Archives

The OneUps have continued to excel in the Western VGM market as one of the top arrangers. Large-scale concerts like “Videogames Live” and “PLAY!” have their place, but if you want a five-piece jazz/rock band performing your favorite game music, you want The OneUps. In the past, OneUp Studios has done a lot of work… Read More »

Part remixes and part “drama,” or scenes of dialogue accompanied by sound effects and mood-inducing music, “The Errors of Their Youth” is a collection of heavily Eastern-influenced vocal tracks. Non-Japanese-speaking fans of Persona won’t find much value in the 19-track album. Only the most tolerant listeners will find the few tracks of actual music worthwhile.… Read More »

In general, Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei series and all its spawn are unique amongst the epic catalogues of roleplaying games available today. They are often comprised of equal parts horror flick, psychological thriller, and surrealist film. Persona 3 set a lighter pace with its more mainstream approach, but was no less compelling to gamers everywhere.… Read More »

After a fairly successful run with their first album, “Time & Space” (a Chrono-related album made as a tribute to Yasunori Mitsuda), North American VGM arrangers “The OneUps” decided that their second project would focus on our friends with the pet hedgehog. That’s right, it’s THE VERY BEST OF SEGA! But then…is it really the… Read More »

A couple of new songs were written and recorded for the PSP “port” (nearly a remake with all the new content) of Disgaea. Those songs were included on this maxi single, which came alongside the Japanese LE release of the PSP title (the complete Disgaea OST also came with the limited edition set). The first… Read More »

How is Tenpei Sato still this awesome? Can he do no wrong? The arranged soundtrack for Disgaea 3 is so good, it’s insane. There are two reasons why this is the case. First is that, unlike some of Sato’s other arranged albums, these songs vary significantly from their original counterparts. Every single track is longer,… Read More »

Note: this soundtrack came as a bonus with the limited edition packaging of the Japanese game. This has been the tradition with NIS games, and it is unfortunate for VGM importers who would simply like to have the soundtrack. Though, for those who want the game and the soundtrack, it’s a great deal. I cannot… Read More »

this “privilege” single came alongside preorders of the Japanese release of Disgaea 3. NIS America also packaged this single with the North American release of Disgaea 3, for anyone who ordered the game direct from the Rosenqueen store. Included on this “Devil label” are the three opening songs from each Disgaea title. They come in… Read More »

So, how many of you have played Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles for the DS? Don’t worry if you haven’t, that game was terrible. I’m a visual novel fanatic and I too think that Jake Hunter deserves all the bad reviews its gotten. Anyway, I’m complementing my review of the game and all my other Saburo… Read More »

The opening and ending themes of Summon Night 4 are, apparently, the only tracks that Chiaki Fujita wrote for this installment of the series. How’d they turn out? Surprisingly, not too great. “NEVERLAND” is a good song with a catchy instrumental riff and decent vocals. It works well as an opening theme, and you may… Read More »

I thought I really had things figured out with the Summon Night series. Truly, truly I did. And then Summon Night 4 happened, and my whole world turned sideways. I knew that Minako Adachi had composed some music for the Summon Night series, but most of the task had fallen onto Chiaki Fujita. And that’s… Read More »

The Summon Night Ex-Thèse OST is a fairly obscure item that was published by Choir in 2006. Like many albums printed by “Choir,” the composer is a trio of Japanese composers, two of which go by the pseudonyms Kenny K and “Zeal Blood” (or maybe “Jill Brad”…no one knows, it’s always in katakana). Whatever the… Read More »

“Byakuya” (White Night, or also translated “Midnight Sun”) is the name of the opening track for the PS2 RPG Summon Night Ex-thèse ~Wings of Dawn~, released in August of 2005 by Flight-Plan and Banpresto in Japan. And it is, in my opinion, one of the best singles released for the series. To date, my opinion… Read More »

A few months after the game’s release, and even after the opening single’s release, Universal Music published this variant version of the single, now performed by Atsuko Enomoto (who plays female protagonist “Ainna” from Ex-Thèse). And frankly, I don’t like it. Granted, the songs are well-composed. However, Ainna’s “I’m a timid voice actress” performance is… Read More »

The opening and ending themes for Summon Night (the first one) are found on this disc. To my knowledge, it is the very first album released regarding Flight-Plan’s now extensively-large series. On this album, Chiaki Fujita (aka “Sing Like Talking”) works with vocalist Mariko Imataki, and the result is splendid. The best thing about these… Read More »

The opening and ending themes for Summon Night 2 may be the best of the three original “Summon Night” titles. Though it’s always coming from the same people (Chiaki Fujita composing, Izumi Kato performing vocals), something just seemed to click with these two songs, moreso than other singles from this group. “Capital of Light” is… Read More »

Why should a single, with only a few songs, have a variety of confusing album titles printed all over it? That’s what I wanted to know when I picked up this single. I still don’t have an answer to my question. What I do have, on the other hand, are three fun-filled songs from Chiaki… Read More »

This is a rare, promotional item published directly from Banpresto. The item is a book with beautiful illustrations and information on the game, and attached on the back page is a CD containing this, the Summon Night 3 OST. Chiaki Fujita’s songs can be hit or miss, but growth is apparent on this soundtrack, which… Read More »

Even small companies tend to have their own “flagship” series. For developer Flight-Plan, that series is Summon Night. The first two released on PlayStation, and the third on PlayStation 2, the series is relatively young, but it has performed well in Japan. Surprisingly, however, individual soundtracks weren’t being released alongside each game. Only opening/ending singles… Read More »

The Jinguji Saburo (or Saburo Jinguji, whatever you prefer: Saburo is the last or “family” name…) series has been a long-running visual novel series in Japan starring a hard-boiled detective named Jinguji Saburo. The series will make its debut in America on the Nintendo DS during the summer of 2008 under the moniker of Jake… Read More »

This 2002 Saburo Jinguji soundtrack commemorates the 15th anniversary of the detective series, as well as the PS2 Innocent Black installment. It comes out fighting with “Scene of Murder,” a fast-paced opening with a killer descending bassline. The soundtrack then continues on with the urban, smoky, lounge jazz style compositions with plenty of smooth piano… Read More »

Kind of Blue is a more modern installment of the Saburo Jinguji series of detective visual novels. As expected, the musical genre of choice here is jazz, as lounge jazz music has been a strong aspect in the series’ soundtracks. A few tunes here offer more modern interpretations of jazz and lounge music, but leisurely… Read More »

Kenji Kaneko is Idea Factory’s in-house composer. He writes nearly as much music as Motoi Sakuraba per year, but Kaneko doesn’t get as much exposure. After all, many of his scores don’t get soundtrack releases, and those that do are for games that generally don’t reach American audiences. Also, Kaneko isn’t quite the veteran that… Read More »

Hitoshi Sakimoto’s “Senjou no Valkyria” (Valkyria of the Battlefield) soundtrack is an impressive work given its range and the sheer volume. What it lacks in stand-out tracks it makes up for in generally good quality atmospheric music, as well as strong orchestration and production quality. While it is not as impressive as Final Fantasy Tactics… Read More »

It is not the graphics, story, or music that keeps fans addicted to the Star Ocean series; since the original came out for SNES in 1996, it has always been deep gameplay and superb replay value that kept folks coming back. Nevertheless, the music deserves praise in its own right, as all three games have… Read More »