[Jormungand]

I think realnabarl is suggesting that maybe these versions came first (and were then downgraded for megadrive programming). This is a possibility.

Interestingly enough, the arrangements here served as the basis for those found in all subsequent re-releases of Langrisser 2/Der Langrisser. That lends some credence to the theory that the music represents the "original" version of the soundtrack.

Since this album predates any ports/remakes, it wouldn't surprise me if this was the case.

Then again, T's could have just as easily produced this album in the usual arrange/remix tradition, and then CUBE used the arrangements for L2's various re-releases.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, this is quite strange. T's arranged the music here, yet they are never credited in this capacity for the game's re-releases. And I can tell you that the arrangements are very similar, in most cases merely a difference of samples and live instrumentation.

So, having said all that, here's my new crazy theory. Der Langrisser may have already been in development by the time Langrisser 2 originally released (the two titles were published within 10 months of each other). This was common for NCS/Masaya/Career Soft as evidenced by their numerous re-releases of Langrisser titles, and even into their Growlanser years (2 & 3 were being developed concurrently for a few months--probably 5 & 6 as well).

Thus, arrangements for the SNES version of Langrisser 2, aka Der Langrisser, may have already been ordered. So, maybe T's arranged the SNES versions of the music, which were already arranged versions of the megadrive soundtrack by Iwadare and Mizoguchi. Alternatively, the pair of them may have done the "compose with nice-sounding samples and then downgrade for the megadrive" route, and those versions were arranged by T's.

Someone give that man a phone call! Or at the very least, get us a translation of the liner notes.