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So I believe FF is dead. But what about its music?

MrMatt555

MrMatt555

Member
Sorry for beating a dead horse. But i firmly believe that, despite the series' recent flaws, that Final Fantasy's audio is still orgasmic. Now work with me here:

Take for instance, This Boss Battle theme titled Saber's Edge. it's from FF XIII and that piano gets me everytime. I just can't help but appreciate the feeling of, for lack of a better term, Epicness as I would engage the enemy and swiftly swap paradigms to this audio.

Still with me? Good. Let's talk FF XIII-2 now. I know what you may be thinking: "Please god, no." But stick with me for a second... I love this Song.
Sure, it has lyrics. And at first listen, they may seem like they detract from the song. Heck, even I'll admit I didn't appreciate it at first. Now: i can't stop listening to it. Lastly, and this is cheating because I'm pulling from Based Shimomura's archive, but Gratia Mundi is a heavenly piece of audio. I dunno, maybe i'm biased. But i wanted to hear from you GAF. I'll go on record as saying while the latest entries in the FF Series havent been up to snuff in terms of story, I must admit the music department know what they're doing.

Side note: Really wish I could change the title. I typed that on a whim and meant to change it before hitting publish but I forgot to and now it's detracting from the main point.
 
lol nice title.

I didn't even enjoy the soundtrack from the FF13 trilogy but the soundtrack for FF15 is the only thing I'm looking forward to about the game thanks to Shimomura.
 
On it's own it still seems alright, but the music loses a lot without being attached to something you love. There's a reason I eagerly play all the FF 4-10 tracks in Theatrhythm and don't even give a chance to almost anything recent. It's just not the same.

Do they get composers, do they get good recordings? Sure. But FF music is a holistic experience at least for me, and if I can't enjoy the game, the music generally doesn't mean much to me. I listen to the songs in the OP and it's like "yeah this is of acceptable quality, but would I just sit here and listen to it?" Naw. Now Battle on the Big Bridge? I can and have listened to it on loop for like half an hour in one session.

Final Fantasy, the good ones, are not games that do one thing right and fuck everything else up. They are holistic experiences that are not properly experienced independently. All the specifically musical praise in the world just can't convince me to listen to the OST of a Final Fantasy I hated or even one I simply never played.
 
Sir TapTap said:
On it's own it still seems alright, but the music loses a lot without being attached to something you love. There's a reason I eagerly play all the FF 4-10 tracks in Theatrhythm and don't even give a chance to almost anything recent. It's just not the same.

Do they get composers, do they get good recordings? Sure. But FF music is a holistic experience at least for me, and if I can't enjoy the game, the music generally doesn't mean much to me. I listen to the songs in the OP and it's like "yeah this is of acceptable quality, but would I just sit here and listen to it?" Naw. Now Battle on the Big Bridge? I can and have listened to it on loop for like half an hour in one session.

Final Fantasy, the good ones, are not games that do one thing right and fuck everything else up. They are holistic experiences that are not properly experienced independently. All the specifically musical praise in the world just can't convince me to listen to the OST of a Final Fantasy I hated or even one I simply never played.
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/thread
 
The Final Fantasy that I knew and loved is dead, but I guess what they're making today can be okay for what it is.

As a whole FF12 and 13 didn't impress me with its music, aside from a few standout tracks. FF14's music, however, is incredible.
 
black-guys-laughing.gif
 
Negator said:
As a whole FF12 and 13 didn't impress me with its music, aside from a few standout tracks. FF14's music, however, is incredible.
Click to expand...

I can't explain it on a technical level, and perhaps it can't be explained at all, but Uematsu's soundtracks capture the "soul" of what Final Fantasy is to me. His music fits the series like a glove. His music is more personal. More emotional. No fluff.
 
I've posted this before, but the FFXIII series has the best soundtrack in the whole FF series, and some of the best game soundtracks period. Some of my favs:

FFXIII
The Vestige
Sulyya Springs
Dust to Dust
The Cradle Will Fall
The Gapra Whitewood

FFXIII-2
New Bodhum and New Bodhum Aggresive Mix
Eclipse
Village and Void
Starting Over
Labyrinth of Chaos
Parallel World
Worlds Collide
Plains of Eternity
Shadow of Valhalla

Lightning Returns
Ouroboros Festival
Graveyard of Dreams
Yusnaan Palace
City of Revelry
Altar of Light
The Dead Dunes
Midnight Eternal
Sunset Prism
Chaos Infusions
Death Game

Also I loved the FFXIII series, I platinumed all three games.
 
Sir TapTap said:
On it's own it still seems alright, but the music loses a lot without being attached to something you love. There's a reason I eagerly play all the FF 4-10 tracks in Theatrhythm and don't even give a chance to almost anything recent. It's just not the same.

Do they get composers, do they get good recordings? Sure. But FF music is a holistic experience at least for me, and if I can't enjoy the game, the music generally doesn't mean much to me. I listen to the songs in the OP and it's like "yeah this is of acceptable quality, but would I just sit here and listen to it?" Naw. Now Battle on the Big Bridge? I can and have listened to it on loop for like half an hour in one session.

Final Fantasy, the good ones, are not games that do one thing right and fuck everything else up. They are holistic experiences that are not properly experienced independently. All the specifically musical praise in the world just can't convince me to listen to the OST of a Final Fantasy I hated or even one I simply never played.
Click to expand...

Very objectively speaking, the way games are scored has changed over the years. Sure, the biggest and most obvious dichotomy is still between Japanese vs Western games, but even within those two categorizations, overall style and expectation has evolved somewhat in the past 10 years or so.

Back in the 2D era, you had pixels, some sound effects coming off the same chip that plays music, and nothing else. Music had to be a lot more thematically complex to fill in an evocative gap. Nowadays, over-writing music is just going to distract from the rest of the gameplay experience, especially if it interferes with the clarity of dialogue/VA. This results in a more laid-back approach (generally speaking, of course, and like I said, the dichotomy between Japanese melodic-driven soundtracks vs Western film scores is still way more obvious)

The one game that I can think of that runs counter to this trend and wears proudly wears it like a badge is FFXIII-2. Heck, vocal songs for location BGMs is very risky, yet I feel that as an experience as a whole, the game pulled off its intended aesthetic extremely well and dialogue that needed to float above still managed to do so.

Anyway, I digress. I agree with you partially that game music is best experienced holistically, but that doesn't change the fact that game music also serves an evolved purpose then vs now. The soundtracks of old were written first and foremost to be catchy, and that has a direct bearing on how much they can or cannot be appreciated out of context.

Ceravic said:
Humblebrag! Good work btw!
Click to expand...

If I wanted to humblebrag, I'd have said something like "Hey I actually was the mixing engineer for this". That snicker was amusement at how the completely unofficial name stuck as far as people are concerned. (No, it's not Gratia Mundi lol)

Hey I actually was the mixing engineer for this
 
GrumpyAlien said:
A bunch of people didn't like XIII series so FF is dead. OK.... All I hear is frothing at the mouth hype for XV in it's threads. And many people are enjoying the hell out of XIV. Not dead.

Anyway yeah, the music is still incredible. Under the Weight from FF XIV's Titan fight is one of the most fun songs I have ever heard in a Final Fantasy game. So intense...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDEPwFmBQXM&list=PLL5mKr-nFprJIca4WSRsAbDlpjDi82ZZ8&index=6
Click to expand...

I love how on the ARR soundtrack the Titan themes from each phase are in order. When I get to them it takes me back to those stressful times, but I love the theme.
 
FF XV is my most hyped game in forever, so I disagree with your basic premise.

I through XIV, only one of them was kinda bad. Cut them some slack.
 
Falk said:
If I wanted to humblebrag, I'd have said something like "Hey I actually was the mixing engineer for this". That snicker was amusement at how the completely unofficial name stuck as far as people are concerned. (No, it's not Gratia Mundi lol)

Hey I actually was the mixing engineer for this
Click to expand...

Ahh, well good work so far anyways.
 
Dead? Only XIII was ropey. XII and XIV are both fantastic, and XV looks to be following suit from what I see.

The music is good, even in XIII though, yeah. I think XIV has the better soundtrack though.
 
What if I told you Boss Battle (FFIV) has an actual name and it's "Bobobo Bo Bobo Bobobobobooooooooo"?

p.s. trust me im an expert

and i have a terrible sense of humor
 
I don't like Hamauzu. To me, all his music is completely forgettable. None of his games have really had any memorable music like Uematsu's soundtracks. I'm not really a fan of Shimomura either. Her stuff is really boring. It all sounds exactly the same.
 
I kinda don't like the direction FF (and a lot of JRPGs) have gone with soundtracks in more recent years. IN particular, the whole "rock drums/guitar with orchestral backing" style really bores me.

That being said, it's not all bad. FFXIV had some lovely music.
 
King_Richard said:
I've posted this before, but the FFXIII series has the best soundtrack in the whole FF series, and some of the best game soundtracks period. Some of my favs:

FFXIII
The Vestige
Sulyya Springs
Dust to Dust
The Cradle Will Fall
The Gapra Whitewood

FFXIII-2
New Bodhum and New Bodhum Aggresive Mix
Eclipse
Village and Void
Starting Over
Labyrinth of Chaos
Parallel World
Worlds Collide
Plains of Eternity
Shadow of Valhalla

Lightning Returns
Ouroboros Festival
Graveyard of Dreams
Yusnaan Palace
City of Revelry
Altar of Light
The Dead Dunes
Midnight Eternal
Sunset Prism
Chaos Infusions
Death Game

Also I loved the FFXIII series, I platinumed all three games.
Click to expand...

Those tracks are great on their own, but they don't tie into the characters, bosses, environments, story, and gameplay as well as Uematsu's tracks do. They're are on the periphery. Great background music.

Link me to a track that matches the feel of Kefka (Dancing Mad) or Sephiroth (One Winged Angel). Or a track that is as haunting as the Mystery Train scene in FF6. Or a track that integrates what you hear and what you see on the screen better than the Opera House music/scene in FF6. Or a track that captures the emotion of Cecil and Rosa's relationship in FF4 (Theme of Love). I could go on and on..
 
threelights said:
Everything was Kingdom Hearts...
Click to expand...

Kingdom Hearts does borrow a lot stylistically from some of Shimomura's previous works, but it has grown to a point where Kingdom Hearts music is quite identifiable with its own tropes, even. Ishimoto and Sekito's contributions to the franchise, for example, are very distinctly "Kingdom Hearts" flavored.
 
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