SaGa

Game Music, Japanese

Square Enix Music Revives Trilogy Soundtracks of Two Classic Franchises

July 27, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Square Enix Music Revives Trilogy Soundtracks of Two Classic Franchises Share this

Square Enix Music is doing their best to gives fans of their earlier games some love by bringing the music of two of their classic game franchises to Blu-ray. The first three games of the Final Fantasy series as well as the SaGa series will be seeing their soundtracks brought to Blu-ray, along with video from the games and other art assets showcased in a special “Revival” disc series.

Both revivals are linear progressions. The first SaGa game was known as Final Fantasy Legend on the Gameboy in the states. As such, these revivals are the first three NES/Famicom and Gameboy games in the Final Fantasy series respectively. Nobou Uematsu worked on Final Fantasy 1-3, and also worked on both Legend and assisted with fellow composer Kenji Ito on Legend 2. (Ito would go on to composer for the Romancing SaGa games that succeeded the Legend series) Legend 3 was composed by Square newcomers Chihiro Fujioka and Ryuji Sasai.

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The Blu-ray releases will not only feature the soundtracks to the games, but also gameplay and other art assets, as revealed by the Square Enix Music twitter.

【2018年8月15日発売】FFシリーズの原点の楽曲がゲーム映像付きBlu-rayでリバイバル！「FINAL FANTASY I・II・III Original Soundtrack Revival Disc」！今週はサンプル動画はお休みして制作中のブックレットの一部をチラ見せ！詳細はぜひ製品版で！ #FFリバイバルサントラ https://t.co/MbVsTGEvlm pic.twitter.com/FiLOt7PGWS

— SQEX MUSIC (@sem_sep) July 25, 2018

The SaGa 1,2,3 Original Soundtrack Revival Disc will be available on the Square Enix Music site and Amazon Japan on August 8th, while the Final Fantasy I, II, III Original Soundtrack Revival Disc will be available on August 15th.
Game Music, Japanese, Reviews

The Legend Of Legacy Original Soundtrack (Review)

November 26, 2015 | Sebastian Urrea | Comments Off on The Legend Of Legacy Original Soundtrack (Review) Share this

The Legend of Legacy Original Soundtrack

The Legend of Legacy is one the recent JRPG offerings available on the Nintendo 3DS. Released in January 2015 in Japan and just last month in North America, it’s touted as being the spiritual successor to the SaGa series. The soundtrack was composed by Masashi Hamauzu, and fans of his music will be happy to hear that this soundtrack comes with all of his usual flair and style.

(more…)
Featured, Game Music

Venturing Beyond The Norm: Symphonic Odysseys Live Report

July 13, 2011 | Audun Sorlie | 8 Comments Share this

Symphonic Shades, Symphonic Fantasies, Symphonic Legends. Three concerts over the last three years that have become synonymous with progression, beauty, revolution and controversy in the world of videogame music live orchestra. Since the earlier days of the Leipzig Symphonic concerts, its been a constant mission for the European based production team to not only deliver the greatest performances from the orchestra at hand, but to truly portray the atmosphere and spirit of the source material and craft a story standing on its own two legs. It’s led to masterpieces such as Jonne Valtonen’s grand epic “Symphonic Poem” and Roger Wanamo’s layered “Chrono Trigger/Cross,” and also controversial underdogs like “Suite Samus Aran – Galactic Warrior.” The team pushes the envelope to truly explore the true essence of every piece and strives to prove that there are more to them than just instant nostalgic rushes and cheap laughs, gaining the respect of composers and audiences around the world.

July 9th marked the fourth installment of the Symphonic series, a revisit of the mind of Nobuo Uematsu. This time, we were invited to journey through the career of the most famous videogame composer of all time, and hear the all new interpretations of some of his most famous works, along with some lesser known yet incredible work from the vast library of Uematsu. The composer himself was also in attendance to show his gratitude to the orchestra and the audience.

Was the fourth installment able to once again amaze and push forward? Find out after the jump. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Start 2011 With A Fight: SaGa Battle Track Compilation (Review)

February 11, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 4 Comments Share this

Well, Square Enix is certainly looking to have a busy 2011 with several music releases already lined up for January and February. They’ve kicked off the New Year with the SaGa Battle Track Compilation album, featuring battle themes from the original SaGa on the Game Boy up through Romancing SaGA –Minstrel Song-.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t we just review the epic SaGa Premium Box that contained all of the battle themes from the entire series? Why, yes, we did. And didn’t we just review several battle theme compilations that also featured music from the SaGa series? Again, yes.

Well, where does that leave this compilation? Find out in our review after the jump. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Prepare to Rock: SaGa 3 Shadow or Light Soundtrack (Review)

January 12, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on Prepare to Rock: SaGa 3 Shadow or Light Soundtrack (Review) Share this

It was some time ago that we reviewed the SaGa 2: Goddess of Destiny remake soundtrack. If you recall, it was released around the same time as the enormous SaGa Premium Box, making it somewhat redundant with just a modest increase in sound quality and a single arrangement by artist muZik. For that reason, when the SaGa 3 remake soundtrack was announced, I didn’t think much of it.

However, when I learned that Ryuji Sasai was personally on board to work on arrangements of his music, including an additional bonus track the end, I changed my tune. Sasai is joined by Kenji Ito to arrange the entire soundtrack from SaGa 3 on the Game Boy, and there are even more surprises within.

Hit the jump to find out if the SaGa 3 remake soundtrack is actually worth your time and money. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Super Cool: Chillaxin’ With Square Enix’s Chill SQ (Review)

May 31, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 4 Comments Share this

That was fast! We only learned about Chill SQ on April 1, and now it’s already here. We mentioned a few weeks ago that Square Enix had posted samples of what we thought were several songs from the album (7, to be exact), but as it turns out, those were all the tracks featured on the album! However, contrasting with the eclectic Love SQ that we reviewed last year, Chill SQ, as the name suggests, focuses on a more cohesive idea of “chillout” music.

With artists like Square Enix’s own Mitsuto Suzuki, Love SQ remixer RE:NDZ (livetune), and a bunch of other talented arrangers covering a wide variety of classic Squaresoft titles, they can’t go wrong, right?

Well, find out in our review of Chill SQ after the jump. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

A Most Unnecessary Soundtrack Release: SaGa 2 Hihou Densetsu Goddess of Destiny Original Soundtrack (Review)

October 9, 2009 | Jayson Napolitano | 3 Comments Share this

Alright, maybe that’s a little too harsh. Square Enix was kind enough to release a soundtrack CD for their SaGa 2 remake on the DS, which I have to applaud them for. The game was originally released on the Game Boy in 1991 (and again in 1998), so in terms of Square Enix remake cycles, this series has been long overdue. The main thing that makes this album redundant, however, is the fact that Square Enix just released the insanely massive SaGa 20th Anniversary Premium Box last month, which contained the original SaGa 2 soundtrack, and honestly, this version isn’t drastically different.

No, I’m not saying it sounds like Game Boy music. But it doesn’t necessarily sound like the best that the DS has to offer, either. This is an album that wants to sound like game music, and it has some fun in the process. While the original game was scored by Kenji Ito and Nobuo Uematsu, Ito alone tackles the remake, which I’m sure had hopes built high for a lot of people out there. There are, however, a couple bonuses and surprises for hardcore fans who are looking to pick this up.

Hit the jump for our full review of the SaGa 2 Hihou Densetsu Goddess of Destiny Original Soundtrack. (more…)