Archives

This ending theme song is found on the Atelier Lilie OST in its original form. In this version, however, Mami Horie jazzes things up with the help of her husband Dennis Bradford. This “jazzy” version of the ending theme song, which in English is translated (by Gust) as “The Way of Eternity,” and in Japanese… Read More »

Miyoko Kobayashi worked with Akira Tsuchiya on Atelier Lilie, the third game in the Atelier series. Hermina and Culus is a side-story to Atelier Lilie, and for this small title, Kobayashi was given the chance to flex her own musical muscles and stand on her own. The result is surprisingly good. Opening with the vocal… Read More »

This already hard-to-find single from J-pop star Mayumi Iizuka features two songs. The first, “Pure” (with that confounded heart symbol after it), is a peppy song written and arranged by Tore Johansson, and has nothing to do with any videogame. It’s just a happy little J-pop tune that runs for three and a half minutes.… Read More »

Arc the Lad Generation (known as Arc the Lad: End of Darkness in the US) is the black sheep of the series for straying from its strategy RPG roots to an action RPG setting. However, its music manages to be just as beautiful as its predecessors, if not more so. This is due almost entirely… Read More »

When Code Age Commanders was first announced, I was one of the few people I know who wasn’t skeptical. Everything about this new world intrigued me: especially the environments and character designs. And, when I heard that Kumi Tanioka would be doing the soundtrack for the game, I couldn’t have been more pleased. I had… Read More »

Fanboys and fangirls rejoice! Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children has finally come after many delays, and behold: it is good. It is very good. There are so many things I could say about the movie, but that’s not my assignment. This is a review for the movie’s soundtrack. So, let’s talk about it. First of… Read More »

Final Fantasy XI – Music from the Other Side of Vana’diel, the game’s very first arranged album, has arrived. The Star Onions (a band originally formulated in order to perform in a concert celebrating the release of Final Fantasy XI Chains of Promathia, September 2004) are responsible for both the arrangement and performance of the… Read More »

Here’s a neat little promotional album. I don’t know what it took to originally get ahold of it, but cocoEbiz/VGMWorld had it for sale for awhile… if you check, it may still be on sale! Anyway, with the release of Front Mission 4, there was a renewed interest in Front Mission which got re-released and… Read More »

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. What the heck? Where did this soundtrack come from, and furthermore, who would ever want it? Allow me to answer your questions. When Hanjuku Hero 4 -The 7 Heroes- was released in Japan, there was a “Limited Edition” release (no surprises there) that came with a two-disc soundtrack and… Read More »

Arc the Lad Soundtrack Complete (or “Sound Track Complete” according to the reprint’s cover) is a complete collection of music from Arc the Lad and Arc the Lad II. Note that this is the only soundtrack to have an original soundtrack for the first Arc the Lad, as the other Original Game Soundtrack is a… Read More »

Gensosangokushi is a title that Falcom published in Japan after reports of initial success in the broader Asian market. Developed by UserJoy, and having a soundtrack done by UserJoy’s Sound Team, I listened to this album having zero previous expectations, as I knew this wasn’t a “Sound Team JDK” album, even though it was published… Read More »

Released through Falcom’s website as a bonus item along with the game, Gensosangokushi Super Arrange Version is an exciting but short work from Falcom’s newest in-house arranger, Yukihiro Jindo. Previously, Jindo had done work on the Legend of Heroes VI Super Arrange Version, and he has gone on to do work on the Ys: Oath… Read More »

Editor’s note: The album’s back cover lists the tracks in a continual order, such that disc 2 track 1 is track 24, and so on. This is becoming more common, as I have seen it on the Ragnarok Online OST and the Nobunaga’s Ambition Online OST. For the sake of organization, we refer to the… Read More »

Megami Ibunroku Persona, known as Revelations: Persona in the US, may have come out almost a decade ago, but it still remains one of hte most unique RPGs I’ve ever played. Its dark gritty subject matter, foreboding atmosphere, and modern urban environments set it apart from the crowd. It is only fitting then that the… Read More »

Note: This soundtrack is only available with the boxed Japanese print of the game, and thus is quite the rarity. This is because many gamers took the option of simply downloading the expansion rather than buying the game. Perhaps this soundtrack was the only reason to pick up the game in boxed form. If you… Read More »

Vain Dream II and Die Bahnwelt were titles both released by the company Glodia over a decade ago. It seems that, at this point, Glodia’s older star composer Tenpei Sato had moved on to other projects, and as a result left in-house composer Ikki Nakamura to do the work. Having composed music for Ragnarökkr and… Read More »

The second CD released in the Arc the Lad series was, fortunately, an actual “original” soundtrack. The previous album had actually been a misnomer and was actually an arranged album. Arc the Lad II Original Game Soundtrack gives us a thorough look at the compositional styles of Masahiro Andoh (and Hirotaka Izumi). Opening the album… Read More »

The third in a PS1 trilogy, Arc the Lad III was the last to feature a complete soundtrack from Masahiro Andoh (the PS2 games only list Andoh for having composed the “Arc the Lad Theme”). After proving himself in the first two games, Andoh seems to stretch out his compositional styles to incorporate some new… Read More »

Note: The alternate print was made to remove the controversial “Label Gate” copy protection software which was packaged with the original print. The Dragon Quest series is a venerable staple in the RPG community. It is truly a massive beast in the Japanese gaming industry, where adults take days off from work and bullies beat… Read More »

Suikoden has had a massive pouring out of awesomeness as of late. Beginning with the scans of Suikoden V suddenly blazing across the internet, hype and speculation for the series is at an all time high. The madness of TGS, the incredible Suikoden V trailers, the announcement of I & II on the PSP, the… Read More »

Ah, I see you are once again opening the vault to examine the RPGs of yester-year. Beyond that, you are willing to learn about an RPG that never quite made it to America. Sword World (a great tongue-twister, if you ask me) was an Japanese RPG released both for the Super Famicom and for PC.… Read More »

For those of you who remember an old game for SNES called Paladin’s Quest, you may or may not know that its original title was Lennus. While the US never got the second game in the series, the original had decent, though fairly unremarkable music. In fact, I would have never thought there would be… Read More »

Behind every officially-released album, there’s always some ridiculously obscure promo album. Okay, not always, but I’ve come to find these “Not For Sale” promo items are made on a regular basis. Take Lennus for example. Known as Paladin’s Quest in the US, Lennus was a decent turn-based RPG for Super Famicom with music from one… Read More »

Of all the crossover games known to man, Namco × Capcom is probably the most unique. Upon initial announcements of the title, people immediately assumed that it would be another fighting game crossover (like Marvel vs. Capcom). However, it turned out to be a strategy RPG. Not only that: it was a fairly successful strategy… Read More »

So you’re thinking, “what the heck is this?” It’s a bonus CD promo item, given out with preorders of the game and the OST. According to the scanty bits of packaging, the CD is probably published by Suleputer, as the disc’s inside label has a small “CPCA-10119” written on it. As the front cover reports,… Read More »