Still listen to Final Fantasy Music?
 

Just a simple polling... are you guys still listening the old tunes of Final Fantasy music by Nobuo Uematsu? I still remember when I was huge Uematsu fanboy, searching, looking and listening his FF discographies like crazy. Eventually I become fed up already, and for meantime, I dont want to listen any of his old FF compositions anymore.

I see this is a good thing though, I'm glad that FF music introduces me to VGM world and letting me know the existance of caliber composers and music in the vast VGM industry (Kentarou Haneda, Koji Kondo, Hamauzu, Kanno, and even erogame composers that shouldnt be underrated for their amazing quality). After I'm getting bored with FF music, I could explore more beautiful music that still obscure and lesser-known for most people. Final Fantasy music is suitable to be introduced to people that who are not really familiar with VGM, it's still the most popular, but there are dozen VGM to be explored other than just FF music.

How about you? Do you still listen to Final Fantasy music? or perhaps you fed already like me? or it's all depends on your mood? share your thought about your choice here.

EDIT: Forget to make this into public poll. could this be fixed? D:

I do on occasion, but not nearly as many of the albums as I used to. Now I pretty much just listen to the I-II Symphonic Suite and the Tour de Japon.

Same here eriol, except I still listen to FF occasionally and it is still the first the that I introduce when I tell people about VGM. I should also say that when I first discovered doujin music, the only thing I searched is FF doujin ^_^

Not as much anymore, no.

It's not specific to FF, though, a lot of the stuff I used to listen to all the time has started to collect dust. Stuff like Chrono Trigger/Cross, Castlevania, Shadow Hearts, etc., I listened to non-stop at various points, and now I barely listen to them at all. Everything comes and goes in cycles, I guess.

Final Fantasy music is still beautiful and I still listen to lots of it because there is so much and there's always a piece or two on my playlist. There's always a song or two from the Final Fantasy Pray album (I love that thing past reason perhaps) and probably a few from the Crystal Chronicles OST (which is severely underrated IMO...) and maybe one from FFX or FFIII (the real FFIII). However, I don't make any extreme efforts to make sure that I have some FF on my playlist. To me, they're just kinda like any other classical music pieces.

^^^

It used to be mainly FF VIII, CT, and CC for me. I had played through the games and loved the music; that was when I first really got into vgm, iirc. I don't listen to them much anymore, though. I still like them, but I'm always looking for new stuff to listen to. I guess they're like "old hat" to me now. :p

I still listen to old tracks. They're in my massive DVD Mp3 playlist along with tons of other non-FF stuff. Some of the music are still darn good to me. I don't see myself stopping anytime soon.

I don't have them all, so I'm listening to them as I get them, now that I've discovered the wonder of FTP's.

I still listen to the FF music, but not as much as I used to. I still enjoy the music but have moved onto other things now. Good to listen to it once in a while to relive memories of the games, without actually having to dust off any of the games.

About the same as any other game series' music I enjoy. FF music has always been like that...I've always balanced it with everything else I listen to, so when I go to look for a good RPG soundtrack to put, it gets the same amount of consideration as other OST's I like (at least the entries I enjoy). Even before I got into collecting game music, I never "only" listened to FF music...There was always plenty of great game music to listen to.

If anything, hearing later entries in the series (starting from XI) has given me more of an appreciation of Uematsu. Overrated as he may be, I'll take him over Sakimoto or Mizuta anyday.

Definitely. I recorded TJ&E, DKC, and Bubsy to audio cassette before I ever got a real VGM album.

I've noticed that the alternative for most Final Fantasy fans still tends to be Mitsuda. Some of them seem to think that Mitsuda is more of a discriminating and sophisticated choice than Uematsu. Yet they all invariably choose him as their second favorite or top favorite alongside Uematsu. :annoyed: Both of them are favored to the extent that others are overlooked, but I do still listen to Final Fantasy sometimes. Specifically FFVI, which will never grow old for me. I also listen to the other stuff sometimes, but on rarer occasion, even though I own most of the original soundtracks. For the most part, Final Fantasy is no different to me than other VGM, even if most of my "F" albums happen to be Final Fantasy ones.

I'm still an unabashed fanboy, though my actual listening time is somewhat less because I have all my favorite tunes pretty much memorized. It really was my introduction to the wider world of VGM, and I enjoy the stuff even after my tastes have matured.

I personally don't see it as something to be ashamed of, at least not if you're a fan in a reasonable capacity. Slavering fanboys can get annoying, it's true, but that's no reason to distance oneself from music they like.

Incidentally, since virtually none of the recent Final Fantasy music is by Uematsu, I don't feel as saturated by his style anymore, since his replacements have very different musical personalities, for better or worse.

Considering I just got FFXII recently, yes, I still listen.

But since my VGM exploits have been concentrated on new/unknown albums, not so much. I'm not sick of it though. On occasion I'll fire up the FFVII, or VI, or VIII soundtracks and hit the greatest hits...but I'll do the same for Guilty Gear and other recognizable series.

Anyway, I never thought FF was the be all, end all anyway. Now Chrono on the other hand....

Can't say I've listened to a whole lot of Final Fantasy lately, except by coincidence. Star Ocean music has been calling, along with some Genso Suikoden and even non-VGM. Not to mention, at this point I think many of the official Final Fantasy arrangements have been outclassed by other games. It was the series that got me into video game music, and it used to be what I listened to exclusively. But it's been wonderful to branch out and find some of the true gems of VGM.

Final Fantasy music is nowhere near at the top of my list right now and it hasn't been for several years now. It's still on my radar but I've branched out to so many other things that is has taken a backseat. While most vgm listeners treat FF music as the end all-be all of game music, I treated it as a portal to things much greater.

I'm no more fed up with it than any other music I listen to. When I feel like I've played a song out enough to the point that it doesn't offer anything new when I listen to it...well, that's when I put it aside for a while. I might come back to it weeks or months later depending on my mood and the music that I get in the meantime.

For instance, because I'm in the middle of finals lately, I've been setting aside a lot of my metal and techno music for more instrumentals and ambient music. It gives me something to listen to without distracting much from the writing process. But next week, I might be back to Juno Reactor and Killswitch Engage. It just depends.

You know, I was thinking that since there's so much Final Fantasy music, it isn't really fair to lump every album together under the general label of "Final Fantasy music" the way people tend to do. I think that the ups and downs, differing tastes, and especially now the differing composers makes the generalization too inaccurate. Even for people who claim to still listen to Final Fantasy music a great deal in this poll, how many think that every single Final Fantasy game or spinoff entry has great music? And how many voting on the opposite end feel that all Final Fantasy music is average at best? The only thing holding the generalization together has been Uematsu, but the changes in sound technology over the years coupled with his own experimentation is enough to create varying tastes even amongst fans of Uematsu-composed FF soundtracks. (I think there's more variance there than with say, the Dragon Quest scores) Not to mention that the series spans a great number of entries at this point. When you add to that the spinoffs like Mystic Quest, Tactics, FFX/FFX-2, Crystal Chronicles, and Dirge of Cerberus, it doesn't seem specific enough to ask whether or not I still like Final Fantasy music. There's enough variation to make the question impossible to answer without excluding a good chunk of Final Fantasy titled albums that you like or don't like. In my case, I've always seen mainly just FFVI and FFTactics as belonging with my personal lists of the best that VGM has to offer one hundred percent of the time. I still listen to them a great deal but I feel like I have to answer the poll with a response that is more on the "no" side since the great majority of FF music for me varies between average and good.

This isn't meant as any sort of personal attack, btw. It was just something that occured to me while looking over this topic again. I've never liked how Uematsu is the only composer who tends to have all of his works mentioned as one when folks are talking about how they've gotten over him or whathaveyou. It's like people view him as the composer whose works are the most unvaried and predictable compared to all others. He has his own style the same as every other composer does. And like with any other composer, you become more intimately familiar with that style as you listen to more of his works. Somehow greater experience with his works from the getgo relative to other composers makes him some old and crusty standard to be forgotten over time. At least that's the impression I get from some folks.

Basicly the only time I find myself listening to any FF music is when I do a random shuffle on my Ipod and one pops up.

Heck yes I still listen to Final Fantasy music! While I mix in a lot of other stuff (and for some reason I've been on a heavy classical crossover and movie soundtrack kick for the past one and a half years or so) and love to try out new vgm albums, Uematsu's work still has some of my favorite - and most memorable - melodies, so songs periodically crop up. There's far too much nostalgia woven atop the fantastic talent and well-executed work for me to let it go anytime too soon.

Yeah, I listen to Final Fantasy music quite regularly. The very first series I got into and became all fanboy-like about was the Final Fantasy series, if my memory serves me correctly.

Uematsu-san ftw, I say, ftw.

I still listen to it from time to time. But I listen to whole albums instead of just tracks off a random list.
It's interesting to see how your musical taste has changed over time, some tracks that I never appreciated suddenly becomes favourites, while old favourites fade away slowly.
Well, Final Fantasy Music still bears a lot of favourites.

I haven't listened to any Uematsu FF tracks for months, but the reason for this may be that I'm not liking RPG OSTs as much as I did some years ago.

My sentiments exactly.



That being said I still listen to a few songs from FFVIII occasionally; lately my listening habits involve browsing Windows Explorer for whatever tune I get in my head, jumping around my 25+ #gamemp3 albums randomly. The Spy, Never Look Back, Don't Be Afraid, and The Stage is Set are in my head around once a week.

I listen to all of my VGM quite regularly.

I like it when FF music comes up randomly on the list.

I tend to listen to ff music too much in one go, and then I can't stand it for a while, and then I go back to it.

well i dont listen to ff music as much as did years ago.
but coincidentally yesterday i was checking my back up mp3 cds and listened some ff songs.
nowdays im listening more to ff songs that i didnt like that much at the beginning, but now i totally love them(like the oath, swing de chocobo, an other.

I still love Final Fantasy VII and VIII music, myself. I don't think they could ever grow old

Not as often as I used to. I occasionally get the urge to just load up all of Nobuo Uematsu and listen to some tracks, but I haven't listened to any FF for a few months now, since the FF XII OST.

Final Fantasy IX got me started on my VGM <3. And then it was Parasite Eve. So in effect, it was love for a bunch of Square titles for me until I joined GFF and branched out to other stuff.

I only frequently listen to Sakimoto's FF music. And Hamauzu's.

As in Uematsu's case... I listen to FFIV - VI mostly, despite the low quality synth. I don't have much interest in his post-SNES era music. :(

Snap. In fact, FFVII is the only actual OST I own :(

But I still love the rest of them, and I'll play the games every so often just to hear the music :)

yeah sometimes, The odd track brings back happy gaming memories.

But I was never a big ff fan as the games are a bit naff

Not really, I grew out of FF after FF7 and Tactics, the emo nonsense of Squall and FF8 turned me off considerably. At the same time, I became a lifelong fan of Suikoden, and I still listen to all their soundtracks on a daily basis. Just goes to show you that substance has a lot more staying power than flash ;)

I find most Final Fantasy soundtracks to have way more substance than any of the Suikoden ones. Just goes to show you that opinions are entirely relative to individuals. ;)

About FF8, I like the soundtrack almost as much as I hate the game. It contains some of the most powerful Uematsu's compositions, in my opinion. I also totally love FF9, but can't stand anything past it.

Most of my VGM albums are FF albums, so you can say that I often listen to FF music. I still put Uematsu's music in high regard when we talk about VGM, but that doesn't mean he's the best. I do listen to other composers, but the range isn't that big as compared to other members here. Maybe if I'm exposed to more composers or games, I might try to listen to their music, but for now FF (and usually Square games) dominiate my VGM collection.

And I think FFX is the worst FF album, but I love Suteki da Ne. ;)

I still love my Final Fantasy music however I must say I'm very annoyed at the new FFXI Box Set collection which contains an extra disc with previously unreleased vocal works. I'm not going to buy all those albums again so I can have just one CD no matter how much I loved the performance on the voices DVD. Grr!

Si

I went through an anti-fanboy backlash a while back and pretty much hated on all FF musics. It took the Advent Children OST to rekindle the LURVE.



Oh, and it's not the only thing I listen to. Right now. I'll go nuts when #gamemp3s releases the F archive.

"And I think FFX is the worst FF album"
What about Hamauzu tracks ?
I love Hamauzu style...

And it's weird but I feel like FF music are part of when I was young, but now that I'm starting my twenties, I want to heard something else...

I still listen a lot to Final Fantasy music, but mostly to the Piano Collections only. The beauty of Final Fantasy music introduced me to VGM and I will never forget that.

I still do. I still can't get enough of the Battle with Gilgamesh on the FF XII soundtrack. I'm not all that fond of the rest of the album, though...

Somewhat sadly, Nobuo's work on the series is still some of the best video game music available, apart from being also groundbreaking and the most popular. It's got a good reason to be.

The other soundtracks and composers are mood-dependant, individuals, but Final Fantasy has good in everything. So I sometimes pop in a FF soundtrack whenever I have 3-4 hours to just chill to a soundtrack with incredible variation you really can't find anywhere else in the vgm world. Again, sadly.

I'm not listening to Liberi Fatali non-stop or anything like that, though.

Depends on my mood. I listen to a lot of other series' music now so everything has to have it's turn. I find myself liking Final Fantasy 7's music less after not hearing it for about a year and having listened to so much other VGM during that time. But it's not about the age of the music because I never get tired of FF6's music.

I think I'll always listen to FF music even if I get tired of some of it, there's a lot of good stuff especially the piano arranges.

Wow, the hate. FFVIII is one of my favourites in the series and the Balamb Garden theme is a keeper for life. The OSTs for this stuff are so hard to come by in Oz - does anybody know a good website where I can find (er, download) some more of it? I really dig the Shadow Hearts music, and want it on my iPod stat.

...a Koori on the Internet?

Regarding: the only VGM discs I've ever bought were via CD Japan, but I daresay there'd be a few local (ie. CBD) stores by now (eg. Alternate Worlds) who may stock some. Although you'll pay out the arse, mind.

Well, since metho became harder to acquire I've discovered the internets.

That sucks. I trip down to Alternate Worlds all the time and yeah, they take your $$ hard for these imported goods from faraway - it cost me ridiculous amounts to get ahold of the Evangelion OSTs. I was hoping there was some miraculous website out there that was just hosting all the mp3s for free.

I guess stickying stuff actually make them invisible or something. =/

http://www.gamingforce.com/forums/ge...ion-7-1-a.html

Also, you may want to check out the My Stuff forum.

My very first VGM "album" was the companion music disc from FF Anthology on PS1. That got me into game music, I guess you could say. The next purchase I made was, I believe, the FFVIII Orchestrated album, which was my main VGM album for quite some time. But I never have found myself listening to the whole OSTs themselves, just a song here and there, and tend to prefer arrangements like Pray, Love Will Grow, and Piano Collections, and even then, just select songs from those albums. Since then, I've also acquired knowledge of a vast array of other composers, but generally follow the same listening pattern of picking and choosing the songs I want, and basically completely ignoring the rest. As it would turn out, out of all the vast sums of songs Uemastu's composed, I perhaps have more particular Mitsuda or Sakimoto songs I really enjoy in my collection than songs by him. But those songs by him still have a place, so I still listen to them from time to time. Though it is the case that some songs by him I used to really enjoy, I now find myself saying, "did I really enjoy that that much?" I kind of feel like I "outgrew" those songs, but maybe it's just a matter of having more stuff to listen to now.

Final Fantasy music used to take up around 3/4 of my music collection at one point, but I'm finding that a lot of the newer stuff isn't all that exciting. It is interesting to hear a random track from an older game, though - even if it's something "standard" like Aeris' Theme or something, it's a good listen now just as it was back then.

Yeah, I still listen to a lot of them. Final Fantasy Black Mages I & II and Final Fantasy IX is usually what I listen to, I love IX's! :D

I used to listen to it a lot, along with other VG and anime music, but I did it SOOO much that I started to get bored... then I got deeper into Trance but this year I missed the old days so I am back on track.

My favorites are Black Mages and the Piano Collections ;)

I'm always in search of new and better music. So naturally I let the older final fantasy music go... (not FFXII and FFXIII though)

yeah. Cuz XII is so old and XIII's been released in OST form.





Jesus christ.

I still enjoy the musics especially from FF X onward. Like any other entities around me, the excitement of initial exposure faded.

Well, I can say that it has been in at least some frequency of play in my playlist, but my final fantasy tracks take up only a fraction of my music, but it's hard to just throw away all the music from the series, as it has some true classics. I most recently have been whoring FFX and FFXII music on my playlists, but it gets equal play, not all the time for it though, as I do have a sizeable enough music collection.