Has anyone listened to the music for Soul Calibur V yet?  After the bland showcasing that was Soul Calibur IV, I set my expectations significantly low.  I think this tempered expectancy is part of what caused me such surprise, because SCV is good.  Like, really, really good.

The gamble to outsource the score seems to have paid off in spades.  The much touted addition of international composers, allowing series vet Junichi Nakatsuru to step down and take on more of a supervisory role, along with the Eminence Symphony Orchestra's greater involvement and new inclusion of the Symphonic Choir, all add up to a fresh yet indelibly familiar take on a musical series that's been growing decidedly stale.  (A stagnancy which also extends to offshoots like Broken Destiny and Legends.) 

Compositions are strong, with each composer ably claiming at least one or more soundtrack highlights.  For me, these include Cris Velasco's Till Fate Writes My Epitaph (Siegfried), Hiroki Kikuta's Wings of Sorrow (Pyrrha) and A High-Spirited Tiger (Xiba), and Inon Zur's Daybreaker (Hilde), Sword of Resolution (Patroklos), and Mischievous Whispers (Tira).  It's Andrew Aversa's Sleepless: An Untamed Beast (Z.W.E.I.), though, that's easily my most favorite; a terrific encapsulation of the dynamic, orchestra-driven elegance the 'Soul' musical series is known for.

I'm still absorbing the soundtrack, but so far, Soul Calibur V trumps Soul Calibur IV by a country mile.  It just may come on par with Soul Calibur III as being my favorite in the series, too.

Angela, does Soul Calibur V warrant a purchase? Even though it's become a niche lately, I primarily buy fighting game related soundtracks, but the Soul series kinda got lost somewhere in the KOF/Street Fighter/Tekken mix. The only thing I have from this series is Soul Edge and the Khan Super Session.

Now if only they'd sell it as a two CD set at a reasonable price instead of three CDs plus a coaster for what comes out to over $80.

Yeah it would have to be the best Soul Calibur OST ever by far for me to spend 5000 yen on it.  That's just ridiculous.

The series as a whole is excellent.  As said, I'm not particularly enamored with Soul Calibur IV, but SCIII sits near the top of my favorite VGM soundtrack of all time list, and SCV is, for the moment, a very close second.  Give the Youtube videos I posted a listen; there are plenty of vids for the older scores to get your feet wet with as well. 

(I'll also take this opportunity to state that SCII features one of the greatest versions of The Legend of Zelda Overworld Theme ever. )

As for the cost of the Soul Calibur V OST.... yeah, it's pricey, but the packaging is phenomenal .  DVD is a bit of a throwaway, but I'm glad it's a 3-CD set to squeeze in all the cutscene tracks.

Except the entire time of the 3 discs is about 150 minutes. Plenty of room for 2 CDs with time to spare.

*glances at the tracklist lengths*  Huh.  Dunno about 'plenty of room,' but assuming they used 80 minute CDs, yeah, it could have been workable with the 154 minute run time.