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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 »

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 »

Memories Off: 2nd is a sequel to the acclaimed love adventure Memories Off. Not only does the game find itself taking risks with the narrative, but composer Takeshi Abo seems to have taken more compositional risks here as well. The music to the first Memories Off game was rather innocuous “play it safe” music with… Read More »

Kentaro Haneda worked solo on his first three Wizardry albums. On the next three (V, VI, and this one), he worked with Tamiya Terashima for the arranging of these excellent songs. This would be Haneda’s last entry in the Wizardry universe. The late Kentaro Haneda chose not to participate in future Wizardry albums (such as… Read More »

Kentaro Haneda is a well-respected VGM composer, one of the true “veterans” in the field. If there is one series that helped him earn this title, it is Wizardry. The franchise that originally started in the US as a fun, unique text-based RPG went on to become a completely different creature in Japan. “We Love… Read More »

Haneda, after producing a decent score for the original Japanese version of Wizardry, returned for the sequel. He would do so again for many sequels after this as well. However, as is the case with the initial sequels of many a franchise, this one is mighty weak. The style is very much the same as… Read More »

Three years after the first Wizardry, and its first soundtrack, Haneda returns for the third soundtrack in the game’s series. This installment, the “Knight of Diamonds,” features what I believe is the best music of the original trilogy (the “Llylgamyn” saga). By this time, Haneda’s style had become a staple of the game’s soundscape. But… Read More »

Was Haneda burnt out after 6 years of composing for the same series? I can’t say for sure. But I do imagine that he was tired of making the arranged albums. Though the first three were well done (in my opinion, the third was excellent), no album (arranged or otherwise) would be released for Wizardry… Read More »