It only took thirteen years...

[Cless]

It seems to have popped out silently, but the very first proper Tales arrangement album was recently released: Tales of Series: Battle Arrange Tracks. Traditionally, the standout tracks in Tales games tend to be the battle themes, and Sakuraba's the master of those, so such an album only seems natural.

This album doesn't stay strictly within any one style. Some tracks are very slow and moody while some are faster and rockin'. The theme seems to be just regular battle tracks, no boss stuff.

The tracklist as follows:

1) The arrow was shot (Tales of the Abyss)
2) Full force (Tales of Symphonia)
3) Inferia battle (Tales of Eternia)
4) Take up the cross (Tales of Phantasia)
5) Furnace of war (Tales of Vesperia)
6) Battle organization (Tales of Rebirth)
7) Bare its fangs (Tales of Destiny)
8) Confrontations (Tales of the Tempest)
9) Theme of battle (Tales of Destiny 2)
10) Alea Jacta Est (Tales of Destiny 2)
11) The edge of a decision (Tales of the Abyss)
12) Like a glint of light (Tales of Symphonia)

About half of the tracks consist of a VERY tri-Ace-like rock sound identical to the styles found in Star Ocean 3 and Valkyrie Profile 2. It sounds awesome. All the tracks using this style are very good. My favorite one is probably Full force, a track which I honestly found pretty meh in the original Symphonia. It already sounded a lot better in Dawn of the New World (arranged to sound more like something from Abyss), but it's even better in tri-Ace style.

Sigh. I really wish Namco would allocate more budget into Sakuraba Tales soundtracks. It'd be a huge improvement if they'd end up even half as good as this arrange soundtrack.

I'm pleasantly surprised with this. It's not as good as the best stuff on the legendary Star Ocean 2 and Valkyrie Profile 1 arrangement albums, but it's rare for me to have a CD where there's nary a track I don't outright like, and I'm incredibly picky when it comes to music. These are much better than the arrangements on the Tales of Destiny Director's Cut LE CD.

Apparently there's also a piano arrangement coming out in a few weeks. I hope it manages to live up to this one.

[wicked ryoko]

Awsome, though it's a shame about no boss music.  Fighting of the Spirit is simply classic.

[Cyllya]

Fighting of the Spirit wouldn't be on a Motoi Sakuraba album regardless. I don't know about most other Tales music, but that's one I know he had nothing to do with.

But I agree with the sentiment. Almost all of my favorite Tales battle themes are boss music, so this album seems pretty "meh" to me.

[Kajitani-Eizan]

this seems sort of... lame? as cyl said, most of the awesome themes are the boss themes, not the regular battle themes, though there are also quite a few good battle themes as well. imo, a list comprised of tracks like this would be much more interesting (obviously not all-inclusive):

decisive
fighting of the spirit
conclusion
nightmare
victim of fate - NOT! we've heard enough of that for a lifetime.
rebel against destiny
mid boss 2
heroic shadow
coup de grace
a resolution
vive memor mortis
fatalize
the end of a thought
scutum - fang/decisive battle
the edge of an oath
seeking victory
awkward justice
oracle - coercion
at the time of farewell
everlasting fight

also, they're missing celestia battle, and moar rebirth. abyss is, to me, a particularly glaring example of a game with pretty blah battle themes, but awesome boss themes.

a final dungeon collection would be nice, too... most of the final dungeon themes i can remember are pretty awesome. for example, abyss's (crimson pride).

[throughhim413]

I grabbed this CD, but I have to say that I was sort of... let down, I guess. The tracks or really hit or miss. For almost half the CD, I found myself wishing that they had just left the song alone (defeating, I realize, the point of a remix CD). Overall I guess I was just expecting more, likely as a result of listening to too much great stuff from OCremix.

Am I alone in saying that music has never been the main reason I love Tales? And even among the hit or miss music in the series, Sakuraba's contributions have been among the most ignorable to me. I usually really like about 3 Sakuraba tunes per soundtrack (typically including the final dungeon and final boss fight tracks). Still, a boss theme remix CD like Cyllya and Kaji have mentioned? I'd be all about that.

[me_001]

a final dungeon collection would be nice, too... most of the final dungeon themes i can remember are pretty awesome. for example, abyss's (crimson pride).

I agree! ToS and ToL had particularly beautiful final dungeon music.

[Cless]

*shrug*

Sakuraba's my favorite battle theme composer, so I pretty much like a large portion of his regular battle themes for Tales games. Most of these remixes seemed inspired to me (which I can't really say the same for ToDR DC Limited Ed. CD), and I just really love the tri-Acey sound he leaves in the rock ones.

Since this one's theme was regular battles, maybe a boss CD is in the works.

[Kefir]

Since this one's theme was regular battles, maybe a boss CD is in the works.

I'm pretty sure Confrontation from Tempest was used in boss battles...
Though another arrangement CD would be nice.