This music is amazing. Purely amazing, I just love this one the most of all of them. Basically, like FF IV&VI; Piano, this CD is rare as anything, though this is probably the most rare of all. The ONLY place you can get this is on eBay...And it'll probably cost ya $250-$350 depending on how crazy you bidders are in the last 10 seconds.

As mentioned in the FFIV Piano review, the CD comes with a book containing all of the music to play the songs. Of all the Piano Collections, I think it's most fair to say that FFV has the most "abstract" music. Case in point, "Lenna's Theme". This song is one of my BIG favorites from FFV. However, this version takes the melodies and puts them in a round, then changes the melodies bit by bit to make it almost atonal. While it's interesting, it's definitely not "beautiful" like other versions of the song.

The CD ends well with "The New Origin", another personal favorite (as far as FF Endings go, this one's the best because it's not as much medley as real new music). It's also very difficult to memorize all of it...oh, while I'm there, this music is pretty difficult to pick up for many piano players. Of course, if you pay the expected amount for this soundtrack and own a piano, I suspect you'd get your dollars' worth by practicing these songs so much. I know I did!

Note that there have now been a series of reprints run on the FF IV-VI Piano Collections. The information for them is above, and they come at a much cheaper price than the originals. The one problem is, of course, they don't come with the hardcover book filled with the sheet music. It's just a CD now. Ah well!

Reviewed by: Patrick Gann