I am such a geek, but in a good way

[alpharaposa]

Someone uploaded the entire FFVI OST as a playlist on Youtube, so I've been listening to that while reading The Jungle Books. It's made for a pleasant afternoon.

I've been doing some thinking about video game music, as a result. FFXIII marks a significant break from Final Fantasy soundtracks. It sounds like all the other video game soundtracks out there, varying between different sets of Generic Video Game Music themes.

FFVI's soundtrack, on the other hand is rich. It includes jazzy bits for various pubs and towns (Zozo's Slam Shuffle is a favorite). It has a miniature three act Opera in it, complete with an impressive imitation (for 32-bit midi) of human voices carrying the solos. It has pensive themes and action-oriented music. Every major character has their own, very personalized music.

Even other Final Fantasy games that have not quite had such a variety at least plundered the rich themes that already existed in other Final Fantasy games, usually adding a few more to the collection.

I can't help but think that the paucity of FFXIII's soundtrack reflects a poverty on the part of the composer. The soundtrack does not sound like one designed by somebody with a love of music or who enjoys a variety of genres. It sounds like one thrown together by somebody who plays and creates video games all the time.

So, it suffers. Instead of the unique and rich music that fans of Squeenix games expect (Chrono's soundtracks are as impressive as the Final Fantasy ones usually are), we get the same schlock found anywhere else. And that's actually much of the complaint I have about the rest of the game, too. I think about the music in particular because I love music, and it is one of the first impressions that I get from a new RPG.

Comments

[zilvar.livejournal.com]

FFXIII failed for so many more reasons than just bad music. :) IMO, of course.

[stryck.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. The world feels oddly claustrophic and enclosed, much more than even FFX's point-to-point exploration. The battle system both restricts your options and requires close attention.

And I wanted to punch half the characters in the face at the beginning, and still kind of want to beat them up even once the plot has advanced.

[zilvar.livejournal.com]

Fairly good summation. The idea that we should only directly control one character was bogus from the get-go. Other points of fail include the complete lack of chocobo riding (unless, of course, you actually beat the game and went back for more...heaven forbid), the very disturbing lack of currency for weapon upgrades, and ridiculous numbers of poorly placed monsters WAY outside the party's fighting ability...often with no way to know that engaging something would be a terrible mistake without actually engaging it.

And by the time I made it back to Cocoon, the story just wasn't interesting anymore. It was just a boring 'I need to get through this and resell this game' thing.

Bleh. Close to the worst FF ever. IMO

[stryck.livejournal.com]

Well, it's been a while since I played FFI, and I never got into FFX-2, so it's possible those sucked. But barring those possibilities, I'd say FFXIII is the worst FF.

Should never trust a creative team that says they want to "get back to the roots" of a series... because they often end up limiting themselves so much that they cut out all the outside sources that made that series so rich and interesting. Really good games, like really good art of all kinds, draw on a variety of sources.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

I barely made it through Lightning's part at the intro to the game before my brain just screamed "Screw it, go back to PSO." Personally, though, I'm glad I found the PS3 version of the game...I was honestly contemplating buying an XBox 360 for that. X_x


On a side note: Ever notice how much Mezzo di Aria Carattere sounds like Aerith's theme?

[neppyman.livejournal.com]

I happen to have copies of both the Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross OSTs, along with samples from several Final Fantasy games (including the entire FF:Tactics soundtrack). Should you not already have those, and would like a copy, just let me know. :)

[zeeth_kyrah]

Speaking of which, I'll recommend Chrono Symphonic, the OCRemix tribute album which turns Chrono Trigger's soundtrack into an orchestral symphony.

[neppyman.livejournal.com]

Ooh, very nice. Thanks for the link!

[stryck.livejournal.com]

Already ganked from your server. :) They've been a big help on long days at work.

[neppyman.livejournal.com]

Oh good. I couldn't remember if I'd sent those your way or not.

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

I have three FFXI OSTs in my iPod. Nice background music and it reminds me of americanstd who played it for many years.