I've owned the Game Sound Legend collection of Lufia music for years, but I had an opportunity to pick up the original Estpolis II release for cheap recently. I know this release used to be worth big bucks in the past, but has the Game Sound Legend release killed its value? How much is it worth these days? And how does the audio compare to the Game Sound Legend release (I've yet to get a chance to listen and compare the track lists)? Are there are any tracks present on one but not the other? Any difference in the sound? Any difference in track lengths? I love the game and its soundtrack so I'm very happy to add this to my collection regardless, but if it's actually worth much of anything or if it has some advantage over the Game Sound Legend release, that'd be the icing on the cake.

Oh, and what's the packaging supposed to be like? I just have two slim jewel cases with an insert in each (one acting as the front and one as the back), but I assume that there's supposed to be a slipcase or something holding the two together and an obi around that.

Yep, it's inserted in a slipase with an obi indeed..

The magic of diff:

Yes, there appear to be differences.

Lufia 1 track diffs:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40726643/lufia_1_diff.png

Lufia 2 track diffs (2 screenshots, can't fit all in one monitor):

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40726643/lufia_2_diff_1.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40726643/lufia_2_diff_2.png

You should be able to use these screenshots to compare major time and title differences.  The only major difference in title is in Lufia 2 for the rerelease they broke out the blah ~ blah ~ blah ~ blah tracks into individual tracks instead of compilation tracks.  They also apparently misspelled ウエディング in the rerelease? There are some notable time differences between both releases, but I can't validate the track times on vgmdb.net are correct for the original release because I don't own it.  There are some that are significantly longer on the original release than the rerelease and the same goes for vice versa.

I will let you do the rest of your homework yourself

http://vgmdb.net/album/385
http://vgmdb.net/album/3061

Ah, very cool, thanks. Seems like, minus a few exceptions, the original release has longer tracks. Although it appears that the Game Sound Legend release has a battle track not appearing on the original, unless that was combined with another song.

I did try to do some research about the value, but I wasn't turning up much. There isn't a single auction on Yahoo Japan. On Amazon Japan, the marketplace has copies as low as 4000 yen, but from what little I can gather from a terrible Babelfish translation, it sounds like they all have serious issues.

Begin rant:

The Game Sound Legend edition is a TRAVESTY! They took the original score and lowered the volume level to an unlistenable level (it is much quieter than CD's even from the early to mid 80's...not in the "good dynamics" kind of quiet, but the "it's so freaking soft, I have to crank my volume to hear anything" kind of quiet.) They gave us two arrangements from Lufia II that are, frankly, garbage (the highlight of which is an arrangement of Battle #3 that makes the original sound about 10 times better than it already does). Then we have the big problem: The set is four CD's...1 for Lufia 1, ONLY 1 for Lufia II and for some ungodly reason, 2 entire discs are dedicated to Lufia III on Gameboy. Lufia II took up almost a CD and a half on the original print, they condense it to one crummy CD by removing the loops. Lufia III is not a bad score at all (it's the lone reason to own the GSL print), but they could have looped all thee scores in their entirety if they had used the CD space properly. Disc 3 and 4 are barely filled up. It's maddening how they messed this release up.

End rant.

It has lessened the value of the original print, as it was going for $400-$500 before the GSL version came out (believe me, I was actively looking), but it is a poor man's substitute. I still consider the original somewhat of a holy grail for VGM.

The only issue I have with the original Lufia II Original Soundtrack is that the Lufia I tracks don't loop, but that is just because both soundtracks have to fit on two CD's (both CD's are jam packed). I would much rather see Lufia I get the shaft (I think most would agree there), so they made the right choice. The sound quality is perfect for an RPG soundtrack of the time. Compare to the poor sound quality of, say, Rockman X1 and X2 on CD and it's easy to appreciate how good the transfer is.

Edit: Geez, I stand corrected after seeing the vgmdb entry...Why the hell is some of Lufia II on disc 1, when disc 2 has about 30 minutes worth of space remaining. Idiots...

You know, I see this written about the Rockman boxes every so often and I'm really puzzled by it. I honestly don't have a problem with sound quality on either release... I'm more annoyed by the rouge sound effects and tracks being cut (Vile SNES, Flame Stag) either because they were trying to avoid something (the beam-in sound) or they just didn't know any better.

Additionally, I'm going to be somewhat of a dick here. I don't remember reading about this in your review of the box. Did you come to this conclusion after writing it? Oh and I agree with your opinion on X2's music.

I wrote that review about 7 years ago with crappy computer speakers and $15 headphones and no real knowledge of dynamic range. I would take anything in that review with a grain of salt. Believe me, there would be a huge paragraph in there about it now, about it being a quick and sloppy transfer. And probably a huge grade deduction because of it.

Jodo posted something about the music (especially the SNES tunes) being "emulated" when the box came out. At the time, I didn't really know what he meant and I thought he was out of his mind, but I can hear it really well now: the music on the boxset has a very tiny soundstage. The layers are very packed together and now, more often than not, I get a headache trying to listen to it. The point I made above is the Lufia tracks on the original set are very open and have a lot more overall impact. I just fired up Battle 1 from Lufia I and Opening Stage from Rockman X and recording quality-wise, there's no comparison. The low end on the Lufia track is much cleaner and defined. It really booms and I don't give myself a headache trying to make it out underneath the melody, like I do with the Rockman X tracks. It's similar to the whole loudness wars thing, where the mid-range sucks all the energy out of the highs and lows and makes for a fatiguing listen.

It's something I've found I've had a problem with in quite a few Playstation game soundtracks as well. Legend of Mana immediately comes to mind, as I revisited that one recently and just found it difficult to listen to. Good music, but my brain was working too hard to pick apart the layers. Same for Cyber Org and Guilty Gear, two soundtracks I've always felt could use a little more power (Crash writes for Guilty Gear in his review: "Some tracks sound somewhat flat and muffled at times, which can prevent you from fully getting into the music. Sometimes, it even feels like the band is playing at one end of a tunnel and the music is coming out of the other end", which is a pretty good description of overly compressed music, especially if you're trying to hear anything underneath the melody cleanly). And yes, it goes for the PS1 Rockman X tracks in the boxset as well. I always found it strange that I couldn't quite get fully into the audio for Rockman X4 and X5 despite loving the actual music. I think this is because the compressed music from the game finds its way onto the soundtracks and the end product suffers for it.