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Since I recently reviewed the supernatural themes and dark streets of The Thaumaturge and came away pretty impressed, I was stoked to get my copy of the game’s digital soundtrack. The Slavic themes and minimalist, ambient background music offer quite a surreal experience as you race around gathering clues and making conclusions in the game, so I was… Read More »

Fire Emblem’s legacy is long but relatively new to audiences in North America. That exposure is largely due to Super Smash Bros. Melee showcasing some of the series’ heroes and some of the stellar soundtracks. Moving ahead to more recent entries, 2019’s Fire Emblem: Three Houses featured new pieces from series composer Takeru Kanazaki. While Three Houses is a… Read More »

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask offers incredible source material for musicians to play with, and gosh, have they over the years. Koji Kondo’s work on this poignant entry in the series continues to evoke feelings of joy, pain, mystery, triumph, and more to this day. So it’s no shock that MILK BAR: An EDM Tribute to… Read More »

We’re early in 2024, and I’m already looking at a strong contender for arrange album of the year. The jazz/funk/rock ensemble Tournament Arc came out of left field with a debut album that launched alongside a live performance at Super MAGFest 2024. After multiple listens to this senses-shocking album, I now regret even more deeply… Read More »

The time has arrived! Adol is on his tenth adventure in Ys X: Nordics (stylized Ys X -Nordics- in Japan). And as the name and artwork suggest, Adol will be encountering his fictional world’s Viking equivalents this time ’round. Does Falcom’s “Sound Team jdk” have what it takes to write an appropriate score for this… Read More »

When Arnie Roth created the Distant Worlds concert series celebrating the music of Final Fantasy, I don’t think anyone would have predicted how long this project would last. Seriously, I can’t believe we’re at Distant Worlds VI already! In truth, I have let this impressive series of recordings slip by, having not listened to volumes… Read More »

You’re on a path in the woods and you hear some simple, soothing music. That music comes from the new visual novel Slay the Princess, developed by indie studio Black Tabby Games. The melody you hear continues as you have a conversation with the voices in your head. As you approach the cabin and interact… Read More »

Listen: when I saw there was a published soundtrack for Labyrinth of Zangetsu, no way would I let it go unreviewed. Why, you ask? Two reasons. First: the soundtrack is fully composed by Takahiro Eguchi—a prolific musician whose discography rarely includes RPGs. Having an excuse to write about Eguchi’s music on RPGFan simply made my… Read More »

Last year’s Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series arrived with a surprising music overhaul, featuring recording instruments in a chamber music setting, with the occasional use of full orchestra, choir, and synths to emulate a rock music style. Of the six soundtracks, Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster Original Soundtrack somehow managed to remain the black sheep… Read More »

Whenever a series acquires popularity, it attaches a level of expected quality to itself solely based on said name. Final Fantasy is one of the most well-known video game brands in the world, and it’s no, pardon the pun, stranger to that high expectation. Spin-offs are interesting cases simply because the expectation for that quality… Read More »

You don’t see “resplendent” used as a descriptor often enough, but after listening to Final Fantasy Series Acoustic Arrangements, I can think of few other words to describe the experience. Gathering together some lovely and memorable pieces that are franchise powerhouses, veteran violinist and lead on the Acoustic Arrangements series Atsuki Yoshida has compiled an… Read More »

The latest entry to Square Enix’s flagship franchise is here, as is its massive soundtrack. Final Fantasy XVI made landfall this June, and its Original Soundtrack followed along in July. Square Enix published two distinct versions of the soundtrack: the standard seven-disc Original Soundtrack and the eight-disc Ultimate Edition. Alongside that final disc, which is… Read More »

Over the past two decades, Germany-based Merregnon Studios (led by Thomas Böcker) have coordinated with composers, arrangers, rights-holders, and symphony orchestras to perform and record some of the most high-concept game music arrangements to grace our collective ears. One of their first major projects, Symphonic Fantasies, featured music from multiple Square Enix franchises, and was… Read More »

Following the 2019 release of Collection of Mana, which brought 1995’s Seiken Densetsu 3 to Western shores for the first time under the name Trials of Mana, Square Enix also fully remade the classic RPG in 2020. As if that wasn’t enough for series fans, a concert was broadcast online in June 2021, celebrating the game and its… Read More »

I have always loved piano solo arrangements of game music. They have proven consistently, over time, to enrich my daily lived experience. However, quite recently, I experienced a new variation on my love of piano arrangements. Thanks to performer and streamer Kara Comparetto, I’ve discovered a love of combined keyboard instrumental arrangements: Piano, Pipe organ,… Read More »

Amongst the upper echelons of VGM, Castlevania must surely be there alongside Super Mario, Zelda and Mega Man. There’s a level of powerful consistency with these games: no matter your opinion on the quality of the game itself, the music is guaranteed to be legendary. From the triumphant “Vampire Killer” to the somber yet beautiful… Read More »

Alpha is this bizarre piece of Square history where “if you know, you know” applies. Originally released in 1986, it’s a text-based sci-fi adventure game set in the far future of 2101 A.D. It envisions humanity’s future amongst the stars, heading for a fabled new home world of “Alpha.” Never released outside of Japan, there’s a… Read More »

One of the many amazing things about video game music is the wide variety you’ll encounter as you journey through a game. VGM isn’t necessarily restricted to a single style or genre. You could be listening to a rocking battle theme one minute and then, shortly after that, experience a sweeping and beautiful opera. Composers… Read More »

I’m calling it early: Octopath Traveler II sports the best soundtrack of 2023. Yes, I’m seriously giving it a personal “Music of the Year” stamp of approval without having heard Tears of the Kingdom or Final Fantasy XVI or any number of serious contenders. Yasunori Nishiki has won my heart with a follow-up soundtrack that… Read More »

After taking a deep dive into Romancing SaGa Re;univerSe Original Soundtrack vol.2, I decided to check out the soundtrack for Imperial SaGa eclipse. What is this title, you ask? It’s Square Enix’s other live service game in the SaGa franchise that, remarkably, is still running well after its 2015 launch (though it remains a Japan exclusive). The eclipse portion… Read More »

The GENTLE LOVE crew is back with a third collection of sleepy-time tunes. Pianist AYAKI and saxophone prodigy Norihiko Hibino bring us Prescription for Sleep: Game Music Lullabies Volume III with assistance from producer Jayson Napolitano, founder and manager of the Scarlet Moon Records label. Alongside many franchise-specific entries in the “Game Music Lullabies” series,… Read More »

When Square Enix announced the existence of DESTINY 8, a new rock band exclusively focused on the SaGa series, I was thrilled. Having a band attached to a specific franchise or composer — like Nobuo Uematsu’s Earthbound Papas and The Black Mages before that, or the ongoing work of Final Fantasy XIV‘s THE PRIMALS —… Read More »

Suikoden is a legendary and classic RPG series. The games are however very underrated and never really received the attention they deserved. Despite this, anyone who played these games was in for a treat with a story full of political intrigue that focuses on how political movements affect people’s lives, and how characters grow, change,… Read More »

As April approaches, many gamers are looking forward to Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly. As I personally prepare myself for this sequel, it dawned on me that I (and we collectively at RPGFan) have not given adequate coverage to the first game’s OST. Thus, here I am, prepared to give you my take… Read More »

Before I even heard this album, I was comfortable making the following conclusion: Romancing SaGa Re;univerSe Original Soundtrack vol.2 is better than the first volume. After listening, I can confirm it. However, I didn’t realize how much better it would be⁠—which is to say, it was a significant improvement over Romancing SaGa Re;univerSe Original Soundtrack.… Read More »