Here's the situation: I already have Kingdom Hearts II OST, and I'm thinking about picking up the original Kingdom Hearts OST.

In which case, should I go for the Kingdom Hearts stand-alone OST, or should I go for the boxset?

Looking at the boxset, there seems to be a few extra tracks, and they've granted longer track times to pieces from Kingdom Hearts II, but the price tag on it is definitely more than the price of all Kingdom Hearts OSTs bought separately; probably because the boxset is a limited edition shtick.

So let me ask you, is the boxset really worth it, or is Square-Enix really getting pompous with their price tags?

Unless you *need* the Chain of Memories OST, I wouldn't buy the box. That's the majority of the original content right there.

If you going to sell your KH2 OST to help foot the bill, maybe that'd work out.

Ramza

I always found it extremely fishy they'd bring out a boxset effectively correcting the main issue with KH2's OST about a year after its' release. They should've just released it as a 4 disc set with looped tracks to begin with.

But...My guess is they were effectively testing the market for the boxsets with FFXI and KH before opening the floodgates. Look for Chrono, Saga and Seiken ones soon...Lord knows what they'll do with the rest of FF.

Pretending I were into KH music and I didn't own either (or I were willing to sell one), I'd get the boxset. The looped tracks on KH2 would be my justification.

My recommendation is to sell your KHII OST and not get the boxset. Or the original KH OST.

Amusing. You love KH about as much as I do.

I love it when people troll threads just for the sake of pointing out that they don't like the music under discussion.  Clearly Bernhardt likes KH music, so what exactly is the point of you coming in here and saying this?

Anyway, I would say the box set is worth it if one is really interested in hearing full looped versions of the KH2 ost.  The original soundtrack release was kind of abysmal.  Personally I also liked getting the stuff from Final Mix on a legal, pressed CD, too.  The biggest problem is the bloody steep price tag, which makes it hard to recommend the set if you're not a really big fan.

I don't see how those two questions are related.

-Joshua

Hahahaha, chill out. Clearly you like KH music and clearly you can not handle any comments that are against something that you take interest in or enjoy. So does that mean that I don't have the right to post in this thread because I don't enjoy shitty Shimomura music and I'm not able to share my opinion on the matter? Blah, blah, blah. Relax, dude. If Bernhard wants to spend his money on KH music I'm sure my one sarcastic comment isn't going to deter him from doing so.

Box sets are always cheaper any way you look at it.

Not only do you get:

Kingdom Hearts I OST
Kingdom Hearts II OST (Extended, as well)
Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories

You get the 2 -FINAL MIX- Bonus cds, which would cost you as much as the box set individually, if you tried to get them elsewhere.

I already owned the KH2 OST and bought the box, it's worth the extra little bit of money.

I bought the box set for completist reasons, but I don't think it's worth the money.  Shimomura is capable of so much better than this.

She might be capable of better, but KH2 was, in my opinion, and at the time, her best work in a while.

KH1's OST felt too remixy (she seemed to have a lot more freedom with the second game's soundtrack), and I don't really remember anything memorable from the time between that and Parasite EVE.

As for the question at hand, I haven't heard the Final Mix tracks or the CoM tracks, but if I were in your position and concerned strictly with the music, I'd just stick with the KH2 OST.

Of course, the lack of looping doesn't bother me too much, and I'm not a total completionist (outside of Sato's work and non-compilation GUST), so my opinion may or may not be of value.

No love for Legend of Mana?

Whether or not I like KH music is kind of irrelevant to what I was saying - I'm equally annoyed when people contribute nothing but jabs even at composers I'm not so fond of.  I guess I just don't understand the mentality.  It just doesn't appeal to me to go into every thread about Sakimioto or Hamauzu and post "But ACTUALLY they are teh suxxor rofl" in the middle of something that isn't even a debate to begin with.  Different people have different tastes, and what exactly does it accomplish for me to jump in and say something like that?

So yeah... really a lot less about what I think about KH/Shimomura and more that I'm bothered when I see excessive pointless negativity on a board that is typically so civil.

For some strange reason, I thought that came before Parasite EVE. I dunno how I got 1998 and 2000 confused.

Okay, so nothing memorable between Legend of Mana and KH1/2.

What did she even do between LoM and KH?

I can't think of anything...

-Joshua

Nothing in terms of VGM, as far as I know... Well, Yasunori Mitsuda spent some time doing music for commercials and promotions in the middle of his VGM career, so it's possible she did something similar. Or maybe even an anime score we don't know about. We've also seen composers take breaks from the industry as a whole, such as Higashino when she had the baby, or Naruke when she took ill, so maybe there was something going on in Shimomura's personal life at the time.

Interesting how many times that has happened in the past by other forum members in other threads, but you decided to wait and say something to me in this thread which is, coincidentally, about a series and a composer that you happen to have some interest invested in. How curious. Can I see your Forum Police badge (or your Kingdom Hearts tattoo)?

Wouldn't that be interesting. But what would they throw in for the "incentive" to buy those sets? It makes me wonder if there's a correlative reason why the Chrono Cross arrange album has been delayed so much...

Kind of hard to delay something that never existed in the first place.

I thought the Chrono Cross arranged album was delayed because Mitsuda has never been properly schooled in music composition.  Look at the Piano album for Sailing to the World:  Hamauzu arranged it all.

I didn't mean the physical release of the album, I meant the recording and writing and all that. I could have sworn that I read that the album was either "in planning" or "underway" or something.

Mitsuda's been talking about it on and off since about the summer of 2005, though it's never been mentioned exactly what the holdup is. I doubt it has anything to do with his education in music, though; it seems unlikely that after more than a decade of being in the business he'd suddenly go "What the hell was I thinking?! I don't know how to write music! ;o;"

My guess is either this is more of a side project that he works on between other jobs, thus the slow goings, or there's some kind of legal tie-up between Mitsuda/Procyon and Square Enix over who actually has the rights to the music.

I don't mind waiting, I just hope it doesn't get canned. :/

THinking about it, I seem to remember she got married some time in there.

-Joshua

Eh, the KH games to me seemed fairly mediocre but mindless fun to me and while I enjoy the OSTs, they're far from my favorite of Shimomura's work.  If it were just something I had interest in, I would have far more likely called you on the much more asinine post of "Zzzzzz...." in the thread about Trusty Bell. 

Also, I don't really think it requires a "Forum Police badge" (oh ho ho, you sure are clever!) to ask people not to be mean spirited.  And if you've been paying attention for the last, oh, eight years or so, you would probably have noticed that I've said things like this to a lot of people here who haven't been very nice. 

Uh, I don't want to get into this argument but was playing the "I've been posting here for x amount of years" card really necessary?

Too late

Err... sorry, didn't mean it that way.  Was just pointing out that I've said such things a lot in the past and don't have anything specifically against Zane.

ANOTHER DREAM RUINED

Even if you *did* mean it that way, I think coming from you it is totally acceptable. There are some folks who are respected more than others, especially as the years go by. I'd bet money you'd be one in most people's books.

I also agree this board, throughout its past, has been pretty free of drama... at least compared to all the other boards. So let's try to keep it that way.

That said, when I read Zane's original comment about buying neither and selling the one already owned, I chuckled. This coming from someone who's never played either game nor listened to either soundtrack. (I thought it was all Disney music?)

Not that my opinion's worth anything.

lol!  Yours and mine, brother!

I actually thought Zane's burn was rather hilarious, even if I disagree. It's just an incredibly well-worded burn.

Agreed there, at least. Though, I think Zane's keeping it more civil than most here do.

...

Previously, I've never really cared for KH at all until KH2 came along; that's when I went back to the original.

Ever since Legend of Mana, I've wanted more Shimomura; she doesn't really seem to have a very large discography, even if she was considered one of Square's "Big Three," along with Uematsu and Mitsuda back in the day.

...

As for the Chrono Cross Arrange comments, when the hell is that man going to stop making lousy/non-memorable soundtracks like everything he's been making for the past 3-4 years, and finally give us a legitimate score?!

When? Where? By who?

I'm not biting you, though, as it's obvious the size of a composer's fanbase varies in different countries. But it's somewhat surprising to hear her fandom was already bigger than Ito or Kikuta at that time (though I've never seen a Kenji Ito fan outside of Japan).

I'd say in the US, it was Uematsu, then Mitsuda then Shimomura/Kikuta (for Mario RPG and Seiken 2, respectively). None of the SNES Saga games or Seiken 3 (or Soukaigi) made it over, but the FF's and Chrono Trigger were fairly popular titles...People are more divided over Secret of Mana 2 and Mario RPG.

Personally, I've grown more fond of Kikuta and less of Shimomura the more I've heard from both. I always thought it was strange that I enjoyed listening to Shimomura (for the most part), but so little of her music stayed with me. I think she peaked melodically at Mario RPG (and Street Fighter II!) and the rest of her work seems to have about 5-7 "amazing" tracks amidst "the rest". Then her two KH scores kind of illustrated that more vividly than Legend of Mana or Parasite Eve did (where the most I got out of them was the "Under the Sea" arrangements). I don't like every Kikuta track I've heard either, but I like his general style and unpredictability/quirkiness more.

Re: Kikuta Vs. Shimomura

Ahh, we're opposites in this respect.

Kikuta, all I really care for is Seiken Densetsu 2 & 3, and Secret of Mana +. I've found Soukaigi, Koudelka, Lost Files, just about his remaining discography I didn't really care for. I guess I was just expecting more Seiken and didn't get it.

Shimomura, her Parasite Eve stuff is okay, but I found a lot of it to be too ambient and not enough melodic for me. Aside from Street Fighter II and Mario RPG (which, back in the day, I didn't even know she composed), Legend of Mana is the first score I knew she composed, and liked it more than all get out. Kingdom Hearts is good when she's not doing direct remixes of Disney themes, that is to say, her own original stuff is good. Murmur was excellent; premium J-Pop, and the only other thing I listened to for awhile, other than Red Lucifer Rising, when I first got it. The pink fairyland album art may be scary, but the music's really chill and relaxing.

Relevant back to topic:

The KH2 battle themes, I'm having difficulty discerning between pieces since they're roughly similar, but they're still good. In some cases, I'm even finding nuances reminiscent of things Hamauzu/Nakano applied on battle themes in Samurai Legend Musashi - "Boss Battle (First Movement)" (Disc 01, Track 06), and "Gorpus's Vendetta" (Disc 01, Track 10), namely the percussion samples.

You basically covered Kikuta's discography...Outside of his hentai scores, you got pretty much everything. He doesn't have much, unfortunately...

This is a gold example of why I don't think as much of Shimomura as I used to her...Her battle themes for KH ARE extremely similar: Percussion-based chaos that's light on discernable melody and high on repetition, add sprinkles of piano and you've got the blueprints for basically every battle theme in the series (OWA not counted). They're not BAD per se, but I find little reason to find the motivation to tell them apart. At least back with Legend of Mana and Mario RPG, she varied things up a lot more.

(just a minor note, but I'm surprised you don't mind the synth in KH2...the normal buzz on it is that it's less than acceptable for a lot of people.)

As far as battle tracks, she'll have a hard time topping "Pain the Universe" and "The Darkness Nova" from Legend of Mana.  Ooo, "U.B." from Parasite Eve was excellent as well.

Those are goodies... I like "Irwin on Reflection" a lot as well. I also think it's cool how "Plosive Attack" and "Marginal Beast" play off one another.