Note: If you want to know about the songs themselves, please refer to the full OST review. This will cover the selections XSEED made for the domestic release.
With the recent release of Ys SEVEN in North America, XSEED offered Ys fans the choice of purchasing a collector’s edition. It includes an artbook covering three (Ys) games, a cloth map of the Ys world, and best of all, a soundtrack of Ys SEVEN. This is only a musical selection soundtrack, containing 27 out of 52 songs from the full album. What XSEED did choose is all excellent, and really hit the nail on the head with key song choices.
Just about every major song in the game is included, such as the following:
– The full version of the opening theme, “Innocent Primeval Breaker.”
– Every town theme.
– All but one minor dungeon and field themes.
– All the main (read: good) boss themes.
Those were all the key songs of the game, and were easily the best parts of the soundtrack. Two of the tracks did get renamed, with one of them changed intentionally to avoid a key spoiler (and the other to avoid homo-erotic insinuation: “Sun-Baked Throb” indeed!). Most of the missing half is all the scenery music, a.k.a. the filler tracks. Some of them were actually quite good, but generally, those were the weakest part of the full soundtrack, and bogged down the overall quality. Other missing songs are miscellaneous themes from other categories (such as that one Ys II song), and while they were all nice listens, they were relatively minor in importance, and did not define the soundtrack.
The most interesting part is including the vocal theme “Rush Out,” which was only present in the Ys Music History album. The melody is a progressive rock arrangement of “Innocent Primeval Breaker” and the female vocals replace the violin portion of the opening. Simply put, it’s really good and all parts of the song complement each other well. It ultimately captured the JDK Band spirit, with its aggressive beat and powerful vocals to create a song packed with hot-blooded energy and it is just downright fun to listen. It is a bit too short, but was fun while it lasted.
There are a few songs I wished were included, otherwise I couldn’t ask for a better choice of songs. All of my favorites are present, with a lot of the weaker entries trimmed out, and overall, this highly represents the strengths of the soundtrack. The problem lies with getting this album in the long run. It’s a part of a packaged deal, and once the collector’s edition is out, so too is the soundtrack. Unless someone sells it on eBay or elsewhere for a decent price, it’s best to get the full OST in the long run. It does not have “Rush Out,” but you would have a complete OST in its place.
