Eminence Online

First, though, a quick rundown on outlets. Some higher-profile music is available digitally via iTunes, particularly the more recent Final Fantasy orchestral albums. But for the most part, you'll need to pick up a CD. For more recent, and more commercially available albums, you need to head to Play-Asia, CD Japan, or Amazon Japan. For lesser-known Japanese albums, possibly out of print, or special order material, you can find some great buys at VGM World and Otaku. Then, of course, there are the concert groups that sell their own merchandise (CDs and DVDs) on their own sites. Eminence is one of them. Most of the Western and International orchestral groups will distribute their music through their own sites.

Finally, if you're after some terribly old, obscure, out-of-print soundtrack, your two best options are eBay and Yahoo! Japan Auctions. A caveat for each site: the former has a lot of potential for bootlegging, so be sure to keep an eye out for that. If it doesn't seem legit, if they don't reference the catalog number, or if you can't find any information about the album advertised on sites such as VGMdb, it's probably a bootleg. The latter has a general stipulation that most sellers follow: they only ship to other people in Japan. Thus, if you're hunting obscure albums on Y!J, you will likely need a middleman service, such as Shopping Mall Japan, to help you out. This makes an already pricy purchase that much more expensive.

Without any further ado, let's talk about what albums you should consider in starting your own orchestral VGM collection.

Let's face it: any well-rounded collection of VGM, orchestrated or not, is bound to contain at least two albums from the Square Enix empire. You need at least one Final Fantasy and one Dragon Quest album, right? The big question is, which ones? If you are a completionist, the task of adding all orchestrated albums from these two franchises will run you a good 1000 USD, particularly if you want all recorded versions of the Dragon Quest Symphonic Suites. So let's try to narrow it down to the best of the best.

Generally, there are three different recordings for Dragon Quest Symphonic Suites. The earliest came from the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, and only the first four Dragon Quests had their scores performed by this group. Then, from 1991 onward, composer Koichi Sugiyama worked with the London Philharmonic, re-recording I through IV, and adding V, VI, and VII to the mix. When Dragon Quest VIII was released, Sugiyama switched back to Japan, now opting to work with the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra. The Tokyo Met did their own recordings for all eight Dragon Quests.

Fans and audiophiles argue about which recordings are the best; many believe the London Philharmonic takes the cake. Personally, I'm content with the Tokyo Metropolitan recordings, and if you're not too taken aback by the occasionally normalized and remixed bits of audio used to create a "perfect" (instead of "real") sound, you should probably go with the Tokyo Metropolitan albums as well. An added bonus is that these CDs, printed between 2005 and 2007, are still widely available.

There are at least four "best of" albums, from the different recordings, that Sugiyama fans can search for; none of them are in print these days, but if you want to taste the music to each entry in the series, they're good to have. If you want to just pick up a couple albums, I would immediately recommend the symphonic suites from the Zenithia trilogy (IV, V, VI). You can't go wrong with any one of these albums. 

As a final aside on Dragon Quest, if you're interested in chamber music, Sugiyama recently released one string quartet album and three brass quintet albums for the Dragon Quest series. These are all worthwhile, as well.

Jumping from Sugiyama to Uematsu, there's a lot to cover. And it's truly, truly difficult to decide which albums you'd want on a limited budget. Not every individual Final Fantasy game has had its own dedicated orchestral arrangement album. But if you're interested in individual titles, here's some information for you. Final Fantasy I & II had a Symphonic Suite album released, and it's been reprinted twice since its original release. Final Fantasy III had one of the most interesting arranged albums I know of: "Eternal Legend of Wind" operates as a "symphonic poem." Alongside a full orchestral performance, there are vocal performances, English narration (despite the game being the last to be received in English-speaking countries), and an incredible performance of the album's title track. This is a personal favorite; if you're looking for something really different among the FF discography, get this album.

The next orchestral release was FFVI's "Grand Finale," performed by Italy's Milan Symphony Orchestra, and arranged by Shiro Sagisu (composer for the Evangelion anime). This album featured, primarily, character themes. Sagisu's arrangements for this album attempted to be antithetical in terms of what you'd expect from an orchestra. Instead of epic and moving, the songs were subtle and, at times, anti-climactic. Many fans tend to disparage this particular album, but it's certainly worth looking into if, again, you're looking for something different.

We'll skip over VII's excuse for an album (a "best of" OST with three orchestral tracks at the end? What a joke), and move right on to "Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec." This orchestral album only re-used two tracks from the OST (which were both, mind you, recorded with an orchestra). The rest was all original, and it is, in my opinion, the best-suited orchestral album for all of Uematsu's hundreds of compositions for the FF series.

After VIII, it seems Square (Enix) stopped devoting full orchestral arrangements to individual titles (though FFIX "PLUS" OST contains orchestral music used in the game's FMV sequences). Instead, they began to record all manner of "best of" albums, be they live performances or studio recordings. The first of these was the two disc "02202002" (recorded on February 20, 2002, hence the name). After this came Dear Friends, More Friends, and Distant Worlds. These are all great albums in their own right, but I could never quite get into the albums that jumped from one game to another. They serve as great "overview" albums, but again, my highest recommendations go to III and VIII. Those were spectacular orchestral albums.

Outside of FF and DQ, Square Enix still has plenty of good orchestrations awaiting you. The most recent offering was "drammatica," a collection of music recorded by the WDR Radio Orchestra in Germany. The album features music from composer Yoko Shimomura, and includes tracks from Front Mission, LiveALive, the "Mana" (Seiken Densetsu) series, and the Kingdom Hearts series. Some will disagree, but in my mind, this is a must-have. Another winner is an orchestral album "Let Thoughts Ride On the Wind of Knowledge." It features orchestral arrangements from the first Seiken Densetsu (known to Americans as "Final fantasy Adventure"), originally composed by Kenji Ito. A combined OST/arrange album called "Seiken Densetsu Sound Collections," which is still widely available thanks to NTT Publishing, encompasses the entire recording. This is another must-have for Square Enix fans young and old.

If you have any interest in composer Masashi Hamauzu (the composer for the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII), you may want to purchase Coi Vanni Gialli (from Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon). Impressionism meets cute fantasy bird mascot meets full orchestra: what else could you ask for?

If you're a fan of Capcom's Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban) series, you're in luck! Capcom has financed not one, but two full orchestra albums for the series, as well as one jazz album. These are great albums, and the majority of the arrangement was done by Lunar/Grandia composer Noriyuki Iwadare (who also worked on Gyakuten Saiban 3).

The GameCube version of Smash Bros (known as "Smash Bros DX" in Japan) had a promotional album released in 2002 that was distributed with a Nintendo magazine. The album featured a recording of an orchestral concert for the game. If you love classic Nintendo themes, it's worth the heartache to hunt down this rather obscure treat.

Speaking of obscurity, the "holy grail" among orchestral VGM collectors is the "Game Music Concert" series. Also referred to as the "Orchestral Game Concert" series (abbreviated OGC), this five-part series was funded by Nintendo from 1991 to 1996 and are recordings of live concerts that took place year after year in Japan. Only games on Nintendo platforms could get representation, but there is an incredible variety of great music from all manner of games: Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Sim City, Wizardry, Mother (Earthbound), Kirby, Donkey Kong Country, Super Metroid, Dragon Quest, Lennus (Paladin's Quest), Seiken Densetsu, Chrono Trigger, and so much more. The arrangements were primarily handled by Koichi Sugiyama and Yoko Kanno, whose original compositions were featured on each of the five albums. And please note, I call them "holy grails" because they are very difficult to procure. To get one for a reasonable price, you have to look long and hard. There's usually someone selling the albums on eBay for exorbitant prices (200 to 300 USD), but bargain-hunters should be able to get these albums for under 100 dollars. Nonetheless, you're really committing to a large financial burden when you go after these albums.

Another rarity that is worth your time and attention is the Shenmue Orchestra Version album. Released before the game and its original soundtrack, this album was the first taste Sega/Yu Suzuki fans would have of the once-hyped game. Say what you will about the game, the East-Asian-influenced orchestral album is a treat for the ears.

There are dozens of other orchestrated albums from Japan, and I cannot touch upon them all. If you were to pick any three to five albums from the above-mentioned, you'll have made a great start toward your own collection of orchestrated game music, at least from the land of the rising sun.

A lot of original soundtracks for Western-developed PC games are scored by orchestras. Hence, there is little need for a secondary "arranged" album, when the OST provides film-score-quality music. Unfortunately, in many cases, these excellent scores are only bundled with a limited edition package of the game. One composer notorious for having rare "bundled" albums is Jeremy Soule. Whether it's Baldur's Gate, Guild Wars, Icewind Dale, or Morrowind, Soule's music is generally hard to come by. The few exceptions I know of are the Morrowind and Oblivion soundtracks (chapters III and IV in the Elder Scrolls series), which are both available via digital downloads. The Halo soundtracks use a variety of musical setups, but there are some full orchestra tracks mixed in. Usually, however, it's just a string section with guitar, drum, and bass. And of course, there's that choir of singers.

The best place to find Western orchestral game music is from individuals groups, projects, and web sites that have created their own concerts (and subsequent recordings) available for purchase digitally or physically. Some even come with concert DVDs, which is a great bonus. The obvious place to start, since you're already at this site, is "Echoes of War: The Music of Blizzard Entertainment." This two disc set of music, recorded by the Eminence Orchestra, features music from the big three that Blizzard has provided the world: Warcraft (including World of Warcraft), StarCraft, and Diablo. You can go ahead and call me out for bias, since I'm writing this article for Eminence Online, but this is a great set of music.

Other concert recordings to consider are Symphonic Shades (the music of Chris Huelsbeck, recorded by the aforementioned WDR Radio Orchestra in Germany), PLAY!, and to a lesser extent, Video Games Live. Video Games Live (or "VGL" for short) doesn't always use a full orchestra, and project coordinators Jack Wall and Tommy Tallarico tend to prefer rock band setups to symphony orchestra, though they gladly use both.

When it comes to "collecting" something like music, it's important to keep your own tastes in mind. Don't fall into the trap of believing that a larger collection is necessarily a better collection. Music collectors of all stripes know that it's far too easy to fall into the obsession of buying up everything they can, which soon leads to a big debt. You want to be responsible in your purchases, and I highly recommend not spending 300 USD on one album.

I would also recommend trying to diversify your collection, particularly by region. Of course, that's your choice, but you can find small, subtle differences between the orchestral performances recorded in London, Tokyo, Sydney, Los Angeles, Cologne, and other places. Each area has musicians trained by different schools, and despite music being the universal language, it's safe to say that we all have our own musical "dialects."

This article mentioned 30+ albums to check out, and there are hundreds more to find if you dig deep enough. And, over time, even more great albums will be recorded and published, so be sure to keep an eye out here at Eminence Online and elsewhere for more orchestral game music!