SQ Chips

Chip Music, Featured, Game Music, Reviews

Give It To Me Straight: SQ Chips 2 (Review)

September 27, 2012 | Patrick Gann | 1 Comment Share this

Purchase SQ Chips 2: CDJapan | Play-Asia

Without question, SQ Chips was a success for Square Enix. Fans loved it, critics loved it, and it apparently sold well enough in Japan and worldwide to not only do a sequel album, but to also dig deep in the chiptunes scene and create separate chip-arrange albums for Final Fantasy VII through XI.

I’ve probably said this in other reviews, and I’ll say it in this one as well: if you’re going to milk a franchise, and/or you’re going to milk an arrangement style for your franchises, it’s not necessarily a bad thing as long as it’s done right! Look at Falcom, after all. The Ys series took on a life of its own in the world of music; Falcom rewarded eager listeners, and in turn, Falcom was rewarded for providing high-quality music. Win-win, right?

So, is SQ Chips 2 following in the convention of “win-win,” or do we have a series of phoned-in arrangements to try and hop on a burgeoning fad (the chiptunes scene)? I’ll “give it to you straight” after the jump. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Bonus Envy Again: SQ Chips 2 Tower/VV Discs (Review)

July 26, 2012 | Patrick Gann | 4 Comments Share this

Alternately, this post could have been titled “Limited Release Part Three.” It’s like a three-part series on new, immediately hard-to-find albums.

Square Enix has been doing these retailer-specific bonus discs for some time now. They did a Village/Vanguard bonus disc for SQ Chips (with all chiptune arrangements), and then they split the bonuses among Tower Records and Village/Vanguard for Cafe SQ (Jayson reviewed those here). All the comments on that post were along the lines of “why is Square Enix holding out on us?” I agree.

And I’m about to make you feel that way, even more, with this next batch. And it’s even more frustrating, since there are two unique tracks per disc and two shared tracks (as opposed to only one unique track per disc on the Cafe SQ bonus discs). After the jump, I’ll give the details. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Bonus Envy: Café SQ Tower & Village/Vanguard Bonus Discs (Review)

January 17, 2012 | Jayson Napolitano | 3 Comments Share this

Square Enix has been doing some pretty neat stuff with Village/Vanguard stores throughout Japan with the release of their SQ series albums. Customers who’ve picked up their copies at these stores have received a neat little cardboard case for More SQ, a customer bonus disc containing several exclusive tracks for SQ Chips, and now more exclusive music for their most recent release, Café SQ.

You can read our review of the entire album here, but what makes the customer bonus discs for Café SQ even more interesting are the fact that there are two: one for customers who picked up their copy at Village/Vanguard stores, and another for those who shopped at Tower Records.

As you’re not likely going to be able to get your hands on these outside of Japan, are they even worth worrying about? They just might be! Find out in our review after the jump. (more…)
Chip Music, Game Music, Reviews

Ignoring Convention: SQ Chips (Review)

October 12, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 2 Comments Share this Ignoring Convention: SQ Chips (Review)

Okay, so that’s a stab at the naming convention of the SQ series, but also a comment about the album. SQ Chips has easily been the most anticipated SQ series album to date, and after seeing the track listing on the official website some weeks ago, I was super pumped about the album as well.

Now it’s out, and many of you have already listened to it. Does it live up to the hype? Is it the strongest SQ series album to date?

Find out what we think in our review after the jump. (more…)
Game Music

SQ Chips and NieR Tribute Album Get Full Track Lists and Samples

August 11, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 1 Comment Share this

Square Enix has released the track listings for two of OSV’s most anticipated albums of what’s remaining of this year. We talked about both SQ Chips and the NieR Tribute Album during our interview with Izumi Tsukushi and Akio Shiraishi, and also recently reviewed the sampler of the SQ Chips album.

As for the NieR Tribute Album -echo-, it does appear as though it’s turning into somewhat of a NieR SQ album with some returning arrangers although the sound is much darker and mature, which is more in line with the original score. You can check out the full track list at VGMdb and listen to samples on the official tribute album website which includes samples of “Grandma,” “Emil,” “Song of the Ancients,” and more, all of which sound amazing.

Moving on to SQ Chips, there’s quite a lengthy list of tracks which includes some surprises such as music from Einhander, Nanashi no Game, and Final Fantasy XIII among many others. The bad news? My two favorite tracks from the SQ Chips Preview Mini Album, “Crisis” from Seiken Densetsu 2 and “A Place to Call Home” from Final Fantasy IX are not on the album. I guess that’s why they didn’t have “[Demo Version]” in their track titles. Actually, Mitsuto Suzuki’s “Chips de Chocobo” also doesn’t appear, but I’m betting it’ll be a hidden track. We asked Square Enix about the missing tracks and were told that they didn’t make the deadline for making it onto the album, and may be released as a bonus on another album on a future date. Look forward to that! In the meantime, check out VGMdb for the track listing and the official website for a sound sample.

Are you surprised by anything on either one of these albums? Which one are you more excited about?
Game Music, Reviews

Square Enix’s United States of Odaiba Trio: SFX, SQ Chips, and Type-0 (Review)

August 3, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 1 Comment Share this

We mentioned a few weeks back that Square Enix was preparing a trio of albums to commemorate Fuji TV’s 2011 United States of Odaiba event. These included previews of the upcoming SQ Chips album and Final Fantasy Type-0 soundtrack as well as a sound effects collection CD. I was excited for all three, and the 500 Yen asking price made them an affordable treat for anyone who could make it out to the event.

So what do they offer? While you’ll be able to enjoy SQ Chips and Final Fantasy Type-0 in their entirety in a matter of months, the Square Enix Sound Effect Collection is a release that is unique to the event.

Are they worth you putting in the effort to track them down? Find out after the jump! (more…)