Archives

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 »

I’ve never had the hots for orchestras in VGM, especially real ones, because they aren’t used very creatively and have done nothing but over hype the genre in the last five years. Of course, there are a few notable exceptions, like the ridiculous amount of symphonic arrangements by Sound Team JDK and the Dragon Quest… Read More »

Genso Suikoden. A name that, to many, means a lot of things — emotional storytelling, intense warfare and tales of hard-working people who come together to defeat a common threat. It also signifies a greatness of music, with the first three Suikoden games and the gaidens having largely remarkable soundtracks. Suikoden IV was unveiled not… 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 »

Trotting alongside Square’s flagship RPG series Final Fantasy, the SaGa series is always unconventional, oftentimes overlooked, sometimes despised. I, myself, have yet to not fall in love with a SaGa game, regardless of how good or bad the gameplay mechanics may be (note that I have not yet played UNLIMITED:SaGa). For me, the aesthetic appeal… Read More »

The musical compositions of Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata, like a fine wine, are intensely savorable. To the listener, each additional taste reveals subtle complexities, intricate emotions, and deepens one’s appreciation of the work. Mr. Sakimoto and Mr. Iwata demonstrate their ability to capture the feeling of the moment, whether it be fragility, solitude, courage,… Read More »

Less than one month after the release of the Tales of Eternia OST (through Marvelous), “Media Factory” released the “Tales of Eternia Remaster Audio”. To this day, I am not quite sure how this happened. What is its purpose? It has the exact same tracks as the OST, but now categorized in a more logical… Read More »

Like many game developers, Namco jumped ship back in the mid-90s, leaving Nintendo and joining Sony. Tales of Phantasia, the first game in the Tales series (originally released on the Super Famicom), enjoyed a re-release on the PlayStation. Three other Tales games followed on Sony’s systems: Destiny, Eternia, and Destiny2. Tales of Symphonia is the… Read More »

I adore the work of Yasunori Mitsuda. I know I am not alone in my adoration. Even those who are not particularly interested in a videogame’s music cannot help but appreciate the work Mr. Mitsuda has put into such games as Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, and Xenosaga. He has a more than adequate grasp of different… Read More »

This album is a note-for-note, second-for-second reprint of Falcom Special Box ’95, disc two. It was so good that, in 2001, Falcom realized that it deserved its own soundtrack release. Falcom made the right decision. Legend of Heroes IV also had an “Electric Orchestra” release from Tamiya Terashima. It was a good arranged album, but… Read More »

Falcom has had a long, genius-packed history of creating music for games. They’ve created many brilliant works, but also had many albums that were just weak. Sadly, this album fits into that latter category, mostly because it’s just plain boring. This, I must confess, I attribute to the same flaw that befell the Legend of… Read More »

In devoting myself to learning and memorizing the various melodies and harmonies produced by Falcom’s “Sound Team JDK”, I have come to hear multiple renditions of the same songs. The Legend of Heroes III had a “Music of” double-disc with the original game release, along with two “JDK Specials” in 1997. In 2000, Falcom brought… Read More »

One thing that you have to get straight in your head before you listen to Legend of Heroes is that it is not Ys. Yes, both were produced by Falcom, but the music of Legend of Heroes (also known as Eiyuu Densetsu) is innately different from that of Ys. Whereas Ys uses mostly power rock,… Read More »

The second half of the Legend of Heroes V OST, generally regarded as the better half, is filled with catchy melodies and good, solid songs. I don’t believe they stand out among the crowd, but they are consistent, if a little redundant. When I say “redundant”, what I mean is that many of the melodies… Read More »

A man turns to you, and he yawns. “Welcome”, he says, in between sighs, “to RPGFan’s review of…” yawning, the man collapses on the ground and falls into a deep sleep, unable to finish the sentence. Alright, so maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit: Falcom’s tome to New Age music, “Preprimer II”, isn’t quite that… Read More »

Riviera ~The Promised Land~ Full Arrange Soundtrack is probably the best soundtrack that you’re not listening to. It’s also the best Game Boy Advance game you’re not playing, too, but that’s beside the point. Minako Adachi and, on a lesser note, Shigeki Hayashi have done a great job in creating an old school soundtrack for… Read More »

Just after the release of Ys & Ys II Eternal, at just around the time when people said “okay, now Falcom can move on to things other than Ys & Ys II”, Falcom decided to treat us to a *third* complete symphonic arrangement of music from these two games. Though a few new songs were… Read More »

Released in late 2001 alongside the Zwei!! OST as the fifth run of albums in the “Falcom Millenium Series”, Ys Healing is an album that I avoided because I had wrongly assumed that it would just be another “Best of” Ys album featuring previous arrangements of softer Ys songs. We all know Falcom’s made enough… Read More »

Ah, Falcom. Always throwing in those amazing extras. Not about to dissapoint us, Ys – The Oath in Felghana, a comprehensive remake of the classic Ys III, came with a nice box full of Ys III music from the past 16 years or so. The main draw to this set, besides a huge catalog of… Read More »

Released one year after the first Ys Piano Collection, this second album features tracks from the the first four Ys titles (which were all that existed at this time). Generally, I found that Fujisawa (the performer/arranger) stepped up from the previous Ys piano arrangements, which were first of all not “true to form” piano solo,… Read More »

In June of 2005, Falcom released a huge landmark for themselves: Ys – The Oath in Felghana. I call it a landmark for many reasons – we see Falcom fully returning to their roots, both musically and production wise. There are real instruments again in the soundtrack (finally), music that is current with the time… Read More »

The second (and last) volume of Magic School Lunar! Magical Island is also the last Lunar CD to be printed in Japan (at least, at the time of this review; hopefully there will be new Lunar games with new Lunar music in the years to come!). If you wish to know the history and relevant… Read More »