Archives

Straying from JDK Band 1 and 2, comes JDK Band 3: Falcom Vocal Special. While still with a band, the hard rock edge of the first two begins to ebb, when you begin to find ballads, female vocals, and pop-like rhythms and instruments. Hey, at least these are live instruments, right? The vocalists are Tomohiko… Read More »

Falcom Neo Classic is, by far, the rarest King-Records-printed Falcom releases known to man. It is worth about the same as any one CD in the Orchestral Game Concert series…in fact, this CD is often referred to as “Falcom’s own OGC”…but with some unexpected bonus music. The first track, an ode to all those ballad-like… Read More »

Falcom Special Box ’92: this box is ideal for the Falcom fan who wonders “where can I find an arrangement of ____ that’s not found anywhere else?” This, my friends, is the place. Starting off with vocals from obscure Falcom games like Lord Monarch and Dinosaur, moving on to a musically complex Legend of Heroes… Read More »

Released the same time as Falcom Vocal Collection II, this two-disc set features half of all the Falcom vocals from 1989 to 1991 (the other half on VCII). With this massive vocal collection of 20 songs, it is pointless to own MANY other Falcom soundtracks if you wanted them only for vocals. Of specific note… Read More »

JDK Specials are normally nothing more than synth arrangements of original tracks, retaining the same exact music, with new synth voices and sometimes new rhythm tracks. Of all the JDK Specials that exist, the Legend of Heroes III JDK Specials are the worst. JDK Special Vol. 1 takes all of the tracks from disc 1… Read More »

NOTE: This review is extremely similar to the review of Legend of Heroes III: The White Witch JDK Special Vol. 1. JDK Specials are normally nothing more than synth arrangements of original tracks, retaining the same exact music, with new synth voices and sometimes new rhythm tracks. Of all the JDK Specials that exist, the… Read More »

Arranged and performed by Falcom’s resident new age master Michio Fujisawa, Ys Piano Collection was released significantly later than most Ys arranged CDs. Symphony, Perfect Collections, Vocals, JDK Bands, and more had already milked Ys music majorly at this point (of course, this CD marks about halfway through the chronology of all Ys CDs existing… Read More »

This CD was given a mark of death by many Falcom fans, calling it Falcom’s worst CD ever. Things have changed a bit, but the negative light continues to shine on Provincialism Ys. I am writing this review to rather put a spotlight on it and show it for what it really is: A quality… Read More »

Unlike ALL other JDK Specials released (except the Dragon Slayer JDK Special), Ys III JDK Special is technically a “JDK Band” Special (it’s right on the front cover!). Along with normal JDK Special tracks (that are mediocre), we have here three JDK Band tracks and a vocal. The JDK Special (X68000 synth versions) are nothing… Read More »

After the first two Ys games, each one after is sort “odd-man out” in its own special way. Ys III, while having some great music, was definitely the worst game in the series. And, of course, as each game was released, each one had more original tracks. Here, find out what they did to incorporate… Read More »

This review is purposefully much shorter than the review of the first chapter of Melody of Legend (~Chapter of Love~), because that review explains the entire concept of what Melody of Legend is. So if you need to know more about it, check out that review. If not, be prepared for another track-by-track review. I… Read More »

Melody of Legend: What is it? Where did it come from? Is it any good? This review will address all these questions and more. Melody of Legend, as a concept, is this: Take compositions from all kinds of different games, arrange them with crazy beats (most by “KALTA”, see Xenogears: CREID or Chrono Trigger: The… Read More »

I love Motoi Sakuraba’s music, especially his older stuff. He has such a wonderful grasp on how to create epic and awe-inspiring themes without making them sound a bombastic mess. Star Ocean Sound Collection is the perfect example of this. Taking the original Super Famicom score, and arranging the pieces with a much higher sound… Read More »

Note: “Resolusion” is a typo on the tracklist. The error is not made on the OST, but is found for the arrange album’s tracklist. I liked the SO2 original soundtrack…I REALLY liked it. So, what do I think of the arrange album? Let’s find out… First of all, the arrange album isn’t too arranged at… Read More »

Star Ocean: The Second Story Fantasy Megamix really surprised me. After listening to the first arranged album, which was amazing, and hearing criticism that this wasn’t quite as good, I was expecting a haphazard attempt by the publisher to have these pieces arranged once again in order to bring a few extra bucks. Thankfully, this… Read More »

Having had no experience with the game yet, I bought the Tales of Eternia OST on the merit that it’s the third game in a series whose music I am quite fond of. How does this soundtrack measure up to the first two “Tales of” soundtracks? Well, like the other soundtracks, the music is been… Read More »

Well, if nothing else, this single makes up for the scarce packaging of the Tales of Phantasia OST, by having character profiles, other artwork, and the game’s COMPOSERS ACTUALLY LISTED (grrr…). This single contains the opening and ending tracks to the Super Famicom version. These songs were re-done for the Playstation, and another single is… Read More »

Valkyrie Profile Voice Mix Arrange is the third and final Valkyrie Profile soundtrack CD released by Motoi Sakuraba. It contains yet more remixes of the game’s powerful soundtrack, but integrates the characters’ voice sound clips from the Japanese version of the game. It is important to understand that Voice Mix Arrange is *not* a vocal… Read More »

It’s very sad that Napple Tale never made its way to the US. Not only did the game look beautiful, but the music is something magical too. I haven’t listened to much of Yoko Kanno’s work in the past, but I think it’s about time that changes. She truly is a master at her craft.… Read More »

I’ve listened to a lot of game soundtracks before, but nothing has prepared me for Napple Tale’s. Yoko Kanno created something fresh and original, something oddly different yet compelling when she composed this album. There’s a lot of character to her music, and it’s so much fun to listen to. Napple Tale Vol. 2 ~… Read More »

Orchestral Game Concert: The first of a 5-CD series that made groundbreaking efforts in videogame music, and is now considered to be five of the rarest CDs in the VGM market. What is there to learn of this CD? Plenty. Before the review, some history. The Orchestral Game Concert series started with this one, and… Read More »

The second of the astounding 5-disc series, this is *arguably* the best of the series (editor Commodore Wheeler says so anyway). If nothing else, this is an “enlightening” CD for the American gamer who never knew of all those obscure import games with great music. Another track-by-track review of some of the greatest orchestrated VGM… Read More »

The third CD of the Orchestral Game Concert series may not be the best of them all but it does have a lot of good songs and make it a worthy addition to any game music fan’s collection. As is the case with every other OGC CD, what follows is a track by track account… Read More »

The fourth CD of the Orchestral Game Concert series is without a doubt the most popular and hardest to find in the collection. One of the reason is probably the over 22 minutes Final Fantasy VI Opera song that can be found on that CD. However, having listened to all 5 CDs in the collection,… Read More »

The fifth and final CD in the rare, highly-desired OGC series is quite an exception to all of the others. Here are a few examples: Every OGC before this one had the CD released in the same last-digit year of the CD number (OGC1 in ’91, OGC3 in ’93…OGC5 in ’96!); OGC5 is the only… Read More »