Featuring Yuzo Koshiro and unannounced Mana game
Square Enix’s X’mas Collections album from 2010 was a cool idea, but was poorly executed. To put it bluntly, it was short, lazy, and sounded “cheap.” They’ve taken this feedback to heart, and are releasing a second volume that corrects all of these issues, much to my delight.
Firstly, it features Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage, Actraiser) arranging “Rydia” from Final Fantasy IV (I could just stop there), a bunch of returning Square Enix composers including Junya Nakano doing Dewprism and Kenichiro Fukui doing “Crono and Marle” from Chrono Trigger (a beautiful piano ballad rendition, I might add), and even a track from an upcoming, unannounced Mana project. The music is arranged wonderfully, tapping in nicely to the Christmas vibe while retaining high production values.
Despite all the amazingness, it’s only 2,190 Yen ($22) at CD Japan, and ships on November 27, 2013. I suggest picking this up for the holidays as well as checking out our top ten game music tracks for Christmas article from last year. And watch for our review in Note Worthy!
Which track are you looking forward to the most?
