Star Ocean III - Till the End of Time Soundtrack

[Rince]

OK, I'm lacking the money to really go and order this baby in Japan. On the other hand, Sakuraba has shown his ability of creating great music again and again with the Star Ocean music amongst the greatest of his musical scores.

This Soundtrack is going to feature 4 Discs, with two being OST and the other two going to be the same direction as he did for Valkyrie Profile (one of my other all-time-classics!):

One disc set is going to be an Arranged Sountrack (But I wonder what more one can arrange when he has a Rock / Fusion Band and a full Orchestra for the OST!)

The other one is going to be a two-edged sword: Voice Arrange. Well, the Valkyrie Profile Voice Arrange got SWEET tunes, but the voices where ANNOYING for the most time. They disturbed the songs mostly instead of furthering their impact.

Who of you has pre-ordered this Soundtrack and what are your expectations of it? The first one oughta be out already, maybe somebody has the first Disc and can tell us something good?

The first print of the Volume 1 OST is even getting a nice Slipcase for housing all four volumes... my fingers are still itchy, but my credit card is dry. I don't want to sell my liver, so I will really have to decide which part of my inner organs I don't need so hard to finance me this sweet 4-disc-set.

[Grass-eatin'me]

Sadly, my credit card is dry too :(

I didn't knew he had a band to perform his music too. Wow!

[Naka]

Mine came today, but alas, I was at school and they dont leave Express Mail at your door. Hopefully I will be around tomorrow to get it. I will let you know then :D

[Eriol]

Originally posted by Rince
OK, I'm lacking the money to really go and order this baby in Japan. On the other hand, Sakuraba has shown his ability of creating great music again and again with the Star Ocean music amongst the greatest of his musical scores.


Currently, it's a two-volume OST (4 discs total), an arranged album in April, and a Voice Arrange. Right?

[Rince]

Right. And as far as I know, every Volume is consisting of 2 CD's... makes a whooping 8-CD massacre! But I'm not sure the voice Arrange will have 2 discs. Don't care for that much. It would be nice however if the arranged version is 2 Discs... however will he get all of the best songs on just one disc?

I hear the major letdown so far is all the melodies only playing in a once-only loop. That makes most of the songs around 1 to 2 minutes... It may just be too short for some Sakuraba music goodness ;)

[Grass-eatin'me]

Most Sakuraba OSTs got those looped-once tracks, but I bet you know that already ;) Will the band you told me about play at v.2? I didn't hear anything at v.1 (though I've only listened trough it once)

[Rince]

He distributed the Tracks seemingly: The First Volume got all Orchestrated Tracks, the second one will get all Rock/Fusion Tracks. Or so it says on CDJapan. Listening to the first album will confirm this so far.

I'm very eager to get the second one and the arranged one though, as I find that Sakuraba's best job always was fusion of Orchestra with Rock.

[Grass-eatin'me]

My favourite Sakuraba tracks are the ones at Tenshi no Uta, and Tales of Phantasia, which have a rather different style than those new albums. Of course his best are the ones with combined rock and orchestra, he's a synth man. Beyond the Beyond was nice, even through it had no typical rock sound in it.
Up to now, I don't like this album too much, although it is better than the average, it's nothing compared to SO2, Tales of series, Tenshi no Uta, and Shining Force III.

[Rince]

Well, wait for Volume 2, that will blast you away. As well as the Arranged Volume 3. I'm eager to get this in my hands. I don't care for the Voice Mix (Vol. 4), but Number 2 and 3 will surely stand out.

[Eriol]

I just skip the OSTs. Sakuraba's best work is when he is NOT confined by the game's parameters.

[Grass-eatin'me]

You should defiently not skip the OST, Eriol: It's pretty good. Yes he's best with the arranges, but the music are very good in this OST V.1. (but not much against Tenshi no Uta :P )

[Rince]

Well, there's simply no restriction because this OST is streaming audio in a very high quality, so it's a little like a small orchestrated once-looped arrange album, really. I found not a single bland instrument in there, all very high quality. I'm not even sure which tracks are an actual Orchestra and which aren't.

[Carl]

Rince: there's an extensive musician's listing in the credits section of the cd booklet, which you will be able to read in the 2nd Issue of SG Magazine ;)

[Rince]

Oh yeah, I saw in the "next issue" section. Can't wait to be honest! ;)

Next time I hear an import first I'll be sure to give you a review to consider.

[LastGunman]

Is it out yet? I sure have no money for it, and no highspeed connection to download it :-(

Maybe some website will put it up, then i can let my friend download it.

Michael

[Grass-eatin'me]

After several listens, I can come with a conclusion: A very large dissapointment. :( God, only a single track takes my heart!

And LastGunman, go to Peer to Peer, or my stuff or whatever it is, and get your stuff from FTPs.

[Rince]

Well, there is more than one tune that's very well composed. But most of them suffer from being ripped out of the game's context. I think they work pretty much together with the visuals. That's always the problem with your general OST.

I though the same about Wild Arms 3 OST until I got the game and found the music blended SO WELL with it.

[Moguta]

Originally posted by Grass-eatin'me
After several listens, I can come with a conclusion: A very large dissapointment. :( God, only a single track takes my heart!
Dang, you must be one tough critic. I absolutely love the Vol. 1 OST. You must've avoided Xenosaga with a 10-foot pole! :P

Eriol... I'm almost always the arranged-sountrack-only fan, and I must say OST Volume 1 is definitely worth getting. Many of the tracks sound like they could've been arrangements, and the sample quality is unbelievable (much better than VP & SO2 Arranged albums, and this is an OST!). Sweet, beautiful songs...

I hope Volume 2 is this good. Should be, with his rockin' fast-paced battle tunes. (=

*sharp salute* Hail Sakuraba!

[Eriol]

Originally posted by Moguta
Eriol... I'm almost always the arranged-sountrack-only fan, and I must say OST Volume 1 is definitely worth getting. Many of the tracks sound like they could've been arrangements, and the sample quality is unbelievable (much better than VP & SO2 Arranged albums, and this is an OST!). Sweet, beautiful songs... *sharp salute* Hail Sakuraba!

OST 1 doesn't loop. That fails in my book. I don't care how good the music is. If a track doesn't get at least 2:30 play time, it's too short for me.

[Grass-eatin'me]

Eriol, Star Ocean: The Second Story doesn't loop either, don't tell me you haven't heard that.

The compositons are OK, but compositions isn't Motoi's best side.. Arranging is. And I don't like the instrumentations.

[Moguta]

Originally posted by Grass-eatin'me
The compositons are OK, but compositions isn't Motoi's best side.. Arranging is. And I don't like the instrumentations.
I find that comment a bit puzzling, considering what he arranges are his own compositions...

[Eriol]

Originally posted by Grass-eatin'me
Eriol, Star Ocean: The Second Story doesn't loop either, don't tell me you haven't heard that.

The compositons are OK, but compositions isn't Motoi's best side.. Arranging is. And I don't like the instrumentations.

I don't own Star Ocean: The Second Story OST. You substantiated my case.

[Grass-eatin'me]

Yeah, it was a bit confusing, Moguta... I admit that.

Oh, I didn't understand you, Eriol... Sorry.

(hehe, I've suddenly changed my mind about this album.... It is great!)

[pzilla]

Motoi Sakuraba, best vgm composer ever.

I have Gikyokuonsou. It's quite good. Valkyrie Profile OST is one of my all-times favorite.

[Grass-eatin'me]

Not only best VGM composer, but best artist ever.
Do yourself a favour, and check out Tenshi no Uta, pzilla.

[Mahew]

Originally posted by Rince
The first print of the Volume 1 OST is even getting a nice Slipcase for housing all four volumes...

Is this slipcase that Rince mentions the Complete Box then, or will it be released separately?

[Grass-eatin'me]

It was/is a box, which ships/ed together with Volume I.

[DjAlchemedia]

I know a really good website where you don't have to watse money and go buy it. that's wher i got my star ocean downloads... uh the link is:

It's a nice website, plus it's got final fantasy... the 2nd best rpg series i have played.

[Eriol]

The albums are still available, so I don't want discussion of download sites here. If you want to set up an FTP server, post it in the FTP thread.

[Zeratul]

I recently bought the Star Ocean III Vol. 1 & 2 soundtracks and I was really impressed with Motoi Sakuraba's compositions. The first two discs of classical songs were really impressive even though I would have liked the OST to follow the game more closely. The last two discs, with all of the battle themes and field themes is really impressive in terms of creativity and complexity. The only song that really annoys me is "Bitter Dance" (even if it is 100X better than anything else of the same genre that isn't VGM). The jazzy final boss themes and last dungeon themes are by far the best on the soundtrack.

Overall, the soundtrack is an excellent buy.