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Falcom, the source of much awesome from the late 1980s on, was at one point almost more of a record label than a game studio. In 1990, Falcom was right in the middle of a myriad of new, exciting projects, ranging from the takeoff of their Legend of Heroes series to a third successful Special… Read More »

Before the moniker “Sound Team JDK” came into being, Falcom had already a few soundtracks. One of them is All Sounds of Sorcerian, the first Sorcerian CD to hit the market. With the composer listed as “Falcom Music Staff,” and opening/ending arrangements by Masami Sakaide, this Sorcerian album falls outside the bounds of the many… Read More »

Note: we took the liberty of fixing English spelling errors from “Behaind” to “Behind,” and from “Deamon” to “Daemon,” in the tracklist. Here’s an interesting treat that came out of left field. Sega released the soundtrack for their version of the Falcom classic, “Sorcerian.” The Mega Drive port of the game came with a significant… Read More »

Though no one can forget the incredible music written for Ys and Ys II, there is no question in my mind that the “underdog” accomplishment for Falcom was the original set of songs written for Sorcerian. According to this album, “Music From Sorcerian,” there were a total of 58 written, and they are all wonderful… Read More »

For those of you familiar with Blizzard Entertainment, you know it to have produced some of the most successful, enjoyable, and addictive titles on PC. However, if you’ve never really listened carefully to the music, then you’re missing out on some excellent orchestral and ambient scores on the PC. Echoes of War: The Music of… Read More »

Note: the tracklist looks ridiculous, right? Well that’s the way it is: track title, track number, a smaller “code name,” and some mix/tempo information. There’s also some German mixed in there… The sequel to Tenshou Gakuen Gekkouroku (which is, itself, a Gaiden to the Tokyo Majin Gakuen series), Kamiyo Gakuen Makorouku Kurunugia has a soundtrack… Read More »

For those of you who are fans of Phantasy Star Universe, you know it has some pretty epic symphonic musical potential. After all, the game is a space opera in the proud tradition of Star Wars and Star Ocean. For those of you who are fans of the game Mushiking, well, you probably live in… Read More »

Motoi Sakuraba’s music has managed to worm its way into every conceivable realm of gaming. To my knowledge, the only border he can’t seem to cross (or doesn’t care to cross) is the Pacific Ocean. He’s composed for games published by Square Enix, Namco Bandai, Atlus, Nintendo, and many others. In this case, Sakuraba worked… Read More »

Tokimeki Memorial is the most prolific, popular, and definitive dating simulation video game series in Japan. The difference between a dating sim and a love adventure is that a love adventure is merely a Choose Your Own Adventure story whereas a dating sim is more stat driven, very much like an RPG. Instead of fighting… Read More »

VGM collectors know one thing for certain about Tokimeki Memorial CDs: they are just like sugary sweets. They should only be used sparingly, yet they are in plentiful supply, making it hard to avoid (though the metaphor breaks down when you compare desire for sugar to desire for Tokimeki CDs). I can only take so… Read More »

Wow, what a surprise this was! My personal discovery of Tokyo Majin Gakuen came as a result of back-tracking. I had heard of Tenshou Gakuen Gekkouroku at the time of its release, since the composer was the prolific Motoi Sakuraba. But I took interest in the series when Idea Factory published Kamiyo Gakuen Makorouku. From… Read More »

Yo-Jin-Bo is a visual novel by the sound company TwoFive that was published for US audiences by Hirameki. It may not have been the deepest or most refined visual novel out there, but it was 100% pure fun. I really liked how it flipped the script. Instead of starring a teenage boy pursuing a storyline… Read More »

Man, what an awesome bonus. Whether you bought the North American, European, or Japanese version of Chrono Trigger for DS, early-bird purchasers (that is, those who preordered or picked it up in the first few days of sale) were treated to this mini-soundtrack as a bonus. It contains two tracks, performed by an orchestra, and… Read More »

Composed by Jack Wall, the Jade Empire OST is a collection of Chinese-inspired themes, employing styles and instruments from that part of the world. While the soundtrack sounds, at times, a bit gimmicky and bland at others, the overall quality is high and the album provides delightful background music, with a few tracks that will… Read More »

Memories Off: After Rain vol. 1-3 is a Memories Off gaiden that offers storylines following the events of Memories Off and Memories Off: 2nd. After Rain vol. 1 succeeds the events of Memories Off and volumes 2-3 succeed the events of Memories Off: 2nd. As such the soundtrack itself features many familiar pieces from both… Read More »

Omoide ni Kawaru Kimi Memory Collection Vol.2 – Mihu Kashima is one of a collection of albums from the Memories Off game Omoide ni Kawaru Kimi Memory, which was released for Playstation 2 and Dreamcast back in 2002. It appears that each album focuses on one of the heroines and features that heroine’s musical themes… Read More »

What a strange album. There is no cohesion at all, but if you can stomach listening to two entirely different musical styles on the same disc, back and forth, then you will love this album. And what are those two styles? String quartet (with piano), and late ’80s J-pop. Six tracks are the cheesey J-pop… Read More »

Classic Ys songs in another arrange album? Of course. You should expect nothing less from Falcom. However, what you’re getting here is ultimately a dumbed-down alternative to the excellent “Perfect Collection” arrangements. Limited to the MIDI sound source, Sound Team JDK is forced to come up with alternative novelty to keep the songs fresh. And… Read More »

A lot of the MMORPGs in the last few years, particularly those from Korea that have saturated the market, have very generic soundtracks. But Granado Espada is an entirely new and different animal. Released in North America as “Sword of the New World,” this MMORPG features developers from Korea, Japan, and all over the world,… Read More »

Grim Fandango was the final graphic adventure from LucasArts and it remains one of the genre’s elite. It’s one of my personal favorite graphic adventures, sharing company in my heart with Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars, The Longest Journey, and Gabriel Knight. Grim Fandango was a happy blend of unique flavors including the Jack… Read More »

“The Spirit Engine 2” such vast improvements over its predecessor, it’s almost not worth one’s while to compare them. The same, it seems, may be said about the soundtrack. This mammoth four disc set provides VGM fans with over 100 tracks, all composed by Josh Whelchel. And boy oh boy, do I have a lot… Read More »

If you’re not interested in paying for a full, four-disc set of music for Josh Whelchel’s Spirit Engine 2 soundtrack, then you may want the “Selections” disc. A lot cheaper, and filtered down to the absolute best tracks, the “Selections” disc is a great experience from beginning to end. Indeed, though I own the four… Read More »

Tendo Dokuta is certainly not a well known video game franchise, at least not in the US. Tendo Dokuta 2 was released in the US under the name “Lifesigns: Surgical Unit” but was not a critical or commercial success. I quite liked the game because it could best be described as Phoenix Wright in a… Read More »

Four years before Uncharted Waters II Special Edition, there was the original: “Uncharted Waters.” This arranged album from 1990 features 11 pieces performed by Yoko Kanno and her extremely talented friends. Five of these songs got reprinted on the aforementioned “Special Edition” album, which is still an easy item to procure. But the other six… Read More »

I’d never heard of Kazuhiko Sawaguchi before encountering this album, and I’m pretty sure the VGM community also hasn’t heard of him since the release of Weltorv Estleia, a PlayStation RPG that stayed in Japan. Sawaguchi’s compositional style is somewhere between Hitoshi Sakimoto, Hayato Matsuo, and Koichi Sugiyama. Unfortunately, Sawaguchi seems unable to match any… Read More »