GAME MUSIC CDS
REVIEWS
PART 1
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| Album : Chrono Cross |
| Reference : SSCX-10040 |
| Publisher : Digicube |
| Released : 12/18/99 |
| Composers : Yasunori Mitsuda |
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| Disc One : | Disc Two : |
| | |
| 01 Chrono Cross - Time's Scar | 01 Beginning of a Dream |
| 02 Edge of Death | 02 Dimension Breach |
| 03 Home Aruni Village | 03 Home Termina |
| 04 Plains of Time - Home World | 04 Dragon Knight |
| 05 Dancing the Tokage | 05 Voyage - Home World |
| 06 Reminiscence | 06 Home Galdove |
| 07 Dream of the Shore | 07 Home Mabuure |
| 08 Another Aruni | 08 Zerubess |
| 09 Singing Emotions | 09 The Astonishing Magic Group |
| 10 Lost Pieces | 10 Doze |
| 11 Drowning Valley | 11 Chronomantique |
| 12 Another Termina | 12 Dilemma |
| 13 Quitting the Body | 13 Optimism |
| 14 Forest of Cutting Shadows | 14 Island of the Dead |
| 15 Snake Remains Chamber | 15 Dead Sea - Ruined Tower |
| 16 Triumph | 16 People Imprisoned by Destiny |
| 17 Lost Child of Time | 17 Lost Before, Light |
| 18 Another Galdove | 18 Earth Dragon's Island |
| 19 Swamp of Hidora | 19 Navel of the World |
| 20 Dream Fragments | 20 Hurricane |
| 21 Voyage - Another World | 21 Victory |
| 22 Ghost Ship | 22 Another Mabuure |
| 23 Death Volcano | 23 Fairies Yield Magic |
| 24 Ancient Dragon's Stronghold | 24 Etude 1 |
| 25 Pathetic | 25 Etude 2 |
| | 26 Magical Dreamers |
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| Disc Three : |
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| 01 Garden of God 09 Star Tower |
| 02 Chronopolis 10 Frozen Flame |
| 03 Fates 11 Dragon God |
| 04 Jellyfish Sea 12 In the Time of Disorder |
| 05 Orphanage of Flame 13 Life |
| 06 Star-Stealing Girl 14 Reminiscence |
| 07 Dreamwatch of Time 15 Radical Dreamers |
| 08 Dragon's Wish 16 Dream Fragments |
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| Comments : |
| |
| I don't don't really like playing RPG, simply because, even if these games |
| are generally marvelous ones, i don't like their long turn-battle systems |
| ... I prefer real time battles like Zelda or Secret of Mana. But these games |
| mostly have great soundtracks and as i allready loved the one in Chrono |
| Trigger on SNES when my brother was playing Chrono Cross (cos he like RPG ;) |
| i was once again astonished about the soundtrack. The game have been |
| produced by Square (responsible of the all the best RPG and adventure games, |
| Final Fantasy series, Secret of Mana series and also Chrono Trigger series). |
| The soundtrack has been composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, who also composed |
| Chrono Trigger and Xenogear (another RPG) musics. |
| |
| First, there are more relaxing pieces of musics than fast ones. The fast |
| ones being present during intro, battles and rare others moments. |
| |
| The tracks are ordered like they could be discovered in the game, also each |
| CD got a specific name : CD 1 is "Cause", CD 2 is "Unveiling" and CD 3 |
| is "Change". |
| |
| Also most of these musics (expecting intro and ending ones) are originally |
| played on PSX like ... "mod" files, or better should i say midis files with |
| a sound-font .. But a great one !!! First time i heard these, i thought it |
| was streamed music, like an MP3. To compare it with something that lots of |
| people know, let's compare it with Final Fantasy (only for the sound |
| quality, not for the music itself even if i don't really like Final Fantasy |
| musics, particulary recent ones). In Final Fantasy it sounds really like |
| midi shit, i mean midi played on a PC with a cheap soundcard, u get the |
| point ? But here, the instruments are so realistic ! For exemple, when the |
| acoustic guitar is playing, you can even hear the fast sliding sound when a |
| note is on a case far from another (the "sweak" sound ;). Also the quality |
| of these is ten times better. The only instrument which doesn't render |
| realistic is the disto guitar of course ... |
| |
| The style is mostly fairy with celtic, arabic or even "religious" touchs. |
| But even being relaxing pieces, the musics got great themes. And u can feel |
| the style of Chrono Trigger in lots of these. |
| |
| There are also some themes which were present in Chrono Trigger but with a |
| more complex composition and orchestration (sure, as Chrono Trigger was a |
| SNES game ... But once again there isn't such a difference between Final |
| Fantasy SNES musics and PSX ones in term of orchestration :). For exemple, |
| the track 7 on CD 3 is a cover of the main Chrono Trigger theme. |
| |
| There's also a track with lyrics, it's number 15 on CD 3, this song is |
| wonderful. It's a cover of the main theme of a "sequel" to Chrono Trigger on |
| SNES named Radical Dreamers (yes, like the song) but which was a text only |
| game and only released in Japan. The only instrument in this song is an |
| acoustic guitar and the singer got a nice and sweet voice. In the middle |
| there is a choral and at the end a guitar solo. Nice, that's the word. :) |
| |
| All these points make this album a definitively great piece of relaxing |
| music (some tracks could fit perfectly on an "ambient" compil) and the best |
| RPG and adventure games soundtrack i've ever heard. Better than the well |
| know Final Fantasy series ... |
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| Album : Dracula Battle Perfect Selection 1 & 2 |
| Reference : KICA-1145 & KICA-1162 |
| Publisher : King |
| Released : 07/21/94 & 06/21/95 |
| Composers : Various |
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| Dracula Battle Perfect Selection 1 : | Dracula Battle Perfect Selection 2 : |
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| 01 Beginning | 01 Beginning |
| (Castlevania 3) | (Dracula X) |
| 02 Bloody Tears | 02 Theme of Simon |
| (Castlevania 2) | (Castlevania 4) |
| 03 Ripe Seeds | 03 Road of Enemy |
| (Castlevania Adv 2) | (Castlevania Adv 2) |
| 04 Cross a Fear | 04 Den |
| (Dracula X) | (Dracula X) |
| 05 Requiem for the Nameless Victims | 05 Theme from Legend of Dracula |
| (Castlevania Bloodlines) | (Castlevania Adv 1) |
| 06 Opus 13 | 06 In The Castle |
| (Dracula X) | (Demon Castle Dracula) |
| 07 Vampire Killer | 07 Thrashard in the Cave |
| (Castlevania 1) | (?) |
| 08 Calling from Heaven | 08 Reincarnated Soul |
| (Castlevania Bloodlines) | (Castlevania Bloodlines) |
| 09 March of the Holy Man | 09 Iron Blue Intention |
| (Dracula X) | (Castlevania Bloodlines) |
| 10 Don't Wait Until Night | 10 Illusionary Dance |
| (Demon Castle Dracula AC) | (Dracula X) |
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| Comments : |
| |
| Some of the best game musics are without any doubt the various Castlevania |
| soundtracks. These are allways powerful and got great themes wich fit |
| perfectly the mood of the game, surely because Konami is perhaps the first |
| japanese game company which thought that the music was one of the most |
| important part of a game. For information, Dracula is the japanese name of |
| the Castlevania series. |
| |
| But before writing about these two albums, let's have a chronology of the |
| differents generations of Castlevania soundtracks. |
| - The first game was an MSX game (of course, as Konami was the main or |
| perhaps even the only developper on MSX ! :), the musics weren't very good |
| because of the poor sound processor of this computer but it allready |
| featured THE Castlevania theme, knows as Vampire Killer. |
| - In NES and Gameboy episodes, these have been the pioneers in stunning game |
| musics. The first episode was the NES one which was adaptated of the MSX |
| and one of the first games on this console, the musics were also converted |
| of the MSX but sounded lot better (probably because the NES got more |
| voices than the MSX ? I don't really know ...). The sequel on NES was |
| introducing kind of ... digi-drums (eheh ;) on this console and the third |
| episode get improved composition. For the Gameboy games (Adv. 1 & 2) these |
| were some of the rare games which featured a real elaborate soundtrack on |
| this machine. |
| - Parallel, came the arcade Castlevania game, but it hasn't been a big |
| success, however, it featured some of the well known themes like Vampire |
| Killer (from Castlevania 1), Bloody Tears (from Castlevania 2) and Theme |
| of Simon (from the future Castlevania 4). |
| - With the 16bits consoles (SNES and Sega Genesis) sound capabilities, the |
| composer(s) get the possiblity to add better orchestration (as these had |
| more voices than 8bits consoles) and non-synthetic instruments (for the |
| SNES, not the Genesis which had only synthetic capabilities but with three |
| sound processors :). The SNES episode was a sequel to the NES series and |
| named Castlevania 4, it featured mainly knew themes like the well know |
| Theme of Simon or The Cave (not to mistake with Thrashard in the Cave on |
| Dracula Battle Perfect Selection 2). The Genesis game, Castlevania |
| Bloodlines, was appart from others and the soundtrack was composed of the |
| best themes from the previous NES and SNES games with more punchy |
| synthetic instruments and also new great themes. |
| - The first console equiped with a CD-Rom was the TG16 (also knows as PC |
| Engine). Konami converted Castlevania Bloodlines on this console (but |
| renamed as Dracula X) and used the CD streaming capabilities to put the |
| same musics than Genesis version but with high quality instruments (even |
| if these weren't real ones) and that resulted with the best Castlevania |
| soundtrack (in my so humble opinion :). After, it was the 32bits |
| generation of video games with the Sega Saturn and the Playstation. The |
| Saturn Castlevania was named Dracula X but i don't think it was the same |
| one than the Genesis and TG16 episode, because the soundtrack wasn't the |
| same. And, even if it also featured mytical themes, these were performed |
| by real musicians in various styles (jazz, funk and techno). The |
| Playstation game, Castlevania X - Symphony of the Night, introduced real |
| symphonic musics but these weren't as powerful as the previous soundtracks |
| ... |
| - The Nintendo 64 Castlevania series soundtracks were (as the games and as |
| the N64 sound capabalities) PURE SHIT. Why ? Simply because these cames |
| have been developped by Konami America who doesn't care at all about the |
| game soundtrack. Better forget these ... Also forget the recent Gameboy |
| Color episode, Adv. 3, which was a kind of renewal of Adv. 2 but poorer, |
| once again Konami America are the ones to blame. |
| - Now, even if new games are planed on the Dreamcast, X-Box and Playstation |
| 2, i'm a bit affraid of the soundtracks of these ... I hope these will be |
| great. |
| |
| Anyway, as the two albums (Dracula Battle Perfect Selection 1 & 2) have been |
| released after the 16bits series and before the 32bits ones, these feature |
| the best themes. But not in orginal sound version, in rock arrangements ! |
| Better say ... progressive or symphonic metal style. That means hard |
| guitars, hard drums, agressive synthetiser. But that's the definitively the |
| best style for the Castlevania musics ! The themes are mostly extended and |
| performed by disto guitars, that results in wonderful solos. The |
| accompaniments are also basting. Power music at its best ! |
| |
| I'm not a hard-rock or metal addict and expecting some rare bands (mostly |
| progessive metal groups, like Angra, Dream Theater or Symphony X), i don't |
| like these kind of music. But these two albums could really be performed by |
| one of these progressive metal groups, the musicians here got really high |
| level. |
| |
| There aren't any bad track on the two albums, both are entirely great. My |
| favorites tracks are number 1 to 10 on each CD. Nothing more to say. :) |
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| Album : Einhander |
| Reference : SSCX-10015 |
| Publisher : Digicube |
| Released : 12/21/97 |
| Composers : Kenchiro Fukui |
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| 01 Assault 16 Impatience |
| 02 Take Off 17 Thermosphere |
| 03 Capital 18 Afterimage |
| 04 Street 19 Advent |
| 05 Ruins 20 Rebellion |
| 06 Chase 21 Zero Gravity |
| 07 Machine Beat 22 Shudder |
| 08 Badlands 23 Bloody Battle |
| 09 Silence 24 Muddle |
| 10 Warning 25 Moonlight |
| 11 Breakthrough 26 Judgment |
| 12 Factory 27 Earthlight |
| 13 Dawn 28 Metempsychosis |
| 14 Madness 29 Beginning |
| 15 Conflict |
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| Comments : |
| |
| Einhander, beside this german name hide one of the best shoot'em up game |
| ever created (for me, it's the best ! :) and a must have on Playstation. |
| It's produced by Square, who mainly develop RPG games (see Chrono Cross |
| album review) but also succeded in this quite unfamiliar style. |
| |
| The soundtrack itself is also a success. Composed by Kenchiro Fukui, it's |
| the best music for this style of game. "What kind of music is that", you |
| wonder ? Pure electro/techno of course !!! That's the genre which fits |
| perfectly for shoot'em up. For exemple, could you play Stardust with other |
| musics than the great techno tunes ? No, of course ! And even the oldskool |
| shoot'em up like Lethal Xcess on ST or Soldier Blade on TG16 got great fast |
| -electro-musics out of their synthetic sound chips. |
| |
| The soundtrack is mainly ordered like the game, expecting some bosses |
| musics. Most of the musics are really fast and blasting, some tracks could |
| even be perfect for a movie like Mortal Kombat (i think it's a good exemple, |
| mhh ? ;) but also some others are more slow and cool. By the way none of |
| these musics features long solos. |
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| All tracks are great but some stand out the rest : |
| - Track 8 beguns with a short break intro and then a fast bass enters with a |
| quite common techno beat, then a short melody looping right & left comes, |
| followed by dark choir voices and, after a break, there are only long |
| accords melodies accompagned by a simple beat, and then it "loops" (one |
| time :) the music is also filled with robotic samples (not too much by the |
| way). |
| - Track 14 got the right name "Madness" as it beguns with a really brutal |
| theme performed by an industrial instrument then the beat arrives, |
| followed by long accords and finally at 2/3 of the music the accords |
| "flow", so nice ! :) |
| - Track 22 which beguns as brutal as the precedent one and which features at |
| the middle a fast rap in english, Yes a rap ! And it fits perfectly to the |
| music. |
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| Most of the tracks are 2-4mins long, some are short (1min) and few are only |
| transitions (10-30sec) but the whole album is more than 1hour long. |
| |
| A great album which show that there are allways great techno music in video |
| games and not only fast made techno shits. :) |
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