Konami’s Unannounced Goods: Soundtrack and Digital Artbook With Every Copy of Suikoden Tierkreis

I told you there was more. While Konami hasn’t officially put the word out (I think we’re seeing a trend here), fans who pick up the game next week will be receiving an additional disc containing snippets from the soundtrack along with a digital artbook. We’ve seen similar gifts for past Suikoden releases, and the fact that I hadn’t heard anything until now had me wondering what was up.

So, is it as cool as the physical artbook and arrange CD that was shipped with Suikoden V? Well, it’s a different approach for sure. While I miss being able to put the disc in my CD player (the files are in mp3 format), they did an excellent job picking out and spotlighting some of the best tracks from the full-length 3-disc soundtrack.

Find out what you’ll be treated to after the jump.

As mentioned, there is a digital artbook that’s broken up into character and location art, both of which are as rich and colorful as one would expect from the series. This is accessed through a flash menu that plays music from the game in the background while you browse.

The star here, however, is the soundtrack. It’s included on the disc in mp3 format (unfortunately 128kbps for you quality nuts).  Interestingly, the track names are different from those that were translated from the original Japanese release, giving North American gamers an easy way to identify their favorite tracks from the game when they play. For your reference, here’s the track list:

1. Citro Plain
2. World Map 1
3. Cynas 1
4. Formation
5. Silsabil
6. Tehah Village
7. Naineneis
8. World Map 2
9. Cragbark
10. Salsabil Kgdm
11. Castle of Pharamond
12. Pharamond
13. Woodland Vlg.
14. Lugenik
15. World Map 3
16. World Map 4
17. Cynas 2
18. 108 Stars

“Salsabil Kgdm” and “Woodland Vlg.” do sport some pretty odd abbreviated titles. But yeah, while it’s strange, I honestly did find myself enjoying this soundtrack sampler more than the official soundtrack itself! I guess this goes to show the strength of track ordering, as the album flows wonderfully, and while there appear to be only a few tracks, they total 58 minutes of music, which is much more manageable in comparison to the three discs featured on the soundtrack and the two additional discs on the Genso Suikoden Tierkreis Extra Soundtrack that will be released later this month. It’s great that they included a lot of the more acoustic and new agey tracks along with the vocal theme, “108 Stars” (“Tierkreis” on the official soundtrack), which is simply beautiful.

One of the coolest things here is the extensive credit list on the back of the cardboard envelope that lists all the performers and composers in English. You’ll be surprised to learn that a total of 12 composers contributed, including Norikazu Miura, Tomoaki Hirono, Kazuma Jinnouchi, Yoshino Aoki, and Kaori Komuro as well as Noriyasu Agematsu, Junpei Fujita, Hitoshi Fujima, Daisuke Kikuta, and Masato Nakayama from Elements Garden and Masaharu Iwata and Masaaki Kaneko of BASISCAPE.

Did you need another reason to pick up Suikoden Tierkreis next week? This is it. If you want to sample some of the game’s music before digging into the 3-disc monster, here’s your chance. Konami definitely deserves some kudos for putting together a well though-out bonus like this.

Are you excited by this unannounced surprise? Are you looking forward to getting your hands on the soundtrack and digital artbook along with your copy of the game?