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The Music of Final Fantasy XI

R

RaidenZR

Member
My interest in the music of FF XI began solely by the initial piano collection, simply because I find all the FF Piano Collections to be incredibly beautiful, underrated, and understated. Having enjoyed the compositions more than I was anticipating, I've delved into the OST and most of the expanisions' OSTs as well and I am loving the hell out of ALL them. This is easily some of the best game music I've heard in a LONG time, music that equally holds its own outside of the game's context. I can say this since I have never even touched FF XI as a gameplay endeavor and I am going to keep this set of music in heavy, heavy rotation. If the game is half as good as its soundtrack, then I missed the damn boat.

Anyways, I just had to glow about it in a public forum and see if I was alone in my adulation.

Currently jamming to: "Ronfaure", "Distant Worlds", "Raboa", "Whispers of the Gods"
 
Did you just get the latest Piano collections? I ordered from S-E store and its sitll showing as backordered...
 
You're not at all alone; I love that music, especially the piano compilations. Occasionally spend a few hours with a pile of sheet music and a keyboard :D
 
I think the FFXI albums lack some variety. The way the music is written, with a whole lot of ostinati, has the potential to work wonders in game, but sometimes I get kinda sick of Mizuta.

The FFXI OST is pretty cool, because it features Mizuta, Uematsu and Tanioka, and each has his/her own approach to music.

"Ronfaure" is indeed awesome, and I'm also a fan of "Battle Theme" and "Awakening."
 
All of FFXI's tracks were top notch, but I just wish they had more music for dungeons and not so much ambient noise for every dungeon.
 
I've only played an hour or so of the game, was too archaic for me as I stepped way too late in to playing it, but I've always loved the track Gustaberg.

I've heard that Gustaberg is actually a mining area which is funny cause the song always reminds me of a forest area.
 
Weird, I was just reorganizing all my FFXI music and listening to it. I'm really hardpress to find a song I don't like. My favorites though are Awakening, the Ballista themes (I used to be a Ballista freak), and the various BCNM themes. Turmoil and Tough Battle #2 being my favorites of those.

There's so much awesome stuff though. Every iteration of Memoria de la Stona is just amazing.
 
I've invested so much time into the game since before the PS2 ver US launch, that the music has become something very special to me.
 
Deku said:
Did you just get the latest Piano collections? I ordered from S-E store and its sitll showing as backordered...
Click to expand...

No, just I borrowed the one with the white cover and blue sheeted piano. That's older, right?

Peronthious said:
You're not at all alone; I love that music, especially the piano compilations. Occasionally spend a few hours with a pile of sheet music and a keyboard
Click to expand...
Yeah, I do a lot of illustration and painting in my off-hours and it's the kind of stuff I love throwing on to just concentrate and dive into my work. It gets the "good flow" out of me.

Oh, and "End Theme" from Rise Of The Zilart is also amazing, albeit short.
 
Gattsu25 said:
Good soundtrack for a MMO. It wasn't until the 1000 hour mark or so that I started listening to outside music.
Click to expand...

Eh I never got tired of it since the "permanent" party areas seemed to change up all the time. We were always on the move.
 
Oh and can someone more proficient help me out here. There's a part in the track "A New Horizon - Tavnazian Archipelago" on Chains of Promathai's OST that sounds very reminiscent of something from another FF. Mostly in the beginning.
 
I tend to like the songs that annoy everyone else - my favorites being Jeuno's starlight celebration mix, Heaven's Tower, and Happily Ever After from the promathia expansion. Also of note is the awesome lounge singer-style vocal version of the Jeuno song. Is that a Star Onions thing?
 
RaidenZR said:
Oh and can someone more proficient help me out here. There's a part in the track "A New Horizon - Tavnazian Archipelago" on Chains of Promathai's OST that sounds very reminiscent of something from another FF. Mostly in the beginning.
Click to expand...

Huh... nice song.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FCEi9Q9PQTE

My first time listening... the intro reminds me of many things, I don't think it's specifically one song or game it reminds me of... it evokes the feeling of the earlier FFs without actually directly emulating any melodies or rhythms. That's why I thought Mizuta would be a great choice for composing XIII and so on... at least collaborate him in there.

I also hear a hint of Dragon Quest in this song, btw. The dissonance is eerily similar to the NES titles at around 10 - 15 seconds.
 
Brings back memories of a time between when I was working from a home office and then unemployed. I was a fairly prominent player (by north american standards on that server) on a server who's name I can no longer remember, my character's name was Oberon. I was mostly known as a high level Dragoon, one of the few Dragoons on the server that made it into the level cap area and went beyond the "AF" level. For those who never played, Dragoon was pretty much the job that almost every party could do without... exceedingly difficult to get parties with that job at higher levels.

Oh yes, that game was a life leecher... and I have never dared even attempt to look at WoW thanks to knowing what FFXI did to me.
 
The songs have a really nice, nostalgic quality to them -- and they really match the environments in a great way.
There's a simplicity to them, though... as they are meant to be heard over and over and over again (MMO style) without getting annoying.
Due to that, I think their translation in to "real world" instrumentals is pretty hit or miss.

I really like a few of the Star Onions tracks, and a couple on the new piano collections are nice.

In their game context though, it all fits wonderfully.
 
RaidenZR said:
Oh and can someone more proficient help me out here. There's a part in the track "A New Horizon - Tavnazian Archipelago" on Chains of Promathai's OST that sounds very reminiscent of something from another FF. Mostly in the beginning.
Click to expand...

I can confirm that it isn't, but, yes, it evokes Final Fantasy IX and some of the earlier town pieces. That's just the key choice and instrumentation.
 
Was obsessed with FFXI years before it came out. I would watch the live stream from the Japanese servers before it came to America. Problem was by the time it did I had played PSO and SWG so much that I was kind of done with it, but when I finally played it while the game itself just didn't attract me for any longer than a couple months the music was pure Final Fantasy and I loved it.
 
I prefer the new piano collection to the one from last year, but the whole collection of music is awesome. I'm still missing the Wings of the Goddess OST, actually, but I'll pick it up soon with this MP3 player contest they've got going on.

I wish they'd got Uematsu to work on some of the expansions a little too, just to mix things up, but I guess he's been busy with other work!
 
I really like the soundtrack(although I was a player for a long time) but a lot of them are kind of hit and miss for me. Some really stand out ones that I liked was the sea one"Alteaiu(spelling's probably off)", the one that played during the Black Coffin mission and I really liked the final vocalized COP song.
 
Jonnyram said:
I wish they'd got Uematsu to work on some of the expansions a little too, just to mix things up, but I guess he's been busy with other work!
Click to expand...
:lol

Yes, Uematsu's compositions are awersome, but Kumi Tanioka can hold her own and has done some great stuff. I just wish they'd do another full blown theme song again, after COP the last 2 expansion s have been a little light on orchestrated music.
 
FFXI >>[great soundtracks]> RoZ >> WoG >>[average soundtracks]>New Piano Collection>CoP =ToA>>[frisbee]>> Piano Collection (Box) = Unreleased tracks collection = Star Onions


I honestly don't enjoy later expansions. I really miss Uematsu and Tanioka, although I know they haven't done well that much since FFXI (I'm not a big fan of CC series music, and BD/LO are easily Uematsu's two of the worst albums).
 
The boat ride to Aht Urhgan has the best music... NOT. I do like Choc-a-bye baby, though. The chocobo theme mixed with a lil lullaby music. I could sleep to it.
 
ah i miss the goof old days of FFXI
it was one of the best 1.5 years of my life
made so many good friends.. oh well ill cry if i reminisce too long
xenobyte was my name.. love me or haate me,, u knew me if u were on midgard :)


i cant stay in this thread but my favorite of all time is the one and only kazham, i even changed my chocobo riding music to it

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xe-RBxTxOBM
 
I'm a fan of XI's music as well. Some of it perhaps out of nostalgia from having to listen to it ad naseum, but I tend to think most of it is genuinely good on its own.

The game has a real underrated intro movie as well imo; it sets up the game perfectly in terms of the range of emotion it puts you through (excitement, sadness, anger, and then an adventerous spirit to set up for the the party-nature of the game).

I'll look down my playlist for the game's soundtrack and see what my favourites are...

-Rolanberry Fields (very calming)
-Gustaberg badlands (it has a few beautiful sections)
-San d'Oria (one of those ad naseum nostalgia themes)
-Ronfaure Forest(ditto)

Boss song was good; pretty sure there was a song used during one of the sad Dragoon Job quests that was great, too.
 
crunker99 said:
ah i miss the goof old days of FFXI
it was one of the best 1.5 years of my life
made so many good friends.. oh well ill cry if i reminisce too long
xenobyte was my name.. love me or haate me,, u knew me if u were on midgard :)


i cant stay in this thread but my favorite of all time is the one and only kazham, i even changed my chocobo riding music to it

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xe-RBxTxOBM
Click to expand...


I was on Midgard too. Your name sounds Familiar. I was Painne on Midgar. My friend was Agonni. We were in the Guild Bloodforblood. We played back in the early ps2 version days.
 
In terms of sheer volume, its not really fair to compare the original game to all the expansions.

And for most NA players, they are comparing FFXI + Zilart (the 1st expansion that came bundled) to the expansions, which is even less fair.

The high watermark for me in terms of expansion music was Chains of Promathia with is very melodic themes and the main theme, Distant Worlds. Aht Urghan was a disappointment. We'll see how Wings of the Goddess will be like. So far it's good, but it's missing that theme song which anchored Chains of Promathia so well.

Well, I can't talk about Distant Worlds without linking to this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKk-N60EjyM
 
Now that my mind is churning, let me list some of my favorite CoP themes:

Realm of Emptiness - Promathia battle music.

Faded Memories - Promyvion

Distant Worlds



450px-Ktanioka.jpg
 
I'm very happy to see that loads of people are fans of the music. I've always half paid attention to FF XI, as a person who never played, but I never heard much about the music after all this time. It's reassuring to know it's appreciated.

In regards to the individual composers who work on the soundtracks, is it predominantly Naoshi Mizuta and Kumi Tanioka? I really enjoyed Tanioka's work on Crystal Chronicles (I'm wondering if she did the few sparse tracks for the WiiWare iteration) and I can sense some of that in a few tracks that have randomly shuffled into my playlist of FF XI music. She has a way with the music, a touch that adds majesty while still being intimate and comfortable. It's hard for me to describe but she consistently produces full, satisfying sounds for my ears.
 
RE: Kumi Tanioka - I found my own answer here, which is coincidently a pretty good (short) interview where she talks a bit about The Star Onions and other compositions:

RPGFan: What can you tell us about your upcoming musical projects?
Tanioka: I was in charge of the music for the WiiWare game being released this Spring in Japan called Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. This game is another of the stories in the world of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. As for the music, it is in a slightly different style from the first Crystal Chronicles and Ring of Fates. I was conscious to create music with the same atmosphere. It would be an honor if when playing the game you enjoy the music.


I think she is one of my favorite composers, and I just sort of realized it now that I make the connections. The music from the upcoming Chocobo game is fantastic, btw. She only has two tracks featured, but on the whole it's excellent. Really pays grand homage to the FF series.
 
Vanadiel March is actually one of my favorite FFXI songs. At least I think it is Vanadiel March. The song that plays when the story begins (in Windy anyway). The same song plays when you get Rank 10 and the Windy story concludes (not sure for the other nations since I never did them).

I'm very fond of all the Windy music, even the tunes that play in Sarutabaruta. Very relaxing. I also like the music that plays in the Hall of the Gods. I go sit in there and just listen to the music sometimes.
 
you haven't LIVED until you've lead a raid of 63 other excited as hell noobs into dynamis xarcabard with Awakening blaring in your ears. total adrenaline rush! this was back in the day when nobody really new wtf to do in the zone, and every pull was 20+ demons running like mad to slaughter you. then the first time we actually beat Dynamis Lord... man those are some powerful memories the music brings back to me.
 
I love the FFXI soundtracks. But I find the battle themes like Mercenary's Delight to be some of my favorites. ToAU is my favorite OST all around at the moment.

Square-enix is doing a poor job shipping the Piano collections out to the distributor in the US. Called them up and they don't even know when they are getting it in. I want my Piano harp.
 
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