Archives

When a gamer sees the name Ys, probably the most common thought is “How do I pronounce that?” If you don’t have that reaction, you’re probably already familiar with the series. In that case, you’re more likely to think “Ys has such great music.” Ys VI was my maiden voyage into the Ys universe, and… Read More »

Released simultaneously with Falcom Vocal Collection I, this second Vocal Collection contains the latter recordings from 1989 to 1991. With varied sources such as the Sorcerian Perfect Collections, Falcom Special Box ’91, and Rie Sugimoto’s Krelia album, this two disc collection contains a number of vocal performances from virtually every early Falcom game you can… Read More »

I’ve always admired Sound Team JDK’s vocals because they have always been uniquely different and catchy. Compared to other game vocals, Sound Team JDK has no rivals and they take no prisoners when they make their vocal tracks. Their vocals are produced with such a level of quality that they put other game vocals to… Read More »

What happens when you mix some of the most powerfully epic music with the best synthesizers to date and a little Japanese boy (I think it’s a boy, anyway) speaking Engrish? You get Symphonic Fantasy “White Witch”, a completely new and wonderful arranged album for The Legend of Heroes III, first in the Gagharv trilogy.… Read More »

VM Japan has one of the most remarkable soundtracks ever created by the masterminds Nihon Falcom and their amazing Sound Team JDK. Unique, modern and stylistic, it is a grand achievement of our Japanese friends. But first, some background. In the late 90s, Falcom brought about a tactical simulation named Vantage Master. Featuring hex based… Read More »

2005: a big year for us RPG fans – the first time in over a decade that we’ve seen an Ys game (or any Falcom game) on American shores. Ys VI was ported to the PS2 by Konami, and aside from adding a few bits and pieces, left the game intact from its original 2003… Read More »

Before I begin my review, I must give a note regarding different versions of this CD release. The regular print of this album only has the first disc with its nine vocal tracks. People who picked up the limited edition within the first few weeks of its release also received a second disc containing instrumental… Read More »

When I turned on Atelier Iris ~Eternal Mana~ for the first time, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. This album was my first foray into the long-running series, and I’m definitely glad I took the time to check this soundtrack out. There’s a little bit of everything here: Celtic, rock, funk, and it… Read More »

I’m a big fan of the Persona and SMT3 OSTs, so I was excited when I heard that Shoji Meguro had taken up the Digital Devil Saga. I got my first taste of the music in DDS when I heard “Hunting Field” (track 9) in a promotional trailer. After hearing that song, I had to… Read More »

If there’s one composer who has always stood out among the plethora of game music composers, it’s Koichi Sugiyama. He has succeeded in what many composers have failed miserably to do: he is able to compose classical game music. It doesn’t sound that hard, does it? If you knew how much training it takes to… Read More »

“Hako no Niwa”, roughly translated to “The Box Garden”, is the original soundtrack to the game “Rakugaki Oukoku 2”, a.k.a. “Magic Pengel 2.” This is not the first time Mitsuda released a soundtrack to a game and given it a separate title (Tsugunai had the same thing happen to it). A lot of people were… Read More »

I am not a very big fan of a growing trend in the video game industry that involves using fully orchestrated music for video game albums-whether it involves a studio or licensing live orchestras. The reason artists choose to use professional orchestras is that it supposedly makes for a more “movie-like” and less “video-game” like… Read More »

When I heard that Michiko Naruke was composing for Wild Arms Alter Code:F, I started bouncing off the walls. She has NEVER let me down with her solid compositions. Almost every song from the original Wild Arms is remixed here, some for the better, and some for the worst. That being said, I feel that… Read More »

Emerald Dragon is a traditional RPG from Glodia: probably the most well-known Glodia game. Along with this “original soundtrack” (which is actually arranged from beginning to end), Emerald Dragon received five drama albums, a vocal collection, and two more arranged soundtracks. The more observant VGM “scholar” will notice the presence of Tenpei Sato, who composed… Read More »

Falcom Special Box ’91, like ‘the two ’89 and ’90 before it, is the ultimate “mixed bag.” Four discs: vocal arrangements, jazz/rock/fusion arrangements, original synthesized tracks, and even a music video! To mix things up even more, the vocal disc contains different vocalists and arrangers, so even the vocal tracks have widely varying styles. With… Read More »

The Legend of Heroes III has, in recent years, become the subject of much attention. The first of three titles within the “Gagharv trilogy”, the game has been re-made on several platforms, including very recently on the PSP; its music, also, has had a number of upgrades and arrangements; enough, actually, to warrant the release… Read More »

This soundtrack was the first Zelda soundtrack ever released to the world (exceptions being some 8cm singles featuring one or two songs). The first disc contains eight arranged tracks from the Super Famicom Zelda (known to US gamers as “A Link to the Past”, Japanese gamers knew it as “Triforce of the Gods”). A ninth… 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-fluent VGM lovers. This disc contains four drama tracks, which dominate the disc (using up about half of the disc’s 60 minutes). The remaining tracks are all… Read More »

It’s a shame that American gamers never got to experience the PoPoLoCRoIS series (variant capitalization rules: one can also find PopoloCrois or simply Popolocrois). This cute, fairy-tale game for the PlayStation presented a fun, light-hearted yet adventurous story to gamers. I myself never got to play it, only hearing about the title’s merits second-hand from… Read More »

Note: The name of this soundtrack, along with its ominous “you’re not getting a fully arranged disc” subtitle, is “Sorcerian Super Arange Version II – Plus Sorcerian System Vol.1”. Let’s just start with the good stuff, okay? Hiroyuki Nanba, to me, is a one-of-a-kind arranger. He takes some of the best melodies Falcom has to… Read More »

A note about the date of this soundtrack’s release: many English and Japanese websites list the date of this soundtrack’s release as May 1. However, in the CD’s liner notes, the composer’s notes are signed and dated May 18, 1997. Hence, RPGFan has chosen to list the soundtrack’s release more loosely as “May 1997”. Techno… Read More »

One day while browsing Square & Musique, I decided to check out the newly created DigiCube section and while I looked quickly, I noticed a soundtrack I’ve never heard about…Tengai Makyou ~ The Apocalypse IV…Catalogue number SSCX-10006. Then I asked myself: “What in the world is this?!” Not long after, I was contacted by the… Read More »

Volume 2 of Glodia’s earliest soundtrack releases came one month after the first volume, featuring upgraded synth music for Emerald Dragon. The same process takes place here, but now the game in question is Vain Dream, a title known even less well than Emerald Dragon. Most of the same composers and arrangers are present, including… Read More »

I feel that perhaps it’s best to describe this soundtrack in one word: old. Music From Ys II provides the Falcom fan with three forms of old audio: old original music, old arranged music, and old sound effects. Let’s take a look and listen to each of these three types of “old”. The original soundtrack,… Read More »

Never7 was a unique gaming experience for me. It was my first experience with the love-adventure genre of video game; a genre that is quite prolific in Japan. Most RPGs, graphic adventures, and digital comics I’ve played featured more bombastic plots with heroes, villains, conspiracies, saving something/someone and other trappings like that. Never7 was different.… Read More »