SQEX-10183~6: FINAL FANTASY XIII Original Soundtrack

[Jormungand]

Originally Posted by mrnutz

Just ordered the CD... can you elaborate on what you're saying here? Are the tracks on the CD shortened from what is heard in-game? Thanks.

As far as I know, only the main battle theme ("Flash" or "Blinded by Light") is shortened from the in-game version. Basically, the development section with the brass melody is cut in half. So everything is compressed: the violin countermelody starts right away, and the electric guitar rhythm comes in sooner.

It really cheapens the climax, IMO.

[Jormungand]

This is completely random, a bit obvious, and likely old, but "Cocoon de Chocobo ~Let's Have a Dream II~" from FFXIII is based exactly on "Let's Have a Dream" from Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon. Who would've thought, right?

This "discovery" came from winamp randomly playing the original CMD version and me thinking, "hey, I've heard that before..."

We know that Yamazaki arranged the FFXIII version, so I wonder if this means Hamauzu didn't contribute at all to the "new" arrangement? Or whatever you want to call it--it's an arrangement of an arrangement of a variation of the chocobo theme.

[Zanasea]

Yes, on the album's official website, Hamauzu clearly states that this is an rearrangement of the slot machine theme from what he calls his "solo debut" soundtrack. Well, even if Yamazaki arranged the FFXIII version, Hamauzu was certainly there to check it out!

[Jormungand]

OK, thanks for clarifying. I had a feeling this info was already known.

[Cedille]

Is the current Romaji tracklist official? Besides the macrons, I think it doesn't fit our romanization scheme in that it literally transcribes loan words and the game's proper names.

[BahamutZ]

I thought the soundtrack was a real mixed bag to be honest. The same with the game itself. Some of the tracks I really enjoy are Saber's Edge, Snow's Theme, March of the Dreadnoughts, The Gapra Whitewood, The Sunleth Waterscape, Sustained by Hate, Serah's Theme, Archylte Steppe, Chocobos of Pulse and Sulyya Springs . I would have to say Saber's Edge and The Archylte Steppeare probably the tracks that works best in and outside of the game. Both of which I could listen to nonstop. Everything else is either medicre or rubbish.

Plus this 4th disc Jpop track is not even close to My Hands, which is the English counterpart I think.

Definitely not Final Fantasy quality that's is for sure.

[Jormungand]

Originally Posted by BahamutZ

Definitely not Final Fantasy quality that's is for sure.

True, it's not Final Fantasy quality. It's far better than that.

[Xenofan 29A]

I thought the ending credits theme was disappointing, but the final battle theme was a masterpiece for sure. Same for Nautilus. Oh, and Ragnarok is probably the best cue of last year.

The less said about "Kimi ga iru kara," the better.

[BahamutZ]

I suppose it is just not my style.

Is there a reason why the Piano Collections are not a related work on this album page? Both have Final Fantasy XIII as their related work name. Unless this album page reached the maximum related works.

[Muzza]

Originally Posted by BahamutZ

Is there a reason why the Piano Collections are not a related work on this album page? Both have Final Fantasy XIII as their related work name. Unless this album page reached the maximum related works.

I believe it's just as you say, since the OST pops up as a related work on the Piano Collections page. Then again, I don't blame the OST for not wanting to be associated with the Piano Collection anyway..

As an aside, without "Can't Catch a Break", "Nautilus", "Chocobos of Pulse", "March of the Dreadnoughts" and my personal favourite "Lake Bresha", I would only describe this as a 'good' soundtrack.

[Zanasea]

I know this is all about personal tastes, but... it's such a fantastic soundtrack that I can't believe anyone would refer to it as "rubbish". It is so good in terms of composition, arrangement and orchestration that even if you don't like the style, it is still a major work in the VGM history. Besides, it works extremely well in the game, especially because Hamauzu tried to match the visuals as closely as possible.

And it's not about being "Final Fantasy quality" (what is that anyway?). It's Hamauzu.

[Blitz Lunar]

I must confess that I haven't been taken by the soundtrack. I consider myself a Hamauzu fan (heck, he's 6th on last.fm right now) but I just prefer his less obviously "epic" scores I suppose... since I was the same with Dirge of Cerberus. Granted, I haven't listened to this a lot yet... maybe once or twice. I might stick it on today while I do some cleaning~

[Jormungand]

Truthfully, his weakness in XIII was his cinematic tracks. That's always been a weakness for him, actually; his style for such cutscenes is often very segmented, and sounds more like traditional film music.

But his BGM? There isn't a single track that doesn't fit it's corresponding field/dungeon--OK, Sunleth Waterscape is a bit tacky--but he's still a king when it comes to your everyday background and battle tracks.

[Cedille]

Originally Posted by Jormungand

Truthfully, his weakness in XIII was his cinematic tracks.

Of all event themes, I don't know which is seen as cinematic or not, but I like "Defiers of Fate" and "Determination" a lot and there are several more remarkable tracks ("The Warpath Home", "Forever Fugitives". "Start Your Engines" is good but a bit too cheesy, and not Hamauzu's work, apparently).

Originally Posted by Jormungand

But his BGM? There isn't a single track that doesn't fit it's corresponding field/dungeon

For me, "The Yaschas Massif" sounded like such. It wasn't originally composed for XIII, in the first place.


I think the soundtracks for the numbered Final Fantasy have always maintained supreme quality between FFIV and XIII, despite the composer changes, so I can see how someone calls it "Final Fantasy quality". I suspect it's FFXIV which will finally terminate the tradition though. With the return of the original composer, what I've heard so far is flat out generic.

[Xenofan 29A]

Originally Posted by Cedille

I think the soundtracks for the numbered Final Fantasy have always maintained supreme quality between FFIV and XIII, despite the composer changes, so I can see how someone calls it "Final Fantasy quality". I suspect it's FFXIV which will finally terminate the tradition though. With the return of the original composer, what I've heard so far is flat out generic.

I don't know about XIV, but I thought IX, X, and XI were a dip in quality (although X did have some great stuff from everyone involved), and I also think III is woefully overlooked. I actually like it better than IV...

[Blitz Lunar]

i listened through it again today like i said i would and it's.. pretty good. nothing really hit me as being whoa-awesome which is a shame but there are some very nice songs.

[Jormungand]

Originally Posted by Cedille

Of all event themes, I don't know which is seen as cinematic or not,

Yeah, I worded that poorly. Not event themes. Themes that play ONLY during timed cutscenes; and the ones that are more subtle underscore, are a bit boring relative to Hamauzu's other work. Naturally this is by design... but I would've preferred more interesting music during the more absurd cutscenes. Something to distract me from the onscreen nonsense.

[quote]but I like "Defiers of Fate" and "Determination" a lot and there are several more remarkable tracks ("The Warpath Home", "Forever Fugitives". "Start Your Engines" is good but a bit too cheesy, and not Hamauzu's work, apparently).
Warpath Home plays during exploration, so it's a not the kind of music I'm talking about. But you're right, Defiers of Fate would fit the description--but that's also largely an arrangement of the battle theme.

Why is Start Your Engines/Countdown not Hamauzu's work? It's credited to him.

For me, "The Yaschas Massif" sounded like such. It wasn't originally composed for XIII, in the first place.

A cool, authentic slice of Brazil right there. But it's interesting it originally started elsewhere; but clearly it was incomplete before XIII, because it does feature Lightning's theme. I thought it fit the atmosphere nicely. That particular area should be lifted wholesale from XIII and put into an HD remake of Secret of Mana. It feels so alive, and the music reflects that!

[BahamutZ]

Originally Posted by Zanasea

I know this is all about personal tastes, but... it's such a fantastic soundtrack that I can't believe anyone would refer to it as "rubbish". It is so good in terms of composition, arrangement and orchestration that even if you don't like the style, it is still a major work in the VGM history.

Well I didn't say the whole thing was rubbish. Just in terms of my personal enjoyment, I didn't care for it all that much. I am not going to deny that it has some great orchestration and arrangements.

The only FF I haven't heard at some point were FF11 and FF14. At least from what I remember this would be real low in the series.

Additionally, I know very little in terms of music theory, so anyone feel free to disagree with me hehe.

[Cedille]

Originally Posted by Jormungand

Why is Start Your Engines/Countdown not Hamauzu's work? It's credited to him.

Hamauzu states he requested Omori the total arrangement based on "Eidolons", so I think Omori's role was beyond mere orchestration. I know the comment is vague and Hamauzu might have given Omori a sequence date or such that he created for the movie scene, but the overall track is too cheesy for my liking and usual Hamauzu anyways, so I don't want to consider it as his.

Originally Posted by Xenofan 29A

I don't know about XIV, but I thought IX, X, and XI were a dip in quality (although X did have some great stuff from everyone involved), and I also think III is woefully overlooked. I actually like it better than IV...

I don't care about I, II and III. IX is really consistent. XI is one of the best. The one I'm less wowed by is V but still decent. All in all, it's a matter of opinion. I'd not be surprised if somebody says XIII is mediocre, rubbish, or not as good as hyped by some. Regardless of my impression, most part of this soundtrack was actually very rushed.

[Raizen1984]

All I have to say about this is I wish Toru Tabei did more VGM. The man has a great ear for jazz.

[saltlick]

another great soundtrack in the final fantasy repotoire.

[maneatinglizard]

Were the "composer's comments" located on the soundtrack's website ever translated? I believe ten of them were translated for an English release, but I'd love to see what he has to say about the rest of the tracks.

I'm referring to the comments under the "tracklist" tab here:
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/music/s...bula/ff13/ost/

[Phonograph]

Originally Posted by Cedille

Is the current Romaji tracklist official? Besides the macrons, I think it doesn't fit our romanization scheme in that it literally transcribes loan words and the game's proper names.

it's just the way zanasea makes his romanizations, I corrected some albums like that
I didn't know that album had got that treatment too, but you're right it's not how it must be made here (will correct it soon)

[Guitarist500]

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[Mac_Tear]

Originally Posted by Guitarist500

Sometimes I wonder if Junya Nakano really is just the arranger only of those two tracks, I mean maybe Hamauzu is just credited as the composer for legal reasons (contract to compose all music alone). Part of me thinks Nakano wrote those two tracks himself. I could be entirely wrong and dumb though :P

I was thinking the same for quite some time, each time I listened to those two tracks! It's pretty hard to hear some Hamauzu references within the material, but I guess he provided some basic layout and Nakano arranged and expanded it to his heart's content. For example, the part of "Tension in the Air" from 1:50 onward could be Hamauzu's motif (the strings and horns), while the rest (percussion, ambient strings, etc.) is Nakano's idea. For "Desperate Struggle" it's the same. I think Nakano had a lot of freedom with these two. Those two are close friends and I guess Hamauzu said "Hey, would you like to join the project? You can arrange two themes with your own style" (as a memento to FFX fans).
It's also clear, that Hamauzu refers to prior FF soundtracks, like "Mysteries Abound", which sounds like a Hitoshi Sakimoto composition from FFXII.

[Zanasea]

Originally Posted by Mac_Tear

It's also clear, that Hamauzu refers to prior FF soundtracks, like "Mysteries Abound", which sounds like a Hitoshi Sakimoto composition from FFXII.

Knowing Hamauzu, this is quite unlikely...
Never forget Dirge of Cerberus has zero references to FFVII

[BlazingRain]

Originally Posted by Guitarist500

Sometimes I wonder if Junya Nakano really is just the arranger only of those two tracks, I mean maybe Hamauzu is just credited as the composer for legal reasons (contract to compose all music alone). Part of me thinks Nakano wrote those two tracks himself. I could be entirely wrong and dumb though :P

SE doesn't seem to have much of an emphasis on accuracy when it comes to soundtrack credits. With things like Soken being credited as the composer on a number of tracks that are pretty straightforward arrangements of Uematsu's music, or how haphazardly they did the crediting on LR's soundtrack (Hamauzu would occasionally be credited in tracks that used parts of Lightning's Theme, but neither he nor Mizuta were given credit for Bhunivelze despite Suzuki's use of various themes they had written, sometimes with minimal arrangement), I don't think they care as much as we do

On the other hand, those two tracks in particular do have some of Hamauzu's signatures IMO, so I doubt they were completely the work of Nakano.

Has anyone tried to translate Hamauzu's words on those two tracks? That should give us some indication? Although I think he sells himself short in a lot of those, perhaps to try to give his friends a career boost. Just reading some of those notes, you might think he composed very little of the music himself, with how much credit he deflects to Tabei, Yamazaki, etc.

As for Mysteries Abound, I doubt he purposely drew from Sakimoto. He's written tracks reminiscent of Sakimoto's style for a while. Some of his music for DoC sound similar, to give an example. They have similar musical influences, so it's possible they're both drawing from a common inspiration.

[Dag]

Hamauzu's notes on those:
- For 2.20 2.14 he was asked for a "tension" track and "Nakano" immediately came to his mind. So he tried to do a Nakano-esque track, and the man himself did the finishing touches.
- For 3.20 he did the base demo and asked Nakano to reconstruct freely.
- For 3.21 he did a fantasy style track, as opposed to other tracks in FFXIII.

[BlazingRain]

Do you mean 2.14? Nakano isn't connected to 2.20, at least according to the credits.

Interesting that Nakano seemingly had more input on 3.20 though. Of the two tracks co-arranged by Nakano, 3.20 seems to lean closer to the Hamauzu side in sound.

Thanks for the notes, by the way. I really think it'd be awesome if someone could translate them all.

[TerraEpon]

Originally Posted by Cedille

O
For me, "The Yaschas Massif" sounded like such. It wasn't originally composed for XIII, in the first place.

Never heard this info before....what was it written for originally?