So I've been listening all morning to the new Ys...Pretty good I have to say, though, certainly not on par with "Oath in Felghana" (They pulled out all the stops on that one..)

My biggest gripe is that there aren't enough strong tracks, back to back.  Reminds me of Ys VII (previous to Oath, the title of which I don't remember).

It's not that it's bad, but Ys has quite the history, as we all know.  I'm left wanting just a bit more..

Now I haven't played the game yet, and I'm sure that will change my opinion a bit.  Definitely check it out, but don't expect something you haven't heard before.

Are you referring to Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim?

The problem is that Oath of Felghana is a remake of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys.  That soundtrack was composed a long time ago.  I generally like the older Falcom music than the newer music.  I think Sound Team JDK's changed members, so the creative output of the recent music is not appealing to me.

I'm kind of in agreement...I love a lot of the tracks and the acoustic/orchestral material is some of the best from the series, but there does seem to be something of a lack of truly amazing themes like Felghana (and consequently, Ys 3) boasts. It's great stuff...Definitely among my favorites this year, but it's not the VGM cornerstone Felghana and the Ys IV PC's are. At least...It isn't yet. It can be the basis for some truly amazing arranged stuff down the line.

Stephen: You might be interested to know that there are a good number of remakes from the first two Ys games here, including some lesser tracks (Devil's Wind, Over Drive). "Tower of the Shadow of Death" is kinda dull compared to the Ys IV version, but this is definitely the definitive version of "Termination". Oh yeah...lot's of Feena too!

I do expect some of the short tracks to be lengthened when the OST comes out, which happened from the Felghana rip to the OST conversion.

Anyone played the game yet?  If so, how is it?  More action based (like Oath), or more interactive rpg'ish (Napishtam)

A new Y's every year or so...I could get used to this :-)

Ah, so there are remakes of Ys I and II music...they should just hire Yuzo Koshiro again to do the arrangements since he worked on the originals.

Hahaha...'Shut up and play some Ys'

While you're absolutely right about Yuzo, the other part of the magic equation is Ryu Yonemitsu... 

- BrandonK

...or Mieko Ishikawa.

Yeah, Yuzo never took part in arranging his stuff...Ys didn't really take off until the Duo soundtracks came around (and frankly, I liked his Sorcerian and Dragon Slayer IV work far more than his Ys ones of the early PC games he worked on at Falcom). Yonemitsu took part in arranging the Duo soundtracks and the Perfect Collections. I doubt Koshiro would work for Falcom, considering how much they basically whored his music through the various arranges once they bought the rights to it.

Although, given the techno/trance vibe Koshiro's been on, I'm not particularly eager to hear what he'd be doing with Falcom music right about now. Give me Yonemitsu's drum programming, cheesy synth and guitar solos anyday.

Just to be clear: Maybe 9-10 of the 40 tracks on Origin are remakes. The rest is original.

Good conversation, seems we will revisit these discussions, (at least I will), when Falcom dare's to brand a new Ys game into existence.  So is the consensus Falcom is 'milking' the past?  Or are they paying a sincere form of tribute by mixing the old with the new? 

BTW, anyone know how many arrangers are involved on the latest Ys?

No, not here...The game was intended to be a prequel from the start, so it's only natural there'd be stuff for people to recognize. The score reflects this...The focus isn't the old stuff (save for 'Termination', which HAS to be the final boss theme). Like I said, much of it is original and the original stuff is what carries the score. Falcom is a much smaller company than SE, so they'd do well to ride their best cash pony out, while continuing to put out smaller releases for their other franchises and new games. I've only played Ys VI and about 15 minutes of Felghana and both are fine action-RPG's, so it's not like they're putting crap out. When we start seeing 'Compilation of Ys': about a dozen games of questionable quality coming at the same time for numerous systems plus a cheap cash-in movie where Dark Fact comes back to life and starts mud-wrestling Feena with Adol as the ref...THEN start the panic.

Felghana might be considered milking, but I don't think anyone can argue with the results of that one. Ys 3 was always the oddball of the series anyway. Redoing it in top-down format was hardly a bad choice, since it basically ended up being a new game with pretty much the same story and a super-enhanced soundtrack...A trade I'm more than fine with.

Milking would apply to those bad PS2 Taito remakes and stuff like the Ys Felghana Super Arrange and Ys Napishtim Vocal album (and going back further, the JDK Specials...why!?) I don't consider any of them satisfactory for their price tags...maybe as pack-ins.

So uhh... is there a CD release coming for this?  I may have missed something somewhere along the line.

Not yet...I fully expect something within a month or two. The .ogg files have been spread around though (literally hours after the game was out).

http://tokyotosho.com/details.php?id=48414

While I can't say Napishtim was on the same level as the first 4 Ys games, I absolutely love the mature, fresh, and infectious sound it brought to the table.  So if Origin continues that then I will be very happy.