Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack Limited Edition

I buy a lot of OST for games and anime. As a Limited Set, it is OK but too expensive. It comes in a nice large white box with a big XIII on the front. It also includes a drama disc (sealed in a foil bag no less), mini-artbook, and the large 4 CD fold-out set. The CD has Bilingual Japanese/English track names. The mini-artbook is all Japanese (except for the credits in English, go figure). I have a beef with the artbook being just stapled sheets. I figure for this price they could make it a hard-bound artbook like that included with Mass Effect 2's Collector's Edition. But not to be, it's just paper.

I am very disappointed with the sound quality of this set. This goes for most of the piano and orchestral pieces. They all sound "tinny" with lots of clipping on the piano sections. This makes me very sad, because those are some of the best pieces in the whole set! And to make the recording so bad, makes my sound system sound like a cheap radio, like an mp3...Read more

Music quality aside, many of the tracks on multiple CDs sound like the CD had been "scratched" terribly. It even had my iTunes freeze up on me multiple times for importing the mp3s. I had to actually buy the tracks off of the iTunes store to get those tracks - nearly a whole CD's worth. Please purchase a different version of the soundtrack than this one. It ended up costing me close to a hundred dollars in replacing the songs.

First off, I'll just say that I would have given this item five stars, but for Amazon's outrageous import prices. I bought this brand new from eBay for $30. Also, the standard, four-CD, 85-track edition (as many tracks as in this five-CD edition) is available from the Square Enix online store for $30. And you can find it right here:
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Quality-wise, this an excellent soundtrack! I don't get why people have been complaining about sound quality from these CDs. It really is excellent, both in sound quality, and in composition. Masashi Mamauzu had some big shoes to step into in taking on the challenge of being the only composer for Final Fantasy XIII. And though I don't think he is as good as Uematsu, who has composed what I think are certainly the best video game soundtracks around, Hamauzu still did a great job with XIII.

This soundtrack is a must-have for any Final Fantasy fan, and a great compositional work in its own right. A worthy collector's...Read more