music/exemplars/buy/atlus_konami_capcom.json
{
"cluster": "ATLUS / KONAMI / CAPCOM / Sony Japan Studio",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"currency": "USD unless stated",
"consumer": "docs/proposals/music/MASTERPIECE_PROGRAM.md rung 1 measurement rig; files land in D:/audio/exemplars/",
"operative_axis": "Does the route put an AUDIO FILE on disk? Ranked A (DRM-free/owned download) > B (physical, rip it) > C (streaming only, near-useless to the rig) > D (not legitimately obtainable).",
"verification_method": "Steam prices/names verified through store.steampowered.com/api/appdetails (JSON, no age gate). Apple prices, track numbers and track-level prices verified through itunes.apple.com/search and /lookup (the same catalogue the store sells from). Store product pages fetched directly where they render. Amazon returned HTTP 500 to every automated fetch, so every Amazon route below is marked unverified and carries a SEARCH url, never a fabricated deep link.",
"format_note": "iTunes Store purchases are 256 kbps AAC (.m4a) and have been DRM-free since 2009 — they decode cleanly for analysis but are lossy. Steam soundtrack DLC ships FLAC 16-bit alongside MP3/AAC and is the better rig input wherever both exist.",
"albums": [
{
"album": "Persona 5 (Original Soundtrack)",
"publisher": "ATLUS",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_048 Rivers in the Desert",
"EX_049 Last Surprise",
"EX_099 Life Will Change"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Apple iTunes Store (US)",
"url": "https://music.apple.com/us/album/persona-5-original-soundtrack/1226945984",
"url_verified": "true — iTunes lookup id 1226945984 returned collectionName 'Persona 5 (Original Soundtrack)', ATLUS Sound Team, 110 tracks, collectionPrice 23.99. Track-level verified: 'Life Will Change' (Lyn) track 4 $0.69; 'Last Surprise' (Lyn) track 17 $0.69; 'Rivers in the Desert' (Lyn) $0.69 at trackId 1226946570.",
"format": "AAC 256 kbps .m4a download",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "23.99 album, or 2.07 for exactly the three corpus tracks at 0.69 each",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "CHEAPEST COMPLETE HIT IN THE CLUSTER — all three P5 corpus tracks are individually purchasable, so $2.07 puts three files on disk. Buy the full album only if rung 2 wants the surrounding album context (the 110-track set is the whole Meguro acid-jazz battle grammar). No Steam soundtrack DLC exists for Persona 5 Royal — verified: the only P5 music SKU on Steam is 'Persona 3 Reload - Persona 5 Royal BGM Set' (app 2334536), which is 6 in-game BGM swaps for a DIFFERENT game and yields no files.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "n/a — obtainable"
},
{
"album": "Persona 4 Original Soundtrack (ペルソナ4 オリジナル・サウンドトラック)",
"publisher": "ATLUS",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_112 Never More"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Apple iTunes Store (US)",
"url": "https://music.apple.com/us/album/1546590618",
"url_verified": "true — iTunes lookup id 1546590618 returned the 52-track 2008 Persona 4 OST, ATLUS Sound Team / Shihoko Hirata, collectionPrice 15.99. Track 51 is 'Never More', trackPrice 0.69. Note the album is catalogued under its Japanese title on the US store but IS US-purchasable.",
"format": "AAC 256 kbps .m4a download",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "15.99 album, or 0.69 for 'Never More' alone",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "FLAG — CHECK WHAT YOU ALREADY OWN: 'Persona 4 Golden - Digital Deluxe Edition' on Steam (base game app 1113000) ships an EXTRAS folder containing a digital soundtrack, but it is a 9-track sampler, not the 52-track OST, and 'Never More' is not among the widely-listed nine. If you hold the Deluxe, look in <SteamLibrary>/steamapps/common/P4G/EXTRAS before paying. Do NOT buy 'ネバー・モア-『ペルソナ4』輪廻転生-' ($8.28, id 1546589363) by mistake — that is the 2012 ARRANGE album, not the original cue.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "n/a — obtainable"
},
{
"album": "Metal Gear Solid Vocal Tracks",
"publisher": "Konami Digital Entertainment",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_082 The Best Is Yet to Come (MGS)",
"EX_092 Snake Eater / Ladder Climb (MGS3)"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Apple iTunes Store (US)",
"url": "https://music.apple.com/us/album/metal-gear-solid-vocal-tracks/1030633511",
"url_verified": "true — iTunes lookup id 1030633511 returned 13 tracks, collectionPrice 14.99. Full tracklist read: track 1 'The Best Is Yet To Come' $1.29, track 3 'Snake Eater' $1.29. Also carries 'Can't Say Good-Bye to Yesterday', 'Calling to the Night', 'Sins of the Father' and five DB remixes.",
"format": "AAC 256 kbps .m4a download",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "14.99 album, or 2.58 for exactly the two corpus tracks at 1.29 each",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "ONE ALBUM CLEARS TWO CORPUS ROWS ACROSS TWO GAMES. This is the official 2015 Konami digital release, not a tribute. EX_092 in the corpus is the ladder-climb cue, which is the Cynthia Harrell vocal 'Snake Eater' — track 3 here. Bonus for rung 2: the album pairs each vocal with a 'DB' re-arrangement (Jazz Lounge / Trip-Hop / Tango / Tender), i.e. one melody in five instrumentation states, which is a free arrangement-delta test set.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "n/a — obtainable"
},
{
"album": "Metal Gear Solid Original Game Soundtrack (1998, KCE Japan Sound Team)",
"publisher": "Konami",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_093 Encounter"
],
"route_class": "B",
"store": "Japanese CD import — used market (Suruga-ya / eBay / nin-nin-game); no official in-print digital edition",
"url": "https://www.suruga-ya.com/en/search?category=&search_word=metal+gear+solid+original+game+soundtrack",
"url_verified": "unverified deep link — this is the store's SEARCH url, deliberately, because no verified product page for a current listing exists. What IS verified: iTunes US search for 'Encounter Metal Gear Solid' (song entity, 15 results) and iTunes US/JP album searches for the 1998 OST returned ZERO official Konami releases. Every 'Encounter' hit is a cover (Rich Douglas, F1NG3RS, Goodknight Productions, Tokio Tribute Sessions, ToxicxEternity, Video Game Piano Players).",
"format": "CD (rip to FLAC yourself)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "typically 20-45 used, JP import, varies by condition",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "TRAP TO AVOID — 'Metal Gear Solid (Original Game Score)' by Gigi Meroni ($9.99, id 1482598387, 27 tracks) sits at the top of every Apple/Amazon search for this album and is NOT Konami. It is a third-party re-recording. Buying it would feed the rig a cover and silently poison the formula card. SECOND ROUTE WORTH ONE CLICK: Steam app 2306740 'METAL GEAR SOLID: MASTER COLLECTION Vol.1 BONUS CONTENT' ($59.99, name and price verified through the Steam appdetails API) lists a 'Metal Gear Solid: Digital Soundtrack' among its bonuses — but Steam's age gate blocked reading the track list or the delivery format, so whether it writes audio FILES to disk or only adds an in-game player is UNVERIFIED. Do not pay $59.99 on that hope unless you also want the games.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "For the TENSION grammar EX_093 carries (sustained pulse under a stealth loop), the corpus already holds EX_091 Suicide Mission and EX_175 dataDyne Central: Defection, both of which have cleaner purchase routes. Card those first and treat Encounter as a later import."
},
{
"album": "Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance — Vocal Tracks Selection",
"publisher": "Konami Digital Entertainment",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_056 Rules of Nature",
"EX_057 The Only Thing I Know For Real"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Apple iTunes Store (US)",
"url": "https://music.apple.com/us/album/metal-gear-rising-revengeance-vocal-tracks-selection/608755645",
"url_verified": "true — iTunes lookup id 608755645 returned 27 tracks, collectionPrice 11.99. Full tracklist read: track 1 'Rules of Nature (Platinum Mix)' $1.29, track 2 'The Only Thing I Know For Real (Maniac Agenda Mix)' $1.29, and their INSTRUMENTAL versions at tracks 17 and 18.",
"format": "AAC 256 kbps .m4a download",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "11.99 album, or 2.58 for the two vocal cuts",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "BUY THE FULL ALBUM, NOT THE TWO TRACKS — it ships a matched INSTRUMENTAL for all eleven vocal cuts. That gives the rig a vocal/instrumental A/B on identical arrangements, which is exactly the lane-interlap measurement the program wants and which normally costs a Demucs separation pass with separation artifacts. $11.99 buys a clean ground truth. No Steam soundtrack DLC exists for MGR (verified: app 235460 has the three mission DLCs only). Amazon lists a digital edition at dp/B073J6H8LN but every automated fetch of amazon.com returned HTTP 500, so that route is UNVERIFIED.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "n/a — obtainable"
},
{
"album": "Silent Hill 2 (Original Soundtrack) — 2001",
"publisher": "Konami Digital Entertainment",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_076 Born of a Wish — SEE THE ATTRIBUTION FLAG"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Apple iTunes Store (US)",
"url": "https://music.apple.com/us/album/silent-hill-2-original-soundtrack/164069102",
"url_verified": "true — iTunes lookup id 164069102 returned 'Silent Hill 2 (Original Soundtrack)', Akira Yamaoka, 30 tracks, released 2001-10-03, collectionPrice 11.99, (P) 2001 Konami Digital Entertainment. This is the genuine album.",
"format": "AAC 256 kbps .m4a download",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "11.99",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "CORPUS DEFECT FOUND — EX_076 'Born of a Wish' DOES NOT EXIST as an official track. Verified three ways: it is not among the 30 tracks of this 2001 album; it is not among the 93 tracks of 'SILENT HILL 2 ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK -2024-' (id 1778178109, $23.99); and an iTunes song-entity search for 'Born of a Wish Silent Hill' returned 9 results, every one a cover or tribute (Avith Ortega, Drackfreeee, AndrewA). 'Born from a Wish' is the name of the Maria SUB-SCENARIO in Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams, not a cue title. RECOMMENDATION: buy this album anyway — it is the album that carries the grammar the row was reaching for — and re-key EX_076 onto a real cue from it once the rig can see the files. 'Betrayal', 'Promise (Reprise)' and 'Theme of Laura' are the obvious BOSS/emotional candidates.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "n/a — the ALBUM is obtainable; it is the TRACK NAME that needs correcting in CORPUS.json"
},
{
"album": "Silent Hill (Original Soundtrack) — 1999",
"publisher": "Konami / Konami Kukeiha Club",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_122 Silent Hill (Main Theme)"
],
"route_class": "C",
"store": "Apple Music (streaming only) — no verified purchase route",
"url": "https://music.apple.com/us/album/silent-hill-original-soundtrack/163299454",
"url_verified": "true, and the verification is the bad news — iTunes lookup id 163299454 returned the real 42-track Konami Kukeiha Club album with collectionPrice = -1.00, Apple's sentinel for NOT PURCHASABLE. Track 1 is 'Silenthill', the cue EX_122 wants. It streams; it does not sell.",
"format": "streaming only on this route",
"drm_free": false,
"price_usd": "n/a — not sold digitally on Apple",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "SAYING IT PLAINLY: on Apple this is a streaming row and worth almost nothing to the rig. Two physical routes, both verified and both closed at the official store: Mondo 2XLP 'Silent Hill – Original Video Game Soundtrack', $45, page fetched, status SOLD OUT, tracklist confirmed to carry 'Silent Hill' (side A tr.01) and 'Silent Hill (Otherside)' (side D tr.41), no download code. Black Screen Records carries the same Mondo pressing in the EU. The remaining live routes are (1) a used JP CD import of KICA-7940 'Silent Hill Original Soundtracks', and (2) an Amazon digital-music listing at dp/B07191JDH6 credited to Konami Digital Entertainment, which is the single most likely Class-A route in this row but which I could NOT verify — amazon.com returned HTTP 500 to every automated fetch. Check that listing by hand first; if it shows a Buy MP3 Album price, that is the cheapest file on disk.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "Silent Hill 2 (Original Soundtrack), $11.99, verified Class A above. Same composer, same industrial-ambient grammar, one year later, and it is the album most of the Yamaoka formula-card devices come from anyway."
},
{
"album": "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Original Soundtrack (Akumajo Dracula X Gekka no Nocturne — SELECTION)",
"publisher": "Konami",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_120 Dracula's Castle"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Apple iTunes Store (US)",
"url": "https://music.apple.com/us/album/akumajo-dracula-x-gekka-no-nocturne-original-game-soundtrack/1459349017",
"url_verified": "true — iTunes lookup id 1459349017 returned 33 tracks, artist 'Castlevania Sound Team', released 1997, collectionPrice 11.99. Full tracklist read: track 6 is 'Dracula Castle', which is EX_120 under its official romanised title (no possessive). Also present: Marble Gallery, Lost Paintings, The Tragic Prince, Wood Carving Partita.",
"format": "AAC 256 kbps .m4a download",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "11.99",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "THE ONE CASTLEVANIA ROW WITH A CLEAN DIGITAL ROUTE — take it. Search the store for 'Dracula's Castle' and you get only GaMetal and Álex Garcigregor covers; the official cue is spelled 'Dracula Castle' on 'Akumajo Dracula X Gekka no Nocturne', which is why it hides. 'SELECTION' means 33 of the original two-disc release's cues, not all of them; EX_120 is in the 33. Physical alternative verified and closed: Mondo 2XLP, $45, page fetched, SOLD OUT, 40 tracks incl. 'Dracula's Castle' side A tr.06, no download code.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "n/a — obtainable"
},
{
"album": "Castlevania (NES) + Castlevania II: Simon's Quest + Super Castlevania IV — the chiptune era",
"publisher": "Konami",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_098 Vampire Killer",
"EX_097 Blood Tears",
"EX_119 Theme of Simon Belmont (Stage 1)",
"EX_169 The Submerged City"
],
"route_class": "D",
"store": "no legitimate digital route exists; physical routes are sold out or bundle-only",
"url": "https://limitedrungames.com/collections/castlevania-anniversary-collection",
"url_verified": "partially — the LRG collection url is a real store page. The CLASS-D verdict is what is firmly verified: iTunes US search 'Castlevania Anniversary Collection' (album entity) returned resultCount 0; iTunes US search 'Super Castlevania IV' returned 14 albums, ALL covers/tributes (Arcade Player, Goodknight Productions, GaMetal, Nestalgica, Florian Haack) and zero Konami releases; the entire official 'Castlevania Sound Team' catalogue on US iTunes is 11 albums, all CD-era or handheld, none containing NES or SNES chip audio.",
"format": "n/a digitally; CD if you can find the bundle",
"drm_free": false,
"price_usd": "n/a — see substitute",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "SAYING IT DIRECTLY: four corpus rows, no purchasable file, anywhere. The three near-misses, each verified closed: (1) the 'Castlevania Anniversary Collection Original Soundtrack' CD carries CV1, CV2 and Super CV IV chip audio but was never sold standalone — it shipped only inside Limited Run #106 (Switch) and #405 (PS4) Ultimate/Bloodlines editions, so it is a secondary-market game purchase, not an album purchase. (2) Mondo's 'Super Castlevania IV – Original Video Game Soundtrack 2XLP', $45, page fetched, SOLD OUT, 29 tracks, tracklist confirmed to hold 'Simon Belmont's Theme' (tr.04 = EX_119) and 'Sunken City' (tr.07 = EX_169 under its English title), no download code. (3) Black Screen Records' eco-vinyl reprint of the same Mondo master, €40.00, page fetched, SOLD OUT. Even in stock, vinyl is a poor rig input — it needs a turntable and an ADC, and a needle-drop measures the pressing as much as the composition. Castlevania Anniversary Collection on Steam ($19.99, app 1018010) contains the games but the audio lives inside the ROMs and is not extractable as files.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "BUY THIS INSTEAD — 'Akumajo Chronicle Akumajo Dracula (Original Soundtrack)', Castlevania Sound Team, 82 tracks, $11.99, https://music.apple.com/us/album/akumajo-chronicle-akumajo-dracula-original-soundtrack/1459353397 (id 1459353397, tracklist read in full). It carries 'Vampire Killer' (tr.04) and 'Bloody Tears' (tr.09) — the EX_098 and EX_097 melodies — in THREE realisations of each: X68000 Arrange, Game Sound, and Roland CM-64 MIDI. It is not the NES chip timbre, so it cannot card the chip-voice-allocation grammar, but it is a legitimately purchasable file of the same melodic and harmonic material AND it hands rung 2 a three-way instrumentation delta on one melody, which the corpus has almost nowhere else. Card it as a NAMED SUBSTITUTE, never as EX_097/EX_098 themselves."
},
{
"album": "Devil May Cry 5 Original Soundtrack",
"publisher": "Capcom",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_058 Devil Trigger"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Steam (soundtrack DLC) — best; Apple iTunes as the no-base-game fallback",
"url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/1050460/Devil_May_Cry_5_Original_Soundtrack/",
"url_verified": "true — Steam appdetails app 1050460 returned name 'Devil May Cry 5 Original Soundtrack', type 'music', price final_formatted $29.99, success true, 288+ minutes, formats MP3 (V0) / FLAC (16-bit) / AAC (VBR). The store page itself sits behind Steam's mature-content interstitial so the track list was not readable through it; 'Devil Trigger' was verified instead on the Apple catalogue entry for the same album (id 1455566901, $29.99), which lists 'Devil Trigger' $1.29, 'Devil Trigger (Game Edit)' $1.29 and 'Devil Trigger (Opening Remix)' $0.69.",
"format": "FLAC 16-bit + MP3 V0 + AAC (Steam) / AAC 256k (Apple)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "29.99 either store, or 1.29 for 'Devil Trigger' alone on Apple",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "FLAG — CHECK WHAT YOU OWN: the Steam SKU is DLC and requires the Devil May Cry 5 base game. If you already hold DMC5 on Steam, take the Steam route — FLAC beats AAC for the rig and it is the same $29.99. If you do not own DMC5, do NOT buy a game to get a soundtrack: buy 'Devil Trigger' alone on Apple for $1.29, or the Apple album for the same $29.99 with no base-game requirement. Steam soundtrack DLC downloads into <SteamLibrary>/steamapps/music/, from where you can copy to D:/audio/exemplars/.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "n/a — obtainable"
},
{
"album": "Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition — Vergil's Rebirth Sound Selection",
"publisher": "Capcom",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_059 Bury the Light"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Steam (soundtrack DLC) — best; Apple iTunes as the no-base-game fallback",
"url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/1426700/Devil_May_Cry_5_Vergils_Rebirth_Sound_Selection/",
"url_verified": "true — Steam appdetails app 1426700 returned name 'Devil May Cry 5 Vergil's Rebirth Sound Selection', type 'music', price $10.99, fullgame 'Devil May Cry 5', success true, formats MP3 (V0) / FLAC (16-bit) / AAC (VBR), description naming 'Crimson Cloud' and 'Bury the Light'. Cross-checked on Apple: album id 1545880007 at $10.99 carries 'Bury the Light' (Casey Edwards) and 'Bury the Light (Game Edit)'.",
"format": "FLAC 16-bit + MP3 V0 + AAC (Steam) / AAC 256k (Apple)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "10.99",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "SEPARATE PURCHASE FROM THE DMC5 OST — 'Bury the Light' is Vergil's Special Edition theme and is NOT on the main soundtrack, so EX_058 and EX_059 cost two SKUs ($40.98 total on Steam). Apple caveat if you go that way: the full 'Bury the Light' shows trackPrice -1.00, meaning ALBUM-ONLY — only the shorter 'Bury the Light (Game Edit)' is buyable singly at $0.69. Since the corpus row is the full nine-minute cue, the Apple route means paying $10.99 for the album regardless. Steam at $10.99 in FLAC is strictly better if you own DMC5.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "n/a — obtainable"
},
{
"album": "Okami Original Soundtrack Vol. 1",
"publisher": "Capcom",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_142 Shinshu Field"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Steam (soundtrack DLC)",
"url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/1568870/Okami_Original_Soundtrack_Vol_1/",
"url_verified": "true — store page fetched and read in full: 'Okami Original Soundtrack Vol. 1', $5.99, formats 'MP3 (V0), FLAC (16-bit), and AAC (VBR)', DLC for Okami HD. Track list read: 'Shinshu Field I' (tr.47) and 'Shinshu Field II' (tr.48), plus 'Cursed Shinshu Field I/II' (tr.34-35).",
"format": "FLAC 16-bit + MP3 V0 + AAC",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "5.99",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "BEST VALUE IN THE CLUSTER — $5.99 for lossless. Requires the Okami HD base game on Steam; FLAG, check whether you already hold Okami HD. Bonus for the rig: buying Vol. 1 hands you BOTH the clean 'Shinshu Field' and its 'Cursed Shinshu Field' variant, i.e. one location cue in two world-states. That is a state-varied pair, and CORPUS.json's own expansion note calls state-varied cues a structural gap the base list barely covers. Card the DELTA, not just the cue.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "n/a — obtainable"
},
{
"album": "Okami Original Soundtrack Vol. 4",
"publisher": "Capcom",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_184 The Sun Rises"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Steam (soundtrack DLC)",
"url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/1568840/Okami_Original_Soundtrack_Vol_4/",
"url_verified": "true — store page fetched and read in full: 'Okami Original Soundtrack Vol. 4', $5.99, formats 'MP3 (V0), FLAC (16-bit), and AAC (VBR)', DLC for Okami HD, covering Oni Island through the finale. Track 26 is 'Rising Sun'.",
"format": "FLAC 16-bit + MP3 V0 + AAC",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "5.99",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "TITLE MISMATCH, SAME CUE — the corpus calls EX_184 'The Sun Rises'; Capcom's English Steam release titles the finale cue 'Rising Sun' (太陽は昇る). No track literally named 'The Sun Rises' appears on Vol. 4, so verify by ear on first play, then normalise the name in CORPUS.json. Requires Okami HD. Buying Vol. 1 and Vol. 4 together is $11.98 and clears both Okami rows; Vols. 2, 3 and 5 hold nothing the corpus asks for.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "n/a — obtainable"
},
{
"album": "Shadow of the Colossus — Roar of the Earth (ワンダと巨像 大地の咆哮)",
"publisher": "Sony Computer Entertainment / Sony Japan Studio",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_125 Prologue ~ To the Ancient Land",
"EX_159 The Opened Way"
],
"route_class": "A (Japan storefront only) / B (CD import)",
"store": "Apple iTunes Store JAPAN — region-locked; or Japanese CD import",
"url": "https://music.apple.com/jp/album/516520909",
"url_verified": "true — iTunes JP search returned 'ワンダと巨像 大地の咆哮', Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., 42 tracks, released 2005-12-07, collectionPrice ¥1,528. The SAME album id resolves on the US storefront (music.apple.com/us/album/516520909) but with NO collectionPrice field, i.e. it streams in the US and does not sell there. CD route also verified: nin-nin-game.com product page fetched — 'Shadow Of The Colossus: Roar Of The Earth - Original Soundtrack', 2 CDs, ¥3,580, status 'Warning: Last items in stock!', ships internationally.",
"format": "AAC 256k (JP iTunes) / CD 2-disc (import)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "≈10 at ¥1,528 (JP store), or ≈24 at ¥3,580 plus shipping for the CD",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "REGION LOCK IS REAL — the ¥1,528 digital price needs a Japanese Apple ID with a Japanese payment method. A US account cannot buy it, and the US catalogue entry is streaming-only. So the practical route for a US buyer is the CD: https://www.nin-nin-game.com/en/video-game-music-ost/131699-shadow-of-the-colossus-roar-of-the-earth-original-soundtrack-ost-.html — verified live, last items in stock, so it will not wait. Rip to FLAC on arrival. Two corpus rows on one disc set, and it is the only Kow Otani source either row can come from.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "None faithful. EX_125 and EX_159 carry a specific device — a huge live orchestra recorded dry and sparse, with silence as a structural element — that nothing else in the corpus supplies. If the CD sells out, the honest move is to mark both rows ABSENT and let the rig declare the gap rather than card a stand-in."
},
{
"album": "ICO — Melody in the Mist (ICO 〜霧の中の旋律〜)",
"publisher": "Sony Computer Entertainment / Sony Japan Studio",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_166 You Were There"
],
"route_class": "A (Japan storefront only) / B (CD import)",
"store": "Apple iTunes Store JAPAN — region-locked; or Japanese CD import",
"url": "https://music.apple.com/jp/album/1595539253",
"url_verified": "true — iTunes JP search returned TWO entries: 'ICO -霧の中の旋律- (2021 Remaster)', 大島ミチル/pentagon, 16 tracks, ¥1,528 (id 1595539253), and the 2002 original 'ICO~霧の中の旋律~', Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., 16 tracks, ¥1,528 (id 516529018). Both ids also resolve on the US storefront with NO collectionPrice, i.e. US-streaming-only.",
"format": "AAC 256k (JP iTunes) / CD (import)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "≈10 at ¥1,528 on the JP store; CD import varies, commonly 30-60 used",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "SAME REGION LOCK AS SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS, and the same workaround: JP Apple ID, or a used CD import. Prefer the 2021 REMASTER (id 1595539253) over the 2002 original if you can buy either — it is the same 16 cues from a cleaner master, which matters when the rig is measuring dynamics and spectral balance rather than nostalgia. EX_166 'You Were There' is the closing vocal and is on both. Handle ICO and Shadow of the Colossus as ONE errand — same publisher, same storefront problem, and if you set up a JP purchase path for one, the other is ¥1,528 more.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "For the MELANCHOLIC grammar specifically, the corpus already holds better-routed rows (EX_077 To Zanarkand, EX_165 Rose of May, EX_167 Farewell Hyrule King). Card those first; ICO is a depth pass, not a blocker."
}
],
"cluster_notes": [
"CLUSTER SCOPE CORRECTION — the brief named Mega Man X, Mega Man Legends, Resident Evil 1 and Resident Evil 2 as part of this cluster. I re-read CORPUS.json fresh (182 tracks, the post-expansion issue) and NONE of those four games has a single row in it. There is nothing to buy for them. Reporting the absence rather than inventing rows.",
"EXPANSION LEAD, since those four games were expected and are missing: Capcom's Steam soundtrack programme is the same one that yields Okami and DMC5 in FLAC at $5.99-$29.99, and it also carries Resident Evil and Mega Man catalogue. If the next corpus wave wants a survival-horror TENSION row or a chiptune-into-rock BATTLE row from Capcom, that route is already proven to put lossless files on disk, unlike the Konami chiptune class which is closed.",
"THE STRUCTURAL FINDING OF THIS CLUSTER — Capcom sells its back catalogue as FLAC soundtrack DLC and Atlus sells its OSTs as normal store albums, so both are trivially obtainable. Konami is split: its CD-era and vocal-era catalogue (SOTN, MGS Vocal Tracks, MGR, Silent Hill 2) IS purchasable, but its 8- and 16-bit chiptune catalogue is not sold in any format anywhere, and its two flagship physical reissues (Mondo Silent Hill, Mondo Super Castlevania IV) are both sold out. Every unobtainable row in this cluster is a Konami chiptune row. Sony Japan Studio is a third pattern again: obtainable, but only from the Japanese storefront.",
"TOTAL TO CLEAR EVERY OBTAINABLE ROW, cheapest honest basket: Persona 5 three tracks $2.07 + Persona 4 one track $0.69 + MGS Vocal Tracks two tracks $2.58 + MGR Vocal Tracks full album $11.99 (buy the album for the instrumentals) + Silent Hill 2 album $11.99 + SOTN album $11.99 + Akumajo Chronicle substitute $11.99 + Okami Vol.1 $5.99 + Okami Vol.4 $5.99 + DMC5 Devil Trigger $1.29 + Vergil's Rebirth $10.99 = about $87.56, covering 17 of the 21 corpus rows in this cluster. Shadow of the Colossus CD (≈$24 + shipping) and ICO add the Sony pair. The four Castlevania chiptune rows stay uncovered at any price.",
"DO-NOT-BUY LIST, all verified as third-party covers that rank ABOVE the real thing in store search: 'Metal Gear Solid (Original Game Score)' by Gigi Meroni; 'Metal Gear Solid Music Collection' and 'Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Collection' by Goodknight Productions; every 'Super Castlevania IV' album on the US store; 'Silent Hill (The Headphones)' series by Avith Ortega. Feeding any of these to the rig would produce a formula card measuring a cover band."
]
}