Summoning of Spirits

OverClockedReMix has done it again with another fantastic remix album release. Summoning of Spirits: An Arrangement of Music from Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Symphonia.

This latest endeavor is the definitely new, seeing as the games featured in the album are considered cult phenomena, rather than tried and true classic games as seen in their previous album releases. Tales of Symphonia stands out more so, with the game's popularity making appearances in its own manga, anime OVA, drama CDs, and more. The game is also known for being one in few as a J-RPG released on the Nintendo Gamecube in North America which is considered the primary reason in which Symphonia has achieved its title of being a "cult classic". Tales of Phantasia however is a classic Tales game, that has seen releases on the SNES, GBA, and PSP alike. Chronologically the two games are connected yet there was no interaction with the other characters aside from cameos.

The album itself is divided into four downloadable discs and includes three bonus tracks of remixed material from Tales of Symphonia's sequel Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Disc one and two cover music from Tales of Phantasia while three and four is music from Tales of Symphonia. OCReMix is known for quality remix material and Summoning of Spirits show that they still got it, I myself was especially impressed that the character theme song for Tales of Symphonia's Sheena Fujibayashi was included in the album, a very welcome suprise. What most gamers familiar with the Tales series will probably skim through the album looking first and foremost for the songs "Fighting of the Spirit" and "Fatalize" which have only had a few quality remixes before, (one by the infamous S.S.H) and have no fear the remixes of those song are present and very well done. Fans will certainly be pleased by this and waste no time filling their iPods with the songs. There's not much to gripe about either, I wasn't fond of a few of the songs but that's just being picky, the good outweighs the bad in almost every way. The album is sure to impress fans, and even those unfamiliar with the games may find themselves liking the music. Well presented and packaged this album was a must have for me, and probably a lot of JRPG nuts, leaving a nice lasting impression on my music library.

Summoning of Spirits: An Arrangement of Music from Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Symphonia. Is available for download at http://tales.ocremix.org/ also be sure to visit http://www.ocremix.org/ for more remixes and more.