Chrono Trigger Original Soundtrack (Playstation version)

This CD contains the arranged tracks from the anime-style movies of the Playstation version of Crono Trigger, plus a "best of" selection of the OST tracks. To start with, the Chrono Trigger soundtrack is one of the masterpieces of the SNES RPG era, and the music sounds as good today as it did back then. With his first major work Yasunori Mitsuda (and Nobuo Uematsu) created a masterpiece. I won't go into detail about the OST music since there already are excellent reviews of it at this site. Fortunately the tracks picked for this "best of" actually are some of the best from the OST. There are some tracks that I miss, and I don't understand what the song "Delightful Spekkio" has to do on the CD, but overall the selection is great. The sound seems to be a bit altered from the original OST CD version - I'd say the bass is more powerful and the music sounds more crisp and clear overall - I don't know if they have redone it with better synthesizers or if this is the music straight from the Playstation, but that's the situation. Since the sound quality is better I don't mind, even if some hardcore fans might be unsatisfied.

The last nine tracks are the arranged tracks that play during the PSX movies. They sound great, but they are way too short - most are less than a minute. I understand that they are straight from the game, but couldn't they have been looped or expanded a bit? One of the best (and longest) arrangements is "Frog's Theme", arranged in orchestral style. I just want to cry when I think about how marvellous a full orchestra arranged album (instead of the crappy jazz arrangement) of Chrono Trigger could have been. This version of "Frog's Theme" is probably as close as we are gonna get.

Well, if you have the OST, is this a necessary buy? I'd have to say no. Most the tracks are already on the OST and the arranged tracks are far too short to warrant a purchase. However, if you're a hardcore fan (and want the arranged tracks) or don't have the OST, this is an excellent "best of" with a small bonus.