[Album] Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack Complete Box (TOCT-26221~9)

Catalog Number: TOCT-26221~9
Release Date: Mar 28, 2007
Release Type: Official Release
Release Price: 15000 Japanese Yen (JPY)
Media Type: CD (9 discs)
Classification: Original Soundtrack
Published by: Toshiba Emi
Composed by: Yoko Shimomura
Arranged by: Kaoru Wada
Performed by: Hikaru Utada

Gamingforce Audio link with full tracklist and times.

Over its relatively short history, the Kingdom Hearts series has gone from being an improbable oddity to one of developer Square Enix's flagship series. The massive success of the games in Japan and abroad has also raised composer Yoko Shimomura's profile, with adaptations of her work now performed by symphony orchestras worldwide and an upcoming assignment on a Final Fantasy title.

In retrospect, it's not surprising that given the relative brevity of the series and its enduring popularity, Square-Enix would release a Kingdom Hearts box set. After all, fans had been clamoring for more music, whether looped versions of the abbreviated Kingdom Hearts II tracks or rare songs from the "Final Mix" re-releases. As one of the first series box sets for a Square-Enix flagship title, the Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack Complete Box was eagerly anticipated by fans.

The first two discs are an exact repressing of the five-star Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack; nothing more need be said about them other than the fact that Shimomura's music remains as vibrant and impressive as ever.

The next four discs feature an expanded version of the Kingdom Hearts II Original Soundtrack, and they go a long way toward remedying some of the earlier release's problems. All of the tracks are now looped, which allows Shimomura's music to breathe and gives many of the tracks a greater weight, especially the aggressive battle songs on Disc 6. In fact, the darker music on the OST is especially well-served by the looping, and it remains an album highlight. The Gummi Ship suites are also welcome in looped form, as they are equally strong and were not available as fan-made PSF2 files.

A few unreleased tracks were added to the OST, such as "Arabian Daydream" and "Byte Striking." It's easy to see why the songs were left off in the first place, as they closely resemble other tracks with simple tempo changes, but they're a nice addition. The soundtrack still has deep problems unaddressed by the new release; the synth still sounds very flat compared to the prequel tracks, the vocal songs remain dreadful, and many of the incidental world themes are either dull ("Night of the Cursed") or simple rehashes of material from the previous game ("This is Halloween"). "Darkness of the Unknown" is still very weak despite (or perhaps because of) its odd looping.

The next two discs were also eagerly anticipated by fans, as they feature music originally written for the Game Boy Chain of Memories title, by far the most obscure and least-played game in the series. As Chain of Memories was upgraded to PS2 technology for the "Final Mix" of Kingdom Hearts II, the music was upgraded as well. There was no official soundtrack for Chain of Memories, only a grainy fan-made recording, so the music's inclusion in the set, with upgraded synth, was one of the box set's main selling points.

Re: Chain of Memories is a mixed bag. There is some truly wonderful material there, with a lovely rearrangement of "Destiny Islands" and an impressive suite of final boss music leading the way. At the same time, there is an incredible amount of rehashing--many of the tracks are identical to the original game save lower synth quality. Many of the strongest tracks from Chain of Memories were remixed for Kingdom Hearts II; their inclusion on discs 7 and 8 with reduced sound quality is therefore less than satisfying. There's only about 50 minutes of original material spread over the two discs, and the rehashing means that a listener going through the set could easily hear the same song three times with only minor variations.

The final disc, though, is a treat--a combination of the heretofore rare "Final Mix Additional Tracks" and new music written for the KH2 "Final Mix." The KH1 tracks, which feature dark, brooding music that was later mixed down for KH2, are good, but the KH2 tracks are especially impressive. Shimomura contributes a pair of bouncy, festive pieces for Christmas Town that are album highlights, alongside more dark music for the game's additional areas and new secret ending.

All in all, despite its weaknesses, the Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack Complete Box is well-worth the purchase for any series fan, as it remedies many of the technical problems with the KH2 release and provides a healthy helping of unreleased music. There are easily 5-6 great compilation CD's lurking in the box set, so only the high price of importing a copy should deter fans from aquiring a copy.

Rating (out of *****)
Kingdom Hearts: *****
Kingdom Hearts II (Complete Box version): ****
Re: Chain of Memories: ***
Final Mix: *****
Overall: ****

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I thought Re: Chain of Memories' synth was better than that of KH2, and in some cases, better than KH1. For example, I prefer the R:CoM version of "Night of Fate" over the original. I think R:CoM serves as a good summary of tracks featured in both KH1&2, but with some new tracks shining through ("Lord of the Castle", "Scythe of Petals", "Struggle Away", "Dash-A-Long").

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