Archives

The Oath in Felghana has an amazing original soundtrack. Maybe even close to perfect. But ‘Ys – The Oath in Felghana: Super Arrange Version’ is…where can I even start? I don’t know how to form my thoughts into words. How about crappy? Short? Boring? Unoriginal? …I like crappy. Let’s take a look. In the vein… Read More »

Second in the Atelier series, Atelier Elie was the first to be graced with the musical styles of Akira Tsuchiya, who continued to work on music for Atelier games up to Iris (which is the sixth Atelier game). Toshiharu Yamanishi, who was responsible for Atelier Marie, is credited on this soundtrack primarily for songs from… Read More »

Ladies and gentlemen, behold: the very first Atelier soundtrack to ever be released. You’re not surprised to find that it is, indeed, a soundtrack for Atelier Marie, the first in the (currently) seven-part series. What you may be surprised to discover, however, is that this is no original soundtrack. No, Atelier Marie is an arranged… Read More »

Upon hearing the brilliant music of Atelier Iris, I was hooked. I had to track down everything Atelier I could find. Some would consider this a dangerous personality trait, but I took it as a sign for a spending spree, so I assembled myself a respectable little Atelier collection. One of the titles I bought… Read More »

When first starting up Atelier Iris the thing that stood out most to me was the opening song, “White Night Imagination.” It was very unique, sounding like nothing I’d heard before in VGM, and because of that it became one of my favorite vocal songs. Thinking of it when I saw Volkslied made it a… Read More »

Big fan of Suikoden series, blah, blah. Let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this album. Konami hates me having money, so they keep coming out with new albums from the Suikoden Series, this time a THIRD Celtic Collection, entitled, not surprisingly, Genso Suikoden Celtic Collection III. Now, I love Celtic and “world” music.… Read More »

So you thought you had heard every Lunar album ever made? If you skipped this one, you would be wrong. The Eternal Blue “Premium CD” was a bonus 8cm CD that came with the Japanese version of Eternal Blue for Sega’s “Mega CD” console (just “Sega CD” in America). The bonus album contained five tracks:… Read More »

When I first heard about this album, one thought went through my mind: what the hell is an Orgel? Okay, I lied, two things went through my mind, the other being, “I don’t care what an Orgel is, I want the album.” Not an easy task, though, as this was a limited-production, promo item, and… Read More »

I can’t say I appreciate the power of the GBA to deliver a stunning aural presentation on par with that of full-blown consoles such as PS2 or GC, but that doesn’t stop me from getting the soundtracks. Take, for instance, Riviera ~The Promised Land~ Full Arrange Soundtrack. I picked up the album before I even… Read More »

Editor’s note: A special thank you goes out to “Maou” who translated this tracklist to English. Previously, a completely incorrect tracklist (fabricated by someone who didn’t even attempt to translate the Japanese tracklist) had been the only English translation on the ‘net for years. Thanks Maou! Quintet! Have you heard of Quintet studios? Back in… Read More »

TearRingSaga (or, if you prefer it, Tear Ring Saga, or TearRing Saga…the spacing changes on different products) is, I’m told, one of the better strategy RPGs for the PS1, rivaling the standard-setting Final Fantasy Tactics. However, the game would be more rightly compared to the Fire Emblem series (the game was originally scheduled to be… Read More »

Tenchi Souzou, also known as Terranigma, was Quintet Studio’s last game for the Super Famicom, and is considered the third in a “trilogy” of action RPGs. The first two games are Soul Blader (or Soul Blazer) and Illusion of Gaia (sometimes called Illusion of Time). These games shared similar gameplay mechanics and graphical style, and… Read More »

Editor’s Note: “Batsu” is the kanji character on the front cover, and can be translated as “Punishment”: this is the Japanese subtitle that got translated and romanized as “Eternal Punishment.” Hence, the “Batsu” here refers to the fact that this is an arranged album for Eternal Punishment, and not Innocent Sin. Electronic music has been… Read More »

Radiata Stories: Arrange Album starts the way a good RPG soundtrack should. The first track, Legendary Sword, is a solo piano, starting off gently and building into a haunting tune. One can start to imagine the visuals that may appear during this opening track as sensational composer Noriyuki Iwadare leads us with this entrancing promise… Read More »

I remember when the announcement came that, for the first time ever, Sakuraba was sitting out on a tri-Ace game. I could hardly believe it. And when I heard the man giving Sakuraba a break was none other than Lunar and Grandia composer Noriyuki Iwadare, I was thrilled. Surely, this game would have one of… Read More »

You’ve heard him a thousand times, but have you heard him live?! That’s right: after releasing a myriad of albums for the Star Ocean series and Valkyrie Profile (note that these releases have kept coming even after this release), Sakuraba decides to show his skills through a live concert. With the help of his band… Read More »

Let’s start with the logistics, and then I’ll get witty. Shall we? “Star Ocean & Valkyrife Profile The Best” is a “best of” album from five different games, four of which are part of the Star Ocean series. These games are STAR OCEAN, Star Ocean The Second Story, Star Ocean Till the End of Time,… Read More »

On the crappy tri-Ace Battle Collection, the two Star Ocean: Blue Sphere battle tracks were its redeeming qualities. In fact, after hearing “Like the River Styx,” I put SO:BS on my “to do” list. Now that I’ve listened to it, I’m a little disappointed. The arranged tracks leave a lot to be desired and the… Read More »

Ah, the Super Famicom. For many VGM fans, this was the golden era. So many wonderful tunes were created during the 16-bit era, and perhaps much of this has to do with the technology of the time. Star Ocean was one of the last games to be released on the Super Famicom. To my knowledge,… Read More »

This promotional CD was given out to the lucky people who reserved the Japanese copy of Radiata Stories. Unfortunately, if you’re expecting this to be the best thing since the tomato, you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re interested in Motoi Sakuraba and Noriyuki Iwadare and want to learn more about them, that’s great, but… Read More »

The Legend of Heroes… Almost completely unknown outside of its native Japan, Falcom’s unique series has been captivating players since its earliest chapter in 1989. Recently, the third, fourth and fifth in the series were remade for the PSP, and Bandai has just announced they are bringing the fourth (named, Eiyuu Densetsu IV: Akai Shizuku… Read More »

Recently, Nintendo has released a lot of soundtracks heralding the golden age of Famicom, noting its glorious transition from 8-bit to whatever-bit-we’re-now-on. One such soundtrack is this one: “Zelda the Music.” This crazy album is essentially 70 tracks packed into one disc (much like the Ocarina of Time OST), featuring music from Zelda games old… Read More »

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Brave Fencer Musashi soundtrack when it came out, but I had no reason to be skeptical of Musashiden II when I heard that Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano were composing it this time around. Since I love them both, I was counting the days before this soundtrack came… Read More »

I have a confession to make: I am a SaGa freak. Have I played many of the games? Nope. Do they kick my butt and make me harm controllers in frustration? Yep. But by God do I love them and worship the music as if it were unto ecstasy incarnate. That said, my knowledge of… Read More »

Masayoshi Yamazaki’s single for Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song-, “Minuet”, is one of the most eccentric theme songs I’ve heard in awhile. There’s “humorous” eccentric, which we have found in the Hanjuku Hero Vs. 3D theme song…but this one isn’t meant to be humorous. It’s meant to be strangely beautiful. The good news is that Yamazaki… Read More »