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That album is the foulest thing ever to spawn from the Suiko universe. Get the Celtic album (which is made of Win and Good) or Orizzonte, because Orizzonte has a very sexy version of Withered Earth and that alone merits it major cool points. Witherered Earth didn't get enough airtime in the original game.

At least get the vocal version of Beautiful Morning from Faraway Star since the song was utter cheese to begin with and some silly Japanese vocals actually fit.

I'm also glad you realize the awesomeness that is Currents. Get all the versions. No one can have enough Currents goodness.

My biggest issue with Beautiful Morning was that even though it was the best "happy" theme in the game, it gets played so often because Nanami just can't help herself but wake you up and get the song to play. There were two moments that I really thought it wasn't really necessary to play the song (both in the first Greenhill mission) but they still did. Unless we're talking about Currents, you actually CAN have too much of a good thing.

I'm amused that they created so many vocal arrangements to "The Oppressed" since it was a song that was liked only by me, at least in comparison to all my friends who played the game. Everyone pimped Reminiscence, Beautiful Morning, Gothic Neclord and everything else BUT The Oppressed and was more than pleased when I heard Due Fiumi and Currents, especially after hearing as how sextastic Currents eventually became.

Let me list down five of my personal favorites from the plethora of Suikoden Arrangements I have stored here. Of course, unless I mention otherwise, all versions of listed song are good and you should get them because you're missing out on some quality music, you buffoon.

1) Currents (Orrizonte) - While the original is still _THE_ greatest RPG vocal I've heard to date, and it's hard to find a version that disappoints, (outside of Faraway Star that is) the Orrizonte version ranks as the best arrangement they have. While it's arguable that the Celtic Album has a better acapella version, there's something more powerful about this one as it doesn't have the reverb and humming that the Celtic version overplays a bit. Still, it never hurts to have all of the versions of this amazing song available anytime you want, but if you were to download one, this should be it. (PS. Just go and download Currents. Any Suikoden II fan should be ashamed not to have it.)

2) Distant Skies (Celtic) - While the ~Reprize~ version is tailor made to be dramatic, I think that woodwinds make for a better overall arrangement for a song as good as this. My issue with this song and all versions of it is that it ends on a flat tone, almost as if it was interrupted. I'm sure that was intentional, but I can't shake the feeling that it shouldn't have been. confused

3) Withered Earth (Asian) - Nothing makes an Asian themed song even better than erhu's and koto's. (At least I think those are Erhu's and Koto's. I could be wrong) Suikoden II didn't play this song enough as it was one of the better town BGM's (Which is saying a lot since all town BGM's in the game were good and suited for their respective towns) and I'm happy that Kiyoshi Yoshida decided to include it in this album.

4) Beautiful Morning (Piano) - I'm not a huge fan of the song and I apologize to Mel for that but I do have to admit that it translates very well to Piano without killing the joy that the song tends to emit. It's jazzy but lacks the same synthetic feel that most songs from the Faraway Star album tend to bring, which proves that not all Japanese jazz is godawful. Th

5) Everyone's smiling faces (Celtic) - The only way for any Suikoden game to end. The only effin' way. Think of a huge army with total victory and a united country waiting for you back home, cheering their lungs and hearts out with a grand celebration being held in honor of all the heroes, both living and dead, who marched under one common flag. It's so grand in scale and so filled with life and energy that it's hard to imagine a Suikoden game ending in any other way.

Edit: I shouldn't type when I'm tipsy. sweatdrop

Okay.

I'm definitely all in on the Currents love. Currents is a beautiful song in any form, though the Orrizonte version if the version I would consider the prettiest.

So much of the stuff featured on all three of the Celic collections are great. The Asian collection never seemed to strike me in quite the same fashion, though.

Sadly, aside from the Celtic ones, so many of the Suikoden arrangements that I've heard are mixed bags, they almost all feature at least one spectacular song, in some cases two or three. The Ongakushu and Vocal Collections both suffer from this problem.

To bring some other new things to the table, I really like Ogre Grand Repeat, which are arrangements from Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre. I can't really name any exceptional tracks because they're all pretty good, though things do sort of wind down at the end. It's the sort of thing that makes me wish they'd release more Ogre Battle arranged works, because there were so many great songs in it that weren't featured in Grand Repeat.

The last FF arrangement I enjoyed was Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: White Melodies. Another sort of hodge-podge of random mostly laid-back styles. I think I'm probably most partial to Different World Ivalice and Unhideable Anxiety, but the whole CD makes for, I think, pretty pleasing background music when reading or whatever.

One of the oldest things I have, and still listen to lots, is the Final Fantasy Symphonic Suite. Seven orchestrally arranged tracks featuring a number of songs from the first two FF games. It has the Grand Repeat problem of everything being great.

Is the Final Fantasy VI Piano Collection any good? I want it but I didn't know if it was any good.

The Piano Collection's a mixed bag but leans towards good songs being rendered very well. A lot of people will gripe about Strago, Spinach Rag and sometimes even the rendition of the Kefka theme, but they're very good songs if given time. What really let me down was The Coin Song; not because it isn't done well, but because it was recorded at such a low volume that forces me to crank the knob up and is immediately proceeded by the jarring Waltz de Chocobo intro annoys me.

Fanfavorites like Terra's theme, Kids running through the city corner and Aria de Mezzo Caraterre won't disappoint and some may be left in awe after hearing either of the songs. The Decisive Battle is also amazing to hear in piano and it taunts me everytime I hear it because I can't play it for the life of me on my own. The Mystic Forest, Mystery Train and Gau's theme are all welcome tracks to listen to as well even though they aren't as experimental as the others.

Also: The songs aren't played by Uematsu which will account for how different and fresh they feel.

I found Brink of Time a rather disappointing portrayal of Chrono Trigger's music. I don't mind jazzy music, but the smooth relaxed feel of jazz really isn't fitting for the songs they chose(aside from the Millenium Fair theme, which I never really liked. So it has an unfair advantage here). The original songs had that sense of adventure to them, but that's not something these remixes can say. So I prefer the original midi quality OST or the 1999 OSV to Brink of Time.

The FF6 piano collection is quite good, though. I don't actually own it -- I bought it for a friend. Before buying it, I decided to download a few songs to make sure it was worth the money. I was quite satisfied with most of the songs on it. In fact, my biggest complaint was that Rachel's theme wasn't in there.

Really? "The Opressed" is probably my favorite in-game Suikoden song. The vocals make me a very, very happy girl. I love Reminiscense and Beautiful Morning (Gothic Neclord's okay, but not the best), and they take close second, but can't beat out The Opressed. Due Fiumi? YES.