This latest Sakuraba/tri-Ace joint is, in my opinion, the least consistent arrange album they’ve made to date. Others have brought a steady flow of “yeah, that’s pretty good” or “no, this is boring garbage.” For this arrange album, we’re jumping back and forth from “really good” to “really bad,” literally track-by-track. Sometimes, I found myself wishing I could split one track in half to separate the wheat from the chaff.
But then, everyone holds an opinion about their favorite and least favorite music. Perhaps I’m just being too picky…but I’ve had it with generic battle themes from Sakuraba. If he’s gonna do a battle theme, it better be wildly different from his usual stuff. Otherwise, if it’s not a battle theme, I can handle it as long as it doesn’t make me yawn (synth choir vocals must be used sparingly!). My favorite tracks are those sampled: 1, 3, 6, 7, and 8. The last track is also decent, but it’s another slow one.
If you can’t get enough of Sakuraba, lucky you. Here’s your latest fix. For the rest of us…I’m not sure I’d recommend getting either this album or the OST. I’ll let the audio samples do the rest of the talking. In my opinion, all you need is the OSTs for Star Ocean 2 and the first Valkyrie Profile, and that’s all you need from the Sakuraba/tri-Ace collection. A word of advice to Motoi Sakuraba: slow down.
