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  #1  
Old Aug 15, 2009, 06:52 AM
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This expanding trend of only making albums bundled in with the game software is getting more ridiculous with each passing month.

Seriously, does having a distributor to get your cds into music retail shops really add that much trouble, where a bundled version has a greater return of profit instead?
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  #2  
Old Aug 15, 2009, 07:55 AM
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I must sigh in agreement. You'd think they could at least offer them for order exclusively on a website or something.
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Old Aug 15, 2009, 07:56 AM
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I think even if it doesn't add much trouble, it won't bring much profit, either, but then again, I'm also not sure how much these preordering bonus normally can boost the sales of the game they are bundled with. Who knows. I often wonder why Atlus doesn't always sell Shoji Meguro's recent soundtracks separately given the fact both P3 and P4 sold 60k - 70k.

For somebody’s info, the Xbox360 port of Deathsmiles eventually has sold more than 30,000 copies and half of it was the limited edition, but Cave predicts the eventual shipment of Mushihimesama Futati limited edition will turn out to be much less due to the fabrication problem.
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Old Aug 15, 2009, 08:41 AM
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Quote:
Who knows. I often wonder why Atlus doesn't always sell Shoji Meguro's recent soundtracks separately given the fact both P3 and P4 sold 60k - 70k.
For Persona PSP, I suspect it's a long-term strategy. Make gamers will realize what stand-alone soundtracks can offer so they're convinced to check out the P3, P4, and P5 soundtracks later. For the Mushihimesama production, it seems to be a great way to get people to buy an expensive limited edition. Sucks for overseas people though.

Last edited by Chris; Aug 15, 2009 at 09:01 AM.
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  #5  
Old Aug 15, 2009, 09:54 AM
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Sure their goal is to boost the sales numbers of these expensive LE bundles, and since the effort & expense of making the album was already undertaken though, why not take advantage of TWO potential sources of sales revenue then?

They could offer the retail album at a later point in time after wards, so as not to cheapen the immediate impact of the LE box, but to also gain further potential revenue with the standalone album retail later.

Last edited by Carl; Aug 15, 2009 at 10:09 AM.
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  #6  
Old Aug 15, 2009, 03:45 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl View Post
They could offer the retail album at a later point in time after wards, so as not to cheapen the immediate impact of the LE box, but to also gain further potential revenue with the standalone album retail later.
As Cedille said, it might not be worth their while. I reckon the people who are interested in the album will likely also be interested in the game, and as such will purchase the "limited" edition (especially since Japanese seem to be crazy about collector's items). So that just leaves a handful of foreigners who they don't care enough about anyway =p
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  #7  
Old Aug 16, 2009, 05:29 AM
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Assuming the average retail vgm albums still sells around 1~2k copies, that provides a meager gain at virtually nill additional investment expense.

If there was zero gain then ALL record companies would stop selling vgm entirely, so these meager 1k sale amounts must barely be enough to (thankfully!) still be worth somebody's time to produce them.

Last edited by Carl; Aug 16, 2009 at 05:37 AM.
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  #8  
Old Aug 16, 2009, 06:35 AM
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Of course there is gain for a previously unreleased (or reprinted) album, but it's a different story when an album (via a limited edition box set) has already sold ~15k copies [using Cedille's example posted above].

And anyway, it just seems to be Cave's niche to do things this way. They're a relatively small company so I guess they need to do what they can to keep marketing costs down while still creating enough hype for their products to keep people interested.
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  #9  
Old Aug 16, 2009, 11:25 AM
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Above 1k is regarded as good for a VGM album outside a few super-popular series. Most don't even break that mark. It's pretty amazing there are still that many albums out there given the sales figures. I don't think limited editions sell that well, but usually more than that and it's easier to make a profit due to the high sale price. Selling stand-alone arranged albums commercially just isn't that viable these days, though, unless they have really cheap budgets or are concert recordings.
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Old Sep 28, 2009, 11:01 AM
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Article: Makato Asada from CAVE confirmed at TGS that this Xbox360 game will be region free, as a test in order to see how many overseas customers will import this product.

Thus sales of this product will decide the fate of whether Cave will opt to make future games region-free or not.

Play-asia has a preorder page for the LE package which includes this 2-cd album listing here at vgmdb.
(at least we'll have a game to play when spending $100 to hear the Arranged discs.)
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  #11  
Old Sep 28, 2009, 06:44 PM
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The past entry of Asada's blog revealed they were considering a different limited edition than an arranged soundtrack attached one for the EspGaluda 2 Xbox360 port, as they had lately released a bit too much of that kind, so regardless of the planned region free, VGM fans won't be interested in purchasing it, if shumup fans will.

Last edited by Cedille; Sep 28, 2009 at 09:33 PM.
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  #12  
Old Sep 28, 2009, 08:35 PM
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Perhaps we should all send emails hoping for a new arrange soundtrack. It worked with a region free Mushihimesama...
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  #13  
Old Sep 28, 2009, 11:13 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Don View Post
Perhaps we should all send emails hoping for a new arrange soundtrack. It worked with a region free Mushihimesama...
I second that (one of the best shmupping news in years).

Quote:
Play-asia has a preorder page for the LE package which includes this 2-cd album listing here at vgmdb.
Still not open, tho. The wait is driving me nuts D:
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  #14  
Old Nov 1, 2009, 12:37 AM
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TECHNOuchi uploaded a sample of his contribution, 207 漆黒の甲獣王 -Departure Mix- on his MySpace.
Piano & Trance style. Even a little Video for it here

Last edited by Carl; Nov 1, 2009 at 12:51 AM.
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  #15  
Old Nov 1, 2009, 02:33 PM
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Yeah, I can't wait to hear the whole thing. It's quite beautiful and an interesting take on the original.
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  #16  
Old Nov 23, 2009, 12:39 PM
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Changed the title to Mushihimesama Double Arrange Album, according to the cover art. Didn't change the kanji as I didn't know the equivalent.
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  #17  
Old Nov 27, 2009, 05:19 AM
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Shipping from NCSX should be very soon (has anyone else ordered from them?).
I can't wait for it, I'm really excited about both the album and the game.
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  #18  
Old Nov 29, 2009, 03:27 PM
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I added Akari Kaida as a performer as she told me she is the singer for her arrangement.
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  #19  
Old Nov 30, 2009, 04:15 AM
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Apparently she's also a lyricist, based on the liner note (she's willing to disclose a lyric if requested). You could contact her and confirm it.

By the way, the current scans are of such low quality due to the poor scanner and my skill that I'd appreciate somebody replaces them by better ones (or I'll do, if I get my own scanner).
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  #20  
Old Nov 30, 2009, 04:37 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cedille View Post
By the way, the current scans are of such low quality due to the poor scanner and my skill that I'd appreciate somebody replaces them by better ones (or I'll do, if I get my own scanner).
I can provide new scans if the quality is good enough for you (I was going to scan it by myself, anyway); I'll scan it once I get my copy, which is on its way.


Did you have a chance to listen to it, Cedille (I'm assuming you already own it)? How does it fare?
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Old Nov 30, 2009, 10:04 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cedille View Post
Apparently she's also a lyricist, based on the liner note (she's willing to disclose a lyric if requested). You could contact her and confirm it.
I'm pretty sure that can be confirmed via this part of the email she sent last week, but I can always double check.

"I hope my english lyrics makes sense on my arrangement"
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  #22  
Old Nov 30, 2009, 01:31 PM
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Originally Posted by Kewing Darksun View Post
Did you have a chance to listen to it, Cedille (I'm assuming you already own it)? How does it fare?
Some tracks sounded somewhat 'washed out' compared to the original soundtracks that I thought were Namiki's most colorful and organic works, but It grows on me. Yasui's arrangement is especially good, besides the Battle Garregga reference. Although I understand the current rate (a 3.5), I'm sure now many people listen to this and will eventually end up between a 4.5 and a 5.

By the way, some details of Espgaluda II Xbox 360 was announced and as previously revealed, it's not attached with an arranged album (the first disc of the original soundtrack, instead ). So I guess Cave is on hiatus, or GE-ON-DAN takes over it.
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  #23  
Old Dec 3, 2009, 07:10 PM
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I noticed that stage 5 on Disc 1 was given another arranger, Keigo Hoashi, but the scans only list Kousaki as the arranger. Is his name mentioned in the liner notes about it?
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Old Dec 3, 2009, 07:45 PM
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Yeah, it's explicitly mentioned that the track was based on Hoashi's arrangement and Kousaki added the rhythm part and whatnot. You can see the last booklet scan lists Hoashi's name next to Kousaki ('神前暁 (MONACA) / 帆足圭吾 (MONACA)'). It also seemingly lists Yamagishi and Ishihama as the arrangers, but according to the liner notes, they were just the performers.
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Old Dec 9, 2009, 02:14 PM
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So, finally received my copy, and after an all-nighter with the game (probably the best CAVE game since the golden early days of ESP RaDe and the like), I made a full set of scans. I'm uploading a couple right now to let you guys judge wether if the quality is good enough to submit the rest.

As for the album, pretty nice arrangements so far (only listened to disc 1). I see what you meant by "washed out", Cedille. The first disc in general feels quite mellow; not bad per se, but a tad bit surprising considering how upbeat the OST is. Favorites so far are Levi-Sense (Wasi made me like a song I don't, nice job), Walking on the land of flame (not as epic as Mintjam's but still impressive), and Like a night of falling stars (helps that the original it's clearly my favorite).
Nice stuff, can't wait to hear disc 2 when I have the time.

Oh and that Garegga moment = EPIC WIN
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Last edited by Kewing; Dec 9, 2009 at 02:26 PM.
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  #26  
Old Dec 9, 2009, 06:13 PM
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Quote:
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I made a full set of scans. I'm uploading a couple right now to let you guys judge wether if the quality is good enough to submit the rest.
Definitely. I'm deleting mine.
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  #27  
Old Dec 11, 2009, 07:14 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cedille View Post
Definitely. I'm deleting mine.
And done, the rest is uploaded.
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  #28  
Old Dec 11, 2009, 08:03 PM
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Thanks. I fixed the order, but otherwise it's much better than the initial scans!
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  #29  
Old Apr 18, 2010, 06:06 AM
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Recently bought my copy from Play-Asia, they dug up a few Limited Editions. There's still ONE left from their site. Can't wait to check it out.
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Old Apr 27, 2010, 12:34 PM
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After listening through I must admit it's a tad uneven but it's definitely an overall great album. The namedropping one could do with this album is just silly Highlights for me were:

• Kenichiro Fukui's 'The Princess, Age 15 <Select>'
• Yack's 'To Shinju Forest <Stage1>' - I'm partial to all Yack's work and this doesn't disappoint.
• WASi303's 'Levi-Sense <Boss>'
• Shinji Hosoe's 'Furthermore, Cross the Desert too <Stage2>'
• Sano's 'Beastial Beat <Boss>' - perfect Sano sound.
• TECHNOuchi's 'The Black Shell Beast King <Stage4>'
• Kota Hoshino's 'On the Verge of Madness <Stage5>' - this man is either mentally ill or genius.
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