Jam of the Day: Toberu mono (Instrumental) by Nobuo Uematsu (THE LAST STORY Original Soundtrack)

When I first booted up my import copy of The Last Story, I was greeted with a classy white title screen and the part of above song that starts at about 2:49. Needless to say, it left a great first impression.

Nobuo Uematsu is a legend and while none of his newer OSTs have grabbed me as much as a whole as his earlier works, there are enough individual gems in The Last Story’s soundtrack to be a worthy addition to his discography. Let’s hope we see the game come to North America someday.

Jam of the Day: Dancing Calcobrena by Máire Bhreatnach (FINAL FANTASY IV Celtic Moon)

Final Fantasy IV Celtic Moon is a pretty significant album. Released in 1991, it was the first arranged album to come out on the Square Brand label. It also features not one, but three artists (Máire Bhreatnach, Cormac Bhreatnach, and Ronan Browne) whose music would later be heard in Riverdance. And that is only part of the star power of this eight-performer album.

The Celtic style meshes extremely well with Nobuo Uematsu’s great score, though I admit that I’m partial to Celtic arrangements. And of course, it helps that they covered “Dancing Colcobrena” as it’s one of my favorite tracks from the OST.

Jam of the Day: Dragon Fight! by Nobuo Uematsu (Blue Dragon Original Soundtrack)

I’m back from camping!

So anyway… while packing up the camp site, I inexplicably had this song stuck in my head despite having not heard it in quite some time. Nobuo Uematsu knows how to make great RPG battle music arguably better than anybody. “Dragon Fight!” from Blue Dragon is no exception.

I’ve always really enjoyed the juxtaposition of a very synthesized bass sound with electric guitar leads and that is exactly what you’ll find in “Dragon Fight!”. Throw in a metric ton of arpeggios, and you have one rocking battle track.