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  #1  
Old Jan 23, 2013, 07:12 AM
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Sawano has been confirmed as the composer of Monolith Soft's new Wii U RPG, as of yet untitled.

I'm... not impressed.

I want Mitsuda!

Anyway... I must have the game. I must have the game yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GxUMMGyZcM
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  #2  
Old Jan 23, 2013, 01:16 PM
Xenofan 29A Xenofan 29A is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jormungand View Post
Sawano has been confirmed as the composer of Monolith Soft's new Wii U RPG, as of yet untitled.

I'm... not impressed.

I want Mitsuda!

Anyway... I must have the game. I must have the game yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GxUMMGyZcM
Agreed, agreed, and agreed.

What happened to Takahashi saying he wouldn't do a game without Mitsuda? Game looks amazing, though. I'd get a Wii U just for this, if it's as good as it looks. Are the games region-locked?
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  #3  
Old Jan 23, 2013, 02:26 PM
Cedille Cedille is offline
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Not so much surprising or disappointing about Mitsuda (not that I hate him, he's just a guy who doesn't often fulfill other people's expectations), but why not ACE+? Weren't they really available?
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Old Jan 23, 2013, 02:32 PM
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Originally Posted by Xenofan 29A View Post
Agreed, agreed, and agreed.

What happened to Takahashi saying he wouldn't do a game without Mitsuda? Game looks amazing, though. I'd get a Wii U just for this, if it's as good as it looks. Are the games region-locked?
Wii U is region-locked but this game is already confirmed for Japan, North America and Europe. You could almost say Takahashi has already done a game without Mitsuda. I mean, he only contributed a single track for Xenoblade.

Edit: Hmm, and I wouldn't cross out the possibility of there being more than one composer for this. If this game is going to have as much music as Xenoblade, I don't think Sawano could do it alone.

Last edited by cal; Jan 23, 2013 at 02:41 PM.
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  #5  
Old Jan 23, 2013, 02:51 PM
Xenofan 29A Xenofan 29A is offline
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Originally Posted by nextday View Post
Wii U is region-locked but this game is already confirmed for Japan, North America and Europe.
I meant that I would import it the day it hit Japan if I could. I prefer not to have to go through really terrible dubbing.

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Originally Posted by nextday
You could almost say Takahashi has already done a game without Mitsuda. I mean, he only contributed a single track for Xenoblade.
True. He said that back on Soma Bringer. But I feel Takahashi always brings out the best in Mitsuda, and understands what he can do pretty much better than anyone. Most likely, Mitsuda would have done the project, but was busy with his anime works and Kid Icarus.

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Originally Posted by Cedille
Not so much surprising or disappointing about Mitsuda (not that I hate him, he's just a guy who doesn't often fulfill other people's expectations)
In my case, he routinely exceeds them.
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  #6  
Old Jan 23, 2013, 03:20 PM
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Originally Posted by Xenofan 29A View Post
In my case, he routinely exceeds them.
Interesting, as I guess people's expectations (at least, Jormungand's) were Mitsuda scoring this game. I prefer my favorite composers work on bigger games, since it's much easier to follow them, but of course some would think otherwise.
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  #7  
Old Jan 23, 2013, 03:57 PM
Xenofan 29A Xenofan 29A is offline
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Originally Posted by Cedille View Post
Interesting, as I guess people's expectations (at least, Jormungand's) were Mitsuda scoring this game. I prefer my favorite composers work on bigger games, since it's much easier to follow them, but of course some would think otherwise.
I prefer simply that Mitsuda be allowed to work on projects that allow him creative room. There's an unfortunate trend in Western VGM and film score towards homogenization, and it's affected Eastern games to some degree as well. Mitsuda may not have had a truly "high profile" game since Xenosaga I, but he's come out with Hako no Niwa, Moonlit Shadow, and Soma Bringer since then, all projects which allowed him the leeway to do something that he hadn't done before.

I think he's done a good job with the Inazuma Eleven anime, but they need to let him go, as he needs the chance to break out of writing one single type of music.
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  #8  
Old Jan 23, 2013, 04:25 PM
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I guess I get frustrated when the "hip, new sound" is chosen over tried-and-true staples of the field. I mean, I could have picked at least fifty composers that would have been a better choice than this one. I'm not suggesting that Sawano is bad or that he doesn't have room to grow, but he's quite young and perhaps isn't quite ready for a project of this magnitude (which is creatively helmed by masters of their craft who have been doing game design for over a decade).

It's sort of the same thing that happened with Xenoblade, I think. "Let's bill the lead composer as Yoko Shimomura, and then hire this cheap young person who hasn't worked on many games (Manami Kiyota) to do the majority of the music!"

I also struggle with whether or not it was Takahashi's call. The switch to Kajiura for Xenosaga Eps. 2 and 3, for example, was not his decision, but that of the new producer and director. Mitsuda was the sole composer of Gears, Saga 1, and Soma Bringer, the former two for which Takahashi was the main guy and the latter for which he served as producer. Then Xenoblade comes along, and evidently Takahashi has a change of heart. I hate thinking about what Xenoblade could have been if Mitsuda took a share of the game BGM, because it's kind of depressing. I really love a portion of the Xenoblade score, but it's not much larger than a fourth at most.

Then this comes along, and with it the chance to make amends. And who do we get. This guy? Really?

Of course, nextday is probably right in that there's a good chance Sawano won't be the only composer. For all we know we could hear ACE+ again. After all, when Xenoblade was first announced, it was only Shimomura's name we heard. This was only rectified when that (admittedly awesome) Iwata Asks was published.

Today I've been listening to the first Gundam Unicorn OST on youtube. Not doing much for me. And I'm actually reminded a lot of Kajiura: lots of sampled rhythm loops and random ethnic stuff from libraries. I even heard a string ensemble sample I remember from Growlanser 2, of all things. It's just really bare-bones stuff.

I'm going to reiterate... I could think of soooooo many composers better suited to a next-gen JRPG. It's not even difficult. Heck, if Takahashi was dead-set on getting an anime composer who had experience with mecha, even narrowing the field in that way there are still better choices. If I was the music director, and Takahashi told me to get a mecha anime guy, I'd of gotten Kouhei Tanaka. If he told me I had an unlimited budget, I'd of gotten Kanno.

Alright, I think I'm done ranting... for now.
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  #9  
Old Jan 23, 2013, 05:06 PM
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maybe Xenoblade II isn't the name, but it could start by Xeno
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  #10  
Old Jan 24, 2013, 04:38 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jormungand View Post
I also struggle with whether or not it was Takahashi's call. The switch to Kajiura for Xenosaga Eps. 2 and 3, for example, was not his decision, but that of the new producer and director.
Is there any anecdote about this? I saw somebody posting that Mitsuda said in his forum he declined the project for some reason. It's no surprise the composer avoided it for the alleged internal conflict and the string of the staff departures.

Anyway, we're a bit too much derailed and we may disappoint Sawano fans (if any)!
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  #11  
Old Jan 24, 2013, 05:13 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jormungand View Post
It's sort of the same thing that happened with Xenoblade, I think. "Let's bill the lead composer as Yoko Shimomura, and then hire this cheap young person who hasn't worked on many games (Manami Kiyota) to do the majority of the music!"
This is quite negative. Have you read the Iwaka Asks you are also referring to? They explained how and why Takahashi chose Shimomura originally, then Mitsuda for the theme song, then even more composers for the rest of the BGM because they needed to produce a lot of music.

Also, Takahashi said he wanted to work with Shimomura to bring some freshness to the music of Xenoblade compared to his previous projects. It could be the same with Sawano now. Why would he necessarily have to work with the same people again and again?
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  #12  
Old Jan 24, 2013, 05:56 AM
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Takahashi is credited as executive producer in the trailer, that's usually the farthest someone can be involved in a particular development. It's usually the kind of credit the company/studio's head gets (like Iwata does for all Nintendo developed/published games).

I think ya all are reading too much into this all. (And I think this topic should either be split or strictly be limited to discussion about Sawano.)
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  #13  
Old Jan 24, 2013, 06:16 AM
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Actually, he's the executive director, not producer.

I'll give Sawano a fair shot here. He couldn't possibly be any worse than the Xenoblade sound team was.
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  #14  
Old Jan 24, 2013, 06:46 AM
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Xenoblade was a great jrpg, unlike ff13 games that went to shit. The music was very average at best though.
And back on topic (to an extent), I completely agree that Sawano can't be worse than Xeno new composers. He can write some great music.

I'll be curious to see how this new game will turn out (and another off topic thing - WiiU is close to current gen consoles in terms of hardware, with stronger gpu but a weak sauce cpu, so any WiiU game is quasi next-gen to me lol ...but yeah, what counts in the end is the quality of games)

Last edited by Efendija; Jan 24, 2013 at 06:49 AM.
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  #15  
Old Jan 24, 2013, 09:43 AM
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Originally Posted by Raizen1984 View Post
Actually, he's the executive director, not producer.
Appears to be the same difference. E.g. Platinum Game's head Inaba goes by that title.
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  #16  
Old Jan 24, 2013, 11:14 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cedille View Post
Is there any anecdote about this? I saw somebody posting that Mitsuda said in his forum he declined the project for some reason. It's no surprise the composer avoided it for the alleged internal conflict and the string of the staff departures.
Takahashi stepped down from his lead role for both Episode II & III, while another director and producer took the helm. Several other changes were made to staffing. It seems that Mitsuda, along with Kaori Tanaka (Soraya Saga) and Kunihiko Tanaka, were not even asked back (all are and were freelance at the time) for Episode II. Soraya reported on her blog that she was not asked to return (although she insists there were no hard feelings about this), and she also confirms Kunihiko Tanaka was not asked.

http://xenoverse.xenotensei.com/hist...eno_part03.htm

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zanasea View Post
This is quite negative. Have you read the Iwaka Asks you are also referring to? They explained how and why Takahashi chose Shimomura originally, then Mitsuda for the theme song, then even more composers for the rest of the BGM because they needed to produce a lot of music.
Yes, I've read it, and that's exactly what I was referring to. Think about it. Shimomura was brought in for a change of pace, but only ended up contributing a very small portion. It was always the intention to hire other composers to fill in the gaps. I'm not intending it to sound negative, but the relatively inexperienced Kiyota surely was the cheapest (as in, least expensive) of the six composers hired. I find it no coincidence that she did the most music.

It begs many questions: Why didn't Shimomura do the whole score? If it was too much, why wasn't the score divided evenly? Or even, sort-of evenly? The track assignments are completely lopsided.

Quote:
It could be the same with Sawano now. Why would he necessarily have to work with the same people again and again?
Of course I don't begrudge a creator their choice of composer. In this case, I am recognizing that a Takahashi x Mitsuda collaboration has always been a good one, so why fix what's not broken? I just thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to get Mitsuda back for a full JRPG soundtrack, especially considering his relative absence in Episodes II & III, Xenosaga DS, the anime, and Xenoblade.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Datschge View Post
Takahashi is credited as executive producer in the trailer, that's usually the farthest someone can be involved in a particular development. It's usually the kind of credit the company/studio's head gets (like Iwata does for all Nintendo developed/published games)...

Appears to be the same difference. E.g. Platinum Game's head Inaba goes by that title.
In another Iwata Asks, Takahashi uses the term "General Director", which I assume is the same as his role on this Wii U project. Contrary to your description, Takahashi described how he was involved in every aspect of Xenoblade's development, from story to event planning to graphics to audio.

It's true this has gone off-topic, and I have to admit a lot of responsibility for that. Much of this discussion doesn't belong in this thread, and I apologize to fans of Sawano if any of my comments have offended.
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  #17  
Old Jan 25, 2013, 07:47 AM
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Seems like I'm the only who loves the Xenoblade soundtrack here.

Anyway, I'm curious about Sawano making a game soundtrack for the first time.
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  #18  
Old Jan 25, 2013, 09:32 AM
Xenofan 29A Xenofan 29A is offline
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Originally Posted by KP-X View Post
Seems like I'm the only who loves the Xenoblade soundtrack here.

Anyway, I'm curious about Sawano making a game soundtrack for the first time.
It's okay, but it makes me disappointed that Shimoura or Mitsuda hadn't done more of it.

As for Sawano, I suppose that I should be more positive. After all, he's going to have more time to work on this than any of the anime or J-drama he's done, so maybe he'll have a chance to show his talent. I'm just not impressed with what I've heard of his music so far, that's all.
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  #19  
Old Jan 25, 2013, 12:36 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KP-X View Post
Seems like I'm the only who loves the Xenoblade soundtrack here.
Nope, me too. I really enjoyed Shimomura's compositions and of course I was a bit baffled by the fact that she didn't do that much of the music. _But_ I enjoyed Kiyota's tracks just as much.
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  #20  
Old Jan 12, 2015, 08:37 AM
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While I'm kind of indifferent about Sawano I found this information quite interesting. So supposedly there is going to be soundtrack release for the upcoming Xenoblade X title.
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  #21  
Old Jan 12, 2015, 11:15 AM
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There hasn't been a single Sawano soundtrack that hasn't been released so I wouldn't say I'm surprised.

Not sure if I'm looking forward to it any more. His style kind of shifted between 2012 and 2013 and I haven't been a fan lately. Xenoblade X was completed during the first half of 2012 so it might still be decent.
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  #22  
Old Sep 25, 2016, 04:49 AM
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Not sure if anyone will read this, but I guess I'll post it here too.

So me and a few other people have created a Discord chat for people who enjoy Sawano's music. It doesn't matter if you know one of his songs, or 1000 of his songs, as long as you're interested in his music, you're welcome to join!

We all like discussing a lot of Sawano topics, but we also talk about a lot of other music, media, anime, video games, etc. I never thought I'd see the day where we talk about socks in a music-related chat, but sure. Just be aware that there may be some swearing/cursing in the chat.

If you're interested in joining, the link to joining the chat server is here: https://discord.gg/48vhc2c

For those who don't know, Discord is a popular text and VoIP software. It does not require a client or even an account, although they are available at https://discordapp.com/.

If you didn't understand the description of Discord above, it's basically a messaging application, or similar to and IRC.

For a long explanation of what it is, click this button:
Spoiler:
Discord is similar to an IRC chat in a sense, though it's got more similarities with a product such as Skype. The biggest difference is that it doesn't have any video chat, and imo, the interface is easier to work with. It's also compatible with video games in some way, not too sure since it's still a work in progress part of the application from the Discord team.

You don't need to download the application in order to join, since you can run the app through your web browser. You don't even need an account, but I'd probably recommend making an account if you plan on staying. You can download the application and create an account here: https://discordapp.com/


Well then, I hope to see you in the chat at some stage then!
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  #23  
Old Jul 1, 2017, 10:35 AM
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It's been confirmed that Hiroyuki Sawano has left company Legendoor and now works at a new company called VV-ALKLINE (according to the katakana, it's meant to read as "walkline").

Not sure if he is the owner of this new company or not, but I couldn't find any detailed information about it except on his official website.

Sources:
http://www.legendoor.com/news/217
http://www.sawanohiroyuki.com/vvalkline.html
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  #24  
Old Jul 1, 2017, 11:37 AM
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It's probably his own company. I wonder if he will be bringing anyone with him.

vv-alkline.com (not live yet) was registered by Rie Otake (大竹里英) which seems to be the Rie that writes the German lyrics for his songs. Curiously, her Google account has her name as Rie Sawano (澤野里英).

Last edited by cal; Jul 1, 2017 at 11:50 AM.
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  #25  
Old Jul 1, 2017, 12:52 PM
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Sawano leaving Legendoor is truly the end of an era. He's been there for around 10 years now right? I'm interested to see if this has any affect on his music itself.

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vv-alkline.com (not live yet) was registered by Rie Otake (大竹里英) which seems to be the Rie that writes the German lyrics for his songs. Curiously, her Google account has her name as Rie Sawano (澤野里英).
Also wow that's insane. If Rie is related to Sawano it would make sense to some extent, since they've been working alongside each other for a long time. Do you have the link for Rie's google account?
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Old Jul 1, 2017, 01:19 PM
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I sent you a PM. And yeah, the news post says 12 years.
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  #27  
Old Jul 4, 2017, 02:22 AM
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Their poster boy has left? Who will take be their new one? Hayashi?
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Old Aug 1, 2017, 10:23 PM
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Yeah probably Hayashi.

I mean I'm not complaining.
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  #29  
Old Aug 2, 2017, 08:21 AM
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Megumi Shiraishi appears to have left Legendoor a couple weeks ago too. No clue if it has anything to do with Sawano's new company. Legendoor also hired a new guy: http://www.legendoor.com/artist/%E6%...96%84%E5%93%89
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  #30  
Old Aug 4, 2017, 04:11 AM
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That sounded a bit harsher than what I Meant But I ain't complaining either.
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