Wild Arms Original Game Soundtrack

 

Review by · November 26, 1999

Michiko Naruke is regarded as one of the best female composers in Japan, and this work is more than likely what gave her this status. The Wild ARMs Soundtrack features all the good songs from the game, with exception to the rather good American Credits Music (This CD has the original Japanese vocal credits, and it isn’t all that great). There are a few little songs missing (“Ruins Festival,” “Mother’s Theme”), but that’s okay because it would’ve been somewhat a waste to have a 2 disc with only 5 minutes on the second disc, or splitting each disc into 35 minutes.

Anyway, back to the soundtrack. This CD has a high-noon western “take 3 steps and draw” sorta theme running through it. Between these themes, you’ll find incredibly different songs, like tracks 2 and 3 which have these strange-sounding but appealing vocal chorus tracks. Tracks 1-8 are all orchestrated, at least I think it sounds like that… oh, and the last track is also orchestrated, a great song indeed. Track 9 is the vocal credits. All the other tracks are the regular MIDI quality songs, which still aren’t bad in the least bit. The very best part of the CD in my opinion is Track 5! I’ve listened to this track well over 100 times and I still don’t consider it overplayed. It has a great start with a piano, and then it gets a guitar with a bass, and then the piano comes back in with that. Some strings kick in, it gets REALLY loud, and then it fades back to let that weird chorus finish the job. This well explains why it’s called “Clash and a Promise.”

Oh yeah! The packaging in the soundtrack is great, with lots of sweet anime drawings that you won’t find in the game at all, which is always cool. Also, this soundtrack used to be very hard to find because it was printed for a very short amount of time. Luckily, SPE Visual Works decided to do a quick reprint, so you should be able to pick one up if you’re quick enough.

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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.