Time to party like it's 2005 again.

"It was originally announced in January 2005, and the initial release date was July 2005. "

Seriously folks, I wouldn't get my hopes up until there's been a concrete release date announced.  This thing has been announced and re-announced for years on end.

Chrono Cross: Chinese Democracy.

Album's title should be easy, Chrono Cross Forever.

And so hoping that the album will be around same type as Brink of Time.

http://vgmdb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=15410

It's about goddamned time.

Agreed! If Creid is any indication on what Millennial Fair are capable of, I can already now say that this will be a masterpiece. Fingers crossed.

Would somebody be kind enough to translate the track list that's on cdjapan for me as I can't read japanese?  I'm still on the fence as money is an issue, but depending on the track list I might be able to make it work.

Thanks.

There's no tracklist on cdjapan, or anywhere, yet. If there was the vgmdb entry would have already been filled in

Oh.  Sorry.  I thought the track list was in the description on cdjapan, but like I said I can't read japanese.  I hope they put one out soon.

Samples:

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/music/sem/page/harukanaru/

Those samples pretty much sealed me not buying it.  Ugh.  /unpopularopinion.

I'm not sure that tag is correct, jb.

Yup. Marbule was a nice throwback to CREID, but the rest were disappointing. Not worth the wait at all.

Sounds like a rebranded OCRemix album. Unless the remaining tracks wow me, I'll stick to BoT and Creid.

Well, at least we still have that Chrono Trigger doujin album from the Spectrum of Mana crew to look forward to.

This sums up my feelings exactly.  I'm having a hard time comprehending how underwhelmed I am by everything outside of Marbule.

Maybe it's because Marbule was so well-covered on the OST, but this arrangement just feels like it's too straight-forward Celtic. Like an average track from the Suikoden Celtic collections. Not quite on the level of the more upbeat CREID tracks.

I am however digging the To Far Away Times arrange. This Sarah Alainn has a wonderful set of pipes, hopefully she gets more of a chance to use them. Hopefully the Radical Dreamers arrange gets more interesting. There's not enough of the Time's Scar arrange to make any type of judgement (anyone else get sort of a Kashmir vibe from the last 5 seconds or so?)

I'm glad that I didn't preorder it.  Not liking the samples except Marbule.  Why do they have to add lyrics to songs that don't need them?  As for Radical Dreamers I'll stick with Kate Covington's cover of it thanks.  What's this chrono trigger doujin album you speak of?

Well I might well be alone here but I love what I'm hearing. It isn't what I was hoping for or expecting and I was initially taken surprise by the fact that they all have lyrics but, actually, I really like it. Kind of takes me back to Pray, which is one Final Fantasy album that really grew on me.

The only one I don't like is Marbule. Probably because I live here in Ireland but the Celtic thing just has me groaning.

I was also surprised that most of the samples had vocals.  I'm hoping the final album isn't that way, i.e. that the tracks they didn't sample are mostly non-vocal.

That said, I actually did like the sample tracks.  I'll definitely be buying this.

Count me interested i loved the samples. don't understand where the backlash/dissent is coming from but that's your opinion. *shrug*

sounds alright to me on first listen (samples). i totally forgot this was announced a decade ago? i was a little surprised to see it resurface now. i'll be ordering unless impressions of the full version are devastating.

My Vibes:
Lovely: Wind Scene, Schala's Theme, The Frozen Flame, Marbule -- Instrumentals were superbly arranged/Stellar vocals on Schala's theme reminiscent of Creid and the Chrono Cross album.

Okay-Good: To Far Away Times, Time's Scar, Radical Dreamers, The Bend of Time -- Vocalist's voice is well suited for the song but the English lyrics sound silly in English/some sluggish arrangements, albeit held together by the strong melody. (Need to hear more for a better impression..)

Bad: The English vocals on Corridor's of Time & Epilogue~To Good Friends, the voice and English lyrics are simply not well suited for the pieces thus taking me out of the experience ..

Essentially: Nearly all of the instrumentals plus Schala's Theme are freaking fantastic . Can't wait for these, eager to hear more than the samples, disappointed in much of the English vocals.. . (Why couldn't this just have been an instrumental album? Bah.)

If this hadn't been produced by Mitsuda, I'd think it was someone trying to make a name for themselves by vocalizing on video game themes to get us interested in their own original music.

Not exactly fully a Chrono Cross Arrange, either, as quite a few tracks (if not half) are coming from Chrono Trigger.

Still, though, I'm actually liking the samples. Not what I was expecting, but I might actually well end up liking it.

"The Bend of Time" remix sounds like something from the first Grandia.

P.S. What is even the title of this album in English?

If you know where to look, you can get free audio-editing software that'll allow you to take the vocals out of vocal songs.

Full track was just aired on niconico

watch/lv237157723

So, title.

Does anyone know the title of this album in English?

http://vgmdb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=15440

Thanks!

Guess I'll go with "To Far Away Times," until I hear differently, then.

Oddly enough, it's actually called Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross - Arranged Album.

Oh my GOD, I'm so in love with every last arrangement on this album, but I can't help but be disappointed that they added vocals to over half of the songs unnecessarily.  I'd kill for non-vocal versions of these tracks - straight-up murder.  I've waited for the promised Chrono Cross arrange album for, what, nearly ten years now, and it has to share billing with Trigger, only be ten tracks and 43 minutes in length, AND get these vocals added in for no reason?  That's just cruel, Mitsuda...

I don't think anyone knows what this thing is called.

Different sources are calling it different things.

Well, maybe when I finally get a copy of the album, I can run it through my audio editor, and scrap out the vocals for those who don't want them there.

Or you could just Google how to get said software yourself for free.

I personally don't mind the vocals, and at least 4 tracks on there are quality instrumental-only orchestrations.

Yeah, I would've appreciated a full-on Chrono Cross only arrange album, too, but whatcha gonna do, huh?

I finally got around to listening to this and I have to say I'm disappointed. The direction they went with all the English vocals definitely isn't what I was looking for, and the even the instrumental tracks aren't anything particularly special. The mastering/production also isn't particularly great, but that's another story.

I would encourage you to give it subsequent listens. Things that I totally missed on initial listens that have caught on since, and have also made me fall in love with the album:

1) concept album about Schala and Kidd and ... their relationship as being the same person, and not. Every song chosen has some strong connection to one or both characters (Wind Scene and Marbule are iffy, but close enough). Consider the English lyrics for Corridors of Time (tr8, Shigihara vocals) ... a song from Schala's perspective of her little brother's warnings that crap is about to happen, that she would run if her mother wasn't a psycho that held her prisoner ... and then at the end, "was my life just taken from me?" -- the moment she uses the last of her powers to teleport everyone to safety, the moment she merges with Lavos, the dimension rift forms, everything... All in that moment.

2) Star-Stealing Girl was snuck in. When I initially saw the tracklist I was deeply saddened that this lovely, simple piece of music (which fit the theme perfectly) was missing. But it's *not*. It's just embedded as an instrumental solo in track4 (more Shigihara, Schala's theme, pseudo-language stuff). After 2nd chorus, you get that beautiful melody, and on a real Celtic pipe that sounds far better than the CC OST "la-la" vocal synth.

3) "Marbule" is the instrumental track that all the vocal-haters can focus on. It's 100% on-par with Xenogears CREID's instrumental tracks (esp tr. 3 and 5, Balto and Dajil). For the people who couldn't swallow the vocals, I could understand wishing the album had been 10 tracks of THIS. I would've dug that too. An all CC album that wasn't themed around Schala could do just that. What can we do to motivate Mitsuda to put out YET ANOTHER arranged album? Because whatever we can do, I'm in.

4) Kumi Tanioka on piano. She plays piano on the Sarah Allain tracks (2 and 10), and her piano work is just ... it's stupidly-good. I had the pleasure of seeing Tanioka-san perform some FFXI tracks, solo on a weighted keyboard, at FF Fanfest 2008. It was a great little intimate showing of her talents. But give her a baby-grand in a studio with infinite takes, and ... wow. She is QUITE the pianist!

----
I can understand being disappointed since this album isn't at all what many people wanted. But if you're willing to accept it on its terms as concept album ... well, I think it's more than "just okay." I can't think of a singularly more cohesive arranged album from Square Enix than this. And considering my love for ... well ... most other SE arranged albums, especially some of the great old stuff (Seiken Densetsu orchestral, here's lookin' at you!), I think that's saying something.

Having given it a second listen, I'm inclined to agree that Track 6 is pretty good, but I also enjoyed Track 3 quite a bit.

Yes, having a piano+string ensemble of Wind Scene is really nice! I also liked "Frozen Flame," but would've happily replaced it with "Garden of the Gods" or "Chronopolis."