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| Patrick Gann |
Yes, we even managed to work in more Ys! Falcom can't stop giving out the love!
08.07.09 - 8:45 PM
As promised, today's update focuses on The Dark Spire, which is a retro dungeon crawler for the DS developed by Success and published by Atlus USA. We have three soundtrack reviews. Yes, there are three soundtracks in existence for this game. I never, ever would've expected that.
First and foremost, we have the two disc import OST. The game is called Genmu no Tou to Tsurugi no Okite in Japan (that translates to something about mist and towers and justice...it's long-winded). And the soundtrack for said game is awesome, because composer Kenichi Arakawa intentionally made two versions of each song. There's the classic, 8-bit, "original" music, and the upgraded DS synth version. Yuzo Koshiro did this for a number of recent DS games, but his 8-bit versions were done just for fun. Arakawa's 8-bit tracks were used in the game when you switched to "classic mode" gameplay. If you like chiptunes, you'll love this OST.
Success printed a promotional "Special Sound Track" for this game, which had some bonus arrangements, including some decent piano solo stuff. We have a review of that promo. Of course, Atlus USA put out their own promo, "Sounds From The Dark Spire." And that's a great item too, because it has all of the special arranged music you can't find on the import OST (sans two "unreleased" tracks), as well as some of the best music found on the import OST. So...yeah. All in all, that's awesome. Please do check out these albums.
Next up? Some more quirky music. The first game in the Mother (Earthbound) series had an awesome arranged album released for it in 1989. And by awesome, I mean really crazy and weird. That album got reprinted in 2004 with some additional bonus music tacked on at the end. We have reviews for both versions of the album. Good times.
About a month ago, Josh Lewis wrote a review for the newest soundtrack in the Fire Emblem franchise to date. It was a remake of the first game, now on DS. To follow up, I wrote a review of the oldest soundtrack ever published in the series. "Fire Emblem -G.S.M. Nintendo 3-" has prog rock arrangements, and a bit of OST material at the end, to win over your heart. Unfortunately, this 1990 release has never been reprinted.
Another promotional album for Ys Chronicles (the PSP port of YsI&II) came our way. And so we have a review of that. All original music. And by "original," I mean new arrangements of your favorite music from Yuzo Koshiro and Mieko Ishikawa. Where's the full OST Falcom?! WHERE?!? (more ranting of this sort in the full review)
We've really been pushing the "nostalgia" here today, haven't we? Well that's good, because to round things up, we have a review of the promotional soundtrack for the DS game Nostalgia. The Japanese promo CD, of course, since the American version (from Ignition Entertainment) has not yet come out! At any rate, the Wind of Nostalgeo soundtrack has some cool tunes on it. So don't miss it!
That's the round-up for today. In the coming weeks, we'll hit you up with some great new stuff, including the Dragon Quest IX OST. See you then!
