Xenogears may have released back in 1998, but it still capture the hearts and imaginations of players to this day. The 20th anniversary of the game’s debut in Japan arrives next month in February, and with it is the special Xenogears Original Soundtrack Revival Disc —the first and the last—which is a Blu-ray disc packed with music. It's coming in tandem with the 20th anniversary concert that begins this April in Japan.
If, like most of us, you can't make the concert in Japan, the soundtrack should help ease some of the pain. It will be available in Japan on April, 4 in Japan for 5,500 yen, but savvy buyers from overseas can probably import the disc to listen. The soundtrack offers a complete remaster of all the original Xenogears music in 24-bit high-resolution audio, all on one disc. It also comes packed with screenshots from the game as well as MP3 files of each track
The concert itself will be performed by the Ahnenerbe Orchestra -Xenogears Concert Special Band & Orchestra-, lead by composer Yasunori Mitsuda. It's obviously an event you'll want to try to make it to if you're a Xenogears fan, but at the very least you can still get something to commemorate the show in the form of the Blu-ray.
Xenogears is a role-playing game that takes place on the continent of Ignas, spanning a long war between two nations: Aveh and Kislev. An organization known as the Ethos has discovered "gears," or giant mecha suits, to help preserve some of the world's varying cultures. The military powers continually shift, as players take the role of nine playable characters, notably story protagonist Fei Fong Wong, an amnesiac who tends to lose control of himself in certain situations. There are leagues of intriguing scenes throughout the game that make it a memorable part of the RPG family on the original PlayStation, and it's absolutely worth playing.
If you purchase the soundtrack disc, be sure to stop by and let us know what some of your favorite tracks are. And if you happen to live in Japan and can attend the concert, snap some photos, too.
