Archives

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 game’s limited edition (or pre-orders in North America for the “Suikoden V Limited Edition Music CD“). And here it is. “A New World Awaits” is a nice opener, with several… 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 »

Baroque is an awesome, terrifying game from the geniuses at Sting, makers of Treasure Hunter G, Riviera, and Yggdra Union. You probably missed the game, seeing as it’s an older, obscure first-person RPG, released only in Japan on the Saturn and later the PSX. But what a fine, haunting game it is. Elsewhere on this… Read More »

I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for the Japanese digital comic/visual novel genre. My first taste of this genre came in 1999 when I played a localized version of C’s ware‘s EVE burst error. This game was originally a Hentai game but the localized version is devoid of all the H content; though some vestigial… Read More »

For those unfamiliar with the title, Gyakuten Saiban is the Japanese name for the US game Phoenix Wright. Many of the songs from the first CD of this collection should be familiar to anyone who’s ever played the US release of the game. The second CD in this album is comprised entirely of music from… Read More »

Please note: This particular review is actually a reprint of the original Gyakuten Saiban 3 OST. This reprint included a special second disc. The original print, while having the same catalog number (CPCA-1089), does not include the second disc. Noriyuki Iwadare replaces Akemi Kimura as the composer for the third game in the Gyakuten Saiban… 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 »

Konami’s Tokimeki Memorial is one of the premiere games in the dating-simulator genre; a genre that has pretty much stayed in Japan. Tokimeki Memorial shares something in common with traditional RPGs in that you have to micromanage your character’s development in a variety of statistics in order to woo a particular girl. Fancy the girl… Read More »

Nobuo Uematsu, Kenji Ito, Hiroki Kikuta, and Yasunori Mitsuda represent Square’s first generation of composers. They helped to shape game music from an amorphous, unfocused mass into a viable art form independent of other genres. All of these, as well as a few others, have since left Squaresoft to either work freelance or fade into… Read More »

Front Mission 4 was Hidenori Iwasaki’s first composing project. It was a very impressive first effort; he proved more than adequate for the task of composing for one of Square Enix’s major franchises. Front Mission 5 ~Scars of the War~ was also given mainly to Iwasaki, and it represents both the progression of his style… Read More »

Note: the limited edition includes a bonus music video version of “In The Sky.” Click on this link to watch the music video, which includes scenes from Grandia III. Performed by pop star miz, the Grandia III theme song single “In The Sky” is one that I frankly do not care for. These are standard… Read More »

Noriyuki Iwadare has never let Grandia fans down. Even the soundtrack to Grandia Xtreme was excellent (although the game wasn’t). The newest soundtrack, Grandia III, does not disappoint. Fans of Iwadare will be pleased to know that he still has the “Grandia feel” down pat. GIII isn’t quite as spectacular as the original Grandia, but… Read More »

Already an obscure find after only two years on the market (thanks to DigiCube’s fallout), the Hanjuku Hero VS 3D OST is not the sort of album you purchase for pure musical enjoyment. Its value comes through its quirkiness, its humorous references to Final Fantasy tunes, and, on the third disc, its powerful and nostalgic… Read More »

The “Colors” single, while not relevant to any videogame on its own, does contain the English version of “Hikari,” called “Simple and Clean.” this song was used in the American version of Kingdom Hearts, and that’s why we’re talking about it. (In case you were interested in my thoughts about “Colors”—the song is not on… Read More »

Hikaru Utada has been described by fans as a no-nonsense non-Western version of an American pop star. Take Britney Spears, cut out all the weird stuff with that Kevin guy, add decent lyrics, give her the ability to write her own songs: you’ve got Hikaru Utada. The young lady previously recorded both the English and… Read More »