SaGa Series 20th Anniversary: The Biggest Game Music Box Set Ever?

Ashley Winchester wrote:

This may be even more unattractive than the Breath of Fire box.

Don't get me wrong, there is some great BOF music but there is also a lot of stuff I can leave to the ages on there.

I bought the BoF box. There's a lot of classic music on there, and I don't regret it. Also, it's a pretty good deal being less than 10,000 yen for 11 discs of music. And only 2000 printed worldwide!

Kaleb.G wrote:

Ashley Winchester wrote:

This may be even more unattractive than the Breath of Fire box.

Don't get me wrong, there is some great BOF music but there is also a lot of stuff I can leave to the ages on there.

I bought the BoF box. There's a lot of classic music on there, and I don't regret it. Also, it's a pretty good deal being less than 10,000 yen for 11 discs of music. And only 2000 printed worldwide!

It's a nice product, don't get me wrong, but the BOF box has several strikes against it in my book:

- Despite the fact people like Yoko Shimomura worked on BOFI, I find it to be a really lack luster score and a bit too twangy. All the important themes ("Breath of Fire") and cues ("Holy") carry over to the second game and sound much better.

- While some will obviously disagree with me - and I'd expect so - BOFII is IMO the strongest soundtrack of the set. Still, there are a few things worth noting here. The original soundtrack has most of the better themes (although the low recording volume on it is a bit of a buzzkill) and cuts out some of the filler. Still, the thing I find just plain odd is why is BOFII split between two discs? Last time I checked all 48 tracks from the game will fit on one disc. Why make the box an odd 11 discs instead of a nice, round even 10? I don't even need to get how this raises questions about the original release (unless they where trying to eliminate filler which does work in its favor.)

- After playing BOFIII in the past quite a few times, I've come to find the score is fundamentally flawed. A big reason (again, this is all IMO) is while the soundtrack is generally considered by most to be jazz influenced, there really is a wide variety of styles at play on it. From a certain standpoint, it seems the composers where more worried about each piece working in context at their given moment where they were used rather than forming a concise whole or experience, something BOFIV improved on. This isn't saying this can't be done - Kenji Ito did this with SaGa Frontier and it worked really well, but that was a result of that game's "world" being comprised of separate and vastly different locations (or “regions” as the game calls them) where as the world of BOFIII is more static with it's surroundings (at least until the end where more technological aspects come into play). With so many one-shot pieces the soundtrack is littered with tracks I completely forgot about and will forget about again. This is not saying they don't deserve to be on disc and preserved, but you have to laugh at how the original one disc version wasn't enough and the three disc version feels like too much even though it still isn't complete (I mean, we really could have used a non-SE littered version of "Battle in the Coming Days"). Additionally, there are tracks on here I honestly can't recall from the game, like "Sprouts Over the Sand" and "Intermission" seems changed from the game and game-rip.

The biggest question I have concerning BOFIII is how "Turning Point" didn't make the cut the first time. Lovely track that oozes with Mega Manish influence.

- Don't really have much to say about BOFIV outside the fact it feels more concise and whole than it's predecessor by containing an overall aura that is it's own. I'm not big on the ambient like numbers as I don't think of ambient when I think about BOF but they work well enough in context.

- While I leave BOFV to its own devices as it pretty much abandoned everything that came before it (sound and game wise) anything where Sakimoto doesn't employ his FFT/FFTA/FFXIII sound is welcome to me.

- And finally, not to start a fight, I really doubt the 2000 print run on the box. It's very unrealistic to me that even such a niche product with a 2000 print run can still be bought three years after its release. Are these serial numbered?

These are just my various ramblings (most of which are nit-picking) and as I said it is a very nice product, but even from someone that's played most of the games justifying the box for the 20% of the music I want isn't going to happen.

Even more interesting about that BOF box is that Testsuya Shibata had to have a programmer add in a sound test for BOF 1 and 3 because they lost the sound source.  He then recorded directly from the console.

I'd rank the Breath of Fire albums in this order from best to worst: V, III, I, IV, II. It seems as though the soundtracks with multiple composers were all stronger. Yasunori Mitsuda assisted on BoF5, so that counts for me. I also love the style of BoF3; it had some awesome tracks. Breath of Fire I has some classic themes (only a couple were reprised on BoF2 and I don't consider them at all improved).

But the topic here is SaGa, so I should divert back to that. What do you guys think of the pre-Frontier albums? I'm not really familiar with anything before SaGa Frontier 1.

Last edited by Kaleb.G (May 26, 2009)

Kaleb.G wrote:

But the topic here is SaGa, so I should divert back to that. What do you guys think of the pre-Frontier albums? I'm not really familiar with anything before SaGa Frontier 1.

Pre-Frontier: RS3, RS2, RS1, SaGa 2, SaGa, SaGa 3

In my opinion Ito improved with each game during the SNES days. Romancing SaGa 2's soundtrack is actually one of my least favorite discs in my collection because the sound quality is terrible. I'd hope it didn't actually sound as bad in-game as it did on that disc because it is a disservice to the actual music.


I also agree with your BoF soundtrack ordering.

Arcubalis wrote:

Hey guys.  We got the box in early and I figured I'd do an unboxing video, kinda like they do for new consoles when they're released:

http://www.originalsoundversion.com/?p=4294

Interesting concept, but that video is way too dark, man. If you do something like that again I suggest turning on all the lights and unboxing closer to the camera (and straight-on) so you can actually see the contents clearly. It took me a few minutes to figure out if it was an unboxing or retail VGM porn.

Arcubalis wrote:

Anyway, impressive set, but I'm a bit puzzled as to what you're supposed to do with the outer box once you've constructed the display box.

You could always recycle it.

Actually, it's more of a camera issue than light.  The camera I used is a small, dinky little thing and it doesn't focus well.  You notice when I turn the box up, and when I finally open the lid, it looks a lot better.

Anyway, yeah.  Odd how people get so excited over unboxing videos.  Doesn't seem to matter what it is.

Got my box in the mail today. AIIIIEEEE!!!

I still wonder why they split up the GB games like that. Keep it to a nice even 20 discs? (they could have made it 18 by taking out the arrange medley).

Boco wrote:

I actually like having each game on it's own disc(s). I know it's not as efficient, but it's always been a pet peeve of mine when multiple games get put on one disc. Or worse yet: when one and a half games get put on a disc (like on the Estpolis collection).

Heh, lack of efficiancy is a pet peeve of mine. I even will rebuy a slim 2CD set that was originally in a thick case, or two seperate CDs just to save the single CD of space (this happens a good amount with classical music). In Saga's case I'd certainly buy a single CD of Saga 1-3.

Are there any tracks that were not present on the original releases?

Ramza wrote:

lordskylark wrote:

Are there any tracks that were not present on the original releases?

I will be confirming this later. Thus far the answer is No. I also have not checked to see if the "track 0" on disc 3 of the SaGa Frontier OST is there or not. But I am checking for hidden tracks (at "track 0" and end of disc) on each disc to see if there's anything here that wasn't on the original releases. It is very unlikely that anything original musically exists on this set.

There are 8 bonus tracks on Disc 9 labeled "omake" on the cd.  I think it's 8.