Monday, September 2, 2013

Video Game Music Review - Re:Birth II / Romancing SaGa Battle Arrange

                                                  

Album Name - Re:Birth II/Romancing SaGa Battle Arrange
Catalog Number - SQEX-10327
Released On - August 29, 2012
Composed & Arranged By - Kenji Ito
Published By - Square Enix
Musicians - Masaru Teramae, Atsushi Enomoto, Yu "masshoi" Yamauchi, Noriyuki Kamikura, Reiko Tsuchiya, Masahiro Makihara, Kenji Ito / / / / /

Japan is the land of rpg's and we as non-Japanese speaking people often miss out on some of the true gems of this genre due to absence of ports of some of these games into english language versions. Romancing SaGa is a trilogy whose only english port was the ps2 remake of the first game which makes us almost unable to enjoy this series. But that doesn't mean we need to miss out on this rocking arrange album which comprises music from the total of the series into this solid 10 track rocking album.


First let me tell you about the performers, basically Kenji Ito teamed up with members of Falcom's J.D.K. Band to record this rock tribute to Romancing SaGa series. On electric guitar there is Masaru Teramae whose work is top notch throughout the album, some of the solos are so much emotion infused that sometimes it makes me wanna go on my own epic journey then and there. Atsushi Enomoto works on the bass, and does a nice job of giving altogether a fulfilling riffing experience for such a battle infused album. Noriyuki Kamikura on keyboard/synths is only second best to Masaru Teramae and some of his tunes (specially on track 1, 3, 4 and 9) are just so memorable that you can't get them out of your head. Yu "masshoi" Yamauchi performs well on his duty as the drummer, just listen to track 5 and 9 for understanding how talented this guys is. And I can not help but mention Reiko Tsuchiya for her awesome work on track 2, I just wish she had a bit more presence on some of the other tracks.

                                                                      



This album starts with "Battle 1 medley" which which is quite good start for the album, it showcases some of the ability of the guitar and synth combo at first which is present throughout the other tracks as well. Track 2 is "Battle 2" and one of the best in this album where you get to listen to Reiko Tsuchiya's awesome violin work as well as other things and a good solo from lead guitarist. "Magical Tank Battle" again shifts the focus on guitar/synth combo which is nice track. Next track is a bit slower then the previous 3 where main focus is on keyboard/synth. Track 5 starts on the rocking path again where you get to listen to a nice drum work from Yu Yamauchi along with other things. "Believing My Justice" is another hard rocking track where there is a long and amazing solo from Masaru Teramae. Then come track 7 "Last Battle" is my favorite track of this album, from the haunting intro to the awesome tune in 2:21 which makes me remember all the epic journey's I have gone through in all those favorite rpg's of mine and makes me wish I could relive everything all over again, that is a quite emotional piece in my opinion which should be tried by all rpg lovers out there.
The next track has a nice intro which leads to another solid lead/synth combo, track 9 is not bad by any means but a bit too long for my liking but has nice drumworks nonetheless. The last track "Seven Heroes Battle" is totally unlike the rest of the album in the fact that its a jazz piece, although quite nice piece of work in my opinion it just doesn't jell with the rest of the tracks.

To be honest I haven't played any of the source games, but I enjoyed this album immensely, so much that since the day I got this I have been listening to this almost everyday (its been like 2 months, which is a lot for me, my average listen for albums that I call good are like 10-15 days now-a-days). This is undoubtedly one of the best VGM albums of 2012 and if you get at least one album of VGM for 2012 you should get this in my opinion.

Overall Score - "9.5 out of 10" 

If you want other opinion you can check out these fine reviews -
http://www.rpgfan.com/soundtracks/rs-rebirth2/
http://squareenixmusic.com/reviews/chris/romancingsagabattle.shtml

You can buy the album at (among other sites) - 
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=SQEX-10327
http://www.play-asia.com/re-birth-ii-romancing-saga-battle-arrange-paOS-13-49-en-70-54hn.html
http://www.yesasia.com/us/re-birth-2-romancing-sa-battle-arrange-japan-version/1031167225-0-0-0-en/info.html
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