In my LTTP post, Id alluded that Id become dissatisfied with Falcoms output in the mid-2000s because I didnt like their general music direction, nor did I like their samples. While Id listened to Zero no Kisekis soundtrack and enjoyed it a lot, I couldnt help but to feel like maybe that was a fluke. Having listened to 3rds soundtrack, and Nayuta no Kisekis soundtrack, I can assure you that this is no fluke. Theyre back and boy, are they consistent.
The Kiseki games have this tendency to have extremely lovely title themes, and Nayuta no Kiseki is no stranger to this.
Beyond the Eternal Time has a very tender piano melody, supplemented with short melodic synth, a flute and a xylophone throughout before looping once again. Its one of those BGMs you just want to spend your time waiting at the title screen to listen to.
Because Nayuta starts out on an island, youre generally going to hear allusions to that. For example
Lost Island takes us to the most obvious place in terms of composition. We have catchy bass and percussion/backing created to emulate traditional island sounds (Id almost ask for a steel drum in there, but then that would just dominate everything)
which then continues into a melody that simulates peaceful town life as opposed to staying on the island-like course.
The
Ruin Tower BGM gives us what we know and love from Falcom. Bass backing synth, synth choral work, and a build towards a delicate piano melody supplemented by a harmony. Its not intrusive, and yet it works extremely well with what we know that Falcoms Sound Team can accomplish, creating a heartfelt melody within synth.
One Day In Summer is a synth string piece with single plucking harmonies, and then extending into something more with synth woodwind. Similarly,
Creha is a beautiful, heartfelt piano piece forming a serendipitous harmony with other instruments with several movements including a synth-backed portion, and at this point, Id like to say how much I like the samples chosen for this soundtrack (especially those strings). It almost becomes a sombre-sounding lullaby
and the later track
Creha ~ Kind Lullaby ends up making this reality.
Lost Heaven starts off with a rather repetitive synth melody supplemented with a guitar pluck, and then flows into a tender piano movement later backed by woodwind instruments, creating a harmonious and peaceful background BGM. Similarly,
Lexendria creates an ethereal atmosphere, much like Lost Heaven does, with minimal instrumentation, and relies a lot on percussion to do so.
Well Depths has awesome bass backing a piano layer, and then it transforms into a string and synth movement. It seems rather simple, and it works.
Golden World Terra continues the trend of stunning beauty with synth flute and a beautiful piano layer. Its almost refreshing considering much of the soundtrack is composed of a lot of synth, because simplicity can speak volumes in terms of beauty.
Illusions on the Ice Field sounds like the most Sonic-esque theme on this soundtrack. I dont mind the lead synth here, though I think the backing synth is much better. The percussive bass synth is really fun to listen to, and then the entire piece key changes, becomes subdued and loops. Its a nice way to keep the piece going throughout the players sojourn.
Silver White Forest also attempts to create this atmosphere, and I cant help but to be reminded of Arc the Lads music when I listen to this; almost like a blend of Arc and Falcom because you can clearly hear the Falcom in the strings and synth, but everything else like the bass and the percussion sounds Arc-like, and it sounds incredibly soothing and nostalgic.
By contrast
Mountain Covered by Snows is piano and synth driven. Nayutas supposed to be more lighthearted, you see, so we get a lot of synth and electronic sounds as a result. Though, obviously, that doesnt stop the soundtrack itself from being elegant because it leads into a string harmony section supplemented by synth and piano, and then a third section with a lead synth. Theres a lovely synchronization of synth string and regular ol bass and percussion & lead synth in
Ravine of Crops as well, making the entire piece very fun to listen to.
Ryugas Dusk nicely blends a wonderful synth backing and a lovely string melody, with a second movement evocative of 1990s-esque dance music.
Bring Back the Magic Arts!! starts off with a bang, joined in by synth strings. The mixing in this is superb, but if you know me and you know what Im usually into, you know exactly what Im paying attention to, right? Not the synth. Not the main electric. Thats right. That bass. Did you hear the bass? The tone colour of the bass is so soothing and it creates just the right harmony with the heavier percussion. I dont think the loop lasts long enough, and thats incredibly unfortunate because they could have done so much with the mixing and abrupt stops throughout the piece.
Stage Clear also has some stylish-as-heck bass playing, and I feel its more like the main highlight as opposed to the synth and pianos main melody (though those are really nicely composed too).
Nayutas Sword goes for the more orchestral feel with synth brass and militaristic percussion supplemented by synth strings and synth choral work (the one Falcom seems to like to use a lot). It ends up feeling triumphant and strategic.
Continental Shrine also ends up trying to go for this feel, only with more evident synth.
Stars Place is also similar to this but introduces synth organs and synth choral work. The synth orchestration in
Oneselfs Struggle is carried by piano backing, flute flourishes, snare percussion, and brass.
The guitar layer in
Nayuta, Dont Give Up is very pretty, and the string and bass backing assist in creating such a tender atmosphere, reminiscent of something from Suikoden (5, specifically). Even the addition of a synth flute doesnt sound intrusive. Similarly, the acoustic presence in
Feelings That Well Never Get Rid Of combined with the flute and strings lifted on a bassline are entirely welcome and absolutely beautiful.
Reality of the Sky is incredibly minimalistic and gorgeous with a nice bass backing addition.
Nayuta brings us the gothic and guitar riffs in
Burning Fault, reminiscent of a fusion between Ys themes and some Kiseki themes. Obviously, Im listening for the backing bass, but the synth and lead guitars (and the backing guitars) carry this one into a movement with more strings.
Foothill Thunder Strike attempts something similar, which, I feel, is pulled off at a greater degree of success.
Beautiful Reef has a lot driving acoustic presence with a lovely bass backing (seriously, its really good because the hammers are nice), and the synth woodwind ends up carrying the melody in perfect synchronization with the other instruments, ending with an acoustic interlude to the loop.
One of my favourite tracks is
Impatient Emotions. The distortion at the beginning remains in the entire track, supplemented by lead synths, blended with some good riffs, and then cooling off with some piano.
Forgotten City comes blazing in with electric guitars and then cools off to the sound of pianos, percussion, and funky bass
and then comes back in another section being the driving force layered on top of the instruments that seemed to be a calming force in the piece.
What I love about this soundtrack is that you can easily tell which ones are the nods to the rest of the Kiseki games and when theyre trying to blend the Kiseki and Nayuta sounds together.
Win Back Your Heart which combines synth, heavy percussion, and that gothic feel and ends up creating something thats a blend of Nayuta and the rest of the Kiseki games.
Void Statue sounds a lot more like a Kiseki theme than a Nayuta theme at first and then you hear the heavy synth and the fraction of the electric guitars and heavy bass used to supplement Nayutas music. Both themes are incredibly beautiful, especially as they move into their third section prior to looping. Void Statue, especially, which seeks to climb new heights and achieve more climaxes as the piece progresses.
The hardest-hitting BGM is
Desolated Lands. Listen to this shit. Harder riffs, harder percussion, and hammering on the bass trying to blend with a string synth harmony. Oh, I didnt say I loved the bass in this, because thats genuinely my favourite part of it, over the synth violin work. I love how it builds to some sort of chorus, and repeats it as if all of the instruments are singing in synch with each other before looping again.
For the Beloved Friends is a wonderful cap. Its not guitar-driven, but its pretty much got everything. A piano portion acting as harmony for synth strings and bass. Percussion comes in again and again, adding gravity to the piece, while the synth choral work act as harmonies and a solitary electric guitar intermittently adds its two cents to the conversation. This is perhaps the most cohesive piece on the entire soundtrack, and rightfully so. Its not chaotic. Its majestic and beautiful.
Nayutas Feeling fits as an ending, soothing the player has he or she has finished his or her journey with Nayuta and Noi. As with the Sora games, in my experience, the ED themes are better than the OP themes in general due to their slower pace and the fact that the singers taking her time.
I feel like Nayuta's one of the best soundtracks in the series even if it's not canonically-related. A lot of the town themes and stuff are reminiscent of the other Kiseki games, and then you have some pretty awesome stage themes that sound like they could fit into Kiseki games (and Ys games), but others sound like they have a unique element that's for Nayuta alone. And I like that. I've often felt that as of late, Falcom's being doing some odd stuff here and there with some of the music they've been composing (usually limited to stuff like the early Kiseki games and stuff like Gurumin or Zwei), but I feel like they're just getting back into their element. 3rd proved that to me, and Nayuta has cemented that. I think Falcoms Sound Team did an excellent job with balancing the whimsical qualities of Nayuta and the hard-hitting battle themes thats were used to knowing and loving from Falcom.
I had to think long and hard about this one, actually. Its not that I didnt want to give any points to this soundtrack (because, you know, people think Im too critical of FF or something), its just that I wonder if I felt it was consistent. But I thought back to how many arguments I had about it, how many times Ive come to defend it and discuss how much I
liked them going into new territory, and back to how many times I came back to it while studying.
Hamauzu only composed a fraction of the themes on this soundtrack. The majority of the BGMs were composed by Mizuta and Suzuki, both excellent composers in their own right. The soundtrack consists of a variety of genres from jazz to vocals to hip-hop to nu-metal to prog rock to
well, pretty much anything is up for grabs.
I have to admit that I dont care for either Beautiful Heroes or Final Fantasy XIII-2 ~Overture~. Frankly, I find them a little boring or lacking? Thats okay because we have another Hamauzu track:
Final Fantasy XIII-2 ~Wish~. In the last game, The Promise took this spot, and it also served as a starting point for Serahs Theme. Both games used Serahs motif as a starter point, hoping to draw the player in a little more. Strings and brass accompany the piano creating harmony and beauty. The motif will show up again in
~Future~, and finally in
Serahs Theme ~Memory~ featuring Frances Maya on vocals. I personally think Maya has a rather lovely voice and her phrasing is really nice.
I think
Knight of the Goddess might be Hamauzus best track on this. It shares a lot of similarity with regards to how it progress with the previous games lead track Blinded by Light. You know, you have the intro, the buildup, and then the violin flourish and some awesome bass incorporation (this is a nice addition and Ill take whatever bass I can get).
God of War incorporations portions of this theme and adds militaristic flair to it.
A Broken Wonder is another one of my favourite pieces on the album for the sake of returning us to Hamauzus beautiful piano compositions. This is a nice return to that FF10 piano collection feel (and it reminds me a lot of the piano version of Sulyya Springs on the FF13 piano collection album). Adding strings and flutes accentuates the sadder mood of the theme.
With regards to the Lightning themes, Hamauzu uses motifs of her theme in
Tears of the Goddess (which beautifully climaxes with it),
The Gates of Etro (which sounds incredibly melancholy because of the soft piano and soft flute influence), and
Lightnings Theme ~Unguarded Future~ (being a simple piano melody fused with light electronic sounds). I think while theyre perhaps the most beautiful and most melancholy themes on the soundtrack, theyre not my favourites of his on this soundtrack either. That generally comes down to preference, though.
Finally,
Hopes Theme ~Confessions~ is a nice arrangement of the original acoustic theme in the previous game. Its kind of jazzy and more tribal, but still slightly sticks the original acoustic piece using similar instrumentation. Im not sure which version I like more, but Ive found myself coming back to this one more often.
Moving on to Suzukis stuff, which generally focus on abstraction. Suzukis generally responsible for most of the map themes and their aggressive mixes, which seamlessly blend into each other perfectly. I think my favourites out of these are
Parallel World (
Aggressive Mix) and
Eclipse (
Aggressive Mix). Parallel World focuses on light electronica and light singing on Origas behalf. The aggressive mix of it is much better, bursting with more energy with its heavier electronic influences meshing well with its light piano. Eclipse feels like it was an answer to the criticisms that there were no traditional FF themes on the previous soundtrackwith its intro sounding slightly familiar and slightly not. The piano and violin create a threatening atmosphere, gracefully interlacing itself with the darker atmosphere that the in-game location presents. The best part of it is the violins tender playing. And then the aggressive mix takes all the elegance and throws it out the window for a more electronic take to make the area more threatening.
I think my favourite BGM of his is
Empty Solitude. Its not just used as a Game Over BGM, but also as an event theme much like the last games was used for. Its heavily electronically influenced, and exists more for ambience as opposed to signaling to the player that he or she has been horribly defeated in battle.
As for Mizuta (pretty much the guy who composed most of the tracks),
Paradox and
Stigmata of an Oath are rather impressive and two of my favourite tracks on the soundtrack. Theyre rather melodic and moody. The latter adds brass and slows down the tempo to make the piece dourer. Also,
Xanadu, Palace of Pleasure sounds like it could fit into an MJ album or an older Sonic soundtrack due to its jazzy nature and funky saxophone.
He also composed
Ruined Hometown (
aggressive mix). I think Ruined Hometown is one of the better vocal themes on the soundtrack, heavily featuring Joelles wonderful voice and wonderful diction. Her voice fits so well with the rest of the music that it feels extremely seamless (I dont know if thats the mixing or what, but it fits in so well with the bass and piano that its hard to separate it on its own layer without feeling like youre removing an essential component).
Mizuta also did a ton of battle themes on this soundtrack. He sought prog rock and jazz influences to mix with his strings for
Run, electronic beats mixing with synth and strings for
Paradigm Shift, and rock for the best battle theme on the album,
Last Hunter. Also,
Worlds Collide sounds a lot like it fits into Sonic 2006 because it reminds me a lot of the boss theme from that game and that just brings back unpleasant memories. I kinda like it.
I love
Noels Theme ~The Last Journey~. Its evocative of Noels presence and characterization in the game and completely fits him as a person. I thought it was an interesting idea to bring on a female singer as opposed to a male singer for this, though. But I guess they went for cohesion as opposed to fit. Its motif is primarily featured in
Noels Theme and
Recollection from the Future. And he decided to nicely mirror how Noels Theme and The Last Journey are written with
Yeuls Theme,
Eyes of Etro, and
A Song Written in Time. Those two ended up being tied together not just narratively, but also in terms of composition. I love seeing that sort of thought and procedure on a soundtrack and game design. Its lovely.
The Caius Themes are some of the best villain themes to come out of Final Fantasy since maybe FF8 or 9.
Caiuss Theme brings sinister strings, brass and male choral work to fuse nicely with the more romantic woodwind and female choral work. It also has a few movements that grow to a brass climax before going into a choral-focused movement.
Followers of Chaos ends up being an event battle theme that extends from Caiuss Theme and becomes its own thing, and I think its one of the best orchestrated themes on the album. The brass, the percussion, and the vocal work blend together seamlessly to create new heights again and again, and then we get this wonderful romantic interlude, which lends itself to carrying the theme to a loop.
Heart of Chaos is probably my favourite Caius-esque battle themes for the sake of mixing electronic influences, striking brass, and strings and then erupting into a percussion-focused rendition of Caiuss Theme complete with making a more desperate atmosphere.
Finally,
Invisible Depths, while I kind of wish it were more like Shadow Hearts Covenants The 3 Karma where all of the composers took part in it, had Suzuki and Mizuta working together to craft a wonderful and intense final battle theme. Rather taking Hamauzus classical approach to final battles like he did in the previous albums, we hear more electronic components and distorted instrumentation fused with orchestration and choir work incorporating Caiuss Theme.
And you know what? I think
Limit Break and
Crazy Chocobo are actually good, and arent the disasters that people like making them out to be. Perish the thought, eh? Limit Break, composed by Suzuki, features vocals by Devil May Cry/Hostile Groove vocalist Shootie HG. The rock and electronic fusion sounds like something out of Vanquish, but the softer portions of the electronic instrumental are the best parts of the BGM. Theres a part of the BGM that features some awesome chord shifting and hammering-on/pulling-off that people tend to ignore. Also, um, I kind of respect people who switch between singing and shouting because I certainly cant do it myself. I dont really its that bad.
As for Crazy Chocobo, I think its hilarious! The chocobo themes always experiment with different genres throughout the series. Its about time that heavy metal met up with it (and Uematsu, given his love for hard rock and metal lately would have probably done it sooner or later). I think the bass and percussion are fantastic, and the bass really mixes well with Shootie HGs vocals, especially in his lower range. *shrug* I think its nicely composed. Ive heard harder than this.
So. Final Fantasy XIII-2s soundtrack is a mishmash of a bunch of things yet it ends up being kind of cohesive in the long run. Theres pop, rock, hard rock, rap, hip-hop
you name it, this soundtrack probably has it. And I think it helps that there are three talented composers working on this soundtrack in the forms of Hamauzu, Suzuki, and Mizuta, with all three getting their time to finally shine and show their stuff. All of them get to experiment with different genres to varying results, and in the end, I love that they took the time to do so. The album thus ends up giving the Final Fantasy series a shot in the arm of variance and genre diversity that the series desperately needed.