Archives

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 »

A few years ago when FF Chronicles was released, I picked up the FFIV soundtrack that was sitting on shelf beside it. It was the best CD I’ve ever bought for $9.99. This album is basically a domestic release of the Japanese OST, with one bonus track, which is a wonderful piano arrangement of “Theme… Read More »

Before you read the remainder of this review, I’m just going to come out and say it. I dislike Tokyopop. I’m ecstatic that they’ve ventured to bring some Squaresoft OSTs over to American shores, but I wish they’d do a better job. When I bought this OST, I knew that it truly was Uematsu’s “Best… Read More »

The Black Mages II: The Skies Above, is the second arranged album by Nobuo Uematsu’s rock group, The Black Mages. While the first album consisted of rocked-out versions of popular Final Fantasy battle themes, like “J-E-N-O-V-A” and Final Fantasy VI’s “Decisive Battle”, BMII: The Skies Above takes a different route, by incorporating rock arrangements of… Read More »

I have always considered myself “open-minded”: one who is able to listen to all music, in whatever quality instrumentation it is presented. I was especially fond of early Game Boy synth, which was some of the most limited VGM to which one can listen. For some reason, the Game Boy Advance (GBA) has seemed to… Read More »

Note: The year 2005 reprint from Aniplex was made for the purpose of releasing a disc without the controversial “Label Gate” copy protection software, as the original version had come with this software. Atlus’ pseudo-sequel to Hoshigami, Stella Deus, made waves in Japan with gameplay and storyline that has been the first to rival Final… Read More »

I’ve said it so many times now that I feel it should go unsaid, but just as a preface for VGM novices that are reading this review: any soundtrack that extends to this number of discs/tracks (in this case, 4 discs and exactly 100 tracks) is guaranteed to have a lot of boring tracks. There… Read More »

Now this was a pleasant treat. I bought the Baten Kaitos ~Eternal Wings and The Lost Ocean~ Original Soundtrack only days before Baten Kaitos was released domestically, not knowing that the soundtrack had been out for almost a year. I made a good decision, too, because this contains some of Motoi Sakuraba‘s best works, though… Read More »

I had been looking forward to this soundtrack’s release for quite some time. Naoshi Mizuta, who had actually impressed me with his compositions in the FFXI OST and its first expansion, “Rise of the Zilart”, was announced as the composer for “Chains of Promathia”, the MMORPG’s second expansion (which was heralded as being a much… Read More »