FFXIV 3.0 : Heavensward - Expansion Information and Discussion

[Rocl]

Nah, in 1.0 it switched to Battle Drums regardless of the beastmen stronghold. I remember being pretty peeved it cut out the awesome Natalan music.

It's track 58 on the Before Meteor soundtrack.

[Silenka]

Titan theme might be my favorite track in the game, but I also love the Sylphlands/King Moggle themes, they sound like they came out of a Tim Burton movie. I def agree that Ifrit needs some better music since all the other primal themes rock his, but I guess there's no changing it now. (Though I'm not fond of Shiva's Avril Lavigne theme personally).

I legit didn't know 1.0 had some fucking awesome music since I never played back then, listening to those Ul'dah themes has got me completely depressed that they didn't reuse them. Sooo good.

[Elcura]

I like Ifrit's music (though it might be better as a general primal theme rather than specific) since it reminds me of FFXII's summon music. I definitely think it fits more than most other primal themes.

[SephYuyX]

Mention of when the LE can be purchased/reserved?

[Kaslo]

Can someone just update the title when we get new info? or when musak debate ends?

[Spider-Dan]

Titan theme might be my favorite track in the game, but I also love the Sylphlands/King Moggle themes, they sound like they came out of a Tim Burton movie. I def agree that Ifrit needs some better music since all the other primal themes rock his, but I guess there's no changing it now. (Though I'm not fond of Shiva's Avril Lavigne theme personally).

I think they got most of the music categories right, but they're just on the wrong primal.

Garuda- perfect
Leviathan- perfect
Ifrit- epic/grandiose, but should be metal, because he's an effing fire demon. Give him Titan's.
Titan- metal, but should be rock, because ROCK. Give him modified Shiva's (if it has to be horrible Canadian rock, then give him Nickelback instead of Avril Lavigne).
Ramuh- serene, but there are millions of volts flying around frying people. Give him Ifrit's; the music should be as epic and grandiose as his beard.
Shiva- rock, but should be serene (as with the other ice/snow BGMs in the game). Give her Ramuh's.

[Damane]

I think they got most of the music categories right, but they're just on the wrong primal.

Garuda- perfect
Leviathan- perfect
Ifrit- epic/grandiose, but should be metal, because he's an effing fire demon. Give him Titan's.
Titan- metal, but should be rock, because ROCK. Give him modified Shiva's (if it has to be horrible Canadian rock, then give him Nickelback instead of Avril Lavigne).
Ramuh- serene, but there are millions of volts flying around frying people. Give him Ifrit's; the music should be as epic and grandiose as his beard.
Shiva- rock, but should be serene (as with the other ice/snow BGMs in the game). Give her Ramuh's.

i think the songs for the primals are spot on, ecxept for shivas 2. part. The ramuh one feels/seems the best to me to fit in. Its a calm/wise song/theme for a calm/wise primal.

[Damane]

EDIT: Double-whoper

[Sho]

I always thought Ultima's second battle music fit Ramuh perfectly.

[Darkmagi]

Ramuh theme puts me to sleep, really needs something a bit less boring for a battle like that.

[Spira]

isn't uematsu only bringing the main theme for Heavensward and nothing else?

i loved 1.0s cos everything was memorable.. its so good i can listen to it by itself... but the way they used it in some cases was just off (1.0 black shroud. starter area lol), that i'd rather not hear it ingame.

the ARR soundtrack is quite different. the ambient stuff is generally ok when paired with the game, but is very forgettable and doesn't really prompt a second listen. then there are the very distinctive tracks that people do remember.. but those are generally either not particularly suited to the theme, or become too annoying to listen for long.

the thing i find saddest is that the main battle theme falls into the forgettable category.. considering you hear it all the time. the different instrumentations don't help much. it's only merit is the traditional FF intro style.

the ironic thing for me is that the standout tracks in 2.0 are mostly NOT soken tracks, unless they're derivative (like track 20, Salt Swept). I do like most of the city themes at the very least. The Crystal Tower stuff is all amazingly good (great arrangements/instruments) and of course, nostalgic for me at least.

i personally feel that good mmo music requires a balance between being somewhat ambient so it doesn't snatch the attention of the listener, and yet be good enough to listen on its own. I'd say Uematsu's music almost always falls into the latter, which is why it doesn't seem that great in MMOs. Mizuta on the other hand has mastered that balance since around the RotZ days in FFXI (his vanilla stuff was kinda bland). Soken hasn't struck that balance yet, and im not even sure if hes headed in that direction at all.

[Slycer]

I believe that's the plan (Uematsu just doing the main theme), at least that's all they mentioned at Fan Fest. Soken mentioned in a recent interview that he's working on a lot of tracks to write for Heavensward, so I assume he's doing most/all of the rest of it.

As far as the music from ARR in general goes, I think Soken has done a serviceable job of having a mix of new themes for many things and reusing old tracks for others, and some of his new compositions are well-written and fit their areas/battles/whatever (To the Sun, Ultima) while others are bland and generic (The Waking Sands, standard battle theme). I'm wondering if he got chosen late in the development cycle to be composer and he just didn't have a lot of time to flesh out tracks (a lot of small town tracks loop really quickly after a minute or two, that whole thing with each dungeon only getting a 30 second intro track before going into the regular battle theme, etc.).

Consider his Wikipedia article - "He is best known for scoring Mario Hoops 3-on-3 and Final Fantasy XIV" - if you look at his history his composition jobs have mostly been collaborations on lesser projects, so I assume he really impressed some higher-ups at SE with his sound direction and composition on 1.0 to get the job he's in. Plus, it definitely seems like his stuff is getting better with the handful of tracks added with each update (Lost City, Snowcloak, start of the Shiva battle, etc.), and what he did with the primal tracks in general is pretty interesting and unique, so I'm reserving judgment until Heavensward to see if it really shows improvement.

[Damane]

I believe that's the plan (Uematsu just doing the main theme), at least that's all they mentioned at Fan Fest. Soken mentioned in a recent interview that he's working on a lot of tracks to write for Heavensward, so I assume he's doing most/all of the rest of it.

As far as the music from ARR in general goes, I think Soken has done a serviceable job of having a mix of new themes for many things and reusing old tracks for others, and some of his new compositions are well-written and fit their areas/battles/whatever (To the Sun, Ultima) while others are bland and generic (The Waking Sands, standard battle theme). I'm wondering if he got chosen late in the development cycle to be composer and he just didn't have a lot of time to flesh out tracks (a lot of small town tracks loop really quickly after a minute or two, that whole thing with each dungeon only getting a 30 second intro track before going into the regular battle theme, etc.).

Consider his Wikipedia article - "He is best known for scoring Mario Hoops 3-on-3 and Final Fantasy XIV" - if you look at his history his composition jobs have mostly been collaborations on lesser projects, so I assume he really impressed some higher-ups at SE with his sound direction and composition on 1.0 to get the job he's in. Plus, it definitely seems like his stuff is getting better with the handful of tracks added with each update (Lost City, Snowcloak, start of the Shiva battle, etc.), and what he did with the primal tracks in general is pretty interesting and unique, so I'm reserving judgment until Heavensward to see if it really shows improvement.

i wouldnt mind if they either would use some FFXI songs and remake/retune/remix them. {The Sanctuary of Zi'tah} {Can I have it?}

[Lucavi]

Give me fucking FFIV's battle, boss and 4 fiends music, and make it snappy. Nothing says badass dungeon like fighting a goddamn behemoth while the boss theme plays... except maybe fighting 2, or 3 behemoths stacked inside of one another.

Poor, poor Edge. Always getting targeted by all 3 behemoths and shrekt.

[vrumpt]

On music, y'all need to show more appreciation for Steel Reason. That's some amazing battle music on par with ps1 era music and oh please yoshida give us minstrels ballad fight for those 4 generals so the music can get an exciting fight to accompany it.

On ffiv, what are the odds we get tower of babel and moon somewhere down the line similar to CT, ST and WoD now? The more I think about it the more I want it.

[Rocl]

Imperium is the true hero of XIV-Empire fight music. Bring it back Yoshida.

[Spider-Dan]

Give me fucking FFIV's battle, boss and 4 fiends music, and make it snappy. Nothing says badass dungeon like fighting a goddamn behemoth while the boss theme plays... except maybe fighting 2, or 3 behemoths stacked inside of one another.

Poor, poor Edge. Always getting targeted by all 3 behemoths and shrekt.

I have done more grinding in Lunar Subterrane than all other offline RPGs combined.

Goddamn Glass Helm and Pink Tail.

(The worst part is that later on, in FF4Advance when you could get the item that would immediately force a fight against the PinkPuffs every time, I did days... days of nothing but PinkPuff fights followed by LoadState and STILL didn't get a Pink Tail. This made the ~10 times I fought PinkPuffs over a couple years of grinding that room seem even more hopeless.)

On music, y'all need to show more appreciation for Steel Reason. That's some amazing battle music on par with ps1 era music and oh please yoshida give us minstrels ballad fight for those 4 generals so the music can get an exciting fight to accompany it.

Steel Reason is weird. It's (eventually) a good track, but I remember literally laughing out loud in 1.0 when the cutscene played unveiling the Empire's inpenetrable fortress... while chocobo racing music plays. Castrum Meridianum's music was much more appropriate.

I feel like Steel Reason was wasted on Livia.

[Taim Meich]

On music, y'all need to show more appreciation for Steel Reason. That's some amazing battle music on par with ps1 era music and oh please yoshida give us minstrels ballad fight for those 4 generals so the music can get an exciting fight to accompany it.

Isn't Steel Reason a Uematsu theme? (And an awesome one, at that)

[Rocl]

Not sure tbh, I'll check the OST in a few minutes. It was added after the initial 1.0 launch, so it could be Mizuta or Soken too

[Spider-Dan]

It's Uematsu. It was in the Alpha gamerip OST, which was all Uematsu (to my knowledge).