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The Battle of the OST's (FFXV vs ARR:XIV vs FFXIII vs FFXII)

T

The Emperor

Member
Which non uematsu composed mainline FF OST did you prefer of the four?

For me it would be FFXIII hands down. The depth that Hamauzu gave to this soundtrack felt unparalleled.

My fav tracks from XIII are Seperate Paths, Atonement, Saber's Edge, Blinded by Light, Eidolons on Parade, Archyltte Steppe, Warpath Home, Terra Incognito, Gapra Whitewood and Sully springs. The sheer variety packed into this soundtrack was amazing. It is still regularly played on my ipod.

Saying that those XV battle tracks tho...
 
R

raven777

Member
Probably FFXV overall, although XIII has some fantastic tracks, especially if you include the whole trilogy. It's very close.
 
T

theepicoftyler

Member
I think the Final Fantasy XII OST is incredible.

I admit to not spending much time with XIII's, but thusfar I have found XV's to be a little one-note and on the repetitive side.

I have no experience with XIV though.
 
S

Seik

Banned
FFXV.

Yoko Shimomura did a stellar job, all the way. I could list all the awesome songs she did for FFXV, but I'm sure there will be plenty of examples in this thread soon enough. :)
 
Q

Quonny

Member
XIII, XIV, and XV have really memorable tracks but I think the soundtracks as a whole for all three are pretty mediocre. XIV would probably take the cake. All three have absolutely astounding battle music that are in the top ten battle themes of all time, for all jRPGs.

I don't remember a single song from XII.
 
W

Wilsongt

Member
Sakimoto > Shimomura > Soken > Hamauzu

With that said, 14 is my favorite, followed by 12. I actually found 13-2's OST to be better than 13's. 15's soundtrack is decent, but songs don't play long enough to really get a decent feel for them.
 
B

BlueWord

Member
Amongst those, I think it's really hard to compete with FFXIV:ARR's OST.

The best part is that it's always growing, with Sophia's Theme (Equilibrium?) being a notable recent inclusion.
 
T

The Praiseworthy

Member
FFXV ost is the best in the franchise since FFX in 2001.

Then FFXIV with all its expansions..... then FFXIII...... then............................. then....................... THEN FFXII.
 
W

Wilsongt

Member
BlueWord said:
Amongst those, I think it's really hard to compete with FFXIV:ARR's OST.

The best part is that it's always growing, with Sophia's Theme (Equilibrium?) being a notable recent inclusion.
Click to expand...

Sophia and Sephi's theme are both amazing. As well as the new boss themes for 3.4.
 
B

BlazingDarkness

Member
FFXV>FFXIV>FFXIII>FFXII for me.

XV is probably the best, though admittedly the best songs get relatively little playtime.
XIV is a very, very close second (and may be better, depends on my mood.)
 
C

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
The penultimate boss fight in FFXV has some incredibly memorable music.
 
Pejo

Pejo

Gold Member
It's definitely close between 14 and 15. I'd have to say 14 edges it out in the amount of content and thus more songs.

15, for a non-MMO, has been an absolute joy to listen to though.
 
H

hosannainexcelsis

Member
Hamauzu is the best active game composer, so of course his work wins over anything else. He's only gotten better since FF XIII too; his work on World of Final Fantasy is really strong. That said, I really like what Soken has been doing with recent FF XIV music, such as Ink Long Dry and Exponential Entropy.
 
L

LegendofLex

Member
XV has the best tracks, but basically never uses them. I find it immensely frustrating that all the nice "overworld" songs seem to kick in only when I'm close enough to an outpost that they'll fade out within 20 or so seconds.

XIII's was really good, but I'll always have a soft spot for XII since I think it was the most evenly good on the whole. It's impressive how deep the XII OST goes, not in terms of quantity per se but in terms of framing all its unique environments quite nicely - something these recent FFs didn't always do.
 
L

Lights and Waves

Member
XIII by far. Somnus will be remembered, but Blinded By Light is iconic. I fully expect peoples' dislike of FFXIII as a game to hinder them from realizing that the soundtrack is untouchable. It's perfect.
 
Revolutionary

Revolutionary

Member
XII's soundtrack was wonderful and it's really disheartening to see it ignored in this thread.

That said, XIV has the best soundtrack of the 4.
 
C

Carbonox

Member
BlazingDarkness said:
FFXV>FFXIV>FFXIII>FFXII for me.

XV is probably the best, though admittedly the best songs get relatively little playtime.
XIV is a very, very close second (and may be better, depends on my mood.)
Click to expand...

This is mirrors my exact feelings. XV when it hits its stride is fucking incredible but it's so few and far between. XIV's soundtrack is perfect driving music though and I never get bored of it.

FFXV actually gave me a newfound appreciation for FFXIII's soundtrack too.
 
M

Megalosaro

Banned
I didn't pay enough of 14 to get a sense of it, but every game had been good.


Id rank it 12 > > > 15 > 13 > 14

12 is a musical masterpiece
 
Q

Quonny

Member
Garuda's Theme may have actually caused a few wipes due to how epic it was.

One of my guildmates even stated at one point that he missed moving behind the rocks because the chorus came in and he was so caught up in it, lul.
 
U

ubercheez

Member
I'd give it to XIII for the number of memorable tracks it has. XV has a few standouts and XIV has tremendous breadth of selection, especially as content continues to be released for it, but XIII has both. If I can add XIII-2 as well, it's even clearer... but I guess that's not really fair.

XII isn't particularly memorable, in my opinion.
 
F

Ferr986

Member
No contest, XIV OST is the winner here to me. The soundtrack is absolutely amazing. Heavensward and some post ARR summon fights especially (seriously, that Ramuh fight music...).

The strong point of XIV music is the sheer variety on music styles. No other FF gets close to that.
 
B

Burbeting

Banned
XV was not coherent enough. So many songs that weren't composed by shimomura, I'm confused she was given the sole credit for it. It was still good, though.

12 was not memorable at all. Only actually good song was the boss theme.

13 was over all great, just few duds.

14 I can't remember well enough, but it was enjoyable.
 
G

guybrushfreeman

Unconfirmed Member
FFXIV:ARR >>>>>>> FFXIII > FFXII > FFXV

To be fair there's a lot of music in FFXIV but there's so much good stuff the others can't compete

Edit: It's also true that ARR is built out of the 1.0 soundtrack. They aren't really seperate
 
O

Onemic

Member
FFXII for sure. The music that plays while youre out and about outside is amazing.

FFXIV and XIII were pretty well done, but XII takes the cake for me.

I still need to play more XV to hear the OST, first 3 hours in and it's pretty non-existent.
 
Z

ZeroX03

Banned
God this is a tough one. I don't think any of them are bad, they're all quite good. But they all fall so far short of Uematsu. XII probably has the most well rounded and "FF style" of the games but no standouts. XIII has Blinded By Light and a few nice field tracks but mostly stuff I wouldn't recognize. XV has some nice battle tracks and Stand By Me but boy it did not help having old FF tracks in the car that were way better than any original stuff. Not as strong as Yoko's work in KH and Xenoblade. Not all that familiar with XIV.

So I'm going to cop out and say Bravely Default.
 
M

MagnaderAlpha

Member
FFXV. The music is my kinda style. It is epic when it needs to be, melodic with a hint of ambience to add mood to exploration, but also laid back and feel-good in during camping or within towns/stations/outposts.

I remember people saying heavy melody-driven songs won't work nowadays in the FF series because more ambient tracks set the mood, yadda yadda yadda, but Shimomura proved that you can have BOTH. The heavy melody-driven tracks have the spirit of the old Uematsu FF games, while the ambient, wispy songs that linger over your exploration also work in they places they were designated. It isn't just about one or the other, extreme to extreme, but a balance where both work well while coexisting very naturally. When I've stated that there could be "another way" besides "only this or that", FFXV's OST is what I meant, and I'm GLAD to see it accomplish what I could only dream of.
 
P

Prince of Space

Banned
Just going by battle themes, FFXV's tracks are in a league of their own, with Hellfire being the best of the entire series, IMO.

XII has an excellent overall soundtrack, and what I've heard of XIV is great as well (esp. Good King Moggle Mog and Ultima).

XIII is a hot mess and should be purged.
 
M

Megalosaro

Banned
Burbeting said:
XV was not coherent enough. So many songs that weren't composed by shimomura, I'm confused she was given the sole credit for it. It was still good, though.

12 was not memorable at all. Only actually good song was the boss theme.

13 was over all great, just few duds.

14 I can't remember well enough, but it was enjoyable.
Click to expand...

I've never understood this
 
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