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Fans of Yasunori Mitsuda’s score to Chrono Cross have been anticipating the release of an arranged album for years, because Mr. Mitsuda has said he’s been working on it for some time and hoped to have it released for the 10th Anniversary of Chrono Cross. As we’ve just passed the 15th Anniversary of the game on November 18, 2014, it seems like this yet-to-be-released album is lost somewhere in time.
In this article I cover briefly the history of the arranged album, and highlight the arranged tracks that Yasunori Mitsuda has officially released to date. I also add a few tracks to that list from another releases based on their similar sound and production quality.
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The first arrangements that Yasunori Mitsuda released from Chrono Cross were in 2002 on a CD only available to members of his fan club – Hopeful Weeds Volume 3. The details of the album [3] are available on the Video Game Music Database. The album only contains two tracks “Lost Fragments” [4] and “Guldove Home” [5] which were both uploaded to YouTube by user Brian Banfield. Both arrangements are beautiful acoustic guitar arrangements and tracks I play over and over again.
The only other release that Yasunori Mitsuda put out in 2008 was a track called “A Narrow Space Between Dimensions” [6] which is another arrangement that utilizes some wonderful strings. The track was originally posted on Yasunori Mitsuda’s website procyon-studio and was uploaded to YouTube by user Nyogo. Don Kotowski of Game Music Online conducted an interview with Yasunori Mitsuda a year later and when asked about the album he hoped it would be out in time for the 10th Anniversary. You can read the entire interview here [7].
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And that’s all of the arrangements that Mitsuda has officially released, but there are three more I consider to be in the same spirit of these releases. The release I refer to is the Eminence Symphony Orchestra 2007 album titled Passion. The album contained three Chrono Cross tracks “Time’s Scar” [9], “Dream of the Shore: Bordering Another World” [10] and “Radical Dreamers” [11] which were all uploaded to YouTube by user tomenaki. The reason I consider these tracks honorary Chrono Cross Arrange Album tracks is because Mitsuda has worked with this orchestra in the past and the tracks similar instrumentation as the “A Narrow Space Between Dimensions” track.
Although no release date is in sight, I have high hopes that this album will one day be released and worth the wait. In the meantime I will continue to use these tracks as my personal coping mechanism.
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Recently, Yasunori Mitsuda announced that he will be performing live in concert to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the music of Chrono Trigger on two dates July 25, and 26, 2015 at the Tokyo Globe Theater in Shinjuku, Japan. You can read details of this news at East Asian media guru site Crunchyroll [13].
What are your thoughts on the Chrono Cross Arrangement album? Are there any arrangements on YouTube that you really enjoy?
Comments Disabled To "Lost In Time: The Chrono Cross Arranged Album"
#1 Comment By Nikolas On April 1, 2015 @ 5:34 am
Mitsuda said in 2011 on Facebook that his next project is the CC arranged album. He also said in an interview the same year that “It’ll be done within the year”.
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About the 20th Anniversary Concert — he told me on Twitter that they are planning on bringing it abroad, but they are just plans for the moment.
Personally I hope he continues doing game music in any form, be it arrangements, compositions or concerts. He definitely deserves his own concert, I’m so glad it’s happening. And he has also done so much good stuff besides Chrono and Xeno as well.
#2 Comment By nitro322 On April 1, 2015 @ 11:24 pm
I remember heraing about this a while back as well. Obviously I hope something is eventually released, but I can’t help feeling like it’s just vaporware at this point. His own concert, though, at which he’ll perform live? That’s news to me. I hope we see something released from that. I can’t imagine it won’t totally rock. 🙂
#3 Comment By Jayson Napolitano On April 2, 2015 @ 11:47 pm
Need to keep the pressure on Mitsuda! Because, really, what else is he up to?
Here’s some fun reading from the past:
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#4 Comment By Jayson Napolitano On April 2, 2015 @ 11:48 pm
Oh, and awesome arrangements!
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#5 Comment By Nikolas On April 4, 2015 @ 1:08 pm
I totally forgot about this, but Mitsuda said in 2013 that he still wants to do the CC arrange album. If you know Japanese, I recommend checking out this interview:
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#6 Comment By Patrick Gann On April 12, 2015 @ 9:10 pm
At this point, as long as Mitsuda does this arrangement before he’s dead and/or before I’m dead, I’ll be happy. 🙂