Just a little bit ago I grabbed the redbook tracks from the Turbo CD version of Brandish, and wasn't happy with what I heard....I mean, I knew they weren't well-regarded, but they're easily one of the worst set of arrangements I've ever heard, especially of a Falcom game. Some of the tracks distinctly remind me of downloading random music from vgmusic.com without any kind of pleasing soundfont.

It stirred my memory about a track I had sitting around, though....a crazy, upbeat arrangement of "Fortress" from "Super Brandish", which I believe comes from this Sega CD promo album. It also includes some Ys IV tracks.

The thing is, neither of these games were released for Sega CD. These versions of Brandish and Ys IV got canceled when the Sega/Falcom collaboration project fell through for whatever reason.

I find it hard to believe that all new arrangements were made of the music but then not used. However, I don't know anything about Ys IV, and I note that the same person credited with arranging the Brandish track has an arrange of the same theme on the Brandish Perfect Collection (although it's about a minute and a half longer).

So my question is this, Falcom fans.....are the Falcom tracks on the Mega-CD Super Music Collection cribbed from other albums?

I'm not sure.  Essentially, there are two "types" of Ys IV music: the Ryo Yonemitsu arranges on the Ys IV Perfect Collection albums and Falcom Special Box '93 and '94; and the JDK Special versions found on Ys IV JDK Special and Falcom Special Box '95.  Both of these are labeled Ys IV ~ The Dawn of Ys, which was only released for the PC-Engine.  The Super Famicom version was called Ys IV ~ Mask of the Sun, and it looks like the Mega-CD version you cited was also called Mask of the Sun.  The track names match up with those used in The Dawn of Ys, so they might share much of the same music.

The track times on that Mega-CD sampler don't match up with any of the times for the same titles on these other albums, though.  It is conceivable, though unlikely, that the tracks on the Mega-CD disc are samples of the same music found on other discs.  Without hearing the Mega-CD versions, I wouldn't be able to tell.

Considering that the Sorcerian Megadrive music was just released last year, it's possible this music is just hiding out somewhere, waiting to be released.

I'd need to listen to them to confirm. I suspect they are unique tracks.

But what a random CD that is! I wanna check it out. Damn, it even has music from Vay (never got an OST release...)

Ramza

I'd have to hear these myself to know for sure. The Yonemitsu arranges might be similar to the Ys IV redbook tracks, which are slightly different from the Perfect Collection versions. But again, I'd have to hear them to be sure.

well, I don't have the Ys IV tracks, but here's the Brandish one:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/9/1/1 … ish%29.mp3

Yeah, this is the same track as the one on Perfect Collection Brandish, just with an early fadeout.

I have this CD.  It contains both original redbook tracks from various Mega CD games (though edited at times, such as the length of "Fortress," and if I recall correctly, volume levels on some tracks), as well as unique tracks such as SONIC AMBIENT MIX, which is basically a medley of various redbook tracks from the game with a never-before-heard intro and outro.  My guess is that someone at the publishing company edited the tracks, because that intro and outro definitely sound "foreign" to the Sonic CD sound that Ogata and Hataya created.  At the same time, they evidently had access to unreleased tracks, such as SONIC 6920 MIX, meaning some tracks could have come from the original sources.  It's been a long time since I've listened to this CD, but I'll check when I get the chance if any of the other tracks from different games differ from their original redbook counterparts.

- Justin Pfeiffer

I already knew about the oddity of the 6290 track and the after-6290 track featured on the second volume (they became part of a collection of bonus unlockable songs in Sonic Gems). Have you heard the US music? Because there are quite a few melodies and sound samples from the US version (which I actually rather like, by the way) in the two 6290 mixes. I don't know what their "true nature" is, though....kind of weird to see a Japanese arrangement of music put in an American version of a game....

(oh, and while we're on the tangent, go ahead and listen to "Are You Brave?", which is a nice update of "KIYO (Advertise)" from Sonic the Fighters)

Yeah.  I'm from the U.S. so that's the first version I ever heard.  I never noticed any similarities in the 6290 mixes to the American music though.  Where exactly are you speaking of?  You, of course, realize the Past themes in the U.S. version remained intact from the original Japanese version, right?  If you were thinking of one of those, then it came from the Japanese version.

- Justin Pfeiffer

this is obviously part of another time travel conspiracy against me in which major thematic elements of the US version's present and future tracks were later removed and put into the past tracks carried over from the Japanese version

It's just some musics who should be with the MEGA-CD versions of Ys IV and Brandish..who never came out.

If you want I can upload them somewhere..