Hey vg music fans, new member here. I've always loved vg music, but never had the drive to buy any OSTs. Santa brought me the Seiken Densetsu 2 OSV, it's great!! This cd has made me into a lover of OSTs, especially, Hiroki Kikuta! Just thought i'd share this, hope you can relate.

I think it's great that a classic SNES soundtrack can have that kind of impact on people even in this day and age.  I can definitely relate, as the Seiken Densetsu 2 OSV was one of the first soundtracks I picked up in my early days of collecting VGM.  It still fires up my imagination when I listen to it.  Not to mention bringing back fond memories of what was my first full-fledged RPG experience.

You'll want to check out SD3 and Soukaigi for more Kikuta goodness.

SD2 has some really beautiful music -- the entire series does. It's great that you received the OSV. Enjoy! ^_^

Hey everyone thank you for the replies, it means allot! It's awesome that we share the same experience! Right now i'm listening to the OSV,  Megavolt you are so right, it's inspiring! I the future i'll pick up Secret of Mana 2+ First I gotta play thru Seiken Densetsu 3, haha! Anyone it's  a great cd for beginner collectors I think, no? Anyway, thanks allot, I hope to post more in the future!

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I realize how much I miss Kikuta's old work. SD2, SD3, and Soukaigi (which everyone's already mentioned) are three absolutely awesome albums. I've actually never *owned* SD3 OST, but I've played through the game (as a ROM) 3 times so I'm quite familiar with the music. I think I should buy it to have as a permanent in my collection sometime.

Nice pick to start out in VGM collection, fish_head. I'd also recommend the Chrono Cross OST...that's a nice place to start in the PlayStation era.

Ramza

Thanks again for more replies! Ramza thank you for the suggestion on Chrono Cross, I never actually played through it...haha! Yes I hear about Kikuta's work on SD3, i'll get the ROM, sounds like fun! Going over the OSV again in some tracks, did Kikuta sample "whale sounds". I'll try to clarify, in the opening track before "Angel's Fear", sounds like whale cries?! I wonder if its just me or what...? Anyway if he did, it fits very well into the theme of fighting to protect nature, cool....

Sorry, Ramza what is the game "Soukaigi"? I have no memory of hearing it before, sorry maybe i'll google it. Thanks!

Hey roly-poly FishHead, are you planning on checking out osts like Chrono Trigger, the SNES Final Fantasies 4, 5 and 6, of course, and Actraiser 1 & (slightly inferior) Actraiser 2. And don't forget Castlevania 4 either, SQUARE and Konami ruled the Super Nintendo musical era with an iron fist.

Also check out Super Adventure Island (nice, sunny, jazzy beach-jogging music by the same guy who did Actraiser).

Not really last (just fer now) but least, be sure to check out the SNES versions of Dragon Quest 3 (don't bother with I&II, trust me), DQ5, and definitely DQ6.

The only others that come to mind right now (it's 3am here and I must be quite lonely) are Zelda III (very difficult to get an original copy because of its rarity), Super Metroid (same deal), and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (ditto)

Start your SNES music-fan career at SNESmusic.org

And Welcome To Troia!!
(FF4 joke)

( :

You probably haven't heard of Soukaigi as it was an under-the-radar release from Square that simply had no chance of being released in the US. It was an early PlayStation title, released a little after FFVII I believe. The game itself was, apparently, not that great. But the music, also from our friend Hiroki Kikuta, was EXCELLENT!

http://www.rpgfan.com/soundtracks/soukaigi/index.html - there's a soundtrack review for ya.

If you are interested in other soundtracks from Kikuta, I regret to inform you that SD2, SD3, and Soukaigi are all Kikuta did with Square. After that, it's all music for adult hentai (anime porn) games. Soundtracks have been released for them, if you're very interested in the composer...but most people agree that the composer's best works were the three we've all been mentioning.

Also, Shoebonics' recommendations are good, check them out. However, a number of them don't have soundtrack releases but rather just SPC sets released by fans (Actraiser 2 is one in particular that I wish had its own soundtrack release). Others are extremely rare and would cost you over $100 to own (Actraiser, SNES Zelda, Super Metroid).

Here's a list of some Square SNES RPGs that you may be interested in that *didn't* make it to America. Most have translated ROMs, and they all have pretty good soundtracks!

Bahamut Lagoon
Front Mission
Front Mission GUN HAZARD
Hanjuku Hero, Divertimento
LiveALive
Romancing SaGa
Romancing SaGa 2
Romancing SaGa 3
Rudora no Hihou ("Rudra's Treasure")
Seiken Densetsu 3
Treasure Hunter G

Some people swear by the name "Romancing SaGa 3," and I myself was a huge fan of LiveALive. Be sure to check 'em out.

Ramza

^

Those are all good recommendations. Gun Hazard is one of my favorite SNES soundtracks and Ito's work on the SaGa series is very good. As far as Kikuta goes, SD2 is my favorite work of is but you've already discovered it. I've always been a bit iffy with SD3. Some of the tracks in it are among his best but there's a lot of banal filler too.

I feel really bad for that score. It was completely overshadowed by the utter suckiness of the game. When I was younger and had more time, I would replay the original Actraiser once a year. I loved that game. Its sequel was a travesty.

when we move into our new condo next month,, ill finally be able to get a big 50" DLP tv for playing snes games.. its gonna be so cool...

Awesome, thanks for all the replies!! Ramza and Shoebonics thanks allot for those great lists! Really i'd like to get more music by Kikuta, so i'll def get Soukaigi, and Secret Of Mana +. Also Kikuta composed the tracks to the game "koudelka" right? To be honest I also love psone soundtracks also, namely, Parasite Eve. I know Chrono Cross was mentioned earlier, I never had the chance to play it, but i'll try to buy it soon! Haha, I never play ps2 anymore, ony psone games! Sorry i'm off topic, again thank for all the replies, peace!

P.S. Ramza, I think a long time ago I saw Soukaigi in a playstation magazine. It was previewed in the import section, caught my eye at the time, it's a shame it wasn't that good....

Yeah, Kikuta did Koudelka too.  I haven't played it myself.  There's a review of the soundtrack on this very site, I believe.

And yeah, Parasite Eve has an awesome soundtrack.  Maybe my favorite from Shimomura.

More SNES soundtrack recommendations:

DKC series (especially 2)
More Konami stuff like Contra III & the TMNT games
Ogre Battle & Tactics Ogre
Arcana (Cardmaster)
FF Mystic Quest  (FF USA)
Super Aleste
Secret of Evermore
Axelay
Gradius III
Star Fox
Lufia series (Estpolis Denki)
BoF series
Terranigma (Tenchi Souzou)
Tales of Phantasia
Star Ocean
Energy Breaker
Hiouden

And don't forget Radical Dreamers for Square RPGs that didn't make it over.  It's the precursor to Chrono Cross.  Curiously enough, it's a storybook RPG.  You might play it and listen to the music before you get to Chrono Cross.

Some PS1 soundtrack recommendations:

Anything Square, but especially Vagrant Story
Anything Konami, but especially the first Genso Suikoden
Soul Blade (Soul Edge; contains arcade soundtrack and an entirely original one)
Tenchu
Valkyrie Profile
Star Ocean 2
Resident Evil 2
Dragon Quest VII
Persona series
Kartia (Rebus)
Vandal Hearts series
Wild ARMs series

I surely missed a lot of stuff, but that should keep you entertained for a while.

Legend of Mana, too, definitely! That soundtrack is what really turned me on to Yoko Shimomura.

Yeah, Legend Of Mana had a wonderful soundtrack! Really, that was the only thing I liked about the game.... Koudelka seems really interesting, in the future i'll grab that, and chrono cross. Peace!

Totally agreed. The only reason it got a 3-disc set was because he was SQUARE's current Messiah after the success of SD2.

Well if some label ever decides to rerelease Actraiser 1's ost with Act II included as well, here's hoping they 'stereophize' all the songs like they did with those old NES games (Castlevania, Dragon Quest, etc.)

It's My preasure.  ( :

A few other must-downloads from SNESmusic.org that I fergot to mention before since I was so tired..

Mother 2 (known as EarthBound/EarthBound 2 in the US)

Ganbare Goemon (Legend of Mystic Ninja)

Gradius 3 (overall not as good as the arcade soundtrack, but does have a couple of really cool SNES-exclusive tunes such as 'SharpShoot')

Parodius Da! (fun, wacky arrangements of a bunch of well-known 'public domain' songs as well as some alternate arranges of popular Gradius tunes)

Ninja Gaiden Trilogy (some of the songs sound better than their 8-bit counterparts, some sound worse, but definitely check this out)

Garou Densetsu SPECIAL (Fatal Fury Special, not quite as good as the NEO-GEO version, but still worth the dload)

Samurai Shodown (Samurai Spirits, same deal as with Fatal Fury)

As for ps1 games, umm lesee..

Brave Fencer Musashi(den)
Einhander
BIOHAZARD 2 COMPLETE TRACK (Resident Evil 2)
Silent Hill
Castlevania Chronicles
Parasite Eve 2 (disc 1 only)
Metal Gear Solid (good, not great, but still great wintertime-listening music)

DIE HARD TRILOGY (just track down a used copy on ebay of the Greatest Hits edition of the game, the soundtrack will play in a regular cd player)

Tomb Raider One (same deal as DIE HARD, great songs on the game disc itself, just not as many)

Whew!

Hahah, thanks again for all the lists! I'm looking into picking up Parasite Eve remixes right now. So I think that will keep me busy, after that i'd like to get more of Kikuta's work. Also, is Bushido blade OST and Tobal No.1 very rare? Thanks again, you guys rock! Peace!

A shame they didn't stereoize the "Mario the Music" album, especially considering the tracks ARE on the SMW OST...

As for Actraiser, it's SNES music, so isn't the OST already stereo? Either way, I'd rather see Actaiser OST + Symphony on one CD.

-Joshua

Only two tracks from Act II (first stage, Industen I think it's called, and final boss fight are stereo)

The 2-disc ost of Paradise Eve is prob'ly a tad harder to come by than PE Remixies, but it's more worth the money and effort of tracking it down. Unless you already have a copy of first game's ost??
Also like I said before, get the domestic version of PE2 ost (published by TokyoPop USA) because it's cheaper than the DigiCube edition and disc 1 is pretty damn good overall.

I'm not too sure about Bushido Blade. I think it came out back in 1997, so it'll be a hard one.

Tobal #1 was in '96 and I'm 90% sure it's fairly rare..

The Bushido Blade OST was released in 2001 on SuperSweep.  It can be purchased here: http://www.vgmworld.com/catalog/index.p … tem_num=52