I am bored to tears with these two discs.

EDIT: Celestial Troupe is pretty good. I wish there was more like this.

I'm guessing these are the majority of the orchestral/ambient styled tracks.

VP2 (the game) can't get here soon enough, but it took one listen to the gamerip floating around to tell me the VP2 OST's probably were off the purchase list.

Completely disappointing compared to VP1.

Aside from a few battle tracks, I found the whole thing uninspiring and generic (much like the majority of Sakuraba's latest works).

I've played the beginning of the game and it seems okay. Certainly very gorgeous. Battles seem difficult.

Yeah, it's mostly the orchestral/slow/boring/moody themes on Vol.1. I'm really disappointed with how generic and completely uninspired this double disc set is. I wasn't a huge fan of Baten Kaitos, but at least there were some pretty strong (yet intermittent) flashes of great composition here and there. This must have been all the shit that the janitor sweeped up off of the cutting room floor while Sakuraba was putting Baten Kaitos together.

On that note. Anyone interested in my copy?

Out of curiosity, being that I consider Baten Kaitos to be the first truly great Sakuraba score that I've heard, would people recommend VP2?

If you liked the low rumbling orchestral stuff and all of the acoustic and relaxing stuff from BK, you might dig the first OST from VP2. Personally, I prefer BK by a longshot.

...

Yeah it's not Saks best stuff, but the man deserves a break, in the last 6 months he's responsible for ToA (4 discs of music) BK2 (3 discs of music) and VP2 (4 discs of music), not too mention he's been doing this for more decades than I have fingers.  The man's run out of interesting material, especially for Rpgs.  Unfortunately this is the weakest of the lot and even when Saks good style seeps through the standard, boring Rpg fare, we've already heard it from him.....3 times....this year. I still have hopes Vol. 2 will be better.

How much for your OST, Zane?

It sure is great driving music.
It's fun tapping out the 7 beat measures on my steering wheel.   I sure wish some money would drop from the sky so I can place an order for the 3 remaining VP2 CD items from CDJ. :\

Yeah, exactly.
Finally had the time to listen to this (Vol. 2 on the way), and it's not as bad as first impressions led to believe (fell asleep halfway through disc one).
The battle themes are great, really. Other stuff... well, the battle themes are great, really.
I do love the prog-synth-rock Sakuraba though, so I'm a bit biased.
No, really, there's some amazing work here - last track of disc 2 for instance.

Too bad though, that the work wasn't split like the SO3 OST was - all the crappy music on OST 1, all teh awesomest on OST 2.

I finally got both volumes myself recently. And to tell the truth, I'm not too sure what the difference between them is. Maybe if I play the game, it'll make more sense.

While I'm not ready to flat-out condemn this soundtrack, I have to agree that there just isn't enough of the "energy Sakuraba" on these four discs to suit my taste. That makes the few morsels all the more palatable when they show up (MUCH <3 for them, too!), but I still hunger for more. Maybe I was spoiled by the first VP's soundtrack, where 2/3 of it was action tracks. (Of course, VP2's story probably required a different soundtrack style, but still...)

So yeah, I don't hate it, but I'm not completely in love with it either. It's comfortably in the middle.

Not you as well.

Haha, guys you're gonna make datschge go postal. I've only listened through the disc once so far, and I relate it to the Star Ocean 3 OST - in that there's little "instant gratification" here. It's going to require more dedicated listening to appreciate, just as with Star Ocean 3. I spent the time with that one and I'm glad I did - anyone with unkind words for that soundtrack can go to Hell

Yeah, volume 2 is just about as boring as volume 1. Very disappointing.

Does anyone have the arranged album yet?  I've been holding off on the OSTs because of the negative reviews, but, his arranged albums are usually pretty good, highlighting the most powerful songs.  I was wondering if that redeems Sakuraba a little bit?

I wonder if my tastes are shifting again, and soon there'll be no more room for Sakuraba.

I can sense that you disagree with the negativity here, Dat...so why not offer up some comment on the albums?

I already did.

I thought SO3 Vol. 2 was great, outside of a low recording volume, and it's my second-favorite Sakuraba OST (besides VP1). It was SO3 Vol. 1 that got me annoyed. All those live instruments and I either don't notice the music, don't like the music or find nothing distinct about the track to seperate it from the rest (something that wasn't a problem with SO2/VP1).

To be fair, VP2 is far from trash...There are some good tracks and should work fine ingame, but it may have been a wise choice to do a SO3-style split for the soundtracks...Everytime an "SO3 Vol. 1" track comes up, it really breaks up the flow.

Anyway, my favorites thus far (both Vol 1 and Vol 2):

Disturb the Doubtful Sleep (easily the best track from the game...It's an arrangement of "Blameless Thoughts" from VP1)
Celestial Troupe
Sank Memories, More Deep
Never Surrender
Junk Modulation
Endless High Speed Running
A Thoughtful Strategy
In Order to Acquire the Light in That Hand
An Upsetting Emotion
Start Up From Prolonged Darkness (sounds very much like something from VP1...Can't place)
Dancing Without Mercy or Malice

When I say I love the Star Ocean 3 OST, I refer to the undivided whole.

I think I'm just tiring of Sakuraba. He wore out the same tired chord progressions years ago. While I appreciate that he's using more live instruments, the upped quality is just exposing the music's banality.

Especially coming from a listen of DoC and FFXII, VP2 passes without one flicker of interest from me.

Pun? Accidentally delicious.

Oh man, disc 2 of volume 2 is delicious. FINALLY Sakuraba gets to use a live choir!

Well, I have continued listening to both volumes of this OST. (With a long commute, it's easily accomplished.) And bit by bit, I'm warming up to it. It may have been unfair to expect it would be a retread of the first VP OST, and on its own it's quite capable and pleasing.

Having said that, it's moving from "average" to "good" in my estimation. But I really don't know if it'll get higher than that. As Wanderer noted, it's all to easy to hear his trademark progressions coming from a mile away. I do hear him trying new stuff, but I want to hear even more trying.

Perhaps Trusty Bell will provide that chance. I just love the idea behind that game, and hope it succeeds - gamewise and music-wise.

I don't get it.

Yeah, volume 2 is growing on me a bit. I still don't think it's anywhere close to to his best works but it's certainly not terrible.

I think one of Sakuraba's talents lies in FMV scoring. His work on the movies of SO3 is majestic (especially the ending FMV). In fact, most of the game composers show a knack at it (Uematsu in FF9, Sakimoto in FF12 and Hamauzu in DoC).

I don't know if it's me or you guys, but atleast to me, both volumes of VP2 has been the best Sakuraba after Star Ocean 3. Althought it's somewhat a bummer that VP2 didn't tried to copy the style of the first one, but after few listenings, I just don't care anymore.  For me, Sakuraba has risen to a new level of awesome after VP 2 soundtracks.

Alright.  I recently finished listening to all six discs of Valkyrie Profile 2.  I'm pleased.  VERY pleased.  Why?  Because the majority of it doesn't sound like the usual Sakurabot rehash (cough Star Ocean 3 cough cough).  The music is distinct, well done, and enjoyable.  I'll have to listen to it again, but right now, I'm tempted to rank it as high, if not higher, than the Baten Kaitos 1 OST (my personal favorite Sakuraba OST).

Pet Peeve:  When two halves of a soundtrack are released seperately.

I can't stand that.  Why not just release it as a four disc set? 

My opinion will come after I've played the game... and thouroughly listed through the OST's *cringe* and the arrange albums.

Warning a newbie is posting!

I'm finding this pretty amusing, as many of the other boards that I have been on have absolutely hated the DoC and FFXII soundtracks.

Actually I really do like the VP2 osts, but after saying that I should state that I've also played the import game at length, so connecting experiences with the bgm helps the affection along.

However, despite all that, I really prefer Sakuraba's more symphonic style, and I too love BK 1&2's osts, but then again, I also really liked the games. 

I really like his work on VP, Shining Force 3, etc, but for me, after a while, his brassy synth style starts to make my ears ring.  Though nothing beats throwing on a battle tune from VP as you hit the freeway.

I'm aware I'm rambling here, but VP2's stuff is smooth enough that I can sleep to it without getting freaky dreams (you just don't want to know what DMC3's ost did to me one night O_o) 

The arranged ost is quite nice, although the difference's between the original and the arranged can sometimes be near negligible.  An example would be the main battle theme "A Motion of Finishing Blow" the arranged version has alot more bass to it, especially when the track repeats at minute 3:01, but the instruments are nearly identical in the two.  However all the arranged tracks are about two minutes longer than the ost tracks and its in the extra two minutes the Sakuraba gets a little bit more improvisational with the melody.  I also really liked how he blends the two themes "Junk Modulation" and "One Error Begets Another" into one theme on the arranged cd.

So, I like the cds, and that's my justification, and I'm aware I'm weird, and a newb here, so please don't hate me. 

Don't tease us, just write about that story. =P

Seconded. Cough it up!

I know I'm diggin' up an old thread, but I finally gotta chance to listen to this OST and the first disc of the second one.

Overall, I'm not too impressed.  I expected so much more from Sakuraba.  What's here isn't bad, it's just NOT Valkyrie Profile.  Being a fan of the first game's OST, I expect something similar to it for the sequel.  It just isn't so.

Ah well. 

My advice is to play the game...It works much better in context. I'd still render about 1/3 of it useless outside of the game, but it matches the rich visuals and various events much better. The dungeon themes, inparticular, sound more attractive now and I think I like the main battle theme a lot more than the old one now...

Speaking of Sakuraba, anyone have a chance to get at this yet:

http://www.vgmworld.com/catalog/index.p … m_num=1120

So that'll make...Baten 2, Tales of the Abyss, VP2, the Tales NDS game and now another one this year. Um, can you say, 'output'.

The man doesn't sleep. Ever.

That is a lot of music. However, if you remember that the majority of his music loops and that he wrote less than half of Abyss, the amount becomes more manageable. Still, it's quite a feat. Only film composers have to write an equal amount of music in such a short time.