Mr. Motoi Sakuraba

[CocoeBiz]

Please post anything about Mr. Motoi Sakuraba.
Let's talk about his great music works etc!

[Dragon God]

Well, to start off.... I can say that Mr. Sakuraba is easily one of my favorite composers, despite the fact that I only own 3 of his albums so far.

One thing that makes Sakuraba's works stand out from the rest are how he makes his pieces either energetic to portray the feel of an epic battle (Star Ocean 2 and Valkyrie Profile shows this fact best) or soothing to portray the calmness of a town (Star Ocean 2 and Shining The Holy Ark shows this pretty well). So in the end, it's quite evident that Motoi Sakuraba is an incredibly talented composer; now that Square & Enix merged.... maybe they will pair him up with Mr. Uematsu in a future Final Fantasy title.... I mean, why not ? Their styles could compliment each other's.

That's my 0.02$ about Mr. Sakuraba... for now ;)

[CocoeBiz]

I think Mr. Sakuraba is very a talented composer and musician.
I personally like Shining the Holy Ark album which contains arranged game music, but this is more like "His Style" I think...Well I hope the album will be re-released someday but the record company has gone.

I've heard a rumor that Mr. Uematsu was at the live concert, but I didn't see him there. Maybe he was sitting somewhere far.... Um... I wish I saw him there!!
Maybe they might work together one day...in the future!?

[Anonymous]

Personally, I think Mr. Sakuraba is an incredible musician. Where the 1990's belonged to Uematsu, I feel that the present, and definitely the future, belong to Motoi Sakuraba. Not to say that his past works were not great;my favourite Sakuraba album is Shining the Holy Ark, but I feel that now Sakuraba is finally getting the recognition and respect he deserves. I'm definitely looking forward to anything he puts out.

Btw, is there any word on when that Concert CD is going to be available? I'd love to hear the arrangements of "Cutting Edge of Notion" and "Confidence in the Domination" since those were not on any previous arranged album. Moreover, is there any plans to release some sort of Golden Sun album? I know a lot of people who would be happy to see such.

--Marcel

[KujaFFman]

I really enjoy Mr Sakuraba's works. I'm not really fond of his progressive rock tracks, but now he composes more and more orchestra themes, and each of them are wonderful !! That's why I love the first volume of Star Ocean Till the End of Time soundtrack, the music is just *magic* ¦_¦ Same thing with some tracks in Valkyrie Profile (Into a World Becoming Impure and The Neverending Cycle of Reincarnation !).

I think that he's able to create a new fantastic and mystic world only with his music. He's so talented !

My favorite CD is probably Beyond the Beyond, and my favorite track must be Moment of Flight from the same album. Ten minutes of pleasure ! When I listen to it, I feel just like if I was flying.

[MajinBlueDragon]

Personaly, I LOVED the music from Golden Sun, and a few tracks from Golden Sun - The Lost Age caught my interest too. Most of the people I know say this sound track is okay, but I think Motoi did an awesome job on it, I would so love an OST or even an arranged version of some of these songs :D I want to be just like him, I want to be a musician for video games. Although I doubt I'd ever be able to live up to his masterpeices ;x aaaaanyways, he's a great composer and I truly respect his work.

[GoldfishX]

Motoi Sakuraba is definitely one of my favorite composers-His scores for Star Ocean 1, Star Ocean 2 and especially Valkyrie Profile among others are all among my favorites (along with their great arrangements). Very similar to Mr. Iwadare, Sakuraba's music covers a very wide range-One minute you're listening to a peaceful town theme, the next there's a raging battle or dungeon theme blasting through the speakers. There's a certain sound that can only be associated with his music and that's what keeps me coming back for more (In fact, I was actually disappointed with the orchestra in Star Ocean 3 because I felt his usual synth sounds were much more convincing-I would've rather seen them in there). Overall, Star Ocean 2 and Valkyrie Profile are my two favorite RPG's of all time and a good bit of the reason goes to the music in them. I'm really looking forward to picking up the upcoming concert CD.

If there's something that bugs me about his work, it's the way that his soundtrack releases are handled. For many of his early works, either no full soundtrack exists or only an arranged album exists-I'm still puzzled by the decision to make the second disc in Star Ocean Perfect Sound Collection a dialogue collection instead of the actual score (the first disc is fully arranged). Games like the Golden Sun games, Beyong the Beyond, Star Ocean 1 and Shining the Holy Ark need soundtrack releases. To make matters worse, the majority of the ones that do have releases don't loop. On paper, it doesn't sound like too bad of a problem (quite a few soundtracks do this). In practice, it's annoying that you can't settle into most of the Star Ocean or Valkyrie Profile tracks because they end so soon. It was especially disappointing to see the Star Ocean 3 OST's not loop with a four-CD release. If a 4-CD version of the Star Ocean 2 or Valkyrie Profile OST with looped tracks was released, I'd buy them in a heartbeat.

[squaretex]

A few months ago, a crazy idea hit me. "If First Smile isn't going to loop their Sakuraba soundtracks, why don't I do it myself?"

So I sat down to work, and in the end...both Star Ocean 2 and Valkyrie Profile were extended to three CDs each, with about 70 minutes of music per disc. The original releases are now honorably retired. :)

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do that with Star Ocean 3. For one, the pieces are longer this time around, so expanding them might result in a FIVE-disc set! :D Besides, most of my favorites made it onto the arranged albums. And wouldn't a looped version of "Highbrow" be overkill...? ;)

Speaking of "Highbrow", I just might go crazy with anticipation waiting for the concert album and DVD to come out. While I expect I'll love the entire thing, I can't help but wonder how that one piece sounds like live! :D

Hey, there's an idea...
Coco, is there any way you can host a brief video clip from the concert? :P

[CocoeBiz]

HI squaretex,

New infor about Sakuraba Live CD and DVD is here:
http://www.cocoebiz.com/sakuraba/news/index.shtml

:D

[squaretex]

First of all, thanks for the live release info, CocoeBiz. :)

Secondly, a couple questions about other Sakurabas...

As noted, Motoi's father did the cover art for the "Gikyokuonsou" album. But I think it also mentioned that the track names were from...Yoko Sakuraba? Can someone correct me on the name? I don't have the album in front of me now.

And as many of us are aware, "So Alone, Be Sorrow" from Star Ocean 3 stars Mio Sakuraba as a vocalist.

So, who are Yoko and Mio in relation to Motoi?

[Eriol]

Mio is his daughter, apparently.

[CocoeBiz]

First of all, thanks for the live release info, CocoeBiz. :)

Secondly, a couple questions about other Sakurabas...

As noted, Motoi's father did the cover art for the "Gikyokuonsou" album. But I think it also mentioned that the track names were from...Yoko Sakuraba? Can someone correct me on the name? I don't have the album in front of me now.

And as many of us are aware, "So Alone, Be Sorrow" from Star Ocean 3 stars Mio Sakuraba as a vocalist.

So, who are Yoko and Mio in relation to Motoi?

Hello Squaretex,

Thank you for your questions to Mr. Sakuraba. I'm sorry for this late reply as he has been extemely busy with his work.

Actually, it is Yuko, not Yoko. :)

Yuko Sakuraba is his wife and as Stephen has replied to the other question, Mio is his daughter and was the vocalist on "So Alone, Be Sorrow" from Star Ocean 3.

Thank you,
Kahori :)

[Anonymous]

Motoi Sakuraba is my favorite composer. I love all his works and listen to them all the time. I partically liked the Tales of Phantasia battle theme(ne 1 agree?) I also noticed that he works with Shinji Tamura in a lot of his works. I think those 2 r great composers and would like to hear the music in future games along with Nobuo. :lol:

[XLord007]

Anybody know who worked with Sakuraba on Tales of Symphonia? I'm pretty sure he's not the only composer who worked on the game.

[KujaFFman]

This must be Shinji Tamura...

[Emperorsblackbones]

Lately, I've been listening to Granada, Final Zone, and Zan. My favorite of his newer works is Valkyrie Profile. His most brutal, gut-wrenching cd, without a doubt, is Shining the Holy Ark.

I recently tried to get the Star Ocean Perfect Collection but the bidding on YJ went over $100!!! I should've bought it back in the days when it was cheaper.

[Abrahm]

Lately, I've been listening to Granada, Final Zone, and Zan. My favorite of his newer works is Valkyrie Profile. His most brutal, gut-wrenching cd, without a doubt, is Shining the Holy Ark.

Is that a good thing?

I love the arrangements he did for Shining the Holy Ark. I'll say that he didn't have to devote two whole tracks to that Rilix battle theme (Ceremony of Darkness part I & II). But the first one is the better of the two (though part II is fun to listen to sometimes).

Then again, I'm a bit biased here. I played the game extensively and I liked the original music, too.

[Anonymous]

Lately, I've been listening to Granada, Final Zone, and Zan. My favorite of his newer works is Valkyrie Profile. His most brutal, gut-wrenching cd, without a doubt, is Shining the Holy Ark.

Is that a good thing?



Yes, that is a good thing. I should've pointed out I like his sometimes menacing approach at arranging.

[squaretex]

And it doesn't get more menacing than Ceremony of Darkness, Part 2. :)

Now, if THIS album gets re-released - limited quantities or no - I'd certainly love to snap it up.

[Uber_User_And_Then_Some]

Motoi Sakuraba is indubitably my favorite keyboardist (Ray Manzarak is a close second, from The Doors). His music has to be some of the most atmospherically driven to stir and provoke, as well as evoke the imagination. His melodies are beyond par, and his music has no boundaries. This man is an uber-genius. Long live Motoi Sakuraba's sensational and fabulous music.

[Dragon God]

If no one has any objections, I will post my impressions about the Concert DVD, which I've thouroughly enjoyed.

Motoi Sakuraba, now among legends like Nobuo Uematsu, Koji Kondo, Koichi Sugiyama and Yuzo Koshiro; gets to have his very own live performance of his game music.

For those who don't know, Sakuraba started off his music carreer in a progressive rock band called "DÚja-Vu", which seems to have had some success over the later '80s and early '90s if I'm not mistaking.

So it's just logical that he chose to do a progressive rock performance. He wasn't alone though, he was accompanied by two men : Toshihiko Nakamura, the drummer and Atsushi Hasegawa, the bassist. Sakuraba had the amazing task of going through 10(!!!!!!!) diffrent synthezisers during the performance, which he did with amazing grace.

They opened up the concert with "The Dawn of Wisdom" from Star Ocean : Till The End of Time. I found the theme really well performed as all 3 performers made their seperate entrance, which was a delight to see and hear.

The second song performed was "Unfinished Battle with God Syndrome" from Valkyrie Profile. I've noticed right off that it sounded diffrent from what we've heard on the OST and arranged CD. The reason was that Sakuraba chose to use a diffrent instrument set(very similar to what was used for the Shining The Holy Ark Arranged) just for a change I guess, which was more than welcome.

One of the songs that really got to me was "Theme of RENA ~ Drum Solo ~ Bass Solo ~ ", it was just incredible. Motoi showed off his amazing skills as usual, after about 5 or so minutes, he and Hasegawa stop to allow Nakamura perform his wonderful drum solo. This lasts for about ten minutes. Once Nakamura is done, Hasegawa comes in and gets his bass guitar wailing away for a good 5 minutes or so. This is SO the best performance in the entire concert in my opinion.

One of the tracks that made a less successful transition to live was "Confidence in the Domination" from Valkyrie Profile. At first, I could not recognise it until it had past 30 seconds or so... but I personally loved it.

The concert ended with a medley of 2 Star Ocean songs, being "The Incarnate of Devil" from Star Ocean : The Second Story and an encore of "The Dawn of Wisdom" from Star Ocean : Till The End of Time.

This DVD also has a few sweet bonuses. You have several interviews of the trio, a live recording session and the lovely piano solo Sakuraba has done outside of the concert.

In conclusion, I find this to be one of the most worthwhile VGM collectibles to be released this year. Ms. Ezaki is to be thanked many, many times for convincing TEAM Entertainment to make the DVD region-free for full accessability to all Sakuraba fans worldwide.

I look foward to any new DVD releases of this kind in the future.

[Existensia]

I find the Star Ocean Perfect Sound Collection to be my utmost favorite of all Mr. Sakuraba's epic masterpieces. It has this odd quality that allows me to leave it running endlessly, providing me with countless hours of aural entrancement. Coming in a close second would be the Beyond the Beyond Original Game Soundtrack. Stylistically similar to the Perfect Sound Collection, but still a very different breed of brilliant composition.
I love all of Motoi's CDs so much, I always buy a pair of each. One to collect (and remain unopened) and one to open. Thus I have a Brand New/Sealed Star Ocean Perfect Sound Collection and Beyond the Beyond Original Game Soundtrack (both of which I secured at uncommonly fair prices). And of course, I have bashed up used copies for usage.

[XLord007]

My favorite Motoi piece is still "Fighting of the Spirit" from the Tales of Phantasia OST. There's an arrange of it on the TOP OST and a new version on the TOS OST, but the original is still the best (or the original on the OST anyway; I haven't heard the in game SFC or PSX sound).

[Sami]

I'm currently listening to Isaac's Battle Theme from Golden Sun. This thing is absolutely sweet, sometimes I didn't want to finish the battles so that I could listen to this, and sometimes I just went into a battle and left it on, using my GBA as portable music player. The lack of soundtracks for games on new Nintendo systems and especially the GBA has me somewhat discouraged about the possibility of those Golden Sun releases, though. I still hope they would make them. Any news based on the poll?

[Eriol]

I find the Star Ocean Perfect Sound Collection to be my utmost favorite of all Mr. Sakuraba's epic masterpieces. It has this odd quality that allows me to leave it running endlessly, providing me with countless hours of aural entrancement.

This album was not totally composed by Mr. Sakuraba. So you cannot attribute the whole album's music to him.

[KujaFFman]

But Mr. Sakuraba's style is really present, especially on arranged tracks ! (but that's surely because he did the arrangement alone...) By the way, anyone knows which tracks Yoshiharu Gotanda and Kazushi Satoh have done on this game ?

[datschge]

This album was not totally composed by Mr. Sakuraba. So you cannot attribute the whole album's music to him.

That's a common misconception. Star Ocean was solely composed by Motoi Sakuraba. The arrangement duties on the Star Ocean Perfect Sound Collection CD however were shared between Motoi Sakuraba (track 1, 3-5), Yoshiharu Gotanda (track 2, 6, 8. Besides that he also wrote the story for both Tales of Phantasy and Star Ocean, and has been the main programmer for both and Hiouden on SFC, he's still story writing and directing at tri-Ace, music wise he is responsible for the @MIDI CD series (http://www.atmidi.com/) he produces on his own and to which Motoi Sakuraba made some guest contributions (http://www.atmidi.com/sakuraba.html), I still hope Kahori-san will be able to pick up that series =) and Kazushi Sato (track 7, no idea where he is from, but I'm sure he is befriend to Motoi Sakuraba as well considering he seems to be befriend to everyone he's working for =P).

[Eriol]

Ok, then the arrangements were handled by different people.

They should change all those websites out there with the wrong information. heh

[KujaFFman]

Thank you datschge ! Yes Eriol, even my website must be changed...

[Existensia]

I find the Star Ocean Perfect Sound Collection to be my utmost favorite of all Mr. Sakuraba's epic masterpieces. It has this odd quality that allows me to leave it running endlessly, providing me with countless hours of aural entrancement.

This album was not totally composed by Mr. Sakuraba. So you cannot attribute the whole album's music to him.

I know I shouldn't.

Speaking of which, I believe the Manuever Cepter Granada album in the catalog (on Cocoebiz) is attributed solely to Motoi Sakuraba ("All music composed by Motoi Sakuraba") when Masaaki Uno and Yasunori Shiono (Sargent Wolf Band) worked on it. So if you're concerned about that, you may want to fix that. But I agree in that it shouldn't be done. Sorry to you and Mr. Gotanda =).


Information:

All arranged tracks (1-4) are arranged by Motoi Sakuraba.

Game composition/arrangement:
Motoi Sakuraba: Track 6-11, 13, 15-22
Sargent Wolf Band: Track 5, 12, 14

Sargent Wolf Band members are:
Masaaki Uno, Motoi Sakuraba, Yasunori Shiono

LINK: http://www.gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=TOCT-5933

(I can't validate it, but it makes sense, since Masaaki Uno worked on quite a few game music albums with Sakuraba during that timeframe (1989-1991)).


By the way, would anyone agree with me if I said Motoi Sakuraba composes the greatest VGM battle music?

[datschge]

I can't validate it, but it makes sense, since Masaaki Uno worked on quite a few game music albums with Sakuraba during that timeframe (1989-1991).

Masaaki Uno has been composer, director and producer at Wolfteam in late 1980's and early 1990's. Since when Camelot Software Planning was founded in 1994 he has been sound producer and coordinator for most Camelot games (and Motoi Sakuraba composed/arranged music for most of those games).

Disclaimer: I'm biased since I wrote the update on the page Existensia referred to. :wink:

[Anonymous]

My personal favorite is "Be Absentminded" from Tales of Phantasia.

[Claude C. Kenni]

Motoi Sakuraba is the number one RPG composer.
Not even Nobuo Uematsu can be compared to this legendary profile.

[Afronova]

You can't say that, because It's a question of taste, they are worth both.

[KujaFFman]

Yeah, and Mr. Uematsu is a legend too.

[Anonymous]

I'm currently listening to Isaac's Battle Theme from Golden Sun. This thing is absolutely sweet, sometimes I didn't want to finish the battles so that I could listen to this, and sometimes I just went into a battle and left it on, using my GBA as portable music player.
I've done that before too :)
Although I love his orchestrated work, I was also impressed by his Mario Tennis music (most notably the first two turnament themes) and the Ring Shot themes from Mario Golf.

[Anonymous]

Although in that case, it was me triggering the GS:TLA music test...

Anyone want to take a stab at naming the GS songs, in any case? When/if the soundtrack CD's come out, we can see who was the closest to what the songs were meant to evoke...

A few from me first...

From part one...

Karagol Sea ship: "The Wind in Her Hair"
Mogalla Forest: "Violation"
Main Venus Lighthouse: "Pursuit"
Altmiller Cave: "Broken Seal"
Sol Sanctum: "Sun and Moon"
Deadbeard: "Spite"
Final Venus Lighthouse battle: "Deadline"

From part two...

Boss theme: "Riptide"
Tundaria Tower: "Forgotten Legacy"
Aqua Rock: "Heaven's Tears"
Taopo Swamp: "Stupor"
Jenna's theme: "Faith for the Future"
Briggs's theme: "Conviction"
Mars Lighthouse: "Last Resort"

[Anonymous]

Can I speak to Motoi Sakuraba ??

[CocoeBiz]

Hello mkc,

Can I speak to Motoi Sakuraba ??
All correspondences are forwarded to Mr. Sakuraba via email as he is very busy with his work.

Thank you,
Cocoebiz

[KujaFFman]

By the way, he is doing the music of the new Tales of Rebirth for the PlayStation 2 ? This would be great !

[datschge]

I personally doubt Motoi Sakuraba was directly involved in any "Tales of" game after "Tales of Destiny" (he stated himself that he prefer being involved in all part related to the sound production (http://www.video-fenky.com/archives/000150.html)). Most of the newer "Tales of" sounds like re-arranged old material with further material surely taken from the vast library of music Sakuraba-san did in all the years he worked for Wolfteam/Telenet. Furthermore we shouldn't ignore that quite some music in "Tales of" games was composed by Shinji Tamura, and regularly arranged by completely different people. This would also explain why the main discography on Sakuraba-san's own website is only containing "Tales of Phantasia" and "Tales of Destiny".

(Super belated edit since I don't want google to pick my embarassingly incorrect statement all the time: Sakuraba and Tamura indeed did all major Tales games except the recently released Legendia, and besides composing their job also includes sound engineering.)

Any official statement regarding that all would be nice though *winks to Coco*
(B.t.w. Coco: The English discography contains "Waiz Kroiz Green" which correctly would be "Weißkreuz Glühen", an excellent soundtrack I might add.)

[KujaFFman]

But there are plenty of tracks in the recent "Tales of" games that sounds Motoi Sakuraba ! For example, "The Dreadnought" in Tales of Destiny 2. The most striking is Tales of Symphonia : the ending songs are just like the ones from Baten Kaitos.

What's more, the booklet of Tales of Destiny 2 Original Soundtrack credits him with Shinji Tamura in the sound staff. But there's no name for Tales of Symphonia... :/

[Anonymous]

Although in that case, it was me triggering the GS:TLA music test...

Anyone want to take a stab at naming the GS songs, in any case? When/if the soundtrack CD's come out, we can see who was the closest to what the songs were meant to evoke...

A few from me first...

From part one...

Karagol Sea ship: "The Wind in Her Hair"
Mogalla Forest: "Violation"
Main Venus Lighthouse: "Pursuit"
Altmiller Cave: "Broken Seal"
Sol Sanctum: "Sun and Moon"
Deadbeard: "Spite"
Final Venus Lighthouse battle: "Deadline"

From part two...

Boss theme: "Riptide"
Tundaria Tower: "Forgotten Legacy"
Aqua Rock: "Heaven's Tears"
Taopo Swamp: "Stupor"
Jenna's theme: "Faith for the Future"
Briggs's theme: "Conviction"
Mars Lighthouse: "Last Resort"Those are some nice names. I'm gonna use them!

Oh, and I thought that Baten Kaitos was some of Sakuraba's best work ever.

[Anonymous]

Is the song title 'Tense Atomosphere' (from the tracklist of Star Ocean Soundtrack) a typing error or completely intentional?

[Anonymous]

First off, I'll say hi, since this is my first time to the boards.

With that aside, I'll move on to the important stuff. Ever since I first played it at it's release, Shining Force III has been my all time favorite game. It took me a long time to figure it out, but I've come to realize that I am drawn to it's epic storytelling, action, and aesthetic. And it took me even longer to realize that the music was intrumental in this. While I wouldn't say it is his best work, it is what first drew me to Motoi Sakuraba. I was most surprised when I discovered that he also composed for the Star Ocean series of games. Star Ocean: The Second Story is another of my favorite games. Again, the epic nature of the game is really what draws me to it. Motoi Sakuraba's unique style of composition is unlike anything else I've heard, and makes him one of my personal favorite composers (alongside Koji Kondo and a few others).

Keep up the good work.

[Elrohir]

That last post was me, by the way. Forgot to log in. -_-*

[Mikal Aganti]

I just got Mario Golf: Advance Tour and I'm very impressed with its music. (Sakuraba did this music too, right? The composition sounds remarkably similar to Golden Sun, except a little lighter in theme.)

[princesselushia]

Hello,

First off, let me say that Motoi's music in Star Ocean Till the End of Time Music is FANTASTIC!!!!! I love "Expiration, Cutting Edge of Notion, and Highbrow." His music beyond any other music composers out there!!! The BEST song I ever heard from this soundtrack is Powerbroker!!!!! That song along stands out in my opinion. I can't wait for the video game itself reach in U.S.A.

:) Anyway, does anyone know when this game comes out in the U.S.??I'm curious about that.

[Anonymous]

He is definitely, hands down, my most favorite composer of all time. I never heard any of his music from Star Ocean, but currently saving up for both CDs. I have got a taste of his music of Star Ocean from VGmusic.com. But I love his work with CAMELOT the best. Right now there is a rumor of Golden Sun for the GC, I would die for his music for a GameCube title to Golden Sun. I bought his CD to Baten Kaitos, and boy did he do a great job, especially with The True Mirror. I've played the CDs so much, and I don't even own the game. I can't wait untill November when the game comes out, and the music is put to action. You can say I took a gamble buying a soundtrack to a game I never heard the music to, but I know that Mr. Sakuraba did it and I knew it was quality. He also did a great job with Mario Golf Toadstool Tour, Mario Golf Advance Tour, & Mario Tennis for the N64. I just now basically just named all the games I own with his music, and all of them are great. I can't wait to see and hear his music in the future.
PS: I loved his music from Golden Sun: The Lost Age so much, I use my GameBoy as a media player now. When I go to work on jobs I don't normally care for, I slip my GameBoy Advance in my pocket, turn on the sound test mode, and I just flip through songs in order.

[XLord007]

Hello,

First off, let me say that Motoi's music in Star Ocean Till the End of Time Music is FANTASTIC!!!!! I love "Expiration, Cutting Edge of Notion, and Highbrow." His music beyond any other music composers out there!!! The BEST song I ever heard from this soundtrack is Powerbroker!!!!! That song along stands out in my opinion. I can't wait for the video game itself reach in U.S.A.

:) Anyway, does anyone know when this game comes out in the U.S.??I'm curious about that.

Wow, that's some mighty fanboy/girl-ism you got going on there.

Anway, the game comes out in late August.

[Eriol]

I just got Mario Golf: Advance Tour and I'm very impressed with its music. (Sakuraba did this music too, right? The composition sounds remarkably similar to Golden Sun, except a little lighter in theme.)

Yes. If the developer is Camelot, Motoi is very likely its composer.

Unfortunately, his Nintendo music do NOT get soundtracks. Nintendo is very tight-fisted about its copyrights.


His arranged music is worth the money. His OSTs, while mostly decent, are not worth the money.

[datschge]

His OSTs, while mostly decent, are not worth the money.

*cough cough* What did you just thought to say such as 'site admin' in the 'official Motoi Sakuraba forum' linked from 'Motoi Sakuraba's official English website'...

Besides this I strongly disagree anyway (if you need a hint, e.g. Baten Kaitos is an actual OST).

[Smeg]

A foolish remark indeed.

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Unfortunately, his Nintendo music do NOT get soundtracks. Nintendo is very tight-fisted about its copyrights.

That doesn't mean you can't pull out your A/V cables and capture music straight from the games! No one seems to have given Mario Golf (GBC) any love--It has some of the most jammin' 8-bit ever!

If you folks don't mind a shameless plug, PGC's Live365 radio station, Louie FM (http://www.live365.com/stations/jonnyboy117) has quite a few of Mr. Motoi's recent Camelot/Nintendo tunes on the random playlist (Golden Sun & Mario Golf series). Yeah, I know, we need some Mario Tennis action.

[Anonymous]

If no one has any objections, I will post my impressions about the Concert DVD, which I've thouroughly enjoyed.

[snip]

In conclusion, I find this to be one of the most worthwhile VGM collectibles to be released this year. Ms. Ezaki is to be thanked many, many times for convincing TEAM Entertainment to make the DVD region-free for full accessability to all Sakuraba fans worldwide.

I look foward to any new DVD releases of this kind in the future.

Man, am I ever so happy to know another fellow from New-Brunswick enjoys Sakuraba as much as I do! Which NB region are you from? :)

Btw, I've actually made two remixes of Star Ocean 2 in my spare time:
http://gamemusic.ca/other/Yura-SO2_sad_rena.mp3
http://gamemusic.ca/other/Yura-StarOcean2-Cuddle.mp3

Later guys!

[EgM]

Doh, the earlier post was from me. I don't like posting messages as Guest. Thought it would've logged me on automatically after I registered :D

Eric E. Hache
http://www.gamemusic.ca