Tag Archives: Orchestral

Reviews

Review: Tree of Savior – Splash August 2020 OST Collection

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We’re nearing the end of our journey through the Tree of Savior add-on digital soundtracks. “Splash August 2020” is appropriately upbeat and poppy, making for great summer vibes. Catch the rest of our Tree of Savior reviews here.

This collection features almost exclusively S.F.A minus two tracks, and the total run-time is about an hour. The album opens with party-like “Samba de Seoul” with the sound of ocean waves kicking things off, followed by the entrancing and dreamy vocals of “Pristine EDM mixed,” the uplifting funk rock in “Vent,” and the emotional and contemplative “Pintura Cueva.” “Fiesta Bloom” offers uplifting and pop-infused trance, “The Wisdom of Crowds” goes disco, and “Sweet Poison” (by soundTemP) is a pumping electronic track. There’s electronic chip orchestra with Baroque harpsichord and strings with “Homage to Zborovye,” decisive and epic orchestral with “Avoidance,” Hollywood western in “In My Dreams,” and the sound of birds and waves in the island-flavored “Summer Breeze” to close things out.

This is a nice assortment of tunes that can be heard on YouTube and Steam.

Reviews

Review: Tree of Savior – Silent JULY 2020 OST Collection

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This time we take a look at the “Silent” July 2020 soundtrack release for Tree of Savior. Fortunately it’s not silent, although it is a lot more mellow than other releases. You can catch up with all the Tree of Savior reviews here.

The album opens with acoustic guitar and male operatic vocals in “Deives Velliava” before moving on to the aptly titled “Sad feelings” with somber strings and piano, the powerful and moving “Snow Hill,” and the reflective “Beautiful Than Flowers.” There’s a lovely music box track with “DayDream,” the contemplative and frosty “Consistency,” the somber-yet-hip “Eclipsed Road,” the sweeping “Orsha,” and the more pop-flavored “Amaranto.” “Milden Miles” adds dancy piano to melancholy strings, “Journey in Heaven” sports angelic choir and funky bass, “November Rain” comes as a relaxing flamenco style track, and “Tiger Cherish” is a powerful and lovely English ballad.

In all, the “Silent” collection differentiates itself quite nicely and is available on YouTube and Steam.

Reviews

Review: Tree of Savior – Nostalgic September 2020 OST Collection

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Onward to the “Nostalgic” September 2020 music collection from Tree of Savior. This volume features S.F.A artists, Initium, and more soundTemP. You can catch up on all the Tree of Savior soundtrack reviews here.

Perhaps the “nostalgia” in this collections’ title comes from the sort of classic South Korean MMORPG soundtrack that hearkens back to the Vol.1 release, replete with vocals throughout, opening with the amazing opener, “iKURU,” a lovely and warm J-rock track. It’s then onto more grandiose orchestral rock with “Dienos Advento,” the decisive vocal ballad “Through the Forest,” and the beautiful and dark “Guillotina Tristeza,” all with female vocals. There’s the desperate “La Patria,” the funky “The Dignity of Wrath” and “Bodacious definition,” and the sweeping and emotional “Massivity.” The team goes huge with “Vaste Terre,” an orchestral rock track, while “Signs of Penance” goes full electronic, “Even Horizon” gets an adventurous orchestral sound, and “Uno Impetus” is a catchy Megadeth-like tune. SoundTeMP’s lone contribution, “World is Missing You,” is soothing and beautiful with sweetly strummed acoustic guitar and, let’s say, nostalgic woodwinds. The album closes with “Deives Veliava,” a big female vocal performance over piano and strings.

The Nostalgic September 2020 collection is available on Steam.

Interviews

Interview: Career Retrospective with Osamu Kubota

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[EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ve been fortunate to have been in touch with game music enthusiast Michael Kobzik about interviews conducted with videogame composers, and have agreed to partner to publish them on the Scarlet Moon blog. What better way to start than with an extensive interview looking at Scarlet Moon Artists composer Osamu Kubtota’s storied career! Enjoy. – Jayson]

Osamu Kubota is a legendary composer with a long, storied career. He’s most famous for his work in Konami’s BEMANI sound division, though his career before and after is similarly impressive. We found some time to speak with Osamu Kubota about his long career and recent work.

Continue reading Interview: Career Retrospective with Osamu Kubota →

Album Information

ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK (SRIN-1162)

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Ace Combat series fans probably found a lot to like with Ace Combat 7. Early in the pandemic, I played through Ace Combat 4, 5, 6, and Zero at the behest of our graphic designer, Connary Fagen. I fell in love with the storytelling, gameplay, and music. I knew I wanted to play through Ace Combat 7 and listened through this six-disc soundtrack release several times before finally doing so, and it is an incredible game and soundtrack.

SuperSweep Records serves up the rock-infused heavy-hitting orchestral soundtrack headed up by series veteran Keiki Kobayashi, alongside DLC and other promotional music to create an expansive and complete package. It comes housed in a study cardboard sleeve with three jewel cases containing booklet text with commentary from each composer in Japanese as well as track and artist breakdowns in English. The design work throughout is impeccable.

And the music? Ace Combat 7 gets a riveting new theme by Kobayashi that is weaved throughout the score in interesting and delightful ways. The album follows the sequence of cutscenes and gameplay with all the ups and downs and drama in tow. Some personal favorites include the twangy guitar and bongo-laden “Dual Wielder,” the driving string stabs, slap bass, and big brass in “Long Day,” my absolute favorite, “Magic Spear I,” with chugging bass, wailing electric guitar, big brass stabs, and rock percussion, the tragically beautiful “Battle for Farbanti,” and epic conclusion, “Lighthouse.” The VR missions are remakes of missions from Ace Combat 4 and the arranged music is incredible, with remixes of “Sitting Duck,” “Tango Line,” and “Blockade,” all of which are a real treat to hear.

The Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Original Soundtrack is still available to import from CD Japan and is an incredible collection of music.

Uncategorized

Review: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

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The original Hyrule Warriors on the Wii U had one of my favorites soundtracks of 2014, featuring a blend of rock arrangements from across the series alongside some great original tracks. It felt very much like Dynasty Warriors and made sense given the game was a mash-up of different Zelda games. When Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was announced, I thought perhaps we’d get rock arrangements of the beautiful and thoughtful soundtrack to Breath of the Wild. That’s not what we ended up with and for good reason. The Age of Calamity soundtrack is very much in the style of Breath of the Wild with a few action-oriented excursions here and there, but for the most part, the soundtrack lives within the world of Breath of the Wild. This is important given how story-driven Age of Calamity ends up being and how integral to the Breath of the Wild timeline it is. In that way, this approach to the score makes a lot of sense.

Read more about what the Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity soundtrack has to offer below. Continue reading Review: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity →

Reviews

Review: SQUARE ENIX ACOUSTIC ARRANGEMENTS

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Back in 2019, Square Enix kicked off what now looks to be a series with SQUARE ENIX ACOUSTIC ARRANGEMENTS. What’s most remarkable is that the album features arrangements from games that are not often covered, including many from the Game Boy and Super Nintendo eras. It features a small ensemble of strings, piano, guitar, and hand percussion, all packaged with a stylish cover and booklet with extensive credits and commentary for each track in Japanese.

The album opens with the measured “Legend of the Mermaids” from Romancing SaGa 2 before an intense string quartet version of “The Decisive Battle” and “Kefka” from Final Fantasy VI. “Nuclear Fusion” from Seiken Densetsu III gets an alternating romantic/energetic arrangement while “Into the Thick of It” from Secret of Mana gets a dreamy and fantastical cover. The string quartet returns for “Battle with Magus” from Chrono Trigger with an added tinge of tragedy, “The Dawn Warriors” from Final Fantasy V gets flamenco-style guitar and percussion, and “The Farenheit’s Theme Part 2” from Bahamut Lagoon is dynamic with contemplative and adventurous segments. “WARM” from LIVE-A-LIVE captures this track’s sweetness with pizzicato strings and woodwinds, “Palom & Parom” from Final Fantasy IV goes classical with strings and piano, and “The Talon” from SaGa III is a tragic and tense spin on the game’s battle theme composed by one of my all-time favorite composers, Ryuji Sasai. Closing things out is the iconic “Opening Title” from the original Romancing SaGa which is sweet, riveting, and playful, and “Devil Lord Confrontation I” from Romancing SaGa 3 with big piano, guitar, bass, and percussion, ending things with a bang.

Since the release of this album, Square Enix has released a volume dedicated to the Final Fantasy VII Remake as well. Hopefully this will be a lot-running series with more love given to music from Square Enix’s catalog we don’t get to hear often. The album can be purchased from the Square Enix North America store.

Album Information

NJBP Concert Archives 1 ~ANCIENT FESTIVAL~ (SRVD-5001)

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As a huge fan of Yuzo Koshiro and his work on ActRaiser in particular, I couldn’t be more excited that his 1991 Synphonic Suite from ACTRAISER got a 2018 update with new arrangements and a new performance by the New Japan BGM Philharmonic Orchestra (NJBP). The concert featured an original opening theme and Koshiro’s music from The Scheme, Streets of Rage, Streets of Rage 2, Etrian Odyssey, and of course, Actrasier. Most are presented as short medleys of a few songs from the game and are fantastic, but the highlight for me is the ActRaiser soundtrack performed in its entirety, re-establishing itself in my mind as Koshiro’s longstanding masterpiece. The CD presents the music as a tidy listening experience without the MC portions. It’s also a treat to watch the concert itself on Blu-ray, featuring an exuberant and enthusiastic concert master and a LOT of talking. There’s actually more talk by play time than music, so if you know Japanese, there’s likely a lot to glean from the MC/conductor and Koshiro’s on-stage discussions. Watching the ActRaiser suite brings a whole new appreciation for breadth and depth of the score and highlights the solo performances that are a part of the new arrangements. As usual, we have SuperSweep to thank for publishing the album which contains both the music CD and Blu-ray disc tucked inside a slipcase with snazzy artwork. As “Archives 1,” I hope there’s more to come from the NJBP in the future.

The NJBP Concert Archives 1 ~ANCIENT FESTIVAL~ album is an exclusive to the SuperSweep store, but it’s worth the trouble to try to get your hands on.

Album Information

SOULCALIBUR VI ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK (SRIN-1161)

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Listeners return to the stage of destiny with SOULCALIBUR VI by the Bandai Namco sound team and guest Yukihiro Jindo, courtesy of SuperSweep Records. Fans of the epic orchestral stylings of the series will feel right at home with four discs of music with Junichi Nakatsuru at the helm. Other Bandai Namco team members contributing are Yoshihito Yano, Rio Hamamoto, Syuri Misaki, and Yu Sugimoto, all of whom collectively provide most of the music from the first disc with Jindo handling the rest of the massive score, including much of the cinematic and story cues. I found myself enjoying the contributions by Nakatsuru and Hamamoto the most, but there’s a lot to like throughout especially with Jindo’s more emotionally varied contributions. Some of my favorites are Nakatsuru’s epic opening “The Brave New Stage of History,” Yano’s decisive and uplifting “Undying Legend” (which gets a lovely contemplative take by Jindo in “Fated Soul”), and Hamamoto’s terrifying and tense “Deadland Call” and searing and guitar-laden “The Evil Flame.” The booklet includes the track list in both English and Japanese, credits for every track including live performers, and commentary from all of the composers (in Japanese only).

The four-disc soundtrack is available via SuperSweep Records and can be imported from CD Japan.

Reviews

Review: A New World: intimate music from FINAL FANTASY – Volume II

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We recently had the pleasure of attending a stop of the A New World: intimate music from FINAL FANTASY show and were impressed with the… intimate setting and very clever arrangements. Most of the games in the series get a moment in the spotlight, and Eric Roth, son of Arnie Roth, who many have come to know over the years, is a fantastic host, injecting plenty of humor into the evening. This past year saw the release of a second volume of music, and as such, we thought it would be a good time to give it a spin and share our thoughts.

The album begins with strings and woodwinds in a short arrangement of “A Place to Call Home” from Final Fantasy IX, perfect with its strong folk and fantasy vibes. Then next piece, “Chaos Shrine” from the original Final Fantasy, is a stunning take on the decisive dungeon piece with a slow build incorporating the entire ensemble that climaxes into a sweeping and beautiful take on the piece. Then it’s on to the wind-swept “Sarutabaruta” from Final Fantasy XI with swaying woodwinds and guitar, the playful and upbeat “Golden Saucer” from Final Fantasy VII with a solo piano arrangement, and a flamboyant “Lestallum” from Final Fantasy XV with lots of guitar and a strong carnival-like atmosphere. “Home, Sweet Home” from Final Fantasy V gets a determined and forceful performance, while two surprising pieces, the mysterious and tense “Tower of Magi” from Final Fantasy III and the mesmerizing “Danger in the Forest” from Final Fantasy IX come next. There’s more solo piano with “Final Battle” from Final Fantasy X, a sweeping medley of Final Fantasy XII themes titled “Ivalice Landscape” (one of the highlights at over eight minutes in length), and a solo guitar version of “Elia, Maiden of Water” from Final Fantasy III. There’s bossa nova with “The Yaschas Massif” from Final Fantasy XIII, the decisively swaying ballad, “Crimson Sunrise” from Final Fantasy XIV (an audience favorite at the concert), and a Celtic-tinged “Selbina” from Final Fantasy XI. The album closes out with the epic and desperate “Heroes” from Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward and the soothing “Save Haven” from Final Fantasy XV which is even more warm with the full ensemble.

In all, we highly recommend giving the second volume a whirl and checking out a show near you if you’re lucky enough to catch it. You won’t be disappointed!