Review by Samantha Capes

A lovely soundtrack with beautiful vocals by Jenice Quatrain. The same theme tune runs through a number of the tracks but it is very pleasing to the ear and played in different instruments, rythms and variations. It's a must buy for Professor Layton collectors. The insert booklet has a number of screenshots from the movie in it and is displayed very nicely.

The second Professor Layton game soundtrack is better than the first! The only disappointing thing is that a few of the songs are the same as the first: Don Paulo's Theme Puzzle solving musics However, there are many new charming tunes, and as always, a very nicely presented insert with artwork and screenshots inside. The track list is provided on a seperate piece of paper. Any Layton fan will love this CD.

The music from the Professor Layton games can sometimes be a bit repetitive, still, the theme tune to this game and the charming songs inside make it a worthy buy. Especially if you are a Layton fan. The cherry on top of this item is the insert. It does not hold the track listings, those are seperate, but it includes artwork and screenshots from the game. It makes the CD presentation even nicer for fans.

This is my favourite Layton soundtrack so far! The songs are beautiful and can easily be listened to as instrumental pieces, because they are less repetitive than most game music backgrounds. And there seem to be less repeating tunes on this CD, probably because some of the tunes have changed since the first Layton trilogy. My favourite track is #21, and I have played it many times over and over. I also really like the main theme. As with all the Layton CDs, the insert is filled with artwork and screenshots. And the track listing is provided on a seperate piece of paper behind it. Well worth the money for a fan.

There are two full sized songs on this CD. The first is a romantic/calming ballad which is beautiful, and the second is a very catchy pop song. In fact, Track 2 is my favourite song out of the two, and I have listened to it many times since getting the CD. It's addictive. XD! There are also instrumental versions of these first two tracks, without vocals. This makes 4 out of the 6 tracks. Track 3 is a guitar backed song with what I think are dodgy vocals. I don't really like this song very much, and it's a shame that the First Press 'bonus track' seems to be the same track, with slight differences. These two tracks are the last two on the CD. However, this aside, this CD is very nice indeed. Not just the first two songs and their instrumental versions, but the cute free sticker I received with my First Press edition. Basically, the image of Professor Layton and Luke on the front of the CD is a clear sticker sheet. It's placed in front of the inlet with the singer on the front. Inside the inlet are the track listings, and some nice captions/photos of the artist. The sticker is only available in the First Press edition, as stated in the item description. I bought this CD because I am a Layton fan and wanted the Theme Song from Eternal Diva and the sticker, but this is a really nice item and I would be happy to buy it even if it had nothing to do with the fandom. It only loses the point because 2 out of the 6 songs I personally dislike.

A lovely soundtrack perfectly suited to a riddle-game like Professor Layton. French style accordians and composed music accompany this OST. If you're considering buying this then I assume you've played the game already, and have heard the brilliant music. If not then listen to some samples, the OST was made as background atmospheric music for a game set in a British village. It does the job very nicely. As for the CD, well it is very pretty and well displayed. It comes with a booklet with many illustrations which acts as the front of the CD as well. Impressively, it is a booklet of illustrations only with 4 pages, as you get a seperate folded sheet of paper with the track listings in it (written in Japanese). This is a very collectable item, pretty and with great music.

I think I was a little harsh on this CD when I first listened to it, because I expect to get right into a song. With a few of these songs, you have to listen to quite a bit of intro, but when you listen to them in full you are in for a treat. One track on this CD I find absolutely amazing is Track 3, which is powerful and I could listen to it over and over again. And I also like tracks 5 and 10 a lot as well. These are versions I like better than their originals. This is great for the collection of any Star Ocean fan, but also if you have a penchant for techno/classical/jazz.

The first trilogy of Star Ocean games had such a great soundtrack, I was hoping this game's wouldn't let them down. And it hasn't. With Matoi Sakuraba in the composer's chair, my hopes were well placed. This is a very good OST! There are a mix of different tunes perfect for Star Ocean fans. And if you enjoy techno/classical music, you will enjoy this. I'd even say some of the tunes (particually the long boss battle tunes) are a little jazzy too in this game. Obviously if you played Star Ocean 1-3 and didn't like the music, then this is of the same style and so you probably won't like this either. I can only remember a couple of vocal songs, but that's because game OST's tend to be instrumental so the vocals don't distract you. I really think this is worth buying for RPG lovers/ Star Ocean lovers. ESPECIALLY if you own the game. This CD set is beautiful. The disks and backing have character pictures in manga on them in colour and then blue/white. Instead of being plastic, the case is a lovely cardboard material on the outside. And there's also a bonus DVD too. Well worth the money.

Track 9 on this CD is the vocal theme tune from Star Ocean 3 Till the End of Time. That's why I bought this CD, not because I am a huge fan of ballad songs or pop music. I knew that track 9 was brilliant- but I was very glad to discover the other songs in this collection were just as. A few of the tracks at the beginning are similar in style, but there are a lot of cracking songs on this CD. You expect a collection of best ballad songs to be samey, but variation of backing music and an angellic singing voice make this a unforgettable listen. I highly recommend getting this CD just for one track in particular, which has become a better favourite of mine than the one I bought the CD for in the first place! "The Glory Day" is a heavenly track which is a mixture of church-like chorus and beautiful solos/free style singing by MISIA. What I really like about this CD, other than the wonderful moving music, is track length. All of the songs are over 4.30 minutes. A lot of them are over 5.30 minutes. So you get more of these great songs and are never left wanting. The CD case is nice enough, the booklet with full lyrics to all of the songs in Japanese text which is enough. This CD will suit fans of slow, romantic J-Pop songs, and perhaps those who appreciate a good tune and fantastic voice. I bought this for one song I loved and ended up with a whole collection of brilliant songs. I think next I will try buying one of her albums.

I wish I had bought this before I bought the BGM CD. This is a very good collection of Sakura Wars songs. There are 11 fantastic vocal songs each at around 4/5 minutes long. And most of the BGM songs are a good length too. A few songs are intermission tunes at 10 seconds each, but this is a high quality selection of songs from the TV series. I would still get the BGM, because the beautiful character songs on there are not on this CD, but get this CD first. It's a real treat for fans of the series. Every song causes me to reminisce about the anime and game. The CD itself is gorgeous! It is a little hard to open at first, but as long as you're careful it should be fine. The illustrations and screenshots inside are fantastic. Basically, this should be part of your collection.

This is for fans who like the vocal tracks of dragonball, not the theatrical music. I absolutely love this OST, with the cute singing voices of young Goku and Muten Roshi in a couple of the songs. The Red Ribbon Army song is also very catching. All of the tunes are very addictive and will have fans singing along. The theme songs are also on this CD. It's pretty much the best CD you can buy if you just want all of the long vocal tracks from Dragonball without any annoying 50 second instrumental songs. The booklet is pretty standard, with lyrics to the songs in Japanese in black and white. The front of the booklet is the front of the CD, the back contains a picture of the gang from dragonball, and then Goku on a cloud with Chi-chi hanging onto his tail for dear life. The back of the CD case contains a cute picture of Goku again. It's a very pretty case with some very fun music inside it.

I bought this CD because I am a Star Ocean fan and love the music from the series by this composer. But I was really pleased that the Valkyrie Profile songs I wasn't familiar with were just as good. The crowd in the background is not noticable at all, only at the end of the song can you hear faint applause or a whistle of approvement, and you can hear why when you listen. This CD is a fountain of techno/classical music genius. It contains many brilliant songs like 'Highbrow' in their original format performed Live. And other songs which have been altered with catchy drum of keyboard solos in them. There are two beautiful full piano tracks as well, so there's plenty to keep fans entertained. You will enjoy this music regardless of whether you have only played one of the two games. The CD booklet is quite good as well with screenshots and photos of the concert.

Shadow Hearts contain a variety of songs, from piano to classical to a bit of jazz. But if I had to describe it I would say it reminds me of ancient tribal music with modern techno sounds. Track 22 on the second disc was more than enough to tempt me to buy this whole CD. It's only 1.30 minutes long, but it's one of the most beautiful piano tracks I have ever heard on a game OST. I also really like the character tunes and the guitar songs. The tunes for towns and villages are calm and uplifting. However, there are some annoying songs on here, mainly battle tunes that don't really have a recognizable beat (it sounds like a lot of noise) but when the composer gets songs like that right they are great to tap your feet along to. Annoying songs on this CD set are rare. I defintiely think it was worth buying. Certainly for Shadow Hearts fans and those who like various types of music. One of the last songs on the second disc is a Japanese vocal track which I think is very nice.

Most of the Tracks on this CD are 1.5 minutes long, with a couple under 50 seconds and a few around 2.5 minutes. The songs are shorter than I would have liked, but then that's probably why there are 30+ tracks for such a good price on one CD. The music itself from a fan's point of view is awesome. As music in general goes it's not an amazing score of music- but it's still quite good. The CD really earns respect for the last 8 or 9 songs, (mainly the TV series opening theme song and character theme songs). A couple of songs other than these are also really catchy. I'd say you're getting about 10/15 really good songs on this CD. The rest are average, but for Sakura Wars fans, this BGM is worth getting definitely. OTHER INFO: There are no lyrics in any of the songs on this CD. The CD comes with a nice inside cover booklet acting as the CD cover. It contains the song titles and some nice screen captions.

This is a fantastic arrange album. My favourite is "Stab the Sword of Justice" which has been completely revamped. The songs range from 4.5 to 6.5 minutes in length. The changes can be instrumental or vocal- and in many cases they feel like improvements- or certainly more lengthy versions than those in the OST. The possible downsides to OSTs are that since music in games play in loops, the songs on the CDs can be over in 2 minutes or less to avoid repeating the same thing just to keep the track long. But in this CD there is no danger of repetition or short tracks. This is a great CD that fans of the music of Star Ocean will really be able to appreciate.

If you listen to the original soundtrack of SO3 (2 Cases and 4 CDs) you will notice that a few tracks are missing. That's because the original game of SO3 IN JAPAN did not contain the extra areas such as the Aquatic Gardens. Therefore those theme tunes and boss battles and many more (11 in total) were missed out of the original soundtrack. And since the OST is only in Japanese- you will have to buy this Director's Cut OST in order to get those extra tracks from the Japanese Director's Cut version of SO3 (which is the normal SO3 for everywhere else in the world). Is it worth it? Yes it is. The extra songs on here are wonderful- including my favourite dungeon score of the Aquatic Gardens. This single CD shouldn't be your first Soundtrack purchase from this series, since for only 1000yen more you can get the 30-40 tracks from either volumes of the Original Soundtrack, but in the end fans of this series and its music will have to buy it. More beautiful music from Matoi Sakuraba that Star Ocean fans will recognize and love.

This is OST 1 of 2 for the first PSP PoPoLoCrois game. I loved it. I only usually buy soundtracks from my favourite 2 RPGs, and it takes something quite special to make me buy from other series. I believe PoPoLoCrois and it's OST is very special. Especially the opening theme tune, which I love. The first track is J-Pop style with vocals and the rest is a wonderful mix of instrumental music. I like the originality of this OST because of the originality of the game itself- that really shows through in this OST. The product itself comes with a single disk and an insert which also acts as the cover. The insert opens up like a 2 page booklet, and there's only space for the titles- but there is also really cute original art spread around the text as well- includng many of the characters from the game. Very nice indeed for those who love the artwork from the game like me. I think if you've played the game and liked the soundtrack, this is a good product to buy. There is one other OST to buy as this contains the first 28 tracks of the OST, but you should buy this one first for it's addictive opening main theme tune.

CD 2 of 2 for the PoPoLoCrois first PSP game soundtrack. The music is wonderful. This CD contains 2 J-Pop style songs with vocals and the rest are great tunes from the game. I really like the cute original style of music from this series. What I like about this product as opposed to the first OST, is the booklet. The cover of this CD case opens out into 4 pages of a booklet, rather than the back and front 2 page booklet of the first OST. Because of this there is twice as much pretty original artwork- including 2 pages covered with a lovely image. All the images are in full colour. But the best thing about this soundtrack is the music. Addictive at it's best, this is a wonderful soundtrack. The only downside is that they didn't release the 2 CDs in one set- so you have to buy them seperately. This is the second CD of 2.

This OST is a joy to listen to. If you've played the game you will know you the music and how amazing it is. This particular soundtrack, however, has the opening song on it too, by a J-Pop band. Sometimes these get missed out and sold seperately, but not here. The case is so pretty. It folds out with secure flaps- and the interviews and writing (and lyrics in Japanese to the opening song) are written here. It's very shiny and inside are walls of screen captions from the new anime cut scenes the later games boast. I think this OST was great value for money because I could finally afford the OST for the original game, but again with the enhancements of the new game. The DVD included is great. It includes the opening movie and trailer for the First Departure game, and character scenes from the original SO1 game. So I'm very happy with this products. Thanks. ^___^

This OST is very pleasing aesthetically. It opens out and has a shiny front cover. The inside is covered in screen captions from the anime cut scenes in the game (which are gorgeous). The interviews and any lyrics that would go in an insert are cleverly arranged on the flaps of the cover. The DVD features the opening movie and trailer for the Second Evolution game, and characters scenes from the original SO2 game. This CD set- 2 CDs and 1 DVD- is ideal for people who want to buy the orignal soundtrack of SO2, but even if you have the original soundtrack already, buying this means you will still get the special DVD. Also, you will get the opening song from the J-Rock band- which is only from Second Evolution anyway. Some OSTs leave these songs out and make you buy them seperately. Not this one though. I think this item was incredible value for money. It looks (and obviously sounds) brilliant. I'm very happy with it. ^_____^