Archives

It’s probably beyond doubt that fans of Xenogears’ vocal tracks, “Small Two of Pieces and Stars of Tears,” have been anticipating a Yasunori Mitsuda song with Joanne Hogg vocals for quite a long time. Of course, I can’t blame them one bit. Xenosaga Episode 1’s two vocal songs hardly disappoint. The songs, “Kokoro” and “Pain”,… Read More »

A few months back, I was having a discussion with Lucy (Chudah) about favorite composers. I said that, initially, I loved Uematsu best because of his Final Fantasy work, but that recently I favored Mitsuda over Uematsu because his compositions touched me deeply. However, with an cinniùint, the OST for Tsugunai, Yasunori Mitsuda is no… Read More »

It is fitting that a game as dark (figuratively and literally) as Shadow Hearts should have an equally dark soundtrack to set the mood. What the game was given, however, is a score of a beauty and quality rarely seen in an OST, that easily stands among the best in recent memory. The compositional debut… Read More »

I have to admit, initially I wasn’t very fond of Final Fantasy X‘s soundtrack. It just didn’t have that familiar feel to it as all the previous scores had. Gradually over time, and after playing the game, that opinion changed, but that was all after I’d decided to pick up this CD. I wasn’t expecting… Read More »

There’s really not that much to this little disc. Considering it was a promotional item, it’s basically a preview of some of the music to be featured in the game. Thus, there’s nothing new here; “At Zanarkand” is basically a shorter version of the original piece from the OST, as is “Otherworld” (although I still… Read More »

Wow, what a difference playing the game had on my enjoyment of its music. As with most of the albums in the Final Fantasy series, I often found the nostalgia to be a major factor in my appeal of the games’ music, and from there I would begin to appreciate the compositions on their merit.… Read More »

I’ve always been a fan of piano albums, especially those from the SNES Final Fantasy games. The PlayStation versions never really got me going, aside from a few tracks here and there. If Piano Collections Final Fantasy X is any indication, though, the series’ piano albums are starting to dig themselves out of the pit… Read More »

So, what exactly is Final Fantasy N Generation? For those who aren’t familiar with the many Final Fantasy music CDs that have been published, this is a selection of pieces from the various arranged albums spanning Final Fantasy I through VI: thus the N Generation title, meaning those games originally released for Nintendo systems. Although… Read More »

Final Fantasy S Generation is a collection of arranged and original pieces of music, published by Tokyopop, from the Final Fantasy games released for the Sony PlayStation systems (Pre-FFX that is). Yet, even more so than the first “Generation” collection, the overall theme and sound of this disc is of a more relaxed nature and… Read More »

Actraiser was composed by Yuzo Koshiro, a man with many fans, and whom is also known for his compositions of the early Ys games, and Sorcerian. As par for him, Koshiro’s work on the Actraiser soundtrack is quite good. For coming as early into the SNES’s life as it did, the music did a lot… Read More »

Azel -Panzer Dragoon RPG- Complete Album. I’ve had the album for about 3 years now, and it continues to be a favorite of my collection. I really don’t know how to explain what it is that makes the music so endearing to me. I never played the game, having only bought the soundtrack on a… Read More »

Before I get started, I would like to remind everyone that reviews are merely opinions, and can highly differ from one person to another as you’re going to see. I’ve always liked Kenji Ito’s compositions a lot, and I was very found of the music of Romancing SaGa as well after playing the game; with… Read More »

The Seiken Densetsu 2 OSV (Secret of Mana) was the first video game soundtrack I ever owned, when a friend gave it to me as a present way back in ’94. At the time, I was really crazy about the game, spending hours and hours building up my characters, and the music was one of… Read More »

Do you know Soukaigi? You don’t, do you? Perhaps you have seen that name in an import review section, only to erase it from your in-mind database immediately after reading the devastating reviews. Indeed, many reviewers have not treated the game very kindly. Although it was released solely in Japan, even there few people purchased… Read More »

This disc is a compilation of selected material from every Koei CD of Yoko Kanno‘s up through 1993 (everything except Tenshouki). The intention was to obviously exhibit Kanno’s tremendous versatility, so each of the 14 tracks stand out as some of the most original and distinguished pieces from their respective albums. Among the most notable… Read More »

I bought this CD kind of out of the blue. The only information I had was related to the game’s story and concept, nothing more or less. Another Mind‘s music differs greatly from the orchestral themes of Nobuo Uematsu’s Final Fantasy scores and the epic themes of Yasunori Mitsuda’s Xenogears and Chrono Cross, some of… Read More »

Well, this is what it all adds up to. This is the soundtrack to Black/Matrix, an underground hit in Japan that was released on Saturn, PlayStation, and then improved for a Dreamcast re-release. Disc one is really good because it’s arranged… it’s basically all the same tracks on the original disc, in a different order.… Read More »

With the classic score to Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night), Michiru Yamane seemed to have launched herself into the premiere rank of game music composers. Having pushed the envelope of sophistication for action adventure scores, I had high hopes she would do no less for the traditional RPG genre… Read More »

I’m not quite sure how Square does it. They seem to be able to make us buy soundtracks that are just compilations of songs from previously released soundtracks. Oh wait, that’s right, they succeed because they pick some of the best tracks from an extensive selection of great tracks and put THOSE into the compilation… Read More »

I’d never played the game, but something drew me to this soundtrack. I didn’t know what to expect at first; there are a lot of mediocre RPG soundtracks out there, and I was afraid this would prove to be yet another. Thankfully, I was wrong. Tamamayu Monogatari (Jade Cocoon in the US) is different from… Read More »

While Americans only knew of this game as a Super Nintendo game, Lagoon was originally a Japanese PC game. This soundtrack features five live-band arranged tracks (bass, guitar, keyboard, drums), and the rest is X68000 original stuff. And while I was disappointed with the arrange, I was in for a big surprise with the original…… Read More »

Note: Seiken Densetsu was released as Final Fantasy Adventure in the United States even though it is actually the first game in the Secret of Mana series. This CD is a combination of the Seiken Densetsu Original Sound Version and its arranged counterpart, Seiken Densetsu ~ Let Thoughts Ride on Knowledge, both of which were… Read More »

The Tokimeki Sound Collections (there are four of them) are essentially this: songs from the original version, extended, and arranged with some higher quality instrumentation. This first Sound Collection, released long before the other three came out, features character themes. There is a lot of synth used on these albums, but there is some good… Read More »

Tokimeki Memorial is probably one of the most beloved of the dating sims today. With cute and loveable characters, and some fantastic gameplay elements, it pulls in all those in who dare to play it. As for the music, it’s nothing short of fantastic; the melodies are happy, bouncy, full of energy and excitement, and… Read More »

Between the two Tokimeki SCs I’ve heard (the first being the other one), I like this one much more. The synths used are better, the live instruments have better solos…it’s just a pretty great album all in all. This Sound Collection seems to cover some of the common BGM themes from the game, and there… Read More »