This promo CD shipped with the PSP version of Legend of Heroes SC (Second Chapter). It includes musical arrangements for demos, trailers, and a couple of bonus tracks, none of which had ever been released before.

The first three tracks are classic Ys tunes. The arrangement of Feena is strong. "Tower of the Shadow of Death" is forced to a slower pace, which allows for more intricate guitar solos. And then there's "First Step Towards Wars," which is (sadly) the least interesting arrangement of the trio.

The next two tracks are from Zwei!! Online. I love these two tracks. These two tracks alone make the album worthwhile.

Tracks 6 through 8 are Legend of Heroes VI ~Sora no Kiseki~ arrangements. Silver Will is strong (as always). The instrumental arrangement of "Sora no Kiseki" is fantastic...they added some new percussion to the mix and slowed down the tempo. I love this arrangement. But track 8 is just...weird. For this one, they added vocals, and they sound strange. It's a little too "breathy" for me.

The final three tracks are trailer arrangements for Legend of Xanadu, Gurumin, and Ys VI. They're not amazing, but they are unique to this album printing. Of the three, I'd have to say that the Legend of Xanadu arrangement is most interesting.

All in all, it's a cool CD worth having. It's good to know that Sound Team JDK (known these days by one name: Yukihiro Jindo) still has some life in it. Some of these tracks are also found on the 2008 Spring "JDK Band" album. So you may want to just get that album and not worry about finding this semi-rare promotional CD.

Reviewed by: Patrick Gann