If you’d been keeping track of the teasers and trailers for the long-awaited release of the Chrono Trigger mega arrangement album “Chronicles of Time“, then your wait is over. The five-disc behemoth project has finally been released to Loudr and iTunes in all its 75-track glory. (we originally counted 60, but we can’t numbers good)
Clocking in at just under six full hours of music, the album is packed to the gills with talent across the entire VGM spectrum. Directed by Spectrum of Mana’s Nate “FoxxDragon” Horsfall and co-directed by Kurt Horsfall, Chronicles features musicians, arrangers, artists and bands from Overclocked Remix, Dwelling of Duels, TheShizz.org, MAGFest bands and several other talents from across the world.
I only just came across this trailer for Project Setsuna which was shown at Tokyo Game Show 2015 and it was uploaded to YouTube by user Asleep In The Fantasy. This user has also added clips of the first two tracks from the soundtrack from the game. After E3 2015 I wrote about Project Setsuna and how there was some discussion online that it was the spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger. I also listed it as my most anticipated upcoming video game soundtrack.
Project Setsuna – “Track 1”
Project Setsuna – “Track 2”
It was recently annouced on January 22, 2016 by Famitsu that the music for the game was composed by Tomoki Miyoshi who is know for their work on Soul Calibur V. From what I hear in the trailer, and the two above tracks is a lot of beautiful piano which reaffirms my excitement for this release! The game will be released on PS Vita and Playstation 4 in Japan on February 18, 2016. A North American release has not been announced yet.
Does the trailer or music for Project Setsuna give you any Chrono Trigger or other JRPG vibes?
This week I thought we’d take a break from the electronic dance remixes and listen to something a little more relaxing. The Chrono Trigger soundtrack has a number of memorable and distinct pieces that help make it a favorite of many game music fans. One of the more relaxing tracks from the game is “Secret of the Forest” by composer Yasunori Mitsuda.
Today’s Arrangement of the Week is an ambient electronic remix of the piece, titled “The Depetrification of the Submerged Forest,” by artist Zisotto.
Right from the start the remix sets up a wonderfully tranquil atmosphere. Plenty of resonant and slow building synth effects are present to build a relaxing and otherworldly sound. The piece also takes its time building up. It’s not until the 1’25” mark that we even hear the recognizable arpeggios from the original track.
The remix is also fairly long, lasting almost 10 minutes. Part of this is a result of how long Zisotto waits and builds up the synth instruments and atmosphere. It’s not until around 2’42” that the main melody gains some prominence over the rest of the instruments. However, there’s plenty of movement and consistently fresh elements being added to the remix to maintain the listener’s interest. Most of the ambient tones remain present throughout the whole remix, providing a consistently chill vibe all the way through.
Have any favorite ambient remixes, arrangements, or covers of game music? Share them with us in the comments below. You can check out Zisotto’s “The Depetrification of the Submerged Forest” on OC ReMix.
Video game music lovers can probably recognize a video game track pretty quickly, even if it’s one they haven’t heard before. Even though video game music comes in a huge variety of styles and genres (which is part of why I love it), there are musical elements that tend to be very common in many tracks, common enough that many of them have become (well-loved) tropes. Today, I’ll be discussing rhythm, and specifically I’ll be taking a look at one of video game music’s favorite tropes: 5-beat patterns.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Chrono Trigger, and thus some announcements of arrangement music projects have surfaced. One is from the same people who created the Secret of Mana arrangement album back in 2013, Spectrum of Mana. This project, called Chronicles of Time, will feature an obscene amount of tracks from some of the biggest names in the video game music arrangement community, much like Spectrum. Said to be spanning five disks, a 13-track preview for the project has just dropped, “A Premonition”.
We’re still hard at work, but you can expect even more diversity than what Spectrum of Mana offered at the same level of quality. In celebration of Chrono Trigger’s 20th anniversary in North America, we submit to you…a full 13-track preview of what’s to come!
Join us as we wish a Happy Anniversary to one of the greatest videogames ever created and celebrate one of gaming’s greatest composers, Yasunori Mitsuda!
Chronicles of Time is currently slated for a December release, with the preview being free to download (or throw some coin at, if you wish). We’ll keep you posted as news of the album is released.
The album was revealed in the program for Yasunori Mitsuda’s Anniversary Concert being held this weekend in Japan. Twitter user @tomatogumi2 tweeted their photo of the advertisement in the program. This looks like it is the album we have all been waiting for and speculating about for several years!
All we know at this time is that the album will retail for 3000 yen. Keep checking back with OSV for further details on the album. Did you attend the concert this weekend, or know anyone that did? We would love to hear about it!
Yesterday I presented you with a list of the first five of my top ten anticipated soundtracks now that E3 2015 has come and gone. Today I share my thoughts on what I think are my remaining most anticipated soundtracks. The top five were selected based on my impressions of not what will be the best games, but will give us some of the best new video game music – so keep that in mind.
Come on and read about what future soundtracks made the top of my list!
