However, I am pleased that I had the opportunity to spend some time with the soundtrack, as I found that Nishino’s work made for a pleasant, though perhaps forgettable, listen. As a whole,… Read More »

I saw a recent episode of bleep bloop on CollegeHumor.com where they decided to explore crazy Japanese dating sims, and they picked Idea Factory’s Clean Keeper as the game they’d test out. It seemed so random to me since I know Idea Factory, and I know how niche they are and how they generally wouldn’t… Read More »

It’s official. Thanks to Atelier Lina, I’ve lost interest in Gust Sound Team. I first found interest in 2005 when I discovered the beautiful Atelier Iris ~Eternal Mana~ soundtrack. I worked backwards and found a few other gems (particularly, Viorate and Elie). And as time went forward, there were many great soundtracks released in the… Read More »

My initial reaction upon wrapping my head around the idea of FIVE discs worth of character vocal themes from Tokimeki Memorial 4 was, “Wow, this game sure has a lot of girls to date in it!” Sure, the album cover itself features portraits of ten girls, but it was the realization that there are five… Read More »

Though I loved Music Collection 1, I didn’t know what to make of the second set. Most of the music is above the “passing grade” as far as arranged albums go. But then, I also found some tracks that either irritated or bored me. Let’s just start with the bad stuff. The arrangement of “Graduation… Read More »