Editor's note: track 6 of this album, while being essentially the same melody, is two different tracks depending on where you got the CD. The Amazon Japan preorders came with the track with the audio sample, arranged by Takayuki Mitsuhara. Elsewhere, a separate version of the CD came with track 6 arranged by Yoichi Hirose.

Mitsuda's been working on smaller projects these days. This time, it's Masato Kato's DS game "Deep Labyrinth." The game itself was shamefully poor, but the music wasn't too bad. An official soundtrack wasn't printed, but this promotional album offers six songs from the game.

The music is typical Mitsuda style: the composition, the chord progression, the instruments used, it's all the sort of thing you remember from Xenogears and Chrono Cross. In other words, it's beautiful. Unfortunately, the album is only fifteen minutes long.

The sound quality of the album is clearly superior to what is heard on the DS, which is another reason why the album is so worthwhile. Despite its extremely short length, I would recommend it to anyone who would come across it by chance...so long as it's priced in a way that reflects the brevity of the album.

Reviewed by: Patrick Gann