The best classic game music and more
So this album has been out for about a week now, has anyone heard it yet? I think it's a contender for album of the year, and I enjoyed every track on it. They even arranged one of my least favorite tracks, Picturesque Landscape, into something that I found quite enjoyable compared to the original.
15 years after the original game? Better late than not at all I guess, right?
Legend of Mana probably has one of my most favorite PSX soundtracks right after Chrono Cross, which, isn't that getting an arrange album sometime soon as well?
The cynic in me that wants to tear something down the second I hear of it says that Ms. Yoko is having trouble just making a living these days, but the music samples (praise Buddha for samples) tell me this is really high-quality stuff.
I don't remember "Tango Appassionata" being part of the soundtrack though, wasn't that from Heroes of Mana?
Also, the site is designed with some weird flash that makes the samples stop when I minimize out of the window (I'm so critical!)
Thanks for sharing, otherwise I wouldn't have known about this!
15 years after the original game? Better late than not at all I guess, right?
Legend of Mana probably has one of my most favorite PSX soundtracks right after Chrono Cross, which, isn't that getting an arrange album sometime soon as well?
The cynic in me that wants to tear something down the second I hear of it says that Ms. Yoko is having trouble just making a living these days, but the music samples (praise Buddha for samples) tell me this is really high-quality stuff.
I don't remember "Tango Appassionata" being part of the soundtrack though, wasn't that from Heroes of Mana?
Also, the site is designed with some weird flash that makes the samples stop when I minimize out of the window (I'm so critical!)
Thanks for sharing, otherwise I wouldn't have known about this!
I'm really confused by this post, have you just ... not followed anything in the last 5+ years? It's the most out of touch 5 paragraphs I've read in a while.
- 15 years after the original album, yes. But it's only 1 year after memoria and 5 years after drammatica, both of which were very, very well received.
- She is very much not having trouble making a living these days. Just check out her Twitter account, she is probably the most active "old school" vgm composer right now besides Sakimoto and Hamauzu. She is also responsible for FFXV which will be out shortly.
- Tango is from Heroes of Mana but was also arranged in drammatica.
Also, the site is designed with some weird flash that makes the samples stop when I minimize out of the window (I'm so critical!)
Yeah, all of Square Enix's pages are like that. The minute you lose focus on the site it pauses the stream. Really annoying forcing you to stay on the page.
This is some overlap with drammatica but the arrangements are varied enough that it's still great to hear them again.
Dragonfish Dog wrote:15 years after the original game? Better late than not at all I guess, right?
Legend of Mana probably has one of my most favorite PSX soundtracks right after Chrono Cross, which, isn't that getting an arrange album sometime soon as well?
The cynic in me that wants to tear something down the second I hear of it says that Ms. Yoko is having trouble just making a living these days, but the music samples (praise Buddha for samples) tell me this is really high-quality stuff.
I don't remember "Tango Appassionata" being part of the soundtrack though, wasn't that from Heroes of Mana?
Also, the site is designed with some weird flash that makes the samples stop when I minimize out of the window (I'm so critical!)
Thanks for sharing, otherwise I wouldn't have known about this!
I'm really confused by this post, have you just ... not followed anything in the last 5+ years? It's the most out of touch 5 paragraphs I've read in a while.
- 15 years after the original album, yes. But it's only 1 year after memoria and 5 years after drammatica, both of which were very, very well received.
- She is very much not having trouble making a living these days. Just check out her Twitter account, she is probably the most active "old school" vgm composer right now besides Sakimoto and Hamauzu. She is also responsible for FFXV which will be out shortly.
- Tango is from Heroes of Mana but was also arranged in drammatica.
I don't use Twitter. 
I don't use Twitter.
Even so, there's a myriad of games she's scored the past few years.
She's doing just fine and dandy, don't you worry.
In fact, like jb said, she and Hamauzu are pretty much the only ones of the "old guard" that still make fantastic music and just seem to be getting better and better. (I personally don't care about Sakimoto very much)
Dragonfish Dog wrote:I don't use Twitter.
Even so, there's a myriad of games she's scored the past few years.
She's doing just fine and dandy, don't you worry.In fact, like jb said, she and Hamauzu are pretty much the only ones of the "old guard" that still make fantastic music and just seem to be getting better and better. (I personally don't care about Sakimoto very much)
I did get the Xenoblade soundtrack, by the way.
Otherwise, the only game soundtracks (JRPG soundtracks) I've picked up in the last 4-5 years have been for: Final Fantasy XIII, XIII-2, and XIII-3 (c'mon, Lightning Returns is FFXIII-3, just make that easy for me), and Nier and its myriad arrange albums.
I did get the Xenoblade soundtrack, by the way.
Otherwise, the only game soundtracks (JRPG soundtracks) I've picked up in the last 4-5 years have been for: Final Fantasy XIII, XIII-2, and XIII-3 (c'mon, Lightning Returns is FFXIII-3, just make that easy for me), and Nier and its myriad arrange albums.
Xenoblade has a fantastic soundtrack, but very little of it is Shimomura's work though (only like 3 tracks or so), but she's scored pretty much every single Kingdom Hearts game (that's a lot), Radiant Historia, Last Ranker, Mario & Luigi Dream Team, a bunch of arranged albums, and she's doing FFXV now. She's a busy bee.
And she manages to crank out fantastic stuff every time!
Love this album, one of the final vocal tracks gives me a real FF Pray/Love Will Grow nostalgic feel.
Dragonfish Dog wrote:I did get the Xenoblade soundtrack, by the way.
Otherwise, the only game soundtracks (JRPG soundtracks) I've picked up in the last 4-5 years have been for: Final Fantasy XIII, XIII-2, and XIII-3 (c'mon, Lightning Returns is FFXIII-3, just make that easy for me), and Nier and its myriad arrange albums.
Xenoblade has a fantastic soundtrack, but very little of it is Shimomura's work though (only like 3 tracks or so), but she's scored pretty much every single Kingdom Hearts game (that's a lot), Radiant Historia, Last Ranker, Mario & Luigi Dream Team, a bunch of arranged albums, and she's doing FFXV now. She's a busy bee.
And she manages to crank out fantastic stuff every time!
I have played none of those other games you've listed. So that explains why I'm not up to date on Shimomura.
Arrangers have gone for a Genso Suikoden IV arrangement album feel with the bossa nova and breezy island jazz used here (especially with the use of the bandoneon). Lots of Michio Fujisawa-style new age in here as well. The vocal tracks kind of blew me away. Nice to see jazz subgenres getting more playtime -- only so much you can do with bland orchestral arrangements, predictable jazz combos and *yawn* chiptune stuff.