He is an awesome musician. I just listened to the Baten Kaitos, and it’s amazing, I also loved his work in Star Ocean 3, but I still have to hear the Tales of Symphonia OST. I think he is better than Nobou.
Heh. Listen to Beyond the Beyond or VP. I wouldn’t say that ToS is an example of Sakuraba 
Motoi Sakuraba cannot evolve beyond his style. He’s stuck in his eternal rut and I do hope that people will finally see that for a long freaking while (he seems to be changing a bit, but not much) his melodies are all the same bland shit in different games.
Quite frankly, you want a good composer? Yoko Shimomura before Legend of Mana (then she uniformed her style…which made her a bit like Sakuraba in a way). Ryuji Sasai when he actually composed. Yoshihiro Sato did some good stuff on Cyberorg. Club Kukeiha, although a collective, couldn’t do much wrong. Mika-chan, the one who composed the first Gradius sounds, was absolutely amazing. The guy working on FFXII, who worked on Gradius V and FFT is great when it comes to orchestral and militaristic type of music…
But to say that Sakuraba is great is a fallacy.
Here are some news that will certainly please the Sakuraba haters : For Tri-Ace’s latest RPG Radiata Stories; Sakuraba isin’t composing. In his stead is Noriyuki Iwadare, best known for the Lunar and Grandia series. Even though I might be the biggest Sakuraba nut on this board, I welcome this change with open arms and look foward to hearing Iwadare’s work here.
Q: I’ve Noticed a certain ‘tune’ with in TOP and SO1+2 Battle Tunes Which are taken up by Flutes except SO2. (Take up the Cross, For Achive, Stab the Sword of Justice). Cutting Edge of Notion (SO3), I’m not To sure If I heard it or not in SO3. Conferm this, please?
Big Nutter
Placing the title of those tracks makes a silly pharse, one That Nutter might do in the RPForum when he’s in Full Typo mode.
I agree that Sakuraba’s always the same. SO3 broke out of it a bit by being more rocky, but it’s still similar.
I’m sure I’ll get flamed for this, but I absolutely hated the music in both Lunars. -_-