Note: disc 3 track 14 “Coup de Grbce” is a typo on the packaging. One would assume it’s meant to be Coup de Grace.
Oh boy, it’s another Tales mash-up. And you know what that means! Another opportunity to rehash the music of Motoi Sakuraba et al.
To be fair, if you look at the tracklist, you can see that the amount of original music available is probably enough to fill two discs, maybe three discs. All of disc three is re-used stuff, and there are three or more borrowed tracks on each of the other discs. So it’s still a surprising amount of original music, but there are themes from the other games as well.
But then, original or not, Tales music has never had a problem with quantity. They’re always releasing four disc soundtracks for these games. The real question is the quality of the music. Is there anything on here really worth listening to? Or is it all “generic” town, dungeon, and battle themes for an RPG?
Yes, for the most part, I would say this is generic music. It meets the Tales standard, which isn’t bad, but certainly isn’t awe-inspiring either.
While I hate to admit it, I think disc three is my favorite. A bunch of battle themes from past Tales games? Sign me up! It gets tired if you listen to it for too long, but in 15 minute stretches, it’s a great listen, especially while driving. Note that this collection of battle music carries over into the first few tracks of disc four, and then after that are the original battle tracks for Radiant Mythology 2. So I guess I really do enjoy discs 3 and 4. Discs 1 and 2, not so much.
If you go out on a limb and buy this soundtrack, don’t expect to be floored. There are some neat tracks on here, yes; you might even find three or four that sound really great. But four disc soundtracks tend to be on the pricier side. Are you willing to commit that much for what looks to be only a tiny amount of excitement? It’s a tough call, and I feel bad for anyone who’s committed to being a “Tales collector.” You have way too much to keep track of, my friend.
