Ancient Relic Me

Saturday, April 22, 2006 » gaming music thought

Wild Arms Complete Tracks came out a couple weeks ago, and I'm listening to it now after managing to get the MP3s online. I actually already own the original Wild Arms soundtrack, but this one is a double-CD set that contains every track from the game1. I'm going to have to order this one as well once I get a chance, as the soundtrack is still surprisingly good and it has a lot of great songs (including some I'd forgotten about) that weren't in the original relase.

I was sort of shocked when I realized that this soundtrack's release coincides roughly (give or take a year) with the 10th anniversary of the game's release. Wild Arms was the game I bought along with my PlayStation as I eagerly awaited Final Fantasy VII at the end of that summer. The last RPG I'd played was probably Lufia II on the SNES, and Wild Arms ushered in the next generation superbly with its classic gameplay, gorgeous 2D graphics, CD-quality audio, and that intro! Sure, FMV is commonplace now, but back in 1997 that two-minute animation set to that unforgettable whistling theme was the greatest thing I'd seen come out of a console.

Listening to this soundtrack again is a weird reminder that revelatory experience was almost ten years ago. I wonder if all of today's gaming kiddies playing their Kingdom Hearts II and Alter Code: F, the remake of the original Wild Arms, are having half as much fun.

1 The song that plays over the credits is still regrettably missing. I'm guessing that the song was substituted in the U.S. version for the Japanese vocal song that's on both soundtrack albums.