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Okay, I know why a sequel was never made to Dragon Quest ~Jipangu World~, but I’m really glad it was made. Conceptually it’s fantastic. Instead of a European-style symphony orchestra, Jipangu World uses traditional Asian instruments (winds, strings, percussion) to perform this neo-classical music from Koichi Sugiyama. It’s a clever idea, but the end result… Read More »

Back in the ’90s, in the days when Japan was really gearing up its professional performances of video game music, Dragon Quest led the pack. Nowhere is that more evident than in Dragon Quest Densetsu (commonly translated as “Dragon Quest Legend“), a recording of a music and dance spectacular inspired by the first six games… Read More »

The “Dragon Quest Monsters” titles, being side-story games, didn’t get a real orchestra. Instead, they get the next best thing: a synthesized orchestra! Tracks 1 through 15 are the arranged tracks, and 16 through 32 are the OST tracks (the additional tracks here are 17 and 32, having not been arranged on the first section).… Read More »

The two-part GameBoy Color sequel to the spin-off DQ title “Dragon Quest Monsters” had a soundtrack release that was, in nearly every regard, similar to the original. The layout is basically the same: 1 to 17 is synth arrange, 18 to 35 is OST (only non-arranged track is the final track, the Music Effects Collection).… Read More »

A mix of synth instruments and live performances from a chamber orchestra, the “suite” for Torneko’s Great Adventure is a marvel to behold. Torneko, a character from Dragon Quest IV who went on to become something of a mascot for Chunsoft’s “Mysterious Dungeon” franchise, has an aura about him that cannot be ignored. Sugiyama’s compositions… Read More »

Known in the US as Torneko: The Last Hope, the PlayStation rogue-RPG from Enix (developed by Chunsoft and Matrix Software) came with another fantastic soundtrack from Dragon Quest composer Koichi Sugiyama. This time, instead of having any sort of “suite” (symph, synth, or otherwise), we just get a plain old OST, direct music used from… Read More »

I can’t help but giggle with glee over this soundtrack’s very existence. FromSoftware’s Japanese Diablo-clone, with a soundtrack by Japanese film/TV score veteran Shunsuke Kida, was not released in Japan in any way, shape, or form. But when Atlus USA localizes the game, they release a full, 72-minute soundtrack for it. A North American exclusive… Read More »

OBJECTION! Didn’t we already get this album? Yes, and no. “Gyakuten Meets Orchestra” happened two years ago, but that wasn’t a live performance. And this one is a live performance. And, more importantly, this album includes many tunes from Gyakuten Saiban 4 (known in America as “Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney”). They even have the vocal… Read More »

This soundtrack was released for the DS remake of Hoshigami, which received an entirely new soundtrack from a different set of composers. So if you’re thinking this is a reprint of the “Special Soundtrack” for the PlayStation version released nearly a decade prior, you’d be wrong. A new bag of goodies are present here. For… Read More »

The soundtrack to the sequel to Luminous Arc features a great collection of music from a great group of composers. The staff is made up of many ex-Capcom members, including: Yoko Shimomura, who is better known for her work with Square, but also worked with Capcom early on; Yoshino Aoki, who composed music for Breath… Read More »

I tend not to expect too much from the music of handheld games, but when video game music lovers hear the name Yuzo Koshiro it’s hard not to get at least a little bit excited because of all the great work he has done on series’ in the past, such as Ys, Streets of Rage,… Read More »

Arrange albums are very largely hit or miss, with some albums taking the conservative “updated sound patches” approach where you essentially get the same soundtrack with slightly better sound patches, and others going the “I’m-going-to-mix-this-until-you-don’t-even-know-what-the-source-material-is” route. Sekaiju no MeiQ is definitely more of the former, but also has a couple vocal tracks, and no Engrish!… Read More »

This is it. This is the album I’ve been waiting for. Norihiko Hibino arranging the work of Yuzo Koshiro? It’s like the glory days of Falcom all over again. Heck, they’re even using the term “Super Arrange Version.” The “Piano and Strings” title is deceiving. Yes, for the most part it is piano and bowed… Read More »

Etrian Odyssey is very much a “love it or hate it” sort of game. Sometimes it could be ridiculously cruel and most of the time it was entirely rewarding. Unquestionably, however, the first game had a stellar soundtrack that thankfully was not tiring to listen to even when you visited that one particular stratum for… Read More »

Mixed emotions. That’s really the term I’d use to describe the Etrian Odyssey 2 Super Arrange Version. On the one hand the main stratum themes are absolutely gorgeous. On the other hand… there’s some real musical butchery going on here. And that butchery is named Jeff Curry. I don’t know who he is, I don’t… Read More »

Note: our normal sample policy is to do 5 tracks sampled at one minute each. There is such a strong diversity of music on this album, we decided to sample 8 tracks at 40 seconds each. And now, the review… I. Love. Masashi. Hamauzu. Yes, Hamauzu had a couple of flops in years past, including… Read More »

The World Ends With You was a drastic, but excellent departure for Square Enix. So with this in mind, they chose Takeharu Ishimoto to do the music for the game (who also did the music for Crisis Core) since he is a newcomer on the rise. I was a fan of what he did with… Read More »

I probably shouldn’t be reviewing this soundtrack. But I can’t help myself. Dracula X Chronicles was released in Japan and North America for PSP. On it was a new, 3D version of Rondo of Blood, an action-oriented, stage-based Castlevania from over a decade ago. It is not, in any way, an RPG. However, in the… Read More »

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen some DJs and remix artists take hold of some Final Fantasy music and get it published with Square’s sanction. Last time we saw it, really, was with an album called “F. F. MIX.” A lot of people didn’t like it. Now, over a decade later, we get Final Fantasy… Read More »

Note: the ten “bonus tracks” are unlisted on the tracklist, and hence don’t have official titles. Jeremy Soule is a legend among game composers. Along with being one of the first (and only) Western composers to bridge the East/West gap with his score to “Secret of Evermore,” Soule has written music for many of the… Read More »

Hideaki Kobayashi has been doing the Phantasy Star series since PSO first hit the market a decade ago. Now, we have our first expansion to Phantasy Star Universe, a spiritual successor to Online. “Ambition of the Illuminus” has a score that, as far as we know, was solely composed by Kobayashi-san (though technically, the liner… Read More »

Arranged video game soundtracks, still a fairly niche genre of music, are meant to improve upon already solid musical ideas within the original game’s music. Second Evolution’s arranged album breaks this cardinal rule. None of the songs sound all that different and almost none are improved. In fact some are made worse. “Stab the Sword… Read More »

While Star Ocean: Second Evolution’s soundtrack is not the massive overhaul and improvement that First Departure was, it is still a decent collection in its own right. The set may not be worthwhile to those own the original soundtrack from the PlayStation version. The new opening song “START” by the schoolgirl J-rock band SCANDAL is… Read More »

We’re finally getting some arranged albums for the Tales series. After a rock-band-style battle arrange album, we get a piano solo album arranged and performed by Sakuraba himself. How is it? Well…that depends on how you like your piano. In this case, the piano has been overcooked by Sakuraba. It seems to me that there… Read More »

Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall started their own tour of live VGM performances called “Video Games Live” around the same time that Arnie Roth and crew started “PLAY!”. They keep a friendly, healthy rivalry going by joking about each others’ performance styles. One thing we can say for sure: Tallarico likes to have fun. He… Read More »