Eh, I'll have to get back to you on this. I just got Wild Arms Million Memories (I haven't dug into it much yet) and I pre-ordered the Star Ocean one which is set for release in March.
I mainly ordered Wild Arms because it's been twelve years since the last main release (2007 with XF - which makes me feel older than I have a right to) and it appears Naruke had a hand in this one. One of the tracks I did listen to was a remix of an older piece, which I picked up on very quickly, so I don't know if Naruke did anything new or she's credited because of reprises. I wish I could hear the pieces in context, but I don't believe the game is available outside of Japan. Sometimes knowing the context helps and perhaps that's too important to me at times, but I think it would help with this release.
I think the Star Ocean one has a lot of reprises (previous battle themes) if what I've seen posted to YouTube is accurate so far. It would be nice if some of the older pieces from SO2 are included and are maybe looped this time around (I'd like a looped version of "Stab The Sword Of Justice" already) but I'm more interested in the newer pieces.
As for what I think about mobile game soundtracks in general, it's probably no surprise that my negative perception of mobile games is mainly shaped by all the intrusive things games include these days. I see these games mainly as pieces of software that're mainly meant to fleece people of money, but at the same time I realize my opinion means nothing because I don't buy games anymore. Hell, I don't even want to own the games I grew up with. I had them all, it was stupid, I thought it brought me closer to a group of people I thought were my "friends," I wasted a lot of money, nostalgia is basically chasing the dragon, I want to forget all about it, and having the music on disc is more than enough for me at this point.
Still, this reminds me of how some guy on YouTube was upset at Wild Arms Million Memories, saying it "ruined" the series. Look, this is from a Wild Arms fan, but that franchise was ruined WAY before they made Million Memories. Additionally, given how the series flamed out on the PSP and PS2, what did anyone expect them to do with the property? I don't know how anyone could justify putting (or expect Sony) to put a console sized budget behind a WA game again. Not trying to be a jerk here, just trying to be realistic.
With that said, and despite my opinion of mobile games in general, I don't think a soundtrack being from a mobile game would make me look at it in a different light. If the music is good it's good, if it's bad it's bad. I will say that I'd probably be more excited if they cut down on taking tracks from older games and reusing them (I believe things like the Castlevania pachinko [sp?] machine OSTs are guilty of this as well) but the "kind" of video game certain video game music comes from is irrelevant to me at this point since the games themselves (outside seeing the context of some VGM pieces) mean nothing to me anymore.
Additionally, and I know this will come off as very pretentious, I kind of hate calling VGM VGM. I know its more-or-less just a convenient label to categorize something, but since video games mean so little to me know I just want to call VGM "music" these days. The fact that it comes from a video game seems so secondary to me in current times.
That said, I realize that last point is a stupid point to make and again, I know it comes off somewhat pretentious.
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