Tokyopop released two albums on August 21, both to complement Squaresoft's release of "Final Fantasy Chronicles" for PlayStation. One of them was an "official" soundtrack for Final Fantasy IV. The other was this album.

In terms of track selection, the album is almost entirely a replica of the "Chrono Trigger OST" released in 1999 for the PlayStation remake. The first 21 tracks are second-for-second a reprint of the DigiCube-published album in 1999. From there, things get a little different.

Tracks 22 through 24 are sampled selections from the complete collection of arranged songs that Tsuyoshi Sekito arranged for the anime sequences in the PlayStation version. Instead of being given all of the 9 arranged tracks, however, Americans only got these three.

Now comes the really shameful part. Tokyopop listed the arrange bonus track as a "never before released" track. In other words, the song was apparently exclusive to this CD, making it a worthwhile purchase indeed. Years later, that's what drew me to it.

But no. It's actually just the first track from the "Brink of Time" arranged album. Tokyopop staff are either ignorant, or liars, or maybe both. Don't be surprised by the fact that I'm extremely angry with them for their blatantly false advertisement.

Of course, Tokyopop isn't really printing game soundtracks anymore. This album's become a bit of a rarity, actually; but considering it has no original content, you're truly better off importing albums from Japan instead of buying this cheap attempt to lure American gamers. Shame on you, Tokyopop. Five years later, shame on you.

As for the music itself...it's Chrono Trigger. Duh. It's considered one of the best soundtracks in the history of the gaming. It's the album that put Yasunori Mitsuda on the map. So of course it's still enjoyable: just don't get this US version.

Reviewed by: Patrick Gann