Schwaltzvald Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 Okay so recently a very good friend of mind alerted me to a box collection I must have. It's the Akumajo Dracula Best Music Collections BOX. EIGHTEEN DISCS WITH ONE MORE AS THE DVD?! WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUCK?! Had to have it after I heard some of the tracks. Here are some tracks off Youtube... Prelude - Castlevania III Wicked Child Walking on Edge - AWESOME POISON MIND - Mini-boss Beginning Cross Your Heart Bloody Tears Theme of Simon Belmont Vampire Killer Illusionary Dance Black Night - Dracula's Final Form - any old fan of Castlevania would recall this theme way back on the old NES Castlevania. Stage Clear theme These tracks are merely a sampling of the tracks available in the collection. The collection itself practically covers all Castlevania games; from the old "Vampire Killer" on the MSX2 to Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia; it even covers "retconned from the timeline" games such as Castlevania 64 and Castlevania Legends on the old Gameboy along with the rest of the handhelds. Disc 0101-12: Castlevania (NES); 13-23: Vampire Killer (MSX2); 24-32: Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES); 33-47: Haunted Castle (Arcade); 48-59: Castlevania: The Adventure (GB) Disc 02 01-05: Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES); 06-15: Akumajo Special: Boku Dracula-kun (NES); 16-34: Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (GB) Disc 03 01-28: Super Castlevania IV (SNES) Disc 04: 01-16: Akumajo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo (PCE); 17-39: Castlevania: Bloodlines (GEN) Disc 05 01-20: Castlevania Legends (GB); 21-40: Kid Dracula (GB) Disc 06 01-34: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS); 35-36: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Saturn) Disc 07 01-36: Castlevania (N64) Disc 08 01-18: Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA); 19-38: Castlevania Chronicles (PS) Disc 09 01-18: Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA); 19-40: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA) Disc 10 01-20: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2) Disc 11 01-29: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (NDS) Disc 12 01-18: Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2) Disc 13 01-36: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (NDS) Disc 14 01-25: Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP) Disc 15 01-25: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (NDS) Disc 16 01-26: Castlevania Judgment (Wii) Disc 17 01-24: Castlevania: The Arcade (Arcade); 25-36: Akumajo Dracula: The Medal (Slot Machine) Disc 18: Michiru Yamane Autobiographical Music Disc 19: DVD featuring an interview with Michiru Yamane and videos of recording sessions. As of this post it should be sitting at my home right about this late afternoon by the time I get back. In other news there seems to be a slim chance that will appear on the PSN if it sells well on LIVE for the 360. Not sure if want considering there are no Belmonts actually joining the fray. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K.B. Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 I feel like punching myself for saying this but, to my ears, most of the tracks were too slavish to the originals. Prelude and Walking On The Edge being examples. A straight-up rock cover is ok, but a few changeups in timing and pacing would have worked wonders for the tracks that were strictly orchestral. They sounded stifled. That said, the instrumentation here is effing awesome. Actual orchestra would have been better, but the samples were good; would have liked a larger dynamic range as well, but that's nitpicking. Moreover, the orchestral-rock combos, which seem to be the majority of the collection, kicked serious ass. Holy hell, Vampire Killer. Solid rendition of Bloody Tears, too. I still prefer some of the work that's been done here, DoD, and elsewhere, but this is still damned good. And you can never have too much Castlevania. 19 disks nah, but I'll certainly check out the first three. At the very least, I have to hear what they did with New Messiah. Thanks for the heads-up on this, Schwaltz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwaltzvald Posted July 9, 2010 Author Share Posted July 9, 2010 I can understand what you mean, Some examples on Illusionary Dance/Dance of Illusions. Special Note* Despite Legacy of Darkness essentially being the "Director's Cut" version of Castlevania 64 I never noticed the different versions they used for Illusionary Dance. Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness Ver Strangely found it to be the most unique. Castlevania - Dawn of Sorrow Ver Castlevania: Judgement Ver II There are just enough tracks not covered by either OCR or DoD that warranted me getting it though. Edit* Also no thoughts on "Harmony of Despair"? oh well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulinEther Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 I would buy it all just for OoE. Except I'm not crazy. (gets credit card ready) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar of Justice Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 Okay so recently a very good friend of mind alerted me to a box collection I must have. It's the Akumajo Dracula Best Music Collections BOX. Ok, so are the original NES versions on the CD or no? Because I would really be tempted to get this collection (Castlevania has some of my favorite music ever), but I'm not paying for updated versions of songs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Coop Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 I admit that the box set is awesome looking, but given how many of those discs can be made yourself using either Foobar or Winamp and their wav/mp3 exporting abilities for the various systems (sans disc label and packaging), it's a bit hard to swallow the $200+ hit. You take away the cart systems (NES, SNES, Genesis, GB, GBA, DS, N64 and I think MSX2) and you're left with about half the set being exclusive... - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Castlevania: Chronicles - Castlevania: Lament of Innocence - Castlevania: Curse of Darkness - Castlevania: The Arcade (very nice music... looks like the whole disc is on YouTube for those curious) - Haunted Castle (music's not too bad, but the game's brutally tough at times) - Akumajo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo (great music... I own the game) - Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles - Castlevania Judgment - Akumajo Dracula: The Medal - Disc 18 (new arrangements... not very good IMHO) - The DVD ... and some of those have been available on discs before in the US (LoI and CoD came with music discs if you preordered). The Castlevania fan part of my brain would love to own it for those exclusives, the artwork I've seen and all the cool packaging. But the rest of my brain just can't justify that large amount of cash (not that I have it anyway ). But, hope you enjoy it, Schwaltzvald. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K.B. Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 Oh, most of it is ost. I thought they were all redone (and that this was a boxing of all their remixes over the years). Nevermind then. Maybe still for disk 17, though. It looks like disk 17 is remixed material as well, considering there are only 9 tracks on disk 18 and they don't match the music Schwaltz linked. Per vgmdb, disk 17 seems to match the linked music. I think there's been some mislabeling in whatever link that quote came from. No comment on HoD. I lost interest in the series after they adopted Metroid gameplay. Excepting Shanoa, that is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwaltzvald Posted July 9, 2010 Author Share Posted July 9, 2010 Oh, most of it is ost. I thought they were all redone (and that this was a boxing of all their remixes over the years). Nevermind then. Maybe still for disk 17, though.It looks like disk 17 is remixed material as well, considering there are only 9 tracks on disk 18 and they don't match the music Schwaltz linked. Per vgmdb, disk 17 seems to match the linked music. I think there's been some mislabeling in whatever link that quote came from. Yep just learned more about it, makes me thankful I got it through a less savory means. Nonetheless I'm glad to at least add some tracks into my collection that were not part of it before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Phalanx Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Castlevania you say? ...oh wait, the price tag. Right. Dammit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deathtank Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Ive been listening to it since I have it, I didnt buy it, I know I should but I dont have means to buy by internet, Im glad theres a site where you can find it for free. BTW, greatest collection ever (at least untill a Final Fantasy Collection like this isnt out yet) Michiru Yamane is my new goddess of music!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arrow Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 I'm kind of disappointed they didn't take the opportunity to upscale the Aria of Sorrow tracks in this compilation; they just ripped them straight from the last package. Those tracks are really horrid quality; I could do much much better with Winamp, Highly Advanced, the game's GSF set, and the DiskWriter output plugin. Everything else is great quality though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sindra Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 Best new tracks are the ones from Castlevania: The Arcade. Almost everything else is on other OSTs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollgagh Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 Im glad theres a site where you can find it for free. there isn't a site there's a lot of sites Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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