ONST: Square-Enix’s Rad Original Non-Soundtracks

John Constantine — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:00:00 GMT

When talking about the good ol’ Square-Enix days, back when most every game they published was either very good or at least interesting, it’s impossible not to note their stable of composers. Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Yoko Shimomura, and a number of other remarkable musicians have received more international acclaim and love from listeners of their videogame soundtracks than most Japanese traditional musicians. You may have noticed that we ourselves have something of a penchant for these composers. It’s rare, however, to hear work by any of them that isn’t related to videogames. There’s Mitsuda’s Kirite, but even Uematsu’s lone solo album, the prog-as-hell Phantasmagoria, closes with an arrangement of Final Fantasy’s “Prologue”. Little did I know that Square-Enix themselves realized their musical masterminds needed broader creative outlets. The Square-Enix Official Bootleg series, launched back in 2006, is comprised of three EPs spotlighting totally original songs by S-E composers and they are uniformly awesome. Highlights include “Aquarius Option” by Kumi Tanioka (Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles), “Feel Gravity” by Ryo Yamazaki (Front Mission 4), and pretty much everything by Mitsuto Suzuki. Suzuki’s work on the Bootlegs was actually so well-received, S-E put out his entire solo album In My Own Backyard, which sounds like a pleasant mixture of Air and Brian Eno’s Ambient Works. All the bootlegs are iTunes exclusives, so you don’t have to worry about the absurdly high cost of importing physical copies, and all four collections will run you twenty dollars. Go check ‘em out already.

Previous OSTs:
Duck Tales
Bubble Bobble
Chrono Cross
Soul Blazer
Everyday Shooter
Rule of Rose
Treasure of the Rudras

Related links:
Make the Music With Your Games, Kids!
Infinite Mega Man 9: Composer Ippo Yamada Talks Living Up to a Serious Musical Pedigree
You Can't UNhear It: Time's Scar
Kirite: The Secret Best Yasunori Mitsuda Soundtrack

Actraiser III! Maybe!

Peter Smith — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Nothing Square-Enix could announce would make me happier than a sequel to ActRaiser, their seminal 1991 genre-bender. Back in the early days of the SNES, ActRaiser was one of the first games that felt genuinely next-generation. Mario World was great, but, well, it was Mario. ActRaiser, with its dense forests, poisoned lakes and vast deserts, was a window onto a gorgeous natural world that older game systems only had the power to imply. And the soundtrack kicked fucking ass.

ActRaiser was a unique blend of sidescrolling action and overhead, SimCity-style world-building. Its sequel, ActRaiser 2, ditched the simulation aspect, making for a more generic experience. It was also hard as hell, and the controls were a little stiff; still, the game world was arguably even more beautifully realized than the original's, and the soundtrack, while less dynamic, had some great moments. But for most people, ActRaiser remained unrivaled. Now, in an interview with Jeremy Parish at GamaSutra, the directors of the ActRaiser-esque Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King reveal... well, okay, they don't reveal much. "I'd like to make an ActRaiser sequel," says Fumiaki Shiraishi. Pretty thin gruel for a fan to live on, but at least it suggests that this classic game hasn't been completely forgotten.

61 Frames Per Second : final fantasy crystal chronicles

ONST: Square-Enix’s Rad Original Non-Soundtracks

Actraiser III! Maybe!