Archives

Ah yes, the Gagharv Trilogy. Legend of Heroes IV, V, and then III at the end: a powerhouse of Falcom music that cannot be denied. Or can it? Symphony Gagharv Trilogy is our testing ground. The album begins with five selections from Legend of Heroes IV: A Tear of Vermillion. Previously, the only arrangement we’d… Read More »

Wow, it’s oldschool Ys. If you can even locate this soundtrack, you ought to buy it for nostalgia’s sake. This is one of oldest Falcom CD releases; it might be their first with King Records, I’m not sure. Regardless of the soundtrack’s status as being old and rare (though the 1993 reprint isn’t too hard… Read More »

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 all… 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 what… Read More »

The Wanderers From Ys SAV is one of those unforgettable classic Falcom albums that offers something beyond what one may have expected. I’ll start by just coming forth and saying that I think this album surpasses almost any arrangement on Ys III’s Perfect Collection. There, I said it. Not that this album doesn’t have its… Read More »

Now, this is a real arrange album. Tenpei Sato finally took a different route than he did with the Disgaea Arrange soundtrack, and he did a great job. The main problem with the Disgaea Arrange soundtrack was that it didn’t sound any different from the original. The La Pucelle Arrange soundtrack sounds similar to the… Read More »

Note: This soundtrack is only available with the Limited Edition Japanese print of the game, and did not receive any separate packaging. Ah, La Pucelle. When it comes to a composer like Tenpei Sato, there are very few composers like him. I know I say this a lot, but he’s one of those composers that… Read More »

When I listen to arrange albums, it’s nice to hear the original songs in some shape or fashion, but composed a slightly different way. I have high standards for arrange albums, and the Disgaea Arrange Album is one of the reasons why I do: because there’s hardly any arrangement at all on this soundtrack! Granted,… Read More »

Note: This soundtrack is only available through the Japanese Limited Edition game, which also came with an artbook. The reprint came alongside the Japanese Limited Edition PSP version of the game. I like to consider VGM albums as concept albums. While some don’t do this as well as others, no one can deny that a… Read More »

Ladies and gentlemen, it is time yet again to review the latest of Tenpei Sato’s arranged albums. If you’ve read my reviews of Mr. Sato’s first two arranged albums (Disgaea, La Pucelle), then you’re familiar with his arranging abilities. The Disgaea arrange album was the worst arrange album I’ve ever heard in my life, and… Read More »

Phantom Brave is the third entry in Nippon Ichi’s popular strategy RPG series, and quite frankly, its soundtrack is the best. What makes Phantom Brave so great is while it combines the strengths of the two games that came before it (the aggressiveness of Disgaea and the beauty of La Pucelle), it has a style… Read More »

When I popped in Phantom Kingdom for the first time, I was seriously wondering where Tenpei Sato was going to go. He had already done everything possible, and I could not foresee him doing anything better than Phantom Brave. Let me tell you, I was surprised to find out that Tenpei Sato didn’t compose Phantom… Read More »

Ah, Cross Gate. Chances are, more likely than not, that you’ve never heard of this Online RPG. This is, in part, because it was only released in Japan. The rest of it, however, is solely due to unpopularity. Not very many people played this game at all. Whether that’s for good reason or not is… Read More »

Note: according to the CD’s packaging, disc two’s tracks are listed as if they continued from disc one (that is, they are tracks 21-43 instead of another 1-23). For the sake of consistency with the site rather than with the soundtrack itself, we have chosen to list the numbers as they would appear when sticking… Read More »

Here’s an album that needs to live up to two different standards. First, since it is an arrangement of music from Phantasy Star Online, it needs to prove itself worthy of arranging such fine music. Secondly, since it is second in the “Premium Arrange” series (first being Dark Chronicle), it ought to have the sort… Read More »

Phantasy Star Online, one of the first console-based Online RPGs to really hold its own over the years, took an unsuccessful turn for the worse with Episode III, a card-based battler that even the most ardent PSO fans agree shouldn’t have happened. Fortunately, the series recovered with Ep. IV “Blue Burst”, and will probably continue… Read More »

Note: according to the CD’s packaging, disc two’s tracks are listed as if they continued from disc one (that is, they are tracks 26-50 instead of another 1-25). For the sake of consistency with the site rather than with the soundtrack itself, we have chosen to list the numbers as they would appear when sticking… Read More »

Note: Observant readers will note that, according to the pictures of the package provided, track 3 of disc 1 says “Magical Autumn ~ ” followed by some Korean text. It turns out, the Korean text also says “Magical Autumn”, so we decided not to be redundant in our tracklist. I feel very privileged to be… Read More »

If you haven’t heard by now, World of Warcraft is sweet. The MMORPG based on Blizzard’s popular RTS series earned acclaim and numerous awards from critics and magazines across the board. It stands out as single best MMORPG and simply one of the best games of the year, period. I can personally vouch for the… Read More »

I was one of the many to be very disappointed when Mitsuda was not announced as Xenosaga Episode II‘s music composer. I had never heard of Yuki Kajiura before, so I was unsure of what she would do. Well, between this and the .hack//SIGN soundtracks, I now know what to expect from her. Her style… Read More »

After printing six (seven including Eternal Blue Prelude) of these half-music half-drama albums, it is determined that two more would be printed for the side-series game “Magic School Lunar!”, the Sega Saturn remake of the original “Walking School Lunar” for Sega’s hand-held Game Gear. The game would never see an “Original Soundtrack” release, so instead,… Read More »

Of the many Lunar CDs released in Japan, the majority of them were released in the dreaded “half-drama” format: pleasant for Japanese listeners, and torturous for all us non-Japanese-speaking people! This is the first of four in the “Lunatic Festa” series, which recaps, in audio drama format, the events of Lunar: Silver Star Story. The… Read More »

The vast majority of the Japanese Lunar soundtracks are long out of print, and hence, they usually come with quite the price tag. If you were to say to yourself, “man, I really like Lunar, but I don’t have $500, so maybe I should only pick out one or two soundtracks on Yahoo! Japan Auctions”,… Read More »

When I heard Magical Antique for the first time, I fell in love with it. It had everything I wanted to hear: great chords, great instrumentation, catchy themes, and some variety. Most people would classify this OST as “cute,” and I’d have to agree with them. But that better not stop you from listening to… Read More »

Xenogears and piano. In the world of game music, there are few more obvious combinations, and yet there had been no piano album based on Mitsuda’s excellent score for the game, until now. OneUp Studios, in collaboration with a talented group of young arrangers, have finally combined these two powerful musical forces to create Xenogears… Read More »