Hearing "Take Up The Cross" go from SNES chiptune to GBA to full PS2 orchestration across one box set is kind of unreal. The Tales of Phantasia 20th Anniversary Sound Box collects every version of every track across four platforms, and the evolution of Sakuraba and Tamura's compositions is laid completely bare.
Read more
The SNES originals still go hard. "Overcome Difficulties" on that hardware has a raw energy that the later arrangements smooth out. "Mint" shifts from a simple melodic theme to something lush and layered depending on the port.
Then there's "Yume-wa Owaranai" in every iteration, and honestly each one changes how the song feels. If you want to hear how a single RPG soundtrack grew up over two decades of hardware, this box is the definitive way to do it.