VGMdb
Go Back   VGMdb Forums > Discussion > Video Game Music Discussion > Album Discussions
Register FAQ Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old Dec 3, 2017, 02:09 AM
Jimby Jimby is offline
VGMdb Staff
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: England
Posts: 341

Credits taken from the staff roll. I fully realise applying the full game credits to an album that represents a fairly thin slice of all the game’s music is overkill but, in the absence of a proper soundtrack release on the horizon, I felt it the better alternative than leaving everything blank for fear of technical inaccuracy.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old Dec 5, 2017, 04:59 PM
jb1234 jb1234 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 44
Default

I really hope this gets a full release. It's the best music I've heard this year.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old Dec 5, 2017, 06:04 PM
Jormungand's Avatar
Jormungand Jormungand is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 1,062
Default

I want to log my composer guesses here while we bide our time for the full release. The music is in chronological order as I dig into the game. I omitted the tracks from the sound selection, most of which occur within the first couple hours of the game.

As a side note, based on interviews, it seems that Mitsuda was involved in all orchestral tracks either as composer+arranger or arranger.

  • Argentum Trade Guild Day -- Yasunori Mitsuda
  • Argentum Trade Guild Night -- Yasunori Mitsuda
  • cutscene in Argentum -- Manami Kiyota
  • Torigoth Day -- ACE
  • Torigoth Night -- ACE
  • ambushed in Torigoth -- ACE
  • snobbish guy cutscene -- ACE
  • Tora's home cutscene -- ACE
  • Mórag intro cutscene -- ?
  • Blade/core crystal bonding menu -- Yasunori Mitsuda
  • core crystal bonding cutscene -- ?
  • Torigoth Base -- Kenji Hiramatsu
  • Rescuing prisoner cutscene -- ACE (arranged, based on main theme by Mitsuda)
  • tender theme during camp -- ACE
  • Torna theme -- ACE
  • new titan appears from the cloud sea -- ?
  • unease, tension inside Uraya -- ACE
  • Uraya -- Manami Kiyota

Actually not really sure about Argentum Trade Guild, Mitsuda definitely arranged it but ACE could've composed.

Last edited by Jormungand; Dec 11, 2017 at 05:02 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old Dec 5, 2017, 06:29 PM
cal's Avatar
cal cal is online now
VGMdb Staff
 
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 2,740
Default

Actually, most of the orchestra tracks were probably arranged by Mariam Abounnasr. She arranged Mitsuda's tracks for Episode Ignis too.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old Dec 6, 2017, 04:19 AM
jb1234 jb1234 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 44
Default

Either way, Mitsuda's voice largely dominates the soundtrack, much more than I was expecting. He wrote more than his fair share of area themes (in addition to the cutscene music as was reported). None of the battle themes I've heard so far are by him.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old Dec 6, 2017, 04:44 PM
Jormungand's Avatar
Jormungand Jormungand is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 1,062
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by nextday View Post
Actually, most of the orchestra tracks were probably arranged by Mariam Abounnasr. She arranged Mitsuda's tracks for Episode Ignis too.
Really? Interesting. In interviews he appeared to make a big deal about being "in charge" of the orchestral music on the count of his experience with orchestral arranging and recording.
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old Dec 6, 2017, 06:17 PM
cal's Avatar
cal cal is online now
VGMdb Staff
 
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 2,740
Default

She seems to be Procyon's new lead orchestrator - filling in for Natsumi Kameoka who left in 2013. This becomes very apparent when you look at the credits for Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic. Certainly, Mitsuda was very heavily involved with the orchestration for Xenoblade 2 - I'm only saying that he didn't do everything. I wouldn't be surprised if Argentum Trade Guild Day is one of his arrangements (sounds similar to some of his recent work).

By the way, the source for Episode Ignis is the behind the scenes video where you can very briefly see "arr. and orch. Mariam Abounassr" written on the score.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old Dec 7, 2017, 03:02 AM
jb1234 jb1234 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 44
Default

The music's actually been getting better as I progress through the game. Some of the midpoint pieces are stunningly gorgeous.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old Jan 20, 2018, 03:44 AM
MBgov1133's Avatar
MBgov1133 MBgov1133 is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Australia
Posts: 365
Default

So a few friends and I discovered that all the song titles for the Xenoblade 2 OST are on the JASRAC database, even the localised titles. So we compiled them into a google spreadsheet.

The list we made includes all the information in both Japanese and English. Be mindful that the tracklist does contain spoilers.

Here is the link compiled list of song titles that we found on the website:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...ZpLHRKtpk13eM/

Note: There may be a few typos in the track names, however we copied this as it said on the JASRAC pages, so any typos are from the source itself.

I originally posted this to the Xenoblade subreddit. There more details on that post here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Xenoblade_C...itles_for_the/

It's quite surprising who composed certain tracks. Uraya's theme is Kenji Hiramatsu's work for example. I completely expected Uraya's theme to be Kiyota's handiwork. Unfortunately, JASRAC didn't credit any of the arrangers, so Kiyota could've still possibly arranged Uraya night (unlikely though, considering Mariam Abounnasr's involvement with the OST).

In terms of the spread of tracks between composers....

Mitsuda - 30
ACE - 44
ACE & Mitsuda - 1
Hiramatsu - 31
Hiramatsu & Mitsuda - 1
Kiyota - 13

Kiyota went from doing the most in XC1 to the least in XC2. Sad!
__________________

Last edited by MBgov1133; Jan 20, 2018 at 03:58 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old Jan 20, 2018, 08:16 AM
Rew's Avatar
Rew Rew is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 143
Default

Oh, this is good to know! The fact that an entire tracklist has been made (including a localized English version) gives me hope that either a) there's a full OST release forthcoming, or b) there will be an in-game jukebox feature patched into the game. Or possibly even both!
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old Jan 20, 2018, 10:10 AM
Mac_Tear's Avatar
Mac_Tear Mac_Tear is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Germany
Posts: 492
Default

I'm positively surprised about Yasunori Mitsuda's contributions. Not expected that much tracks penned by him! Also, an official English tracklist is very neat and makes me wish there were finally news about a full soundtrack release. It's about time, since the game was released on December 1st, 2017!
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old Jan 20, 2018, 01:26 PM
Rew's Avatar
Rew Rew is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 143
Default

What I'm wondering is, which ones are the merc mission menu theme and Blade bonding theme? And also the common Blade awakening and rare Blade awakening themes? (I know their jingles are at the end, but I'm wondering about the cutscenes that play while they're being introduced.)
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old Jan 20, 2018, 03:58 PM
jb1234 jb1234 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 44
Default

Kiyota's low participation doesn't surprise me (although the pieces she did write are mostly very good). Definitely surprised by some revelations, like Uraya (which I thought was Mitsuda). Hiramatsu appears to have more range than I thought.
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old Jan 21, 2018, 01:43 AM
dissident93's Avatar
dissident93 dissident93 is offline
Trusted Editor
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: USA
Posts: 1,163
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac_Tear View Post
I'm positively surprised about Yasunori Mitsuda's contributions. Not expected that much tracks penned by him! Also, an official English tracklist is very neat and makes me wish there were finally news about a full soundtrack release. It's about time, since the game was released on December 1st, 2017!
As CHz pointed out before, Mitsuda has track names for a number of his projects which have yet to have a soundtrack release. So while I don't see why this game, with as much work Mitsuda put into it, wouldn't have a soundtrack released eventually, full track names from JASRAC don't necessarily mean it will be anytime soon.
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old Jan 21, 2018, 03:29 AM
MBgov1133's Avatar
MBgov1133 MBgov1133 is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Australia
Posts: 365
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by dissident93 View Post
As CHz pointed out before, Mitsuda has track names for a number of his projects which have yet to have a soundtrack release. So while I don't see why this game, with as much work Mitsuda put into it, wouldn't have a soundtrack released eventually, full track names from JASRAC don't necessarily mean it will be anytime soon.
Yeah. I'm pretty confident that there'll be an OST release based on the history of the Xeno series, though I can't say when. Hopefully it's soon though.

It's possible that the new story DLC for the game may have new tracks recorded for it at some stage, which brings up the possibility of the OST releasing after the DLC is released - including the new tracks.
__________________
Reply With Quote
  #16  
Old Jan 21, 2018, 08:13 AM
Jormungand's Avatar
Jormungand Jormungand is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 1,062
Default

Awesome info.

I'm willing to bet that some of those Kiyota-sounding tunes credited to Hiramatsu or ACE are actually Kiyota's composition but their arrangement. Her style is just so plain and predictable, honestly, it's hard to miss.

Also note that several Mitsuda tracks are jingles: New Area, Landmark, Level Up, etc.

Last edited by Jormungand; Jan 21, 2018 at 08:18 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #17  
Old Jan 22, 2018, 05:08 PM
jb1234 jb1234 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 44
Default

Plain and predictable maybe but I think Kiyota brought her A-game to Xenoblade 2, perhaps because she had less to compose. Some of my favorite tracks are hers (Early Uraya, Ancient Vessel).
Reply With Quote
  #18  
Old Jan 22, 2018, 08:12 PM
MBgov1133's Avatar
MBgov1133 MBgov1133 is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Australia
Posts: 365
Default

I'd argue that Kiyota doesn't show off much of her variety in the Xenoblade series itself though if you listen to some of her other works it's quite clear that she's capable of a fair bit more.

Takahashi seems to want a specific sound from Kiyota for Xenoblade, and I'm not complaining because I love that sound a lot anyway, haha.

I do agree with the idea that ACE and Hiramatsu may have arranged some Kiyota tracks, but they specifically mentioned "作曲" (composer) on JASRAC. They didn't credit any arrangers, only the composer. So it's possible that it's the other way around - ACE/Hiramatsu compositions with Kiyota's arrangement.

Although, one of the songs that have been confirmed to be arrangements credited both people involved under "composer", being "The Towering Yggdrasil". Mitsuda mentioned that Hiramatsu had arranged the main theme that he composed for XC2, and it's likely this track considering where it plays ingame. So it's possible that the only arrangement work done by the main composers themselves were with Hiramatsu arranging a Mitsuda track and ACE doing the same (not counting Mariam Abounnasr's involvement). So there's a possibility that Kiyota didn't arrange any other tracks.
__________________
Reply With Quote
  #19  
Old Feb 12, 2018, 04:32 PM
Jormungand's Avatar
Jormungand Jormungand is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 1,062
Default

The credits are very useful for retro-crediting Kenji Hiramatsu on the original Xenoblade OST. Those pure cheese rock ballad type tracks are obviously his, for example. We had always been led to believe that when credited as "ACE+" they all work on each other's tracks fluidly, but I think that's not the case. I think that on the original XB, Hiramatsu did his thing while ACE did theirs. I think he specifically asked to be credited separately this time.
Reply With Quote
  #20  
Old Feb 15, 2018, 09:50 PM
MBgov1133's Avatar
MBgov1133 MBgov1133 is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Australia
Posts: 365
Default

The OST has been datamined. Only in 192kbps due to Switch compression, which kinda sucks, but it's better than what we had before, since they're clean rips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=P...&v=30gxZOFJmNM

Also yes, Hiramatsu has stated that he was responsible for tracks like You Will Know Our Names and Engage the Enemy from XC1.
__________________
Reply With Quote
  #21  
Old Feb 17, 2018, 06:28 PM
jb1234 jb1234 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 44
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by MBgov1133 View Post
The OST has been datamined. Only in 192kbps due to Switch compression, which kinda sucks, but it's better than what we had before, since they're clean rips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=P...&v=30gxZOFJmNM

Also yes, Hiramatsu has stated that he was responsible for tracks like You Will Know Our Names and Engage the Enemy from XC1.
Some of the Mitsuda cutscene pieces are really nice but going through the rip now makes me realize that the best music has been available for months now.

(The batting average is still much higher than XB1's soundtrack, though which had a lot of weak cutscene music.)
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old Feb 18, 2018, 03:31 PM
Jormungand's Avatar
Jormungand Jormungand is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 1,062
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jb1234 View Post
(The batting average is still much higher than XB1's soundtrack, though which had a lot of weak cutscene music.)
Definitely agreed on that point.

I guess I can say I'm... less underwhelmed by XB2 than XB1. There's a lot of hit and miss. In terms of the meat of the soundtrack, the field/town/battle music, I like:
  • Argentum (delightful all around, the melody is constant and trades off instruments seamlessly)
  • Gormott (the XB2 analog of Gaur Plains, it's better and sustains energy surprisingly well throughout a long piece)
  • Greatmaw Rapids (not the real title, a Kiyota piece. It's like another version of Bionis Interior from XB)
  • Titan Battleship (really well done all around, the melody is very interesting, why isn't Hiramatsu's other stuff this inspired?)
  • Alba Cavanich (has a really smart part toward the end, those minor thirds in the countermelody)
  • Leftherian Archipelago
  • Indol (this is what we expect from all Mitsuda choral/organ pieces ever, they all sound about the same but are always pleasant nonetheless)
  • Theosoir (the night version is one of Mitsuda's best, he explores dark harmony and the Irish harp is dreamily haunting)

There's a few that skirt the line, being agreeable but not amazing, like Torigoth, Mor Adain, and "The Ancient Vessel" (minus the choral introduction which couldn't be more generic).

But then there are some tracks just as uninspired and ultimately as annoying in XB1... Uraya, Fonsa Myma, Tantal, Garfont, Fonsett, Temperantia, every battle theme (except the main one which is OK), the stupid mercenary menu theme, etc.

Note I'm only as far as Theosoir/Tantal. But it's far enough. The field/dungeon stuff is really hit or miss as I stated above, and it's such a shame Mitsuda didn't swap roles and let the others handle the event music. He's great at field/dungeon stuff, and his battle music would be way better too.

The battle music is just annoying. Too much filler rocking, not enough memorable melodies. Anyone can scream away on an electric guitar. But writing a catchy rock battle theme takes craftsmanship. There is a right way to do it, and ACE/Hiramatsu haven't learned it.

Still, yes, it's overall more consistent than XB1. But I fear that's only because we have so many live performances this time. The live performances make the lesser tracks slightly more tolerable and even cover up deficiencies in the composition ("The Ancient Vessel" is a perfect example of this. Who doesn't like the sound of a sonorous oboe and bassoon against a gentle synth keyboard accompaniment?)

I am really enjoying the game though. That's three Xenoblade games in a row that are really great. This series is built for the long run.
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old Feb 18, 2018, 10:09 PM
jb1234 jb1234 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 44
Default

It's no surprise that a lot of the weaker tracks are ones that inexplicably revert to synth (like Temperantia and that stupid mercenary menu theme). I wonder if they ran out of money? Or maybe the pieces were written after the main recording was done. I have a weakness for high production values so I'll admit that I'm probably giving a lot of this music more of a pass than I should be.

(I ended up being greatly disappointed by the game but I have a very low tolerance for anime tropes and XC2 sinks in them. The characters in XC1 weren't exactly riveting but they felt more relatable than "I can do this with the power of friendship" Rex, pervy, obnoxious Tora and deeply, deeply bland Pyra. I guess Nia's okay.)
Reply With Quote
  #24  
Old Feb 19, 2018, 04:09 PM
Jormungand's Avatar
Jormungand Jormungand is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 1,062
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jb1234 View Post
The characters in XC1 weren't exactly riveting but they felt more relatable than "I can do this with the power of friendship" Rex, pervy, obnoxious Tora and deeply, deeply bland Pyra. I guess Nia's okay.)
But Mòrag!!

Yeah, I agree. It's a smaller cast so there's fewer characters to choose from if one annoys you. I feel the same about Rex and Tora, but I love Mòrag, and Nia's mostly great, and Zeke is just cool enough during his serious moments. So that's my team and I'm sticking to it.

The most offensive part of the game is gambling for Blades. That was just plain bad game design. I also can't forgive the auto-filled maps. It's impossible to keep track of where you've already explored, and in a game this huge, that's really aggravating.
Reply With Quote
  #25  
Old Feb 19, 2018, 08:57 PM
jb1234 jb1234 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 44
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jormungand View Post
But Mòrag!!

Yeah, I agree. It's a smaller cast so there's fewer characters to choose from if one annoys you. I feel the same about Rex and Tora, but I love Mòrag, and Nia's mostly great, and Zeke is just cool enough during his serious moments. So that's my team and I'm sticking to it.

The most offensive part of the game is gambling for Blades. That was just plain bad game design. I also can't forgive the auto-filled maps. It's impossible to keep track of where you've already explored, and in a game this huge, that's really aggravating.
Mid-game spoilers:

Spoiler:
I didn't hate Morag but didn't find her particularly interesting either. She was more intimidating as an antagonist and once she joined the party, faded into the background and only really spoke up to deliver exposition during the political scenes. Zeke also gets massively toned down once he's around for good but this particular case didn't bother me as much because he was *way* too obnoxious in earlier encounters. They sorta *try* to develop the characters during the heart-to-hearts but most of them are very difficult to take seriously. I would have liked the game to have been less jokey in general but that's clearly not the tone they were going for.


As far as QoL issues go, I agree with yours and also add the field skills system, which I never really liked and forced me to switch around blades endlessly. Battles also took forever beginning in Chapter 3 and I started to dodge all but the required ones around the halfway point.

(Writing all this, it's actually a little surprising I finished the game but it somehow ended up being the sum of its parts.)
Reply With Quote
  #26  
Old Feb 23, 2018, 04:41 AM
MBgov1133's Avatar
MBgov1133 MBgov1133 is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Australia
Posts: 365
Default

Personally I have a bit of nostalgic attachment to XC1's OST, but I certainly think XC2's OST is much better.

XCX is, of course, the rotten egg of the trio (despite most of the music being nice out-of-context).

Regarding, gameplay, I feel Xenoblade 2 had the most fun gameplay. XC1 obviously set the standard, and while X has gameplay that's more complex than XC2, I feel XC2's gameplay was just more fun.

I never found the field skills an issue, but I do feel they were slightly unnecessary. Rare blade rates are stupid as well but I got KOS-MOS from a common core crystal back in Gormott in chapter 4 so I'm not really upset with the system. Wouldn't replay the game outside of NG+ though because of the blade system.

Thankfully most of the minor issues I had with the game have been fixed through patches, but it's really clear that they planned a lot more content for the base game. The voice lines for the upcoming NG+ blades were actually in the base game's files (patch 1.0.0) when it was datamined. It's quite clear that a lot of the content was cut for initial release. So the game wasn't really "complete" at release, but it sure is very full on content, so it's not like there was that much content left out on release day.
__________________
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
DERP-10008~11: Xenoblade Original Soundtrack Don Album Discussions 96 Apr 24, 2020 06:07 AM
HAC-ADENB-EUR: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Sound Selection (reprint) Mac_Tear Album Discussions 1 Dec 11, 2017 08:43 AM
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 SOUND SELECTION (reprint) Rew Album Discussions 0 Nov 25, 2017 01:04 PM
Xenoblade Chronicles X Soundtrack Selection Rew Album Discussions 2 Feb 11, 2016 01:11 PM
NTDO-17210: Xenoblade Special Sound Track Xenofan 29A Album Discussions 31 Jan 27, 2015 11:56 AM