Archives
2005-07-26
The Atelier Lilie soundtrack features more songs than any previous Atelier soundtrack. It is a powerhouse of music. Unfortunately, we must recognize that quantity and quality are two different things, especially in the case of this two disc set. Wait, wait, wait! Don’t be taken aback by this warning! This is still the high-quality musicā¦ Read More »
I heralded Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana as my favorite soundtrack of last year, and for good reason. If you don’t know why, then you need to go pick it up. Recently, I returned to the series’ roots and I found Atelier Viorate, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It is more refined thanā¦ Read More »
2005-07-18
One thing about the Lunar series is that each piece of music, no matter how slow or fast, has the same feel to it. Noriyuki Iwadare is to Lunar what Yasonuri Mitsuda is to Chrono Trigger/Cross. Even if a new game from either series were to come out tomorrow, the music could be matched upā¦ Read More »
This is the second of four “half-drama” soundtracks released for Lunar: Silver Star Story. The album opens with “Fairy Rain”, the image song for Mia Ausa. This is a light and pretty song; not an “epic ballad”, but more of a sentimental reflection. The other vocal track doesn’t have lyrics; it is “Luna of theā¦ Read More »
Lunatic Festa: Vol. 3, as the name implies, is the third CD out of a set of four soundtracks, which contain half drama tracks, and half music and vocal songs. This particular Festa CD starts off with one out of the two vocal tracks on the CD. Jessica’s theme, “Pretty Girl”, which can also beā¦ Read More »
The fourth and final Festa CD is set up just like its three previous Festa series entries. Unlike previous Festa CDs, the layout has changed slightly. The first track is still a vocal, but the last track is an instrumental. Instead, the fifth track lays out Nash’s theme song, “Magic Mobile Weapon Nash” while theā¦ Read More »
Among all of the Lunar soundtracks one can hunt down through various message boards and auctions, Lunar Songs 2 is the second-to-rarest, only slightly more common than the oldest Lunar CD in existence, The Silver Star OST. Not surprisingly, Lunar Songs 2 opens with a song once found only on that OST, the opening themeā¦ Read More »
2005-07-12
Everybody loves Falcom. If you don’t, then you need to be removed from society (my bias is sickening, I know). Falcom Special Box ’93, an impressive portfolio of their greatest work for the year, is amazing. What’s so great about Falcom Special Boxes is that they not only include soundtracks of theirs that have alreadyā¦ Read More »
The year was 1995, and Sound Team JDK was at it yet again with another Special Box. Ten years later, it still cripples the test of time. Falcom Special Box ’95 contains drama tracks from The Legend of Xanadu II, some awesome orchestrations from The Legend of Heroes III, and arranged tracks from Ys IVā¦ Read More »
Falcom Special Box ’97 was the last of Falcom’s well-known “boxes,” as they were running into financial troubles (and lack of inspiration) after 1997. Other than the revival of the special box (in the form of Falcom Special Box 2004), this was the end. Was it because Falcom didn’t have enough material to release anotherā¦ Read More »
After taking a six year hiatus, Falcom’s “Special Box” series was renewed with Falcom Special Box 2004. Unfortunately for VGM fans, there wasn’t much to be found on this collection. Well, I ought to take that back. Technically, this box has more music than any one previous special box in Falcom history. The problem? Theā¦ Read More »
JDK Specials are on the lower end of Falcom arrangements, being somewhat close to an OST release. The Legend of Xanadu JDK Special, thus, is nothing to get too excited about as far as arrangements go. However, the sheer genius in composition is what makes all Legend of Xanadu music stand out. Take a listenā¦ Read More »
Being a more-than-casual soundtrack enthusiast, I believe I know what it is that other soundtrack enthusiasts want. Furthermore, I know what common complaints are floating around about the state of videogame music, as well as the soundtracks that bring the music directly to us. One common complaint is that some games (in fact, many games)ā¦ Read More »
Most of you have likely never heard of Legend of Xanadu, sometimes known as Dragon Slayer VIII. This is partly due to it never being released outside of Japan. I, personally, have never played Legend of Xanadu, but what I do know is that only a small fraction of the game’s tracks were actually redbookā¦ Read More »
2005-07-03
Harvest Moon. Bokujou Monogatari in Japan. The Farm Story RPG. When playing Harvest Moon you know what to expect. Despite the differences between the titles, at the core the series is about a boy (or girl) on a farm, accompanied by dogs, cows, chickens, and buckets of charm. In much the same way you knowā¦ Read More »
Recently, Working Designs brought to America the second and third installments of the Growlanser RPG series, and combined them into one package, called Growlanser Generations. Additionally, in order to appease gamers who desired only to play the game, and not receive any of the typical extras found in most Working Designs products, the game wasā¦ Read More »
Nippon Ichi’s first venture into the American market came from the Atlus published Rhapsody, the so called “Musical Adventure.” It stood out very much at the time. In an era where the Final Fantasy inspired epics were becoming the norm, there was Rhapsody, the story of a girl who talks to puppets and has toā¦ Read More »
I missed the “Shining Force” boat when I was a kid. When all the “underground” gamers were having a good time with their Sega Genesis in ’93, I was playin’ Secret of Mana and Legend of Zelda for Super Nintendo. I regret not having access to a Sega Genesis, or Sega Saturn, in my formativeā¦ Read More »
Despite the fact that many people derived little to no amusement from Suikoden IV, I am sure that all Suikofans will agree that the advent of Suikoden IV has at least one good quality, that being the official merchandise brought over with its release. Even though Japan has been blessed with official Suikoden merchandise fromā¦ Read More »
In late October 2003, I finally got the chance to try out one of the more obscure Super Famicom titles, being Tengai Makyou Zero (also known as Far East of Eden Zero). The game featured extraordinary graphics, an addictive battle system, a seemingly great story, and last but not least, an excellent soundtrack. It wasā¦ Read More »
Here is a completely obscure album that everyone needs some knowledge about. Allow me to provide you with such knowledge. “Tengai Makyou (Far East of Eden) ~ The Apocalypse IV” is probably one of the most zany and humorous RPGs ever made. That said, it never has come and probably never will come to theā¦ Read More »
2005-06-28
NIS America knows how to please its fans. With the release of Atelier Iris, they’re finally bringing this long overlooked series to American gamers. They’re also continuing the pleasing trend started with Phantom Brave of giving fantastic preorder bonuses. To commemorate this release, those who preordered were given the Atelier Iris ~Eternal Mana~ Bonus Soundā¦ Read More »
Released as the seventh game in Gust‘s Atelier series, and the direct sequel to the first Atelier Iris, Atelier Iris ~Eternal Mana 2~ features music that is nearly the same sort of music found on the previous OST. The two go together so well that one may as well consider this “discs 3 and 4”ā¦ Read More »
2005-06-27
Ys Renewal, like its counterpart Ys II Renewal, is a slight improvement upon the original soundtrack for the first Ys game. In essence, it’s just a simple change of instruments and possibly a very minor rearrangement of the music so that it fits with the new set. This isn’t such a wonderful thing as allā¦ Read More »
Among Ys games, Ys III is unique in that all three major console versions produced of it (SNES, Genesis, and TurboGrafx-16) somehow made it over to the states. As such, Ys III was the first Ys game for a great many people. For those that played the TG16 version of the game, they experienced whatā¦ Read More »
