Tales of Phantasia - The Dream Will Not Die

For those of you not familiar with the game "Tales of Phantasia", it was one of many Super Famicom RPGs that were never released in the U.S. Phantasia was unique, though, in that it was one of the only 48-meg cartridges ever produced. Even more unique is that 16 megs of that were devoted to music and speech, including an opening theme song with vocals - a first for console games.

This CD contains four tracks, which includes the aforementioned opening theme song. The first two tracks are where Yukari Yoshida shows her amazing vocal talent, while tracks 3 and 4 are just instrumental versions of 1 and 2. Track 1, "The Dream Will Not Die", is a redone version of the intro theme. What makes it very different is the way it is arranged. There are more instruments as well as background singers (they don't really sing though). Overall it gives a more "powerful" impression than the original intro theme. The second track, "The Star in the Sky", sounds more like music which would be played in a forest setting; the instruments and tempo really create an effect of peacefulness. Tracks 3 and 4 give you just the instruments without the main vocals (the background singers are still there). If you find yourself stressed out during a long day, the instrumental version of "The Star in the Sky" will help you relax.

Although a full soundtrack of Tales of Phantasia would be nice, as a single The Dream Will Not Die is a great purchase.