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  #91  
Old Jun 6, 2015, 05:09 AM
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razakin razakin is offline
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Funny how people are bitching about a good (yes in my books) doing music for a game that noone in here has yet to played and thus not knowing how the music works ingame. And people saying that music is more important than gameplay? wtf. Also shoudln't this whole discussion be removed from Xeno and do a "Sawano Praise/Diss" thread, as people seem to like to do both.
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  #92  
Old Jun 6, 2015, 05:22 AM
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Well, I initially stated I would wait to hear it in game first but then I let it grow into an unhealthy obsession. Think I'm gonna go lie down until the game comes out...

Glad you like it, though.
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  #93  
Old Jun 6, 2015, 05:31 AM
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Originally Posted by waxattax View Post
So Sawano did not "crash" in?
This is business, not some kindergarten. Are people here actually being serious with childish suggestions that one composer robbed another one's job not metaphorically but literally?
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  #94  
Old Jun 6, 2015, 05:58 AM
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This is business, not some kindergarten. Are people here actually being serious with childish suggestions that one composer robbed another one's job not metaphorically but literally?
Nah, clearly Sawano has some dirty pictures of the Xeno-team and blackmailed his way to composing stuff, actually that has happened with all of his projects from the beginning.
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  #95  
Old Jul 18, 2015, 10:23 AM
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Originally Posted by waxattax View Post
Speaking of splicing though... Jormungand, you're likely to play Chronicles X before me. What are the chances you'd be willing to create a playlist of the perfect Mitsuda tunes to swap out for Sawano's-
So, XBX is due out to the rest of the world in December. It'll be a painful wait! In the meantime, we can dream about alternative OSTs.

I used the Japanese names as they sound a lot better than the generic pseudo-Fantasy the localization is using.

Some other notes:
-"Growth" is an antagonist organization.
-An "Overed" is a special boss fight, like hunts or marks.
-In the original Xenoblade's OST there was a battle track for when the player was getting beaten up badly, or when the player was ambushed, hence the reason for that track.
-Dolls are the mechs.
-I don't know if the BGM actually changes when you visit caves, dungeons, or the islands.
-my philosophy with battle music in games like this: the on-foot portions should sound dangerous and wild, preference given to ethnic/world instrumentation mixed with electric guitar and bass, fast-paced. The in-Doll portions should be grandiose and dramatic, preference given to orchestral music. Because that's not Mitsuda's strength, I found the the original Xenosaga provided the best examples. For the "Omega" track, skip to 1:34!)
-I'm sorry, but I couldn't find any uploads of the Armodyne OST, so the two selections from it are absent from the youtube playlist
-Naturally this is just an exercise in matching the mood of the area or situation. There are all approximations of the styles I'd prioritize.

Youtube Playlist in "story" order, sort of - note the comments on the right side!

Quote:
Theme of Xenoblade X - Terra Battle
Primordial Wilderness (Day) - The Test, Tsugunai
Primordial Wilderness (Night) - Old Smudged Map, Shadow Hearts 2
Regular Battle Theme (On Foot) - Activate! Burning Phase, Inazuma Eleven Anime
Neo Los Angeles (Day) - DOLL, Moonlit Shadow
Neo Los Angeles (Night) - Town of Twilight, Shadow Hearts 2
Underground Areas - Dungeon (Field), Lime Odyssey
Boss Theme (On Foot) - Battle of the 4 Deadly Sins, Half Minute Hero 2
Twiluminous Forest (Day) - Path to Enlightenment, Sailing to the World
Twiluminous Forest (Night) - The Forest of Lapis Lazuli, Kirite
Valley of Oblivion (Day) - An Illegal Messenger, Moonlit Shadow
Valley of Oblivion (Night) - West Tumbara (Dark), Lime Odyssey
Regular Battle Theme (In Doll) - Battle, Xenosaga Episode I
Miran Islands - Rhythm of Red, Sailing to the World
Theme of Growth - crossing, Book of Circus
Boss Battle Theme (In Doll) - Omega (starting at 1:34), Xenosaga
Land of White Ash (Day) - Bluecoral (Dark), Lime Odyssey
Land of White Ash (Night) - A Sigh of Relief, Soul Sacrifice
Land of Black Steel (Day) - Flamme Mort, Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner
Land of Black Steel (Night) - Merkaba, Xenogears CREID
Overed Battle - Boss Battle 1, Kid Icarus Uprising
Ambush/HP Critical Battle - A Strike From Behind, Armodyne (missing from playlist)
Final Dungeon - Blitzkrieg, Armodyne (missing from playlist)
Final Battle Theme - Memory Eater Theta, Deep Labyrinth
Ending Theme - Reincarnation, Sailing to the World
Feel free to compare and contrast with the official XBX OST.
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  #96  
Old Dec 5, 2015, 08:35 PM
Brad Evans Brad Evans is offline
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I'm not sure if this is legit, but it seems there's a problem with the Flash Drive OST in the SE of XCX:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Xenoblade_C...s_x_ost_has_a/
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  #97  
Old Dec 6, 2015, 05:43 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Evans View Post
I'm not sure if this is legit, but it seems there's a problem with the Flash Drive OST in the SE of XCX:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Xenoblade_C...s_x_ost_has_a/
It's not funny, but also a little funny. I got the SE and enjoy the little Zohar-shaped USB drive, but I haven't plugged it in yet. Because it has garbage music on it. Now it looks like I probably never will plug it in! If it could, my PC would thank me for my taste in music.

But seriously, folks. I knew the music wasn't good coming into the game, but after 10+ hours of play it's just... so terrible. Like really, really amazingly embarrassingly bad.

Before release, I kept thinking, "well, at least the more ambient stuff won't be distracting and will just kind of be there". That would have been an upgrade from, say, the sugary melodrama that was Xenosaga Ep2 and 3's OST. But I was wrong. I was so wrong. Even the "ambient" stuff is incredibly distracting. The format of Sawano's work has become so predictable even early into the game: the lead-in, the sort-of-but-not really melody (more-so a random string of phrases), the quiet, the "drop", and the rock. Always in that order, always every damn track. Even the ones that are meant to be calm (after chapter 3 is complete, there's this really melancholy though cheesy EP opening, and then even that goes into rock mode). The chord progressions are boring--when there are even chord progressions at all. Many tracks stay on the same few chords for their duration.

AND THE RHYTHM TRACKS UGH. Electronic glitchy loops that are subdivided as strictly and inflexibly as possible, straight eighth or sixteenth note patterns ON EVERY TRACK. This is not an exaggeration. Those rhythm tracks beg for attention in the most annoying way possible, "Look at me look at me look at me!" with a robotic, unbroken tempo. This music is more Machine than Man.

I couldn't do it, guys. I had to mute it (and therefore all the other audio, too). I won't be able to enjoy the excellent sound design, the living, breathing world of Mira. I have to strain to hear the voices over Sawano's mechanical din. It's such a shame to think Monolith Soft could have so easily solved this problem with a simple volume slider. That's it. Then Sawano fans could gorge themselves into a coma, and the rest of us could enjoy an excellent game the way it was meant to be played.

What a waste.
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  #98  
Old Dec 6, 2015, 07:49 AM
Eriksharp Eriksharp is offline
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Sawano is the japanese Hans Zimmer
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  #99  
Old Dec 6, 2015, 10:45 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eriksharp View Post
Sawano is the japanese Hans Zimmer
I disagree because Zimmer can write actually good music.
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  #100  
Old Dec 7, 2015, 09:15 AM
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Originally Posted by Efendija View Post
I disagree because Zimmer can write actually good music.
Oh, sick burn.

I've been checking what the Japanese people think about the soundtrack. The general consensus is that if you buy the OST because you like Sawano without buying the actual game, you will love it. But if you buy it because you want to listen to the game's music and "relive the memories" of playing this game, you will be disappointed. You can't find tracks because of the gibberish titles (classic Sawano here) or because they are merged with other pieces into one track. One example of this are the Day/Night variations for each area theme.

Another really bad example is The key we've lost, which is a 6 minute piece on the OST. At first I thought this was a 6 minute version of xeno_sound2 from the official website (that played in the second trailer), but turns out the 3 minute piece from the website is already the "full" version. The remaining 3 minutes are used for one of the standard battle themes (on the same track!) without any transition or connection to the first half.

This also happens with many other tracks on the OST that don't have any real connection in the game which is the point most criticize on Amazon JP, so I'd say the consensus there with this soundtrack is "The music itself is good, but as a soundtrack album, it is not user-friendly at all" (that's pretty much the title of the most helpful negative review).

In my opinion, this soundtrack as VGM (not as "music" in general) is not only disappointing after a game like Xenoblade Chronicles, it's just not good game music in general. The second half of N市L街A is literally one of the worst pieces of VGM I've ever heard. I hope that Monolith Soft hires a different composer for their next game that actually knows something about this kind of music and its purposes. Koh Kojima said in the Iwata Asks that Sawano doesn't really play video games, so it doesn't really surprise me that he screws up some basic things like proper loops, vocal songs during cutscenes while characters are talking, a vocal piece always playing whenever you fly with a Skell... But I'm also baffled why no one at Monolith Soft said something about that. Sawano did not compose a video game soundtrack; he just composed an anime soundtrack for a video game.

... I'm kinda tsundere for Black tar, though.

Last edited by 《J》; Dec 7, 2015 at 09:38 AM.
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  #101  
Old Dec 15, 2015, 03:56 PM
xakdrek xakdrek is offline
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Wow this soundtrack is extremely unorganized. Here's a document I found outlying where each song plays. It's still incomplete. It's strange that they decided to do things like add a totally unrelated battle theme to a vocal piece like "the key we've lost" It makes no sense.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...d.vyq1yp4d723g
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  #102  
Old Dec 22, 2015, 08:14 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 《J》 View Post
Oh, sick burn.

I've been checking what the Japanese people think about the soundtrack. The general consensus is that if you buy the OST because you like Sawano without buying the actual game, you will love it. But if you buy it because you want to listen to the game's music and "relive the memories" of playing this game, you will be disappointed. You can't find tracks because of the gibberish titles (classic Sawano here) or because they are merged with other pieces into one track. One example of this are the Day/Night variations for each area theme.

Another really bad example is The key we've lost, which is a 6 minute piece on the OST. At first I thought this was a 6 minute version of xeno_sound2 from the official website (that played in the second trailer), but turns out the 3 minute piece from the website is already the "full" version. The remaining 3 minutes are used for one of the standard battle themes (on the same track!) without any transition or connection to the first half.

This also happens with many other tracks on the OST that don't have any real connection in the game which is the point most criticize on Amazon JP, so I'd say the consensus there with this soundtrack is "The music itself is good, but as a soundtrack album, it is not user-friendly at all" (that's pretty much the title of the most helpful negative review).

In my opinion, this soundtrack as VGM (not as "music" in general) is not only disappointing after a game like Xenoblade Chronicles, it's just not good game music in general. The second half of N市L街A is literally one of the worst pieces of VGM I've ever heard. I hope that Monolith Soft hires a different composer for their next game that actually knows something about this kind of music and its purposes. Koh Kojima said in the Iwata Asks that Sawano doesn't really play video games, so it doesn't really surprise me that he screws up some basic things like proper loops, vocal songs during cutscenes while characters are talking, a vocal piece always playing whenever you fly with a Skell... But I'm also baffled why no one at Monolith Soft said something about that. Sawano did not compose a video game soundtrack; he just composed an anime soundtrack for a video game.

... I'm kinda tsundere for Black tar, though.
I picked up the game, and there are complaints that there are no audio settings, so you can't turn down the music volume in the game, especially for the cutscenes. The music in the game isn't really bad. Primordia's day/night music is awesome.

Are you saying that day/night themes of landmasses are simply combined into one track rather than having its own track like in the previous game's soundtrack?

Beside the unhelpful track titles, it appears the CD needed serious editorial oversight. I'm sure a sound engineer and editor could have spliced the original music, so it would fit more into a game soundtrack pattern.
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  #103  
Old Apr 30, 2016, 05:27 PM
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I actually find this score to be much more varied, interesting, and technical than the Xenoblade Chronicles OST. They really just need to get Mistuda back into the Xeno unvierse for good and quit messing around.

I actually came to this thread because I was listening in a vacuum and couldn't figure out what the hell the track titles were all about, interesting reading for sure, haha.
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  #104  
Old Aug 28, 2016, 10:00 AM
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Quote:
怒り新党BGMゼノクロ率高いね!
What is Soraya Saga saying here?

Also TIL that ゼノクロ is the Japanese equivalent of the English XBX abbreviation for Xenoblade X (as in, "XenoCross" / "XenoCro").

Last edited by Jormungand; Aug 28, 2016 at 10:03 AM.
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  #105  
Old Aug 30, 2016, 12:25 AM
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XBX music is often used in some tv show, I gather.
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  #106  
Old Jun 24, 2023, 03:06 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Efendija View Post
I disagree because Zimmer can write actually good music.
and he also does something called "naming tracks"

seriously. Sawano is just at this point annoying as hell with that.
i just can't stand sawano's sound production.

Super late to the party. i know. xD

I actually got the game , with a friend. We both loved the original wii game, and we still played till today and not yet.. ended it... yeah...
he was more hyped for this game then me, because my boner died right when i saw the composer name.

when we finally played, with him super hyped......
we only played 5 hours so far, and we were dying with the music. he never heard or knew about Sawano like me, and his first impression was so awful, he never touched the game anymore. when i ask if he wants to play it to just finish it.... "can we play something else not anoying?"
one day we played a really fun wii game about firefighters. that was more awesome and fun to play, with no annoying music.
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Last edited by RomanticScent; Jun 24, 2023 at 03:13 PM.
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