Here's a
comparison of a few tracks, the difference in compression is very apparent.
I'm no expert when it comes to this sort of stuff, but I just tried listening to a couple of the tracks from the "
Rare Soundtrack" and from what I could tell it didn't sound like the compression was any better than the in-game versions which really blows.
Though I guess as long as they aren't lossy transcodes or anything like that then it's still better than no official release at all. Still I would have preferred it if they had included more unreleased tracks instead of the piano arrangements since there's still a ton of stuff missing and I think that the piano tracks are going to feel a bit out of place when sandwiched between the rest of the soundtrack.
Additionally, I find it odd that they didn't include the track "
Shinjuku Hospital (After Conception)" since apparently at one point you could download it and "Amala Temple" (which they did include) by visiting Sony's website while the CD was in your computer.
I also noticed something interesting, in the albulm version of "
The One Who Waits for the Time" there's an abrupt transition at about 1:42, said abrupt transition is still featured in the
game cutscene (
endgame spoilers), but the drums continue for a few seconds longer before fading out which makes it sound a bit less awkward, imo. I have no idea why they included that pre-battle sound effect though, maybe it was just part of the original file? Even still it kind of makes the track sound like it came from a gamerip and not an actual official release.