Three Wizardry Gaiden titles were released for Game Boy, and each got its own arranged album. For Wizardry Gaiden IV, a Super Famicom exclusive release, the only official music publications were three 8cm “mini” CDs. The setup for each of the three CDs was the same: track 1 was an arranged instrumental track from Ikuro Fujiwara (and it’s the same piece on all three discs); track 2 was a drama track that made up the bulk of the disc’s playtime; track 3 was an “image song” performed by J-pop group “W’s” (not to be confused with Contemporary Christian ska/swing group “The W’s”).
So, the only differences between each of the three singles is the drama (which includes a bit of background music), and the image song. The third image song, “I Did It,” is the longest of the three image songs in terms of track length. It is also a slow, ballad-style J-pop song, and is probably my least favorite of the three songs, despite the undeniably nostalgic 1980s-style production and mixing.
Even though these albums are extremely obscure and hard-to-find, making them interesting artifacts to hunt down, I still wouldn’t recommend them to Wizardry fans and collectors. The only way they’re even remotely worthwhile is if you understand Japanese well enough to enjoy the drama track. And, I suppose, owning one of the three albums so you get Fujiwara’s “Opening Theme” arrangement is worthwhile, if you can get the single for a low price.
