Final Fantasy XIV Score Discussion

[Drac]

Why couldn't they have music like this in 12 and 13 Q_Q They could have made Mizuta Naoshi (XI) do the music for those but nuuu, they chose some crappy composer instead.

[Charismatic]

Why couldn't they have music like this in 12 and 13 Q_Q They could have made Mizuta Naoshi (XI) do the music for those but nuuu, they choose some crappy composer instead.

Hitoshi Sakimoto = Crappy?

What the fuck are you smoking? I'll give you Hamauzu though.

[Akiyama]

Hitoshi Sakimoto = Crappy?

What the fuck are you smoking? I'll give you Hamauzu though.

Gonna have to agree with Domon here. Calling Hitoshi 'some crappy composer' is quite silly.

[Drac]

Obviously not all of the music was bad but all that pop/techno music was really annoying and didn't have the Final Fantasy feel at all. I felt that most of the songs didn't stand out like in previous FFs and that they didn't fit with some situations or were memorable. The music just didn't appeal to me like in pretty much all of the previous ones. Overall, the music wasn't good in my opinion but some tracks were really good.

[Charismatic]

Obviously not all of the music was bad but all that pop/techno music was really annoying and didn't have the Final Fantasy feel at all. I felt that most of the songs didn't stand out like in previous FFs and that they didn't fit with some situations or were memorable. The music just didn't appeal to me like in pretty much all of the previous ones. Overall, the music wasn't good in my opinion but some tracks were really good.

>implying rabanastre/esper battle/boss battle themes aren't some of the most memorable in the entire series

[Drac]

Because those are the only ones in the game right? I said some of them were good but overall I didn't like the music. In my opinion.

[Charismatic]

Fuck man... idk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbfA4M-5Ca4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WahtmZecIBM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKePi3gSrqs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cl8Fbu8_RM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odrwXOKmhA4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fKGcc_tjDg

Out of all of those, is there even one that you don't like, seriously?

[Not Kuno]

All of those are fucking epic domon. Haters gonna hate.

[Omniyoji]

Domon knows where it's @ + points for you!

[Drac]

I think my biggest problem with the music is that it all sounds very much the same. Obviously they are different but they're not THAT much different. At least some of the areas (that you spend a lot of time in) sound pretty much the same which makes the unique ones stand out less to me because of how little you're in those areas. I liked the game but none of the music stuck in my head except for maybe Rabanastre. If you like it, good for you.

[Kirb]

I loved Hitoshi's work in Final Fantasy Tactics and XII. It has a fantastic rhythmic style to it; the instant you notice the chords used, you know it's in Ivalice.
Do you have tin ears or something? This shit's great.

But to each their own, I guess.


Still trying to decide my favorite track in XIV, Nobou's managed to get in some wonderful stuff.

[Drac]

Like I said, it's my opinion.

[superzombie23]

I could have sworn I saw a post saying FF14's OST sounded like PSO's music, but I couldn't find it to quote. Anyways, I gotta agree some of the music sounds exactly like PSO OST (episodes 1-3, blueburst, etc.). For example, I randomly listen to 0F, and it has the exact same tunes I've heard in PSO songs. (PSO=phantasy star online fyi) I'm not surprised if FF14's composer was influenced by it because PSO's music was one of the best MMO OSTs I've ever listened to; it's pretty amazing for its time. I would go as far as saying FF14 music doesn't hold a candle to it. If you've ever heard the song, "Can still see the light"... jesus it brings a tear to my eye. I would have been more impressed if I heard more songs like that and this.

[Jynx]

As soon as I hear XII's soundtrack I thought....damn that sounds just like tactics. Low and behold same composer, it's epic shit I tell you.

The music seriously blended perfectly with Tactics I can't imagine it being anything else.

[BRP]

didn't have the Final Fantasy feel at all.

Stupid fuckers and their touching and grabbing of music. Care to explain, in very precise wording, what the fuck this means? What does it mean for a sound to feel like Final Fantasy? ("IN MY OPINION, THIS SONG DOESN'T TASTE LIKE FINAL FANTASY. IT TASTE LIKE PASTRAMI. IN MY OPINION.")

EDIT: Also your opinion doesn't matter if it is nonsense. You can't even communicate what you mean, just keep repeating the obvious "in my opinion." REALLY? I thought it was Domon's opinion, the guy disagreeing with you. THANKS FOR CLEARING THAT UP.

[Spira]

I like the music from across the FF series and they all have different styles. but as some have pointed out, the difference was the biggest between 11-13, because each had a different core composer.

I have to admit I love Mizuta's work for 11 because he's always using different instruments to give you a different feel, and while his compositions are a little more formulaic and rigid, they work and to great effect. He's also good because he knows how to strike a very fragile balance between a track having a song melody and being ambient at the same time.

XII's OST was good, but very forgettable. It only comes with like one or 2 memorable melodies and the rest are mostly ambient fluff. Sakimoto's score fit the game extremely well, although the repeated use of brass and arpeggios leaves something to be desired. His stronger tracks lack subtlety too. Also, if im not mistaken, Sakimoto didn't actually compose the entire OST. He had some underlings do several tracks too.

XIII's OST is wonderful. I was afraid it'd turn out to be an ambient-fest because Hamauzu is helming it but it turned out fine with a bunch of strong core melodies. Hamauzu also presents some flair with modern tech-sounding instruments and fit the technologically advanced world of FFXIII well. He is however, not that good with picking tracks to use for certain scenes and emotions. They get to be jarringly out of place, even if they're of sound composition.

XIV's leaked OST so far is a breath of fresh nostalgia. It's been 10 years since the last fully-scored-by-Uematsu FF. Many tracks have vague similarities to his older works, highlighting to us what we loved about Uematsu all these years, but he also brings something different to the table this time round, through his use of 80s style synthrock instruments and a stronger electric groove to his sound.
It's also a poignant reminder of why FF music has been so well received all these years.

different strokes for different folks tho. some may not like Uematsu's style in XIV because its a lot more playful, more bold and doesn't mind sounding a little camp.

[TheMightyQuinn]

I just can't get enough of 3E and 36, they're gorgeous; 36 gives me an epic Lawrence of Arabia vibe. 49 reminds me of Lalafell.

Just hearing these has made me want to buy the official soundtrack when it comes out, which is something I never do. And I can't be the only one.

[SephYuyX]

I dislike XIII's OST, probably the worst FF OST ive heard. XII's was very good, as was XI's, and XIV's is good, but in a non traditional FF way, even though it's done by the traditional guy lol, but im up for a change.

[Spagnutty]

Also, it's about damn time we got a Magnificent Seven de Chocobo.
(Track 40)

[Teakwood]

I'm weird (actually, more properly, I'm a musical slut), I really liked the soundtracks for FFXI, FFXII, and FFXIII. I love Hamauzu because of his stylistic influences more than anything (piano everywhere! Debussy and Ravel references and quotations!), and while I was nervous about 13's soundtrack, I wound up loving it. FF12's music took a bit of getting used to; the style is definitely different, but I had gotten used to it in FFT already. FFXI's music, by the last two expansions, had finally come into its own, I felt, and I've been living with a lot of these melodies for eight years or something. That said... none of them were Uematsu, and I am a huge raging fanboy (I will admit it) for various composers. If you throw anything that's Uematsu or Mitsuda at me, I will almost invariably taruflail.

And, as my mom pointed out while I was blasting the soundtrack yesterday, FFXIV is -very very- Uematsu. So many of the tracks are either deliberate musical quotations of other tracks from the series (1:58 of #33 and To Zanarkand, for example), or take obvious stylistic inspirations from the first eight games, and in addition, one of the highlights of Uematsu's style always seems to be that, while you can almost always recognise a track that Sakimoto has written, and you can usually recognise a coherent style to Hamauzu's work, Uematsu has such an incredible range of various musical ideas and styles that he draws from. The FFXIV OST is really all over the place - there's a lot of 80s rock opera sounding stuff, and then there's... disco? And 'world music' sort of pieces reminiscent of the Xenogears soundtrack?

So the entire thing winds up being a huge nostalgia trip, both in terms of the variance of different styles that we 'expect' from the FF series, and then in the form of these clever, subtle little musical references to the previous games in the series. I submit that you get more out of the 14 OST if you're more of a fan of the earlier games or the entire series - in a way it reminds me of the FF9 soundtrack, which also contained subtle nods to the earlier soundtracks.

I also think that might be what people mean when they say that FF14 "sounds like a FF game" in a way that the other games do not. My own definition of what sounds like an FF game has actually changed variant on the degree to which I enjoy Sakimoto's and Hamauzu's work, but there is definitely some kind of nostalgia filter going on with this soundtrack, and whether or not that nostalgia 'works' for you (and, possibly, whether or not you've enjoyed the soundtracks since FF9/10) - and, by extension, whether or not you've been missing Uematsu's contribution to the series - probably results in the various love-it-or-hate-it responses I've been seeing to the soundtrack so far.