Absolutely lovely.  I just finished listening to this, and I'm already playing it again.  Easily one of the best albums in some time.  I liked the OST, but this is so much more.  When this was announced, I remember wondering why they were bothering to make an arrange album for a relatively obscure game that came out several years ago.  Now I know.  Highly recommended.

http://vgmdb.net/album/28134

Oh lovely. I can't wait to get my grubby mitts on this disc. Muramasa's soundtrack was fantastic!

XLord isn't alone in his fondness for the album (SEMO's and OSV's reviews both gave it high marks) but personally I'm pretty indifferent towards this one.  The orchestral tracks are the weak point - the sampled orchestra doesn't mix entirely well with the live Asian instruments and some fairly generic action bits in places detract from the overall theme.  Track 12 is the best of the orchestral bunch by far but sounds so exactly like Soul Caliber music you might as well tag it onto one of those albums (the Press Start live recording is pretty nice too until that completely unnecessary electric guitar comes in).

A couple of tracks are essentially traditional Japanese music and those are fine but you can do just as well with any number of world music albums that are much cheaper.

The jazz and rock Asian fusion tracks make up the biggest chunk of the album and it plays much better if you lump all those together and keep the orchestral tracks separate.  The fusion reminds me a lot of Soul Edge: Khan Super Session but for some reason is neither as rocking in the hard tracks nor as pretty in the soft ones - the themes have something to do with it but I wonder if possibly the recording and mastering isn't quite up to spec as well.  Several are nice (track 8 in particular), just not quite need-to-hear.

It's a respectable effort and comes close to being a keeper but Khan Super Session and Suikoden Asian Collection (not to mention the more Chinese but still similar Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) so completely overshadow it I'm finding it hard to be impressed.

I'm going against the norm and just stating my utter dislike for this album but I'll concede it's entirely due to my hatred of classic Asian instrumentation.  Nails on a chalkboard for me.

The original game and soundtrack were only released in 2009, 2 years ago! You make it sound like it was so long ago!

Racist! (Relax, I'm kidding, I'm only kidding!) My guess is that it's the flutes you find grating?

Truth to tell, I don't really care for the modern instruments they tossed into the production of this album, namely the rock and roll. I never thought it melded well with the traditional style of the game's art and atmosphere.

Flutes, ehrus, tin whistles... you name it.  All the high pitched instruments just grate me and this goes back all the way to albums like Creid and the Grandia Celtic collections.  I really just can't stand them.

I can sympathize with that, I know other people who can't listen to certain instruments or sounds.

Whatwhatwhat back up that truck; when was there ever a Grandia Celtic album?

By grandia I totally meant suikoden. ><

I agree 100% and I ranked this as my 2nd favorite album of the year. It's unusual and abnormal; different and delicious.