The Music

Falcom's music is like a smorgasbord of awesome

Aside from the games, Falcom's Sound Team JDK is also another reason why the Ys series stands out. People have called it techno-pop, butt rock, and J-rock, but most everyone that has listened to the music Ys: The Oath in Felghana or witnessed the introduction to the TG-16 CD version of Ys I & II agree that Falcom knows how to make sweet love to your eardrums with just the right sounds. There literally is something for everyone within the thousands of tracks that they have for their games.

The Ys series hadn't always enjoyed this kind of musical accompaniment, especially early on when MIDI and the hardware restrictions placed upon their work by consoles would limit the range of what they could actually do. But they did the best with what they had and most the results are pretty decent depending on what you hear them on.

The number of remakes have also given the range of music that the series is known for a degree of redundancy as well as a few pieces that are so dramatically different in their presentation while retaining just enough of the original to cast them in a nostalgic light among fans.

A new Ys title can herald both joy for fans and anguish for wallets everywhere. It never stops at just one.

When CDs exploded onto the scene in the mid to late nineties, however, the PC remakes of their earlier titles benefited from the increased space of the medium as well as the improving hardware. As some PC developers in the West sought to fuse Hollywood and games onto these plastic platters, Falcom apparently used the opportunity to improve on their previous work with a variety of changes...most especially with the music itself. Although not every release has seen an orchestrated re-imagining, Falcom's continuing pursuit of polish has led the series' fans into expecting the best with each new title.

Their work on the TG-16 CD versions of Ys I & II had demonstrated what they were capable of doing, but Nihom Falcom backed away from the North American market and had licensed a scarce number of their games for others to bring out here. Ys III would be the last Ys title to see an official release on this side of the world, although their musical work would be made more readily available with an incredible number of collections, compilations, and “perfect” score arrangements.

Japanese releases of game music isn't as new a phenomenon in the West as EA's relatively recent foray into the same is. Similar to what their entertainment industry has done with anime, their games have often enjoyed a broader set of options for fans to immerse themselves within each title and Falcom's Ys collection is no different.

It wouldn't be until Ys VI: The Ark of the Napishtim for the PS2 that many in the West would get another taste of the legendary series and its music.

To renumerate the number of Ys collections, past and present, would require an article of its own. There's simply that much music out there that Falcom's hyperactive Sound Team JDK has put out for the series making every new game a cause for celebration and an omen for the number of OSTs to come.