Yasunori Mitsuda
Xenogears Vinyl -Shinkaku-

Listening notes

Yasunori Mitsuda's score for the 1998 role-playing game Xenogears has had a long afterlife in recorded form, and this 2018 Square Enix Music release — catalogued as SQEX-10684~5 — represents its arrival on vinyl. Titled Xenogears Vinyl -Shinkaku-, the release spans two LPs and nineteen tracks spread across four sides.

The tracklist draws on material tagged across several genre categories, among them Celtic, classical, folk, and soundtrack, which gives some indication of the stylistic breadth Mitsuda brought to the original game. The selection is not a straightforward reissue of a single prior album but rather a curated program that mixes versions, with several tracks appearing in more than one form. "Dark Dawn" is present in what appears to be a standard arrangement on Side A and returns on Side C as an orchestral version. "Soaring" follows the same pattern, appearing on Side B and again on Side C labeled as an orchestral version. "A Distant Promise" appears on Side B and then on Side D in a piano version. Three tracks — "Memories Left Behind," "We, The Wounded Shall Advance Into The Light," and "The Beginning And The End" — carry the designation "Revival Version," suggesting they represent reworked or newly recorded renditions rather than reproductions of previously released recordings.

Side A opens with "Dark Dawn" and moves through "Bond Of Sea And Flame," "Village Pride," and "Intangible Treasure." Side B closes out with "A Distant Promise" following five other selections. Sides C and D lean more heavily on alternate versions, with orchestral and piano arrangements accounting for much of that second disc's program alongside tracks labeled "Bartholomew" and "Lahan."

The dual-title formatting throughout the tracklist, presenting Japanese titles alongside English equivalents, reflects the release's orientation toward an international collector audience. Whether any additional notes, liner materials, or packaging accompanied the records is not confirmed by the available information.