Ys

Game Music

Arrangement of the Week: The Freak Winged Boy

July 24, 2015 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Arrangement of the Week: The Freak Winged Boy Share this

One of the great things about looking up game music arrangements is that it can lead you to the discovery of a game or game franchise that you didn’t know too much about. Such has been the case for me and the Ys series. The action RPG franchise has been around since 1987 and has featured music by Yuzo Koshiro and Meiko Ishikawa. It was a cool discovery for me, so now the Ys franchise is on my gaming bucket list. Today’s arrangement that we’ll be looking at is one of Ishikawa’s pieces from Ys III: Wanderers from Ys.

This week’s selection comes from Dr. Manhattan with a rock arrangement of “The Boy’s Got Wings,” which Dr. Manhattan has titled “The Freak Winged Boy.” Whether you first experienced the soundtrack on the SNES, Sega Genesis, or the other platforms the game was released on, this track in particular had a great amount of energy to it.

The arrangement maintains an upbeat and energetic vibe throughout the track, keeping in the spirit of the original soundtrack. As rock arrangements go, it keeps everything relatively simple. The lead guitar gives a clear performance of the melodic material that never feels like it’s competing with the other instruments for attention.

At around the 2’20” mark the arrangement enters into an improvisation section. I like that it allows a moment for the rhythm guitar and percussion to shine while the lead guitar focuses on arpeggios in the background. It’s a good little break from what’s heard in the rest of the track. At 2’56” the lead guitar returns for some more decorative melodic riffs. The piece ends with a statement of the guitar motif that the arrangement opened with. A nice concise ending to a great arrangement.

Are there any cool game music rock remixes, arrangements, or covers that you’ve heard this week? Let us know in the comments below. You can check out and download “The Freak Winged Boy” on OC ReMix.
Game Music

Know Your MAG: DJ Yuzo Koshiro

November 16, 2012 | Justin Pfeiffer | 3 Comments Share this Know Your MAG: DJ Yuzo Koshiro

We all know Yuzo Koshiro as the composer: PC-8801 wizard who gave us The Scheme and Misty Blue, early Falcom icon who contributed to Ys and Sorcerian, Sega legend who put Streets of Rage and Shinobi music on the map, the man who composed Enix’s Actraiser, Super Adventure Island, and more recently Etrian Odyssey, 7th Dragon, and Wangan Midnight. Everyone is excited about the appearance of game music legend Yuzo Koshiro at MAGFest this January. But what will Mr. Koshiro actually bring to the DJ table? Since his DJ debut at LEGEND Game Music Club Event in Tokyo of 2002, where he ripped a very lengthy, badass Streets of Rage arranged set (featured in full-length on the recently published Bare Knuckle Original Soundtrack WM-0691~4), he has made several appearances at game music DJ events in Tokyo, namely Linear. Some may be surprised, however, at his past set lists, which have been known to include extensive amounts of Wangan Midnight, sparing amounts of Streets of Rage, free trance, even 90’s pop and house music that inspired him in his early career (ie. C&C Music Factory’s “Everybody Dance Now”). In his most recent DJ appearance, held at Area PicoPico 88: 5th Anniversary Festival in Tokyo last August, he spun 50 straight minutes of Wangan Midnight, a move that is technically safe from a DJ perspective, considering most of Wangan‘s music hovers around 140 BPMs and lends itself well to one another. However I think attendees at MAGFest will want to hear not only Wangan, but all of his famous works, including Etrian Odyssey, 7th Dragon, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, Super Adventure Island, and Actraiser — preferably arranged in awesome fashion. I had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Koshiro at Pico 88 last August, however he offered no information on his upcoming set at MAGFest. Will he resort to “Wangan only” again? Veteran composer-DJs Shinj Hosoe, Ayako Saso, Akitaka Tohyama, and k.h.d.n. all have a knack for bringing a good amount of variety to the table. Let’s hope Yuzo does the same for his Western fans. (Personally, I think he should play some Vatvla.) What would you like to hear from DJ Yuzo Koshiro? Post your comments below.
Game Music, Reviews

First Steps Towards Falcom: Ys I & II Chronicles Musical Selections (Review)

March 23, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on First Steps Towards Falcom: Ys I & II Chronicles Musical Selections (Review) Share this

Ever since XSEED picked up publishing rights to Nihon Falcom’s wares, we’ve been getting a slew of Ys titles on the PSP. We loved Ys SEVEN last year, and I think Oath of Felghana is a favorite for a lot of fans out there. Most recent, however, was the release of Ys I & II Chronicles, remakes of the first two games in the series with a killer arranged soundtrack.

The single disc release comes with the Premium Edition of the game in the United States, and features a “selection” of tracks from the bigger 2-disc official soundtrack release that came out in Japan in 2009. Yeah, I know it sucks to get only half of the music, but if you look at the Japanese Ys I & II Chronicles Original Sound Track mini album, it only featured 8 tracks, so be happy that you’re getting a full disc of music here!

Are the arrangements any good? Hit the jump to find out. (more…)
Game Music

North American Ys SEVEN Limited Edition Includes Soundtrack CD

June 11, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on North American Ys SEVEN Limited Edition Includes Soundtrack CD Share this

But then again, the complete soundtrack for Ys SEVEN has already been released in Japan, and is probably worth checking out. XSEED has announced that they will be releasing a Ys SEVEN Limited Edition version which will contain the game, a soundtrack disc containing over 20 tracks from the game, a 60-page art book, and a nifty cloth map of the Ys universe. The Limited Edition will set you back $49.99, which seems like a fair price to pay.

I’m greatly appreciative of XSEED’s efforts in bringing over these soundtrack discs and making them even snazzier than their Japanese counterparts (the Japanese Ys SEVEN Mini Soundtrack only contained 7 tracks). We saw the same thing with the Fragile Moonlight Tracks album a few months back. While 20 tracks is less than half of the music featured on the 2-disc soundtrack that Wes reviewed earlier this year, it’s still a nice bonus, and I’d love to get my hands on that cloth map.

Are you looking forward to Ys SEVEN? Will you be picking up the standard edition or limited edition?
Featured, Game Music

Soundtrack of the Month 02/2010: Ys: The Oath in Felghana Perfect Collection

February 1, 2010 | Patrick Gann | 3 Comments Share this

After the success of Ys SEVEN on PSP, Falcom announced they would be bringing many more of their titles to the PSP, including the highly-praised remake of Ys III, entitled Ys: The Oath in Felghana.

OSV was quick to note that the PSP version of Oath in Felghana would be packaged with a JDK Special album. So, while we’re all excited about even newer arrangements of this great source material, let’s step back a moment and take a look at one of 2004’s best soundtracks. Say what you will about the “remake machine” that Falcom is, but we’re quite happy with what they did for the Ys III soundtrack in the past decade.

After the jump, it’s our February 2010 SotM: Ys: The Oath in Felghana Perfect Collection. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Ys SEVEN Original Soundtrack: Kicking 7 Shades of… (Review)

December 9, 2009 | Wes Chung | 7 Comments Share this

In 1987, Nihon Falcom released a simple action-RPG with genre-defining music called Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished. 22 years, over ten games, and almost a googolplex of arranged CDs later, the franchise continues to adhere to these two elements. From rock-synth and memorable MIDI ditties to full orchestral arrangements, Ys will likely be remembered far more for its music than any other aspect, so we won’t open this review with any sort of query or cliff-hanger.

Ys SEVEN’s soundtrack is great, and after the jump we’ll tell you why. (more…)
Game Music

Ys SEVEN Soundtrack Announced: Come to the Land of Fertility!

October 8, 2009 | Jayson Napolitano | 3 Comments Share this

It appears as though a 2-disc soundtrack has been announced for Ys SEVEN. Justin had coverage from the most recent JDK Band Live event which featured some music from the game, and he was quite impressed with what he heard. I’ve since listened to the promotional albums that have been released featuring music from the game and have also liked what I’ve heard, so it’s great to know when we’ll be able to hear the soundtrack in its entirety.

There are certainly some interesting track names here, including the one I mentioned in the post title, “Land of Fertility” as well as “Primitive Deep Leaves,” “Road to Solitary Death,” and “A Sunbaked Throb.” Likely literal translations of the Japanese track titles that makes little sense in English, but they’re still quite amusing. All the music will be composed by legendary Falcom Sound Team JDK, including Akiko Nagano on violin, Masaru Teramae on guitar, Atsushi Enomoto on bass, and Norisuke Yoshikawa on drums.

Are you looking forward to checking out the Ys SEVEN soundtrack? Any thoughts as to why they’re calling it Ys SEVEN instead of Ys VII?

[via VGMdb]