Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Do You Like Castlevania Music?


Of course you do! Even the most redundant/useless Castlevania games have bang up soundtracks, and Konami's issuing a super box set on March 24, as seen at Konamistyle. For 18,900 yen (a bit over $200) you get 18 CDs, plus 1 DVD with interviews and stuff. The game listings:

Disc01 - Castlevania (NES), Vampire Killer (MSX), Castlevania II (FDS version), Haunted Castle (AC), The Castlevania Adventure
Disc02 - Castlevania III (FC version), Kid Dracula (FC), Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge
Disc03 - Super Castlevania IV (SNES)
Disc04 - Castlevania Chronicles (X68000), Dracula X (PCE)
Disc05 - Castlevania Bloodlines(MD), Castlevania Legends(GB)
Disc06 - Castlevania Symphony of the Night (PSX/SS)
Disc07 - Castlevania (N64)
Disc08 - Castlevania Circle of the Moon (GBA) Castlevania Chronicles (PS)
Disc09 - Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) Castlevania Aria of Sorrow(GBA)
Disc10 - Castlevania Lament of Innocence (PS2)
Disc11 - Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow (DS)
Disc12 - Castlevania Curse of Darkness(PS2)
Disc13 - Castlevania Portrait of Ruin (DS)
Disc14 - Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
Disc15 - Castlevania Order of Ecclesia (DS)
Disc16 - Castlevania Judgment (Wii)
Disc17 - Akumajou Dracula The ARCADE (AC) Akumajou Dracula The MEDAL (AC)
Disc18 - Michiru Yamane Arrange Album

That's pretty ridiculous. The listing notes that this is the first time that the entire soundtracks from the MSX Vampire Killer and Castlevania Legends have been released on CD. Some of these are pretty tough to find - Order of Ecclesia's official OST was only included with a special edition available from Konamistyle, for instance. It also includes the music from the Saturn version of Symphony of the Night. And I know the pachislot game got its own soundtrack release despite being terribly redundant (most of the tracks were from Curse of Darkness), I don't think the arcade game ever got a proper release, either. Just note that some tracks may not be complete - the full OSTS for Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness were 2 CDs each, where they've been paired down for 1 each here. Hopefully they'll improve the soundtrack quality for the GBA releases. The line-in recording I did for Aria of Sorrow years back sounds better than the official release, for some reason.


It is missing the music from Castlevania Rebirth, but that's because it's coming on a separate release, bundled along with the soundtrack to Contra Rebirth. Why no Gradius love? There's also a drama CD for Symphony of the Night, but...eh. I wonder how much anybody in Japan really cares about these?

1 comment:

  1. I can't say I'm a big Castlevania fan, but their scores are superb. If this set sells well enough, then hopefully Konami will be forthcoming with similar sets for the music to Gradius/Parodius and Goemon and other games. Take note Square/Enix and Nintendo!

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