Archives

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 »

This album is beautiful. However, it’s quite obscure. And not only that, it is also obsolete. You see, not long after this album was published, KOEI put out a much larger print of the album “Uncharted Waters II Special Edition.” The album included this entire 12-track CD, but also tacked on five songs from the… Read More »

KOEI took a long break from their “Daikoukai Jidai” (“Uncharted Waters”) series, but they returned with an MMORPG entitled “Uncharted Waters Online.” The game’s first expansion was “La Frontera,” which received about 30 minutes of new audio from composers Taku Iwasaki and Kazunori Miyake. These new songs are almost entirely area/environment themes, though two high-seas… 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 »

Fable II‘s soundtrack is one that I figured would just be background music like most open world games of its type, and I was right for the most part. That said, the opening theme to Fable II instantly grabbed me and became one of my favorite theme songs in an RPG. It helps that the… Read More »

Nearly every Final Fantasy has its own Piano Collection solo arrangement. But why not guitar? And I don’t mean wailing electric guitar a la The Black Mages. I mean impressive, technical, classical guitar solo. Well, it seems the time has finally come. This CD+Book set gives guitarists something to strive towards. Now, I’m no professional… Read More »

The midi piano Mother 1+2 soundtrack translates the in-game versions of each song into something a bit simpler. Instead of the whimsical array of sounds and instruments accompanying each song, the melodies play out in tinny piano fashion. The quality of the compositions remains intact from the original recordings, but without the variety of sounds,… Read More »

The quirky, whimsical Mother franchise has more than a few faithful followers, and while skeptical at first, I joined that group not long ago by playing (and thoroughly enjoying) Earthbound. What I didn’t realize at the time was how fantastic the soundtrack is. Upon hearing it again, I have come to love Keiichi Suzuki’s work… Read More »

Despite a change in composers, the Mother 3 arranged album retains the same quirky, but thoughtful feel so well captured by the previous entries in the series. Containing ten selections, Mother 3+ combines classic themes with new ones to create a real fan-pleaser. Shogo Sakai orchestrates most of the tracks, with Taeko Onuki and Satoshi… Read More »

This latest Sakuraba/tri-Ace joint is, in my opinion, the least consistent arrange album they’ve made to date. Others have brought a steady flow of “yeah, that’s pretty good” or “no, this is boring garbage.” For this arrange album, we’re jumping back and forth from “really good” to “really bad,” literally track-by-track. Sometimes, I found myself… Read More »

“It’s quantity, not quality!” Sakuraba has written far too much music for one lifetime. And it’s starting to spread too thin even for me. It’s come to the point where I actually dread listening to the next Sakuraba album, for fear that it’s just more of the same, but even further watered down. Then, a… Read More »

X Edge (pronounced “Cross Edge”) is like a cartoon crossover, but with games (and their respective developers). Disgaea (NIS), Ar Tonelico and Mana Khemia (Gust), Darkstalkers (Capcom), and the Spectral series (Idea Factory) all join together in an adventure led by two original characters: the hero Yuuto and heroine Mikoto. We’ve seen this sort of… Read More »

The London Philharmonic recording for Dragon Quest III was released in 1997 by Sony Records, and reprinted in 2000 by SPE Visual Works. However, a second disc (that was released separately to milk the music for all its worth) did not get reprinted by SPE. That is the Super Famicom version OST for Dragon Quest… Read More »

The first, the original, and some say the best: Symphonic Suite Dragon Quest III. Along with its CD print, Apollon also released this album on casette and vinyl. It was with Dragon Quest III that Sugiyama solidified his presence on the VGM scene, and he has held firm since. What’s funny about this, from my… Read More »

I don’t like the “on Electone” series of albums. At least, not for the most part. Using an electric piano/keyboard to generate simpler, synthesized form of the orchestral arrangements doesn’t sound very interesting at the outset. However, given the right compositions, the results can be enjoyable. I think this is the case for Dragon Quest… Read More »

The fourth and final of the Dragon Quest “in Brass” series of albums, Dragon Quest VI in Brass was printed in 1996 by Sony Records. The album is recorded with a standard “high school band” setup: that is, full symphony orchestra minus the strings. The result is unsurprisingly similar to the Symphonic Suites, but if… Read More »

This Electone album for Dragon Quest VI is different from those prior, because the arrangers were willing to use some non-traditional synths to get the job done. For example, track 15 “The Fight” opens with synth that sounds like it comes straight out of Mega Man. There is no attempt here to imitate the orchestrated… Read More »

Dragon Quest VI Symphonic Suite was first recorded by the London Philharmonic, as Sugiyama had stopped recording with the NHK by the time of its release. Thus, there are only two recordings for this SS: London Philharmonic, and Tokyo Metropolitan. However, in 2000, the London print got reissued. However, unlike the original Sony Records print,… Read More »

The Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra performed a series of string-less arrangements for the Dragon Quest series. Their first album covered Dragon Quest I, II, and III. Released in 1988 and reprinted in 2003, this album is rather special. First thing that’s special? The nomenclature. The overture (track 1) is called “When the Braves Go Marching… Read More »

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 »