Archives

Hakase and Toriyama teamed up to create a mini-symphony for Final Fantasy XII. Clocking in at a mere 9 minutes, this five-part piece is packed with some lively studio orchestra performances, as well as a few soft & touching moments. As it is a single, I don’t have too much to say about it, but… Read More »

It’s taken me a long time to convince myself to get this album. First, it took me a year just to work up the nerve to buy it. Then, it took me three weeks after receiving the CD just to listen through the whole thing. Why, you ask? The first song! Oh, sweet mother of… Read More »

While browsing the net for information on “Zoids Infinity Arcade Sound Tracks The Boy” by ZUNTATA I came across their homepage over at taito.co.jp. Looking through the CD list there I discovered an RPG Soundtrack. I hadn’t been aware ZUNTATA – best known for their strange yet addictive shoot-em-up OSTs – has contributed music to… Read More »

In what has become tradition from NIS America, the preorder bonus of a special soundtrack happened once again with Atelier Iris 2. The moment I saw the tracklist, I immediately recognized it as a track-for-track reprint of the Japanese bonus Soundtrack Book for Atelier Iris 2. That made things easier for me to review the… Read More »

Takeharu Ishimoto started out small with Square Enix. According to our records, he’s done some sound programming and synth manipulation to some Square Enix titles, and even composed a song for the Final Fantasy X Vocal Collection. And that was about it for him, until he got his “in” with the Compilation of Final Fantasy… Read More »

Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- has been invariably pinned as an indulgent fanboy-ish look into the life of Vincent, everyone’s favorite vampire-like FFVII character. To keep the spirit of this “gun Action RPG” going, who better to sing the theme songs than goth/punk J-Rock star Gackt? If you haven’t seen the front man of… Read More »

After taking the “Dear Friends” tour all around Japan, Uematsu and crew showed up in the US to kick off E3 2005 in Los Angeles. This show, entitled “More Friends”, featured a full orchestra, the rock group “The Black Mages”, Rikki, Emiko Shiratori, some opera vocalists, and a big choir from a nearby college. The… Read More »

Suikoden V has marked the return of the series to greatness, and this OST reflects that. Discs I and II – The Chapter of Dawn So, what better way to kick this off than with “Wind of Phantom.” Easily surpassing the introduction songs of Suikoden I and IV, this might topple the wonderful “Exceeding Love”… Read More »

Upbeat smooth jazz is the best way I can describe the music in the Heart Session 2 soundtrack, which is a collection of arranged versions of songs from various digital novel games such as Comic Party and Magical Antique to name two. A wide variety of instrumentation from saxophones to guitars to even flutes and… Read More »

Editor’s Notes: Minuet of Dawn = Aria of Sorrow in the US. Cross of the Blue Moon = Dawn of Sorrow in the US. 2-25 “BIGINNING” typo is printed on the soundtrack as such and is not our typo. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn of… Read More »

This is both a very difficult and very easy soundtrack to review. Very easy, because the music itself is so simple; very difficult, because I have mixed feelings about the album itself. Taito’s (later Natsume’s) Estpolis (Lufia in US) series has gained a massive following in the past decade, and while the music was probably… Read More »

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII is the third installment of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. Unlike the compilation’s second part, the CG movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the soundtrack of this gun action RPG was not composed by Nobuo Uematsu, but by Masashi Hamauzu. The composer’s newest work is solid, but just… Read More »

February 23rd, 2006 – In celebration of the Genso Suikoden series’ 10th anniversary, Konami brought us three major releases in one day. First, and most important, was Suikoden V, which we’ll see on this side of the world at the end of the month. A PSP revision of Suikoden I & II was also released… Read More »

Suikoden V is finally here! In a very cool move, Konami included a nice little promotional arranged album of ten Suikoden V tunes with the limited edition (or pre-orders in North America) version of the game. And here it is. “A New World” is a nice opener, with several of the game’s themes rolled into… Read More »

Ever since the first Wild Arms game was released on the Playstation back in 1997, I’ve been a huge fan of the series and its music. Michiko Naruke is one of my favorite composers because of her impeccable style, which mixes the Wild West with everything else under the sun. I was saddened to learn… Read More »

Hoshiyomi (Reading the Stars) is one of two vocal albums for Ar tonelico, the PS2 RPG developed by Gust and Banpresto. Though the other vocal album (and the OST) were printed by Team Entertainment, this album was published by Hats Unlimited, likely due to rights regarding the vocalists. The majority of the vocals on this… Read More »

Ar tonelico promises to be one of the sleeper hits of this coming year. Created by GUST (and Banpresto), the same company that brought us Atelier Iris ~Eternal Mana~, it’s shaping up to be gorgeous in both aural and visual departments. Heralding Ar tonelico’s release in Japan, GUST created not only a standard OST, but… Read More »

Previously released as part (the largest part) of “Generation of Chaos OST The Best,” the music of Generation of Chaos IV can now be found in a bonus release from NIS America. That’s right, the PSP GoC title is actually a port of the fourth game in the series…the first to come to America. What… Read More »

Developed by Idea Factory, Generation of Chaos was the first in a series of strategy RPGs. As of early 2006, the four games in the series have only brought about two soundtracks: this one, and a “The Best” album from Team Entertainment. Those who take the time to research “The Best” album will notice that… Read More »

One of the regretful things about RPGs is that a great many of them are released in Japan only to never see the light of day outside the country of the rising sun. Now I’ll be the first to admit that there’s good reason for this in a great many cases, having seen some of… Read More »

Satoshi Kadokura’s score for Crea-Teach’s unique RPG “Metal Saga” comes to us as a special package from INH Group. The 3 disc collection (which, if you do the math, could have been 2 discs if they cared about efficiency) contains 59 songs, with almost all of them running a decent 2 to 4 minutes. Also,… Read More »

Hiroshi Ebihara’s original soundtrack to the game developed by irem, “Ponkotsu Roman” can be translated as “Junk Romance,” and “Daikatsugeki” is best translated as “Great Riot.” The game is being released in the US (by Atlus) as “Steambot Chronicles.” If the artwork, screenshots, and game scenario have given you the impression that this game is… Read More »

The vocal album to the game developed by irem, “Ponkotsu Roman” can be translated as “Junk Romance,” and “Daikatsugeki” is best translated as “Great Riot.” The game is being released in the US (by Atlus) as “Steambot Chronicles.” Containing only five vocals (and instrumental counterparts to each song), this short album is more of an… Read More »

Atlus has been fairly consistent as of late with releasing bonus soundtracks as a limited/preorder add-on with their games. Most recently, SMT DDS2 had a one-disc soundtrack released with the game. This came as a two-month precursor to the Japanese release, which had two discs of music from DDS2 on it. So, at the time… Read More »

Note: “Gyakuten Saiban” is known in America as “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.” The literal translation is “Judicial Reversal”, and “Yomigaeru Gyakuten” can be translated as “Reversal Revival” or “Revival of the Reversal.” A special-order item from Capcom, the Yomigaeru Gyakuten soundtrack contains all 27 tracks from the first disc of the “Gyakuten Saiban 1&2 Original… Read More »