Archives

As you know at this point, I am becoming (or already am) a Super Robot Wars (SRW) fanboy. I fell in love with Original Generation, and drooled over playing Alpha 3. Along with good gameplay, plot and characters, it provides me with an array of nice music too. Alpha 2 is chronologically the 3rd installment… Read More »

The Alpha 2 original soundtrack did not feature full versions of the opening and ending songs. Instead, it was released as a single along with karaoke versions of them. I thought the songs were quite good overall, thus I would like to give my two cents to the full versions of the song “Skill” and… Read More »

I have gotten into the Super Robot Wars (or Taisen) series when I played Original Generations. As I learned more, and get more into the series, I played some of the import games and the first (and currently only) was Super Robot Wars Alpha 3. While I still think highly of Original Generations, in terms… Read More »

As you ought to know by now, I thought the OST to Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 was great. I especially fell in love with the opening and ending songs. If I had to pick one fault to that soundtrack, it would be having no full versions of either of them. It is understandable since… Read More »

“Fuuun! Kabuki Den” is a side-story title to Tengai Makyou II. With music composed by Kouhei Tanaka (who later went on to score all things Sakura Taisen), this “original soundtrack” is actually a fully orchestrated album. The only problem with it, besides this misnomer, is the disc length: only 35 minutes! I wanted 70 minutes… Read More »

Tengai Makyou’s “perfect graffiti” album includes audio tracks from three Tengai Makyou titles released before the end of 1993. The first is Tengai Makyou ZIRIA. These five tracks seem to be pulled from the Ziria anime, rather than the first game; though, I cannot say for sure whether or not these tracks were re-used in… Read More »

The Tengai Makyou (Far East of Eden) series is one with deep roots, combining issues of “east meets west” conflicts and religious tension between the two sides. The traditional Asian sounds found in all installments of the series are thanks to composers such as Joe Hisaishi and Kouhei Tanaka, experts in orchestrating music that seamlessly… Read More »

Released over a decade after its original counterpart, this two disc reprint of the old one-disc Manjimaru OST takes things a step further: well, at least half of it. The first disc is the orchestrated section, and it is ported entirely from NEC Avenue’s original release and stuck here. As you can see, the disc… Read More »

Tengai Makyou (Far East of Eden in English) is probably one name in video games most Westerners aren’t familiar with. Unlike its sister series Sakura Taisen, it’s seen very little patronization from our domestic shores, perhaps due to being even more culturally foreign than its relative. A product of RED Company, TM has been a… Read More »

Editor’s note: track 6 of this album, while being essentially the same melody, is two different tracks depending on where you got the CD. The Amazon Japan preorders came with the track arranged by Takayuki Kobara. Elsewhere, a separate version of the CD came with track 6 arranged by Yuichi Hirose. Mitsuda’s been working on… Read More »

Note that the packaging lists the two discs as though they were one, so disc 2 tracks 1-21 appear on the packaging as tracks 25-45. Growlanser V ~Generations~ is the most recent in a lengthy series of RPGs from Atlus. With this release, the series is now as long as Langrisser, the previous series with… Read More »

Very few things have crossed cultural and merchandising lines quite as well as Pokémon. Whether this was due to great advertising on Nintendo’s part, the fact that it got such a huge initial flush of brand-related items, or just the fact that the game has an infectious charm is up for grabs. But whatever it… Read More »

If there is one composer out there that may be best described as a workaholic, it’s Motoi Sakuraba. The man produces music for so many games every year, and then he also manages to produce all sorts of arranged albums. In this case, Mr. Sakuraba’s second live album is a full concert devoted to Valkyrie… Read More »

Wild Arms is one of those RPG series that I have, unfortunately, never quite had the pleasure of participating in. I can’t really say it’s anyone’s fault other than my own, the general plotline for the games appeal to me. The music, composed as far as I know solely by Michiko Naruke, is brilliant. (You… Read More »

Knowing only the premise of Auto Assault (car combat in a post-apocalyptic wasteland a la Mad Max), I was not expecting much from this soundtrack. As it turns out, this industrial-rock-electronica-infused, orchestral soundtrack (with a dash of Middle-Eastern leanings) was a pleasant surprise. The album was arranged with a burst of flavor canvassing the total… Read More »

NIS America comes through again with a stellar preorder bonus soundtrack. The Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories “Best of” Soundtrack takes songs from the two disc Japanese OST and compiles it into one beautiful disc, and it hardly misses a beat. I rarely agree with a publisher’s notion of “Best of,” but in this case, I… Read More »

There comes a point when we videogame music collectors abandon reason and start to buy impulsively. I continue to follow the Growlanser series because of Urushibara’s awesome character designs, and out of hope that the music will somehow be as good as it once was when Iwadare did the score for the first game. The… Read More »

In my younger years, a random purchase (motivated by my need to unveil obscure Japanese aural artifacts of the last two decades) led me to discover Yasushi Miyagawa and his compositions for Startling Odyssey 2. The album was split into an arranged and original section. The arranged tracks were really the only thing that I… Read More »

Technosoft had published a number of arcade-friendly games before they called it quits, including the well-known ThunderForce series. However, they also dabbled into the realm of RPGs with their “Neorude” series. They self-published fifteen soundtracks during their time in business; the first ten are still relatively easy to find. Volumes 11 through 15 are so… Read More »

Technosoft had published a number of arcade-friendly games before they called it quits, including the well-known ThunderForce series. However, they also dabbled into the realm of RPGs with their “Neorude” series. They self-published fifteen soundtracks during their time in business; the first ten are still relatively easy to find. Volumes 11 through 15 are so… Read More »

Tokyopop released two albums in 2001 to complement Squaresoft’s release of Final Fantasy Chronicles for PlayStation. One of them was an “official” soundtrack for Final Fantasy IV. The other was this album. In terms of track selection, the album is almost entirely a replica of the Chrono Trigger OST released in 1999 for the PlayStation… Read More »

The long-awaited US release of Final Fantasy III comes in the form of a complete upgrade. The graphics are 3D, the gameplay includes DS-friendly control elements, the story is beefed up with real character development, and the music has been rearranged by by Tsuyoshi Sekito and Keiji Kawamori to complete the update on all fronts.… Read More »

The Front Mission series has had an unusual number of composer changes throughout its 12 year history. All of those games’ soundtracks have been diverse, while still sharing common elements. These elements are exactly those that set Front Mission music apart from the vast majority of strategy RPG music. Most apparently, all of the games… Read More »

After the sterling presentation provided us by the original Potion: Relaxin’ With Final Fantasy, I truly did not expect a sequel. It seemed to be one of those one-shot deals, a collection of timeless works in one package. You can imagine my surprise, then, when I noticed the sequel, Potion 2, while I was walking… Read More »

I got into RPGs a long time ago playing Final Fantasy II (Final Fantasy IV) back on the Super Nintendo. For its time, I found the story and characters to be very engaging with simple, yet addictive gameplay. This was also the game that got me into RPG music. Even during the time when audio… Read More »