Archives

Like the bland, white cover suggests, this album comes with no hint of pretense. It is a simple offering of some of the first battle tunes that put Square’s composers on the map. I do say “Square” and not “Square Enix” because this volume doesn’t contain a single Enix-related tune. Perhaps Vol.2 will do that,… Read More »

“Many Thanks” from Hamauzu-san to his fans. That’s what this album is, really: a thank you album for those that have supported him over the years. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably been at the very least exposed to Hamauzu’s works. Whether it be his grassroots compositions (SaGa Frontier II) or something more mainstream (FFX… Read More »

With the advent of Wii’s Virtual Console, we’ve seen the interest in classic, nostalgic titles resurrected. Not just arcade classics, but some of the best and brightest offered to consoles over the past two decades. Some of the best games known to us have also had excellent soundtracks from great composers. Many have learned the… Read More »

Once upon a time, in the days before the Falcom Sound Team JDK was known by that moniker alone, we were actually told which musicians had done what on Falcom soundtracks. Spooky and amazing, I know, though even more surprising is you can still find out who’s who in the sound team. That put aside,… Read More »

Developed by the German studio “Piranha Bytes,” the Gothic series has slowly but surely become a larger phenomenon: not just in Europe, but in the US and Australia as well. These RPGs, published solely for the PC, continue to show better graphics and present better aural qualities as well. The most recent game, Gothic 3,… Read More »

News flash: Jeremy Soule is a genius. He writes some of the most beautiful scores of all orchestra-composers in the new century. And while you’d expect his music to fall under the realm of film score, he actually has devoted himself to the realm of videogame music. This is videogame music of incredibly high quality.… Read More »

Legend of Heroes VI, by all accounts, is Falcom’s new cash cow. With two installments released, a third on the way, and ports available on the PSP, the LoH franchise has been getting some serious loving lately. And, as is the case with everything Falcom, this means the tunes have gotten as much attention as… Read More »

When I played Memories Off: 2nd, one of the coolest things I thought the game did was use 8-bit sounding versions of Memories Off songs as ring tones for characters’ cell phones. Remember that the game came out in 2001, well before the newfangled real music ringtones we have on today’s more advanced cell phones.… Read More »

Memories Off Piano Collection Part 1 is exactly as it sounds; it’s songs from various Memories Off games played on piano. If there is any series whose music would lend itself well to a piano collection soundtrack, it’s Memories Off. Series composer Takeshi Abo is fond of piano pieces and key characters throughout the series… Read More »

Soul Cradle’s soundtrack featured an interesting blend of Asian and Celtic fusion inspired songs. Although that soundtrack was solid and employed a wide array of instrument sounds, it seemed to lack a certain intangible organic “mojo” for lack of a better term. So imagine my joy upon hearing this arrange CD with actual instrumentation and… Read More »

Note: This soundtrack was released as part of a package deal for those who ordered the limited edition version of the Japanese PS2 title. NIS has traditionally done this with many of their games. Soul Cradle: Sekai wo Kurau Mono is a strategy RPG by NIS that is slated for a Fall 2007 release in… Read More »

Okay, so the last time we did an Ys SAV, it didn’t go so well. That is a phenomenal understatement, really, as the Oath in Felghana SAV was full of vocals and crap. Among all the Ys albums I’ve listened to, including the MIDI collections, it was most likely the absolute worst I’ve dealt with.… Read More »

Shining and the Darkness, or, for the few of you who played the English version, “Shining in the Darkness,” is actually the first game ever to be released in the Shining mega-series. Developed by Climax in 1991 as a first-person perspective dungeon-crawling RPG on Sega Genesis, this game is the one that started it all.… Read More »

Going into this review, I ought to say that I have never really gotten into the Shining games. I knew people growing up who loved them, and I did give Shining Force III a whirl on the Saturn. But this is new territory for me; usually I write reviews for soundtracks I know very well,… Read More »

Going into this review, I ought to say that I have never really gotten into the Shining games. I knew people growing up who loved them, and I did give Shining Force III a whirl on the Saturn. But this is new territory for me; usually I write reviews for soundtracks I know very well,… Read More »

Cosmic discord! Irregular time! Polyrhythm! Flashing keyboard solo! Wailing distorted guitar! Uninterrupted flow of melody…now it’s time to go: SHINING WISDOM! With these words, and some other bits of cheese (like “music is…THE BEST” – quote source being Frank Zappa), an English announcer/narrator introduces us to the zany, silly world of Shining Wisdom, arguably the… Read More »

Editor’s Note: according to the catalog number, one would think the collection would have eight discs, but indeed, there are seven. It is safe to say that SVWC-7157 refers to the collection of slime bottle caps that come with the box. Oh Lord. That’s what I said to myself when I sat down to write… Read More »

Have you ever been in the import store, and thought you had found something really awesome, but due to your lack of proficiency in the language, realized later that it wasn’t nearly as cool as you had hoped? Then take a trip with me back to the year 2004, to my purchase of the Dragon… Read More »

If you’re reading this review, you’ve probably read my first one, so without preamble, let’s explore the land of Dragon Quest Daizenshu (Game Music Super Collection) Vol. 2! Volume 2 starts out with the Super Famicom renditions of the first three games’ theme music. The SNES versions definitely tout the upgraded sound chip it had.… Read More »

You know the drill kiddies, it’s Sensei Phoenix’s Ultra-Mega Daizenshu review show! This time we’re cooking up a pot of Volume 3. What are the ingredients you ask? Read on to find out. To properly prepare Volume 3, first we take a cup of the PlayStation remake of Dragon Quest IV, complete with updated synths… Read More »

Box sets are all the rage these days. Can’t you tell? Everyone wants one for their favorite franchise! From late 2005 to early 2007, VGM fans saw a marked increase in box sets being printed, for all sorts of different games. I tended to shy away from these releases, but there was one I simply… Read More »

With the advent of the Game Boy Advance, remakes were well on their way. Square Enix’s habit of revamping their older titles came up to the end of the 16-bit age with Final Fantasy games IV through VI, remastered for all to love and adore. In keeping with this, their soundtracks also got touched up… Read More »

review >50,000 characters, doesn’t fit on sheet, see https://www.rpgfan.com/soundtracks/kh-complete/index.html

Just when you thought eight discs worth of Sakura Taisen was all there was, Wave Master publishes the second batch of vocals, which again comes to eight lovely discs worth of music. Complete Song Box 2002~2006 picks up were the last box left off. These boxes cover live shows, studio-recorded musicals, songs from animes, and… Read More »

Happinet (formerly Scitron) started releasing a decent amount of reprinted VGM albums in late 2005. Some would be strict reprints, others would come as more “complete” albums with additional tracks, or covering newer releases in a franchise. This trend had a name: the “Game Sound Legend” series. One of the larger releases was 2006’s Apollon… Read More »