Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You Original Game Soundtrack 2

 

Review by · December 31, 2006

Released a year after the first “Forever With You Original Game Soundtrack,” this three disc version of the soundtrack is not a “follow-up” to the first OGS as much as it is a more complete version. The first OGS was a two disc album with music from the original Super Famicom version of the game. This album, of course, is the published version of the PlayStation soundtrack. It includes almost every song from the SNES version, as well as plenty of new tracks (particularly on the third disc).

The sound quality from the Super Famicom to the PlayStation is a substantial improvement, one that anyone ought to be able to hear clearly. Though I can’t say for sure, I would suspect that the music was originally written and intended for a 32-bit system, but was dumbed down for the SNES version. A quick comparison of songs from the two OGS’s (say, for example, Mira Kagami’s Theme, which we have sampled in both reviews) should make the difference obvious.

The songs are all neatly arranged, first with character themes, then songs for the many events, big and small, that you go through in the game. The game exists as an opportunity to go through high school and hook up with a lady of your choice; forgive me for saying this, but my memories of high school aren’t nearly as cute and sugar-coated as the music Kukeiha Club made to go with this game. Of course, not all of us were surrounded by kawaii-cute girls that, despite being Japanese, looked completely caucasian.

One of my favorite sections are the ones with classic songs adapted. The “Wind Ensemble” music is your high school band attempting to play music from Konami (Gradius) your freshmen year but Wagner your junior year. The “Romeo and Juliet” music is that cheesy love theme you play in romance films: totally awesome, totally cutesy.

But, you know, the music quantity is something of a cheap perk that makes up for the quality. With the exception of the third disc, which has mostly decent tracks (each over a minute), the album is a complete collection of some rather boring and unfamiliar songs. About 20% of the tracks have any real substance to them, and they’ve all been arranged countless times on any number of other albums Konami has released over the years. So, as for the worth of this album, it probably is meaningless unless you have experience with this classic game, one which nearly defines the “dating sim” adventure genre.

Between this album and its predecessor, this is the clear victor and definitely the album of choice. Being over a decade old, both albums are HTF (hard-to-find). Should you find them, however, the demand is also low enough that you may be able to get a good deal on this three disc set.

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Patrick Gann

Patrick Gann

Therapist by day and gamer by night, Patrick has been offering semi-coherent ramblings about game music to RPGFan since its beginnings. From symphonic arrangements to rock bands to old-school synth OSTs, Patrick keeps the VGM pumping in his home, to the amusement and/or annoyance of his large family of humans and guinea pigs.