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The latest soundtrack from Motoi Sakuraba is considerable shorter than his usual epic-sized albums. Tales of the Tempest is the first major Tales game to be released for a handheld console (who cares about Narikiri Dungeon?), and just as the game itself has been struggling somewhat to gain rave reviews in Japan, so the soundtrack… Read More »

The soundtrack for Rockman X Command Mission (known in the US as “Mega Man X Command Mission”) was a pure joy for me. I’ve always appreciated music from this series, but as an “RPG” music critic, I don’t often get to take time to analyze music from a series that is generally action-oriented. Though the… Read More »

After the critical acclaim Yasunori Mitsuda received for Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, and Chrono Cross, Mitsuda began to put his time and effort into lesser known works. One of them was a Chinese (Taiwanese) RPG from developer SoftWork entitled “The Seventh Seal: Lost Reminiscence.” No one can say for sure if Mitsuda composed the entire soundtrack,… Read More »

Four years after Yasunori Mitsuda released his personal project “Sailing to the World” (which used themes he wrote for the RPG “The Seventh Seal: Lost Reminiscence”), Mitsuda teamed up with Square Enix in-house composer Masashi Hamauzu to arrange a piano solo version of the album. Hamauzu went to work on this project long after his… Read More »

I bought this CD seven years ago. It was among the first 15 VGM soundtracks in my collection, so it will always be special to me. Fortunately, it also happens to be quite awesome, which should interest you, dear reader. So what is “Snatcher>>Policenauts: Music Compilation of Hideo Kojima / Black Disc”? First of all,… Read More »

Ururun Quest is another of many love adventures to be published by D3. The soundtrack caught my eye because it was published by Team Entertainment, a group who regularly releases excellent soundtracks. The bad news I have for you all is that, sadly, I have no idea who composed the majority of these songs. And… Read More »

Gatekeepers, originally an anime series, had a quick gaming stint in the form of a PlayStation RPG. This would be the soundtrack for that RPG. I have a deep respect for Kouhei Tanaka, the man who composed one of my alltime favorite soundtracks (Alundra) and is known as a veteran in the fields of VGM… Read More »

The corresponding vocal album to the OST released for adventure/RPG Gatekeepers celebrates the PlayStation game’s characters, though this game was originally spawned from an Anime. Veteran composer Kouhei Tanaka (Sakura Taisen, Alundra) is no stranger to composing music for franchises that cross back and forth from game to anime. He is, however, a bit of… Read More »

This is the vocal album corresponding to the Himiko-den ~Renge~ OST. It contains eight vocal tracks and one instrumental. The eight tracks are broken up as the extended opening, extended ending, and six character tracks. The opening and ending tracks incorporate all six female characters, so the album is very reminiscent of, say, the Sakura… Read More »

Himiko-den was thrust onto the Japanese market almost simultaneously as an anime and a PlayStation RPG. The title spawned no sequels, spin-offs, or anything of the like. It was a once and done deal for this franchise, partially developed by Red. What we have here is the almost unheard-of OST to the game, composed by… Read More »

This Mega CD RPG from Yuzo Takada’s anime 3×3 (Sazan) Eyes had a soundtrack release in 1993. The game, “Holy Demon Legend 3×3 Eyes” (Seima Densetsu 3×3 Eyes) later had its storyline turned into a three-part OAV in 1995, so while the game is a spin-off of the anime, the game itself spawned even more… Read More »

Clamp’s classic manga and anime series, Magic Knight Rayearth, had two RPGs released in its wake. One was for Super Famicom, and the other was for Sega Saturn. The latter was released in the US by Working Designs, and it also had a Japanese soundtrack release. This review exists to consider the Saturn game’s soundtrack.… Read More »

Now and then, Gust takes a break from developing titles for their long-running Atelier series to try something a little different. Most recently, we saw this happen in their joint project with Banpresto, “Ar tonelico.” In 2003, well before Atelier Iris, Gust developed and published “Taishou Mononoke Ibunroku.” The game’s title hints at the genre… Read More »

Twelve ~Sengoku Fuushinden~ (Legendary War of the Sealed God) was released on the PSP from Konami in 2005. It’s definitely on of their games that fell beneath the radar, and it had no chance of being released in the US. But, it’s an RPG, and it’s got music, and Konami’s behind it (with support from… Read More »

After Uematsu’s stellar career working with Square, composing the soundtracks to every Final Fantasy (until XII, where Sakimoto took charge), the veteran VGM writer went freelance, creating the Smile Please studio, and working with his long-time friend Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of the Final Fantasy series) on music for games developed by Mistwalker. The first of… Read More »

Prior to the release of the massive Seiken Densetsu 4 (Dawn of Mana) OST, there was a small promotional CD released alongside the PS2 game. It provided five songs from the game, all which are Kenji Ito’s work. In my opinion, his work is what made the OST great, so this showcases the OST’s strength.… Read More »

The Seiken Densetsu series (known as the Mana series in the US) has been going through hard times. None of the games after Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana) and Seiken Densetsu 3 (never released here) on the SNES managed to capture the magic of previous games. The developers reinvented the wheel too many times,… Read More »

Before the game Tales of the Abyss was even released in Japan, a single was released. The band, Bump of Chicken, is a well-known J-Rock group who has stepped into gaming territory. The band’s leader, Motoo Fujiwara, did a few songs for the game, and his band did the opening song “Karma.” As a bonus,… Read More »

I was very much looking forward to reviewing Tales of the Abyss even before playing the game itself. This is, as far as I know, the first soundtrack Motoi Sakuraba has done using entirely streamed audio. As an album, it also follows his recent leaning towards tracks with a higher quality of instrumentation, and his… Read More »

I hold the feeling – and I am not alone on this – that Wild Arms soundtracks succeed or fail with their games, and as this remix album contains tracks from all quarters of the Wild Arms series I was initially hesitant about what to expect from this album. Still, I had very much enjoyed… Read More »

I’ve been following the music for the .hack// series since its inception. It started out pretty good, and then it got better. Now, it’s reached a point I didn’t think possible. I know it’s early to say this, but the .hack//G.U. Game Music O.S.T.2 is already in the running for “soundtrack of 2007.” Feel free… Read More »

Blue Almanac was an RPG released in Japan on the Mega Drive (Sega Genesis) in 1991. This 15-track arranged album is the only soundtrack of which we can speak for this game. The interplanetary fantasy adventure may have been something of a Phantasy Star knock-off, but that doesn’t mean the music was in any way… Read More »

I don’t know how I got suckered into marrying a man whose primary hobby is listening to videogame music…but I did, and as a result, I am regularly listening to the stuff. I was recently browsing through the old collection when I chanced upon a name that I thought was pretty, so I decided to… Read More »

As Patrick’s wife, I’ve learned that a few situations will almost always make Patrick a happier man: playing with our son, makin’ a home-cooked meal, engaging in conversation, and listening to videogame music. I’ve embraced this part of life, but when it comes to the videogame music, I do so with hesitation. After all, I… Read More »

“Ring of Red” tells the alternate history of WWII, where Japan is split into a communist North and capitalist South. The game itself takes place in 1964, after Japan goes through much conflict using the new technology of the “Armored Fighter Walker” (oh boy, more giant mechs). The game was released at the dawn of… Read More »