Richard E. Rae (76174.1410@COMPUSERVE.COM)
Sat, 5 Jun 1999 18:51:47 -0500
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express Macintosh Edition - 4.5 (0410) Message-ID: <199906052352.TAA23480@dub-img-ims-4.compuserve.com> Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 18:51:47 -0500 From: "Richard E. Rae" <76174.1410@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Re: Just got the ST OST...Joshua, > ...and I'm somewhat disappointed. Disc 2 is great, with the music from the > original game, which as usual sounds better on CD than on my 13 inch TV. > The opening and ending themes aren't there (unless they are hidden, > haven;'t checked), but it's not that big a deal as they are on the Song > Collections, which I also got. Also the character themes, aren't which I > would have liked. > What gets me is disc 1. I was really excited about some > orchestrations....but there's only like 5 tracks of any length! Most of the > others are just either 10-15 seconds or 50-60 seconds, and they all the > same with only slight variances. > Also, one of the tracks is just an > instrumental version of Sakura's song (from the song collection). I would > have much rather wanted one of the battle musics instead of that. This album doesn't duplicate any of the vocal pieces from Sakura Taisen (those are in the Vocal Collection). What's on those CDs is exactly what's in the game that represents the instrumental soundtrack, and it features all the orchestrations (disc 1) and game music (disc 2). > The extra program is pretty useless to me, as I can't read Japanese very > well, but the pictures are nice, but there are some quicktimes of the CG > FMVs from the game in high res (not sure if they are accessible from the > program or not). The multimedia program hardly requires any knowledge of Japanese at all, and is a great little collection. One of my favorite "bonuses". > In fact, it seems as if the only reason for the arranged > music was to accompany the program, and it seems like a very shabby way to > jack up the price so much. > > My main beef is that I payed $40 for it (at Anime Nation, if you are > wondering) and got really only one CD plus a bit more. That's not unreasonable for a Japanese CD, especially a 2 CD set! I recall that's about what it cost (at favorable conversion) when it first came out. This is actually one of the best collections, and I was thrilled with it when I got it on its initial release, and still love it
. If you'd like to hear some of the game music themes that aren't orchestrated (including "Ganbare! Teikoku Kagekidan", the most recognizable battle theme) in fully orchestrated versions with complete length, you need to get the Sakura Taisen OAV Soundtrack album. --Richard