Customer Reviews

Xenosaga Original Soundtrack

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This soundtrack is, and I mean definitely, it IS the most beautiful collection of music I've heard yet. That's putting general music, movies, and other video game soundtracks together. Nothing has even barred this, let alone surpassed it, and it deserves more stars than this. Granted, one disc is better than the other, but the lesser of the two is equally on the same level of most other grand collections of music.

"Prologue" starts very slowly and mysteriously, and over time draws into an explosive effort, as different brass and high-energy instruments perform, and then finishes with a slow peace, followed by a calm choir. It's over 4 minutes long, and it's only the first of many incredible pieces. In fact, you'll have to skip ahead quite far to get to a piece that's only good, and each of those easily matches Nobou Uematsu's moderate work.

There are varied pieces on each disc, although Disc 1 noticably has several military-styled pieces, such as "Durandal" or "U-TIC System." "Gnosis" is probably the best of these, and it also happens to have one of the two main themes of the soundtrack, the other being "Kokoro" of Disc 2. The songs involving Shion are very slow, but are soothing and peaceful, if not a little sad. There are a few battles here, from the upbeat "Battle" to the grandiose "Battle with KOS-MOS." Nearly everything keeps interest, but as always, there are exceptions. "Daily" and "Relief" are probably the worst of the soundtrack, but they are still decent pieces; they simply don't merit repeated plays.

Disc 2 is the champion of the soundtrack. From start to finish, it's just one awesome piece after another. Beginning with the eerie choir of "Ormus" and ending with the slow piano of Shion's last theme, the pleasure for one's ears never lets up, and the music alone forces the imagination to thrive.

There are many choral pieces on Disc 2. "Ormus" as mentioned, is a very inspiring one. "The Ressurection" is very memorable. "The Miracle" is one of the best pieces of the soundtrack. It's fast, mysterious, and then rushes with quick cellos and violins at its incredible climax.

Speaking of violins, some of the exceptional pieces run by the fine string instruments are "Beach of Nothingness" and "Last Battle." "Beach" sounds depressing and intriuging at the same time, and is simply an astounding piece to listen to. "Last Battle" may seem strange at first, but it warms onto you with the rest of the soundtrack, enveloping the "Gnosis" theme and begs for repeated listening so that you may catch all the different lines of instruments present and obtain the whole listening experience.

And, cutting ahead of other tracks with much need of listening, I move to three last pieces in detail, all vocal, though one stands out from the others. "Pain" and "Kokoro" are both love themes, and "Kokoro" is present in most of the Shion pieces. Both feature the beautiful voice of Joanne Hogg, responsible for the famous "Small Two of Pieces" from the Xenogears soundtrack. She returns to lead both moving pieces and draws all attention to her voice, the best instrument of all. And finally, I lead to "Albedo." It is probably the strangest piece on the soundtrack, but it is also one of the best. It's an opera piece, it moves in a sort of marching-drama, and you will love it if you give it a chance.

The Xenosaga soundtrack is incredible and is more than worth having. Mitsuda has outdone himself this time and leads the London Harmonic Symphony Orchestra to outstanding feats that should not be missed.

-Escushion

Wow.

That was the first word I uttered when I had finished listening to the two CD set of the soundtrack to Xenosaga: Episode 1. Not only was it the absolute best video game soundtrack I had ever layed ears upon, but it even rivals with the movie soundtracks I own. Quite possibly, it takes the top rung in my ladder.

My first thought, when I put the music to my ears, was "Is this really for a video game?" If you did not know it was from a video game, it would be increasingly difficult for you to know, in my opinion. In fact, a great sum of the tracks were played by a full orchestra, and a professional one at that! Not only that, but there are samplings of music for everyone's tastes. Action ("KOS-MOS", "Gnosis", "Escape"), romance, ("Kokoro", any of the "Shion" tracks) choral chants ("The Miracle", "Ormus") and even light-hearted romps ("Relief" and "Everyday")

Personally, I suggest this soundtrack to anyone who is a fan of music in general. It's beautiful on its own, as well as nostalgic for those who have played the games. Heck, even my mother likes these songs. So what are you waiting for?

Being a huge fan of the original game (Xenogears) in the Xenosaga series, I naturally picked up this CD. I expected synthesized, however well written, video game music. Imagine my surprise when I popped the Cd into the CD player and discovered the London Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra was in the place of a Midi keyboard! I must say that this soundtrack is what I believe to be the blueprint of the future of video game music. At times while listening to this CD, I thought I was listening to a movie sountrack at times. There is a variety of different tunes, including classical, jazz, arabian (NICE!), and even a couple vocal tracks. In my opinion this sountrack blows EVERY Final Fantasy soundtrack out of the water, ( I can say that, I have all of them, too) INCLUDING the CHRONO CROSS soundtrack. I find myself humming or singing the vocal tracks in the shower and car everyday.

BUY THIS TODAY! YOU WONT REGRET IT A BIT! Mitsuda has done it again!

Xenosaga is an unusual video game, in terms of music. In most video games, especially RPGs, there is -always- music playing in the background. Whether you're exploring a dark and dangerous dungeon or strolling through a quaint little town, the music dictates what mood you should be feeling at the time. Xenosaga instead reserves its music for key scenes and events. Most of the game takes place in realistic, musicless quiet. You'll hear your footsteps, the hum of machinery, perhaps blowing wind, but usually no music. This definitely gives the music, when it finally appears, more weight. Composer Mitsuda has claimed publicly that this was done partially to forego heavily repetetive looping tracks. Most of Xenosaga's music is performed by an actual human orchestra, and would sound odd if looped. The human quality would be lost. But I have another theory of my own about the music in this game: Once you play through Xenosaga and Xenogears, it becomes pretty obvious that creators Takahashi and Tanaka were heavily inspired by the film 2001: A Space Odessey. Therefore I wonder if it was mere coincidence that on many occasions the lack of music reminded me of certain scenes in the movie which take place on the Discovery with no background music.

Mitsuda is generally regarded as one of the best video game music composers. He's responsible for the soundtracks of Chrono Trigger (well, most of it,) Xenogears, and Chrono Cross, all of which are well loved by many. His Xenosaga OST is a little different in that it's more classical, like a movie soundtrack. Lots of big brass, like John Williams' Star Wars work. There's little to none of the Celtic sounding stuff Mitsuda has become known for. It's nice to hear him stretching out and not pigeonholing himself.

Xenosaga Episode 1 is one of my all time favorite games of all time. When I found out that there was a CD with the music from the game, I went out and purchased it. The music is awesome and I play it all the time on my car's CD player. While there are some songs that are not as good as some of the others, the majority of the songs are really well done and gives the impression of a movie songtrack inside of a video game.

If you are a fan of the game, you have to get this collection.

This is, by far, the best soundtrack I've listened to. Yasunori Mitsuda did a beautiful job in composing the music to this wonderful game. I love the fact that it is all orchestrated. It's done by either strings, a piano, or a chorus. This is truely a need for any Mitsuda fans, Xenosaga fans, or fans of just general classical music. Highly reccomended.

Many RPG fans consider Yasunori Mitsuda to be the John Williams of video game soundtracks. This master composer produced and composed the music for games such as Chrono Cross, Xenogears, and now, Xenosaga. Once again, his efforts are nothing short of impressive. Listening to this CD is almost like listening to classical music. That's not surprising at all, considering that some of the tracks were performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. If you are a fan of video game soundtracks, or a fan of Xenosaga, then this compact disk is worth your consideration. Just like the game, it is nothing short of excellent.

Usually, when I listen to a music album, I need some time to get use to it, but I have to admit this is probably the best game soundtrack I had the chance to hear. Better than is previous work in chrono cross or even better than Uematsu's final fantasy. Ok, FFX was also truly amazing, but there is something deep in this album that make it so good. All the tracks are well done, and the choice of instruments is perfect for such a game. I think this is a new beginning in OST, for now, people will not only buy OST from movies but also from video games, the quality has improved dramatically over the last few years and this is a good thing, for it will bring some new blood in the music industry.

I wrote a review that briefly went over every song on the disc, however it is too large for Amazon. I'll summarize by saying that this is an absolute treasure and should not be passed up for anything. It is a work of gorgeous and profound music that is well worth your money!

This is the Japanese Import and has 2 CD's with a total of 45 tracks so the track listing on Amazon is not correct. The track listing should be as follows:

Disc 1 (65 minutes)

1. Prologue
2. Opening
3. Battle
4. Battle's Conclusion
5. Starting Test
6. Memories
7. Gnosis
8. Awakening
9. Shion's Crisis
10. Fighting Kos-Mos
11. Sorrow
12. Life Or Death
13. Game Over
14. Margulis
15. Ship Pursuit
16. Relief
17. The Usual
18. U.M.N.Mode
19. Durandal
20. Invading the Enemy Warship
21. U-TIC Council
22. Girl Who Has Sealed Off Her Heart
23. Kookai Foundation
24. Shion ~Memories of Bygone Days~

Disc 2 (66 minutes)

1. Ormus
2. Nephilim
3. Warmth
4. Suspense
5. The Resurrection
6. Shore of Nothingness
7. Green Sleeves
8. Zarathustra
9. KOS-MOS
10. Panic
11. Song Of Nephilim
12. The Miracle
13. Inner Space
14. Albedo
15. Omega
16. Proto Merkabah
17. Last Battle
18. Pain
19. Escape
20. Kokoro
21. Shion ~Feeling~