Last week it was announced through Famitsu that Mitsuda is the 'Sound Producer' for the upcoming DS stategy RPG Luminous Ark. From the diary Mitsuda keeps on his site however, it appears his participation in the creation of the game's soundtrack will be minimal:

"2006/08/11

Luminous Ark has been anounced. As things are, it looks like I will be participating as sound producer (that would be sound director actually), and will only be helping out with about two or three tracks. The music will be composed by a team of four people made up from Procyon staff and people hired from the outside. The game will be a 'tactics'-like simulation (?). I hope this takes away any misunderstandings that I will be doing all the tracks in the game."

Luminous Ark appears to be one of the two DS projects Mitsuda earlier announced in the Hopeful Weeds Vol.13 news letter. Since I don't think anyone posted anything about these projects yet, here's what they are:

Work on one PS2 game, two DS games (one of which he will only be helping out on--this should be Luminous Ark then), the production of three books, one arrangement job, a collaboration CD with a certain person, and he's still busy making the Chrono Cross arrange CD.

In the news letter he writes that he hopes he'll be able to disclose more info on the game-related project around this year's TGS show.

Edit: Mitsuda just updated his diary. I seems the above diary entry generated some confusion. Here's today's entry:

"My apologies. It seems that my previous diary entry led to a lot of misunderstandings, so here's the correct story:

For Luminous Ark, Procyon Studio will be involved in all aspects of the creation of the game's music, including composing, arranging, and manipulation work. I will be composing, arranging (the theme song etc.) and handling the production and direction of the music."

This post actually leaves me more confused than the previous one, but I guess this could mean that Mitsuda will compose and/or arrange the earlier mentioned three or four tracks while Procyon Studio staff members (and composers hired from outside the company?) will handle the rest of the composing duties (with Mitsuda overseeing the entire creation process). Or it could mean Mitsuda is now handling all of the music (especially since I noticed the original diary entry has now disappeared from his site). Yeah, that's probably it...I think.

All that matters to me:

"he's still busy making the Chrono Cross arrange CD."

For all the time he's spent, it BETTER be good.

Ramza

He better be working with Guido too.

Oh yes. The thought of a Brink of Time-style CC arrange album tightens my pants.

I remember reading somewhere that the CC arrange album will have an overall acoustic sound.

I'm really intrigued by Mitsuda's earlier statement in the N-Sider interview about having composed music for a big game company (S-E?). This should either be a PS2 or a DS game then. Oh well, guess we'll find out when TGS comes around.

Yes, in one of the interviews from the PLAY! in Chicago he said that the arranged album will have an accoustic theme to it - , I'd guess that it'd be more similar to CREID and his arrangement from the Dark Chronicle Premium Arrange Album.

And still my mouth continues to water in anticipation.

Sorry guys, but I really hope it's as far away from Brink of Time as possible... (some of the tracks you can barely even tell which tracks they are if you didn't have a tracklist)   

I definitely would love something along the lines of CREID again though.

Blessings,
~Andy

I actually liked the few tracks of BoT that seemed to really improve what was already there: Secret of the Forest, Outskirts of Time and the middle part of Undersea Palace. Everything else was either weak compared to the original or just random stuff that got annoying too fast (or a combination...Warlock Battle). Creid wasn't bad though, even if 1/5 of it was just Japanese versions of the English XG songs. Dajil and the "Flight" arrangement were both great.

I think they should use CC for the Premium Arrange idea. Granted, I'm indifferent to much of it, but it'd be a better choice for source material than Dark Chronicle/Rogue Galaxy at least.

It's been revealed that Kazumi Mitome (ex-Square staff; worked on SPECTOR with Mitsuda and a Pokemon medley with Hirokazu Tanaka), Akari Kaida (Breath of Fire III, Okami, etc), and new Procyon Studio employee Shota Kageyama are also working on Luminous Arc with Mitsuda.

Here are the tracklist and composer credits to the promotional CD of the game.

1.Brilliant World (Main Theme Song)
Composed by Kazumi Mitome, Sung by Kaori Oda
2.Prelude
Composed by Yasunori Mitsuda
3.World Map
Composed by Akari Kaida (aka Akari K.Groves)
4.Theme of Rushya
Composed by Shota Kegeyama
5.Theme of Luminous Arc
Composed by Shota Kegeyama

BoT and Rockman X ~ Alph Lyra are my two favorite VGM albums, ever.  I guess I'm just a sucker for jazzy stuff, as it's not done too frequently!  I would imagine the arrangements would be similar to the CC arrange booklet that was already produced?

Secondly, Hip Tanaka is still writing music?

Umm, whaa? :S

No wait, sorry...

Whaa? I'm confused..

The Pokemon medley was written quite some time ago...

Hm, those are really both unrelated things.

1.  I like jazzy things like BoT and Rockman X.

2.  The CC arrangements should be like the arrangement booklet that was released a couple years ago, containing acoustic arrangements of CC songs, if I'm not mistaken.  Musical sheets, not actual music.

So I realize Mitsuda's contribution was limited, but I haven't heard much about the album, how is Luminous Arc?

I actually found it kind of Mitsuda-ish, even though he only wrote one song. But I've only listened the whole thing through once, so maybe now's the time for round 2.

I purchased copy of the Alpa Lyla Rockman X not too long ago and I really like it as well. I'm not to big on Jazz but I really enjoy the direction they took this CD in.

Wish I could buy it.  Actually, I started buying VGM because of that album.  Searched for it everywhere, but of course it's OOP.  So I'm still looking for it.  Not like I could afford it even if I was to find somebody who had it. 

You'd be surprised, you might run into it someday and have the cash... I have a few items I though I'd never own but have obtained just by being in the right place at the right time or by pure dumb luck. I think part of the fun of collecting is the hunt for what your looking for in the first place... I think it be boring if everything one was looking for was easily obtainable. Still, I think the more you wait for an item the longer you'll appreciate it.

What's you favorite track(s) on that CD? You can read my thoughts here: http://chudahs-corner.com/reviews/index … =SRCL-2828. I'm just curious as I think it is a really interesting listen.

The period is hyperlinked in your post, man. The URL should end in "2828", not "2828."

http://chudahs-corner.com/reviews/index … =SRCL-2828  (the goods )

oops... my bad

I've only given my discs a once-through so far as well, but I found it pretty lackluster compared to the other albums which came out this month, so I'll be selling it off.  Maybe I was too preoccupied doing other stuff while listening, as it seemed a bit boring even.

Yeah, it's a great CD.  Well worth tracking down.