Hi.
"Odin Sphere" is under "possible in a few weeks" category.
And as some of you have suggested, the direction of "a symphonic story in movements" would be where we head because it make sense not only musically but also from gamers' perspective. Our current thought is that we do take "movements" approach to CD, but also gives recordings of "pieces" for those who contributed to crowd-funding as one of the bonus.
And yes, the pictures are from my projects, which I have permissions to use them as I wish.
Of course, the company has already asked the facility about budgets etc.
As far as the places and orchestra goes, I have used most of the orchestral recording facilities around the world for my own or other works both credited and uncredited.
With that stated, Rudolfinum is one of the main orchestral halls in Czech, and has wonderful acoustics, and an pipe organ.
The downside is that it is a concert hall after all, and the distance between hall and the control room where the engineer is situated was far, and it is rather difficult to book.
People often asked that whether recording in concert hall or studio make difference or not. My answer is "yes" it makes difference, but practically "no" if the studio is large enough to accommodate the entire orchestra in one room. For example, Newman scoring stage in the 20C Fox studio has wonderful and more manageable/recording-friendly acoustics than many concert halls.
Anyway, ultimately, the decision of the place and orchestra would be made largely based on the result of crowd-funding. But, like I wrote, VGM Classics, as a classical label, wishes to work with regularly-performing orchestra, if it possible.
Now, as far as the choral staff goes, it is possible if there was a need and funding was met. For FF4, we would not use it probably.