II would be heading to North America the following April. A European version would also be released in July 2002, published by Ubisoft. Audio While the background music for the original Breath of Fire was composed by four members of Capcom's sound team Alph Lyla, the score for Breath of Fire II was written entirely by series newcomer Yuko Takehara. In January 1995, the Breath of Fire II: Shimei no Ko Original Soundtrack was released in Japan by Sony Records, and featured 28 selected themes from the game on a single disc. A complete musical selection from the title would not be made commercially available until 2006, with the release of the Breath of Fire Original Soundtrack Special Box, which contained all music from the first five games of the series. In order to promote the game, Capcom hired J-pop singer Mio Watanabe to record a theme song that played during the game's television commercial in Japan called "Owaranai Ai" (終わらない愛, lit. Unending Love), which was released as a single in December 1994 by Alfa Records. Reception Breath of Fire II was released the same week as Sony's PlayStation console in Japan, and debuted on Japanese software charts as the seventh highest-selling game of its first week with 89,700 copies. It was given an 8 out of 10 in two separate Reader Cross Reviews printed by Famicom Tsūshin, and it would go on to sell a total of 350,000 copies in the region by the end of 1995. The game became popular enough to be re-released in the region for the Nintendo Power flash RAM peripheral in September 1997 at a reduced price. Reviews in North America were mixed to positive. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly generally found the game worth getting for its high quality sound and lengthy quest. Though Mark Lefebvre felt the graphics were below average and that the game overall "could have been a little better", the other three reviewers were more enthusiastic, praising the graphics and the shaman mechanic. GamePros Major Mike was also impressed with the sheer length of the RPG. While remarking that there are very few cinematic scenes compared to the first Breath of Fire, he was pleased with the complexity of both the main story and most of the side quests. He also complimented the graphics and the change to different musical themes halfway through the game, and summarized,