On the 31st of May, Square-Enix officially released the soundtrack to its newest upcoming game, Final Fantasy XII. With the soundtrack already in stores, people know little what to expect from the newest Final Fantasy. The main man of the Final Fantasy Soundtracks, Nobuo Uematsu, wasn’t the composer of this particular soundtrack. Rather, the choice went to Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics composer Hitoshi Sakimoto. In his 18 years of composing, this soundtrack proves to be his biggest work yet. But, will it also prove to be his best piece of work in general?
Quality:
Every Final Fantasy soundtrack always sounds astoundingly crystal clear, and this one is no exception. The quality of the soundtrack is effectively increased by the dominant presence of orchestral instruments. There is not even a shred of doubt about the quality, it’s top notch.
Score: 100%
Tone:
The overall orchestral sound gives the soundtrack a unique touch. It always sounds like there is something going on. There is always this feeling that you might have to start fighting at any second. The other thing is that the orchestral approach makes the music sound very strong and it can be very moving at some points. The thing I’ve also noticed is that it you can well compare it to opera music. Although this has its own sound, the main comparison is that the tone is switched from soft to strong; depending on the scenario and those certain shifts prove to be promising. The only critique I have is that I have doubts that this kind of music is suited for a game.
Score: 94%
Creativity:
The shifts in the music give the composer little room to play with the music. Most songs were either very relaxing and had a soft sounds, or very powerful and rough. I think that is a shame, because with this you start to feel like the composer had to follow some rules. In the past, Final Fantasy showed some very promising soundtracks with an immensely varying selection of songs. This was possible because all of these songs had good melodies, and they were in catchy in a good way. That element has disappeared in this soundtrack. That means the pieces are less memorable, and thus have a lower impact.
On the other hand, this might show that he wanted to try something different than the other soundtracks. It might prove that he composed the pieces on what would happen on the screen. Shamefully, the pieces by themselves don’t sound as they should. Previous soundtracks could be played and could be easily enjoyed because of clean melodies that were easy to follow. Yet, that is much, much harder to do with the Final Fantasy XII Soundtrack.
Score: 73%
Songs:
The selection of songs was quite interesting. Most of them were composed by Sakimoto himself. Other composers on the soundtrack were Hayato Matsuo and Masaharu Iwata, although their part was rather small. Some older pieces by Nobuo Uematsu was also used on the soundtrack, such as the Prelude and Final Fantasy theme, the Chocobo theme, and also the Battle with Gilgamesh or Battle on the Big Bridge off the Final Fantasy V Soundtrack was used. It shows that Sakimoto has a great deal of respect for this soundtrack veteran.
As I listen to his pieces, I notice that some songs sound alike, especially on Disc 4, although that would be very strange. I decide not to listen so attentive and come to the conclusion that the music sort of drags you along. So in fact the music serves more as background music. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing depends on the listener itself. Background music isn’t that strong, but yet, these pieces are; what you could say is that the music is somewhere in-between background music and emotional music. Not effective enough to amaze you, yet strong enough to catch your attention.
What was really important in me were the boss-, special and final battles. They sounded as if they were just put together. I didn’t really give me the idea of a charged up battle where you could lose everything. What did sound good was the music of the area before the final battle itself.
Score: 82%
Technicality:
Again, I wish Sakimoto had done a better job on this as well. The main critique I have is that when a certain track loops, the transition isn’t smooth. You can clearly hear when a song is being repeated. That is huge downside, and it’s a shame that there wasn’t more time spent on looping the songs fluently. The other thing was that a lot of instruments were playing through each other; I would’ve loved to hear more songs were a certain instrument was playing a certain melody backed up by a set of instruments.
Score: 72%
Overall:
It’s pretty clear that Sakimoto’s work is very different from that of Uematsu. I wish I could be more positive about that, but by hearing the soundtrack, I didn’t feel like playing the game; although it should have that effect. Sakimoto’s style is clearly deviant from the traditional Final Fantasy soundtrack standards. But then again, this is the world of Final Fantasy Tactics, so it should be just that he composed this particular soundtrack. My opinion is that he should’ve used more melodic tunes to keep the whole soundtrack interesting, as this is a soundtrack of the main series, and is going to be very important for the judgement of the game. I also think that this soundtrack was better suited for a movie then a game.
I feel as if this is just an average soundtrack, although I’m used of Final Fantasy soundtracks to be astounding. This is not a bad soundtrack, but it didn’t accomplish to impress me…
Overall Score: 84%
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