Final Fantasy XIV Score Discussion

[Hyan]

Jesus christ, Final fantasy attracts the worst kind of people.

I don't agree. Anyway, I kinda wish SE took the Materia system from VII and implemented it to XIV. Or at least made Cloud an NPC. I think SE should give the long time FFVII fans something to look forward to because we deserve it. Maybe in the main storyline you can save Aeris? Like in the fan fic I made last year!

[Corrderio]

I haven't listened to this but my friend says the music is pretty epic. So might check it out tomorrow.

I wonder what would happen if Kenji Ito and Nobuo Uematsu teamed up for a joint project again...

[Tarkovsky]

The guitar and synth sound like dick. Like Poison licking on Yani. What the fuck Uematsu. This midlife crisis hair metal crap is shocking, I was expecting something less...cheesy.

[Charismatic]

omg how dar u, dis is Uematsu ur tlking abut.

something something, old school, something nostaliga etc

[Corresapolonia]

The guitar and synth sound like dick. Like Poison licking on Yani. What the fuck Uematsu. This midlife crisis hair metal crap is shocking, I was expecting something less...cheesy.

.........

[Purrrfect]

Anyone else like 50?

[Tarkovsky]

.........

Let me elaborate.

It made a lot of sense, stylistically, when Uematsu had a few funky, often jazz infused, or even metal-like tracks in FFVII, the boss battle theme, and the rotting pizza track are good examples. It was balanced well with painfully typical Uematsu tracks that were melody driven, like a lot of the character themes. Some of them very catchy.

Let's change gears and look at FFIX, the games setting reverted back to a medieval theme, and Uematsu did his homework, writing an early renaissance, Dufay style polyharmonic song for the opening credits, and he had some really catchy Flamenco tracks to prop up Andalusian design elements, like the Spanish cities and sky pirates.

FFXI had many overlapping design elements with FFIX, and Uematsu again delivered with well researched compositions like Ronfaure Forest's track, a classic take on an English folk tune.

Now we have a similar world, leaning way more towards medieval fantasy elements, with hair metal guitar solos in every other track. Shit makes no sense at all. Really, try and defend this. You can't. The music is awkwardly out of place and creates a lot of friction with the design choices the art team developed.

[justamemory]

Anyone else like 50?

yes! ^^

not used to hearing that timbre combo acapella. tastefully done.

[millionsknives]

Which actually reminds me, this Uematsu dickriding is starting to make me a bit nauseous. After 8 pages of discussion on this including some commentary from people who apparently have a musical education, no one has mentioned how irritating and cheap some of the synth tones are. The plastic sounding brass, tacky simulated power chords and dog standard pentatonic shred straight from mediocre hair metal and jrock, and the depressingly authentic FM synth tone emulation. It's not deplorable that nearly all the music was done entirely on a set of keys, though a friend of mine assures me that it's a $300 alesis micron being used which is pretty fucking laughable for a commercial game.

qftw

FFI to FFVIII Uematsu was indeed awesome, because cheep syth stuff was all we could have in games. The tunes were great and FFVIII is one of my favourite game soundtracks. 'Movin' is pure win.

But its 2010, the worlds moved on but Nobuo hasn't, hes outdated. Hes living off his post 2000 rep and is lucky to have many fans blindly following him. The battle theme in XIV is laughable.

[Hyan]

Where has the world moved? All I hear these days are shitty, forgettable songs that blend in the background.

I wouldn't want this kind of OST for every game I play, but it's a breath of fresh air which I enjoy- yeah, I said fresh air. Songs that you may actually be able to recognize from each other.

[rufus9]

Agree with some of the recent posts. There are far too many songs that sound like they were made using a gameboy with composer software installed/ like midi files. FFXI had a much wider use of instruments, while Uematsu this time uses the same midi-tones for almost all the songs. Also far too many The Black Mages electro/synth like songs, which don't fit into a medieval world.

On the positive side there are also quite a few songs with very good melodies (like the ones which have been on the official website).

[Hiro_Vareon]

Ack, had to make a new account just for this since my old one was scrapped for not logging in after like 2 years here. Anyways, i would <3 you forever for a PM and i will see you all in XIV :D

[S. F. LaValle]

I was also expecting something much more mild like FFXI's soundtrack for this. I was completely surprised by all of the rock and electronica going on. Doesn't seem like it fits, and when I get a chance to sit down with it in all of its glory, I might decide that it doesn't.

I still take the same stance on Uematsu's choice of synths. Sure, FF I-III had 5 channels of generated tones. FF IV-VI advanced some with sampling technology, but there was still a lot of limitation. Despite this, he still chose some generated-tone samples even though they were technically out-of-date; it was a stylistic choice. From FFVII on, he kept on using those old square waves and whatnot from the NES days (with the exception of perhaps FFXI). It has nothing to do with the technology, it's always been a staple for select tracks in his games. Always.

It's more of the same here (a lot more, I grant). To accompany his favorite synthetic sounds he also has some of the modern world's defacto synths. It's just fine to dislike the stuff because it sounds "older," or just to dislike it in general. It's his style. Technology has nothing to do with it. As a matter of fact, this album probably boasts the highest production values he's ever put out (barring remix albums, and Lost Odyssey is at best on-par in terms of production, though this album boasts much more variety). I'm not speculating here, I know what I'm hearing.

But hey, I'm with you. His synth cheese starts to grate on me after a while, too. I'm not rabid fanboy (at the very least I'm not foaming at the mouth), but I have to recognize what I see: a lot more unfitting rock tunes than ever (cept maybe that card game he did), but still a lot more great tracks. Musically, I'd say he's expanding as well. There were a lot of ideas I'd never imagined he came up with.

Hell, who am I kidding. UEMATSU 4 LIEF!

[rufus9]

LaValle: What do you mean by "production value"?

Yes I agree, NOBUO4LIFE!, but that is probably the reason I'm a bit disappoited, because my expectations were huge.

Also: Orchestrated music > Midi tones.

Still the soundtrack will probably grow on me as I start playing the game.

[aldyn]

I was also expecting something much more mild like FFXI's soundtrack for this. I was completely surprised by all of the rock and electronica going on. Doesn't seem like it fits, and when I get a chance to sit down with it in all of its glory, I might decide that it doesn't.

this.

[S. F. LaValle]

Rufus: Quality of the synths used (not choice, but quality), mixing, clarity, dynamics, effects processing, etc. MIDI (GM) tones some of this stuff might be, but expensive MIDI tones =)

I have to agree, I'm a real sucker for live orchestration. Lost Odyssey had some nice tracks, and of course there's no shortage of video game albums out there that use quite a bit of orchestra, or even almost entirely orchestra. And I'm almost positive the final game will feature some recorded orchestra versions of these tracks.

If you mean just synthed orchestra tracks...yeah, I also still prefer those over "synthy" synths. Uematsu just doesn't agree (although his orchestral tracks in this set are pretty nice, considering it was never really his strength).

[Cadsuane]

I was also expecting something much more mild like FFXI's soundtrack for this. I was completely surprised by all of the rock and electronica going on. Doesn't seem like it fits, and when I get a chance to sit down with it in all of its glory, I might decide that it doesn't.

I still take the same stance on Uematsu's choice of synths. Sure, FF I-III had 5 channels of generated tones. FF IV-VI advanced some with sampling technology, but there was still a lot of limitation. Despite this, he still chose some generated-tone samples even though they were technically out-of-date; it was a stylistic choice. From FFVII on, he kept on using those old square waves and whatnot from the NES days (with the exception of perhaps FFXI). It has nothing to do with the technology, it's always been a staple for select tracks in his games. Always.

It's more of the same here (a lot more, I grant). To accompany his favorite synthetic sounds he also has some of the modern world's defacto synths. It's just fine to dislike the stuff because it sounds "older," or just to dislike it in general. It's his style. Technology has nothing to do with it. As a matter of fact, this album probably boasts the highest production values he's ever put out (barring remix albums, and Lost Odyssey is at best on-par in terms of production, though this album boasts much more variety). I'm not speculating here, I know what I'm hearing.

But hey, I'm with you. His synth cheese starts to grate on me after a while, too. I'm not rabid fanboy (at the very least I'm not foaming at the mouth), but I have to recognize what I see: a lot more unfitting rock tunes than ever (cept maybe that card game he did), but still a lot more great tracks. Musically, I'd say he's expanding as well. There were a lot of ideas I'd never imagined he came up with.

Hell, who am I kidding. UEMATSU 4 LIEF!

Of course. Lots of people do a final mix on a tube amp to give it a vinyl smell and prefer them to any solid state contraption. Other people prefer a fender rhodes or a B3 to any modern synth (even though most make pretty good immitations). I get what you're saying, and sometimes with this OST I'd be inclined to agree with you. Other times... no, it's ineffective and tasteless. But it seems that we're mostly agreeing at this point.

[Kachi]

For those bemused by the electric/Black Mages music, remember that this isn't as much the medieval setting as XI. There's a sci-fi hi-tech aspect to this world, and I would imagine that Uematsu ended up composing pieces with that in mind despite those aspects not yet being visibly included in the alpha.

[Spira]

I'm definitely with everyone on the technological feel of the music being unfitting for XIV so far. Compared to this, XI's OST's choice of instruments are almost entirely classical, and anything that stood out (mostly stuff by Tanioka, stripper music, mild electronic synth, etc) were really obvious.

But then again we're basing this on our very weak understanding of XIV thus far. Eorzea has been said to be more advanced than Vana'diel by far, although none of the footage from the game we've seen actually presents any of this, other than that airship dogfight thing, but that seemed less sci-fi tech and more renaissance-tech, if you know what I mean. The rest of the game shown so far however, is predominantly medieval fantasy.
As such, I suppose the rock synth sound seems like a jarring mismatch to the scenarios.

That said, perhaps the music is revealing more of the game than we realize at this point. More about the Garlean Empire perhaps, or the juxtaposed nature of Eorzea's technological fronts.

Uematsu has never really been good at sticking to a single style within in OST tho. I'd say his most focused and consistent sound was in FFVIII, but otherwise its always been a mishmash.
With XIV thus far theres rock synth, 80s rock, a touch of disco, some cowboy western, some orchestral, some jazz, and what not.
As a collective whole, its really messy.

[Kachi]

I think that variety represents a kind of goofiness that is an inherent part of Japanese artistic culture. It seems to embody this concept of humor that's present in stark contrast. For example, a situation that is very serious suddenly becomes absurdly comical, a character who is very serious has something of a ridiculous quality, or a character reacts to a serious situation with good humor and lightheartedness (often more stupidly than nobly)-- these are common elements in contemporary Japanese story-telling.

I don't know... I have a difficult time expressing it, but as someone very familiar with popular Japanese entertainment, it doesn't seem at all out of place to me. Perhaps it's just that although it may not match that well with the world (thus far), it does match various Final Fantasy worlds. Or maybe it's just that rock guitar music always seems like a fitting battle music genre to me.