Baten Kaitos II Original Soundtrack Announced!

[Fatigue]

OK, 2006 IS Sakuraba's year! :D

Again, my post from SquareSound:


Tri-Crescendo and Team Entertainment have collaborated once more to bring forth an album release for the upcoming Baten Kaitos II ~The Wings of the Beginning and the Heir to the Gods~. Motoi Sakuraba was responsible for crafting the Baten Kaitos II Original Soundtrack, and from audio heard in movie clips, we can see that he keeps close to his work on the first game's score. Still, who knows what surprises Sakuraba has up his sleeves! The three disc set is proposed to be released on March 24, 2006 under the composer's Japanese promoter and record label, Team Entertainment, and will contain the catalog number of KDSD-00096/98.

Enjoy!

[Fatigue]

And....here's the tracklist!


Disc-1
1. Le ali del principio
2. 千年の欠片
3. トキノコヘ
4. The valedictory elegy
5. Poacher
6. Chaotic dance 2
7. Iconoclasm
8. The valedictory elegy ～guitar ver.～
9. Evidential material
10. The true mirror ～Orchestral ver.～
11. Ruinous commander
12. Crystal abyss
13. Relieve
14. 傀儡の主
15. 二つの棺
16. 騎士の墓標
17. Ruins
18. 隠された魂との鼎談
19. いにしえの故郷
20. 風と地の境界
21. 邂逅

Disc-2
1. 苔花大柱
2. 荊棘なる干と矛
3. 均衡の光と闇
4. 紅緋草
5. 果てのない夜
6. The broken manas and my one and only
7. Contradiction
8. 鋭雲なる庭園
9. 水雲
10. The edging away
11. 脅威なる座主
12. 旭光貫流
13. 乏しくもあらず秋の夕風
14. 豊穣の郷
15. Emotional blackmail
16. ホロホロ鳥
17. 天海花御堂
18. Ancient slaughter
19. 白き心の強さと遥か未来への道
20. ソマイマレツァ
21. シンムナフォスン

Disc-3
1. 伝承の人形
2. 漂石塊
3. 蒼穹の天蓋
4. 古魂の言霊
5. Terrible technology
6. 清月夜雨
7. Into the spiral tention
8. Shogyo-Mujo
9. The dead end creatures
10. Tears of compassion
11. A road to the dignified future
12. 安らかなる四季 I
13. 安らかなる四季 II
14. 安らかなる四季 III
15. 呉越同舟
16. 蜃気楼の地平線
17. 水面にたゆたふ月の影
18. 見護る二つの光
19. 邪見行の始まりと裏切りへの前奏

Hopefully I'll get around to translating this stuff! Excellent cover art too! :D

(Oh my god! "The true mirror ～Orchestral ver.～"! *dies*).
(I guess that "The valedictory elegy" is the battle theme).

Don't forget to preorder your copy here! (http://www.vgmworld.com/catalog/index.php?table=cocoebiz_music&item_num=711&PHPSESSID=1d3f751b8950709ca1c86235334ff615)

[Fatigue]

Courtesy of KujaFFman and Squaremusic (http://www.squaremusic.ffworld.com/), here is a BETA translation of the tracklist:


CD1
01- Le ali del principio
02- A Thousand Years Fragment
03- Toki no koe
04- The valedictory elegy
05- Poacher
06- Chaotic dance 2
07- Iconoclasm
08- The valedictory elegy ~guitar ver.~
09- Evidential material
10- The true mirror ~Orchestral ver.~
11- Ruinous commander
12- Crystal abyss
13- Relieve
14- Master's Puppet
15- Two Coffins
16- Gravestone's Knight
17- Ruins
18- Three Men Talk of the Hidden Soul
19- Ancient Hometown
20- Boundary of Wind and Earth
21- Chance Meeting

CD2
01- Giant Moss Pillar
02- Dryness and Halberd Turning Into Thorns
03- Balance of Light and Darkness
04- Scarlet Crimson Grass
05- Endless Night
06- The broken manas and my one and only
07- Contradiction
08- Garden Changing Into Violent Cloud
09- Water Cloud
10- The edging away
11- Threat from the Head Priest
12- Rays of the Rising Sun Flowing Through
13- Abundant Autumn Evening Breeze
14- Good Harvest of the Village
15- Emotional blackmail
16- Holo Holo Bird
17- Heaven Sea Flower Temple
18- Ancient slaughter
19- Strength of the White Heart and Journey to a Distant Future
20- Somaimaretsa
21- Shinmunafosun

CD3
01- Traditional Puppet
02- Floating Rock
03- Canopy of the Blue Sky
04- Old Soul's Power of Language
05- Terrible technology
06- Pure Moon Night Rain
07- Into the spiral tension
08- Shogyo-Mujo
09- The dead end creatures
10- Tears of compassion
11- A road to the dignified future
12- Peaceful Four Seasons I
13- Peaceful Four Seasons II
14- Peaceful Four Seasons III
15- Bitter Enemies in the Same Boat
16- Horizon of Mirage
17- Shadow of the Moon on the Water's Surface
18- Two Protecting Lights
19- Origin of the Wicked Way and Prelude to Betrayal

Thank you, Kuja!

Plus, don't forget to listen to some great samples of Baten Kaitos II here (http://www.team-e.co.jp/products_new/kdsd-00096-98/index.html). Sounds great!

[cubed]

I just got my copy of the first Baten Kaitos album. And I'm realy impressed. Makes me want to buy the game.

I'm definitely going to order a copy of this one as well.

Disc 3 track 4 is really great (from the samples on the Team page)

[Fatigue]

I just preordered Baten Kaitos II and the original Baten Kaitos (my old copy was a bit 'battered') from Kahori!

I really do hope that this is a worthy successor. I also hope that no pressure from Tales of the Abyss has taken its toll in the production. I would hate that!

[Fatigue]

More samples of Baten Kaitos II (in fact, the entire first disc!) (http://mediamax.sumiya.co.jp/review.asp?cd=KDSD96)

[gamemusicfreak]

Thanks! Sounds great, I can't wait for it to arrive.

[Origin]

Well, I got the Baten Kaitos II soundtrack yesterday, and since I haven't seen any threads for it, I've decided to start one and give my opinion on the soundtrack and hopefully get the opinions of a few other people (no idea how many people on this forum have the soundtrack...). Prepare yourselves for a long and probably rambling review.

I won't bore you all with a long and pointless introduction. I should note that I haven't played the game, so that undoubtedly takes something away from writing a review. But since I don't speak Japanese and the game doesn't come out until the end of September in North America, I'll have to wait...

The first track on the disc, Le Ali del Principio is what looks to be the main theme of the game, and there's little doubt that more effort probably went into this track than into any other track on the album. The main draw for this song is that it is sung by Sakuraba's daughter, Mio. To put it simply, this song is stunning and easily one of the most emotional songs I've ever heard in any videogame. The basis for the song is a good, touching melody, but it is undoubtedly Mio's tender singing that really gives this song its power. Another powerful part is at 2:46 when the strings powerfully restate the theme, after which the song slowly finishes itself. Basically, if you can listen to this song and not feel any emotion, then you're some kind of monster (sorry, but it's true).

The rest of the first disc mainly houses the battle tracks of the game. Since the battle themes to the first Baten Kaitos were so great, these ones certainly had a lot to live up to. Were expectations met? In a word: yes.

Let's start with the main battle theme: the valedictory elegy. This theme certainly takes after the true mirror in that the main melody is played by a lively violin (as well as having certain other similarities). I'll come right out and say it: I believe this theme to be better than "the true mirror" in just about every way. The melody seem more inspired and energetic, and it lends itself better to this style of violin playing. This song is just plain fun to listen to. There's also an electric guitar version to this theme, as there was for "the true mirror" in the first Baten Kaitos OST. And while it is certainly well done, I feel that the e. guitar rendition of the true mirror was somewhat better than it.

Chaotic Dance 2... oh boy. A new version of "Chaotic Dance" from the BK OST... I think it just completely fails. Part of the charm of the first Chaotic Dance was that most of the lyrics were basically unintelligible. In this version, you can understand a fair amount of what is being said, and it ain't exactly pretty. I can't say that I'm nuts about the part of the song where the male singer is going "uh uh uh". And partway through the song a female singer starts singing "praise the Lord"... uh, what? Are the enemies in this game members of a religious group or something? Somehow I doubt it.
This version is also weaker than the previous one because all of the singing comes at the price of a much weaker melody and beat than in the original.
I don't know what Sakuraba was trying to achieve with this new version of Chaotic Dance, but whatever it was, he failed.

There are two orchestral battle tracks on this disc. The first is "Poacher", which is a somewhat slow and more subdued battle track. It is undoubtedly very good, though; the orchestration is dead on and the theme itself is quite good. The next orchestral battle track is an ochestral version of "the true mirror". Isn't this what we were all waiting for? Yes, and it turned out great. Not much more to say about it than that.

Then there are of course the electrical guitar battle themes. The first is "Iconoclasm". I found this track to be quite good, if not particularly inspired or interesting. The next track I found to be much better: "Evidential material."
You know after the first 4 seconds that you're in for something good. The short opening melody is repeated three times and then the song goes on to other things; it really serves to grab your attention, and it's very catchy. The rest of the song is very high energy, and you'll hear the short opening melody repeated in the background throughout parts of the song.

The last battle track, "Ruinous Commander" is definitely something different and I really like it. In fact, it's easily one of my favourite tracks on the album. The vocals are just superb and really give it a dangerous, unsettling feeling. The song is slow and takes its time building up, but there is a definite power underneath it all. Just great.

There are a couple of non-battle tracks on the first disc, but I only want to mention track 14. It's a great militaristic-type song, and I didn't find anything else like it on the rest of the soundtrack (although there were a couple of these types of songs on the first BK OST).

Disc 2 is easily the weakest of the three discs. Basically, most of what is on this disc blends together and isn't particularly inspired or interesting, and only a couple of tracks stand out from the rest. Since BK II uses many of the same locals of the first BK, it's not too surprising that many of the themes used in the first game are redone for this game. Most of them are good, if not better than the previous versions. A couple of them are worse. One is definitely an improvement, though: track 16, the redone version of the "Holo Holo" theme. This one uses tribal chants much more prominently than the previous one, and therefore succeeds in creating that "tribal feel" much better. Track 17 is also worth mentioning. It's a very good arrangement of the Tenkai Flower Temple track from the first BK, but I'd have to say that I like the original slightly more (nothing to take away from this great track, though).

Finally, we come to disc 3. This is another great disc, but it would take a long time to go through every noteable track on this disc, so I'll just pick a couple of them that stood out for me.

"Tears of compassion" is a very nice piano piece. I don't think it quite compares to some of the piano songs on the first BK OST, but it's still very good nonetheless.

"A road to the dignified future" can best be described as the "Brave Way" of this album. It's fantastic. Sakuraba really knows how to do the whole pomp and circumstance thing with his use of brass, and this one is excellently done.
Thankfully, the brass is not overpowering to the point of being harsh and annoying like some of the tracks in the first BK OST were.

Then there are the three tracks which are slightly different versions of each other. I never liked these kinds of things in game OSTs since it just makes it look like the composer is lazy, even if there's a greater reason behind it all. The main melody used in these three tracks is nice and pleasant, but I don't exactly feel that it needed to be repeated three times in a slightly different way.

Track 15 is absolutely fantastic, and really grabs your attention right from the beginning with powerful vocals, brass and strings. This song is just pure energy with almost no quiet moments; it's really infectuous. I'm not sure for what this was exactly used in the game, but I'm sure that whatever it was used for, it served its purpose excellently.

Then you get to the couple of ending themes on the disc. I won't go into detail on them, but they're all quite good, as is to be expected, using the standard piano, strings and a couple of other instruments that Sakuraba has used for the ending themes for both games. I'll probably have to play the game before I can fully appreciate these tracks, as is usually the case with ending themes in videogames in general. I have to say, though, that my favourite ending theme from both games (as of right now) is "Deep Sea of Tears" from the first Baten Kaitos; the piano, violin and vocals in that were just superb.

So, to finally bring this long review to a close, the obvious question will be asked: is this soundtrack as good as the one for the first game? I would have to say that no, it is not. The number of memorable tracks is just less, especially when you factor in the fact that this OST is on three discs while the one for the first game was on two. There are no new songs that match the brilliance of "Limpidly Flow" or "Many-Storied Building of Sand". There are no great new classical guitar pieces like "Bellflower" and "Gentle Wind". There are several other things that could be nit-picked, but I'll leave it at that.

Having said this, however, this is still a fantastic OST that definitely deserves to be purchased by anyone who likes Sakuraba or who liked the score to the first Baten Kaitos. Some may disagree, but I think that the battle themes are the highlight of this soundtrack; they are at least as good as the ones from the previous game, and I would even say that they are slightly better. Get this OST for these tracks if for nothing else.


And while I'm on the subject of Baten Kaitos II, I'd appreciate it if someone could help me out on a couple of points:

1. Where can I find a full English track list?

2. Does anyone plan to translate the liner notes at some point in the future?
I just have to know what they say! (or at least the page that I assume is Sakuraba's comments)

3. Is there an English translation for "Le Ali del Principio" somewhere on the net?

[Fatigue]

There was already a Baten Kaitos II thread, but I merged both threads together. :)

For your questions

1) There is a full English tracklist. Just check above.
2) Sakuraba's comments are translated by Andrea Mardegan himself:


After finishing the composition of the first Baten Kaitos soundtrack I hoped that a sequel would be released. I was happy for the fulfilment of my hopes, but the composition had become a difficult task. For example the battle themes were not a problem because I was told to keep the same style of the previous ones, but for the other themes I didn't know if I should have followed the same image or created a completely new one.
I think that both who played with the first title and who kindly purchased the first soundtrack will understand what has been maintained and what is new.

The main theme, that is the song, is the piece I like best. The lyrics is in Italian since I thought Japanese does not fit the concept. First I had the lyrics written, then translated to Italian. The composition and the lyrics were made at the same time and so I wrote the piece without knowing the lyrics and the lyrics were written without having listened to the melody. The singer is my daughter.

She was nine-year-old at the time, and she brilliantly bore the special pressure of the recording.

I would like to congratulate her that no effects had been used for making the voice more beautiful, as used so much recently.

For several reasons this song is particularly precious for me and for my family. The parts that have been live performed are: violin, oboe, flute, distortion guitar, the opera-like solo voice and the weird laughs of my daughter’s music teacher, and the piano in my house.

I will be very happy if this music will leave something in your hearts.

I hope an arrange album will be released.

(Compiled from the Motoi Sakuraba & the Wolfteam/Telenet Legacy)

3) Le Ali Del Principio Lyrics are here:


Lyrics by Yuko Sakuraba; Translation by Andrea Mardegan

With my hands full of collected flowers
I put them on the lake

The light, in darkness, is reflecting on water
And the moon, here, is two

If I offer so many pink flowers
To the shining moon
He will begin the journey

I climb on the wind, the woods are singing
The moonlight, sure, is guiding me
To the next world

But even if he vanishes
All in white
I'm not afraid

Because here they are

[Origin]

Ah, thanks so much Fatigue! All three questions answered. Just one thing I want to know: are the rest of the liner notes going to be translated? Since I don't speak Japanese, I can't know for sure, but it looks like there are comments from several other people as well.

Interesting that Sakuraba hoped for the release of an arrange album. I'm really not sure that this album would need something like that, though, since it's already of such high quality (not that I would protest, of course!).

And I guess I must have missed the previous thread (or forgotten about it), I apologize.

[Fatigue]

Ah, thanks so much Fatigue! All three questions answered. Just one thing I want to know: are the rest of the liner notes going to be translated? Since I don't speak Japanese, I can't know for sure, but it looks like there are comments from several other people as well.

Interesting that Sakuraba hoped for the release of an arrange album. I'm really not sure that this album would need something like that, though, since it's already of such high quality (not that I would protest, of course!).

And I guess I must have missed the previous thread (or forgotten about it), I apologize.

There are comments from 3 other people, but as far as I know, they won't be translated (as of now).

In one of Sakuraba's interviews, he mentions that after he finishes a project, he 'hopes for a sequel'. I wouldn't mind a Baten Kaitos arrange album, but the trouble would be how to arrange it. :p

[datschge]

I wouldn't mind a Baten Kaitos arrange album, but the trouble would be how to arrange it. :p
That's never an issue for Sakuraba. :p Something like Beyond the Beyond AST's huge medley style would be nice to have once again.

[Origin]

There are comments from 3 other people, but as far as I know, they won't be translated (as of now).

I guess I'm slightly disappointed but it's really not that big of a deal.

What Sakuraba REALLY needs to do is an arrange album of the Golden Sun games. Even if the arrangements themselves weren't anything spectacular, just the greatly improved sound quality would make it worth getting. An orchestral version with real instruments would be especially awesome. Of course, the games themselves are several years old now and the chances of this actually happening are very slim unless a new Golden Sun game is released at some point.