DIRGE of CERBERUS -FINAL FANTASY VII- Original Soundtrack (CRCP-40137~38)
 

I figured I should kick this forum (and album) off on the right foot. So here's how it's done.

A quick trip to GMR, and we have the following info:


So, what are my thoughts?

I'm a big Hamauzu fan, but this is his most disappointing work so far, IMO. In his effort to make this sound like a film score, he has cast aside the crunchy chords and inventive progression that I've come to expect from him. The only tracks I truly enjoy even seem a bit derivative. I'll see if this album grows on me, but I'm already positive I will consider it one of his lowest points. Nevertheless, orchestral nuts should enjoy this.

I'll just re-post my comments from the Serious Business borad:

I really enjoyed this soundtrack. My favorites tracks were Ninja girl of Wutai, A Proposal, Fight Tune Girl named Shelke, Fight Tune The Immaculate, and Longing. Redemption was ok, but i prefered the harder sound of longing. I can see where you all are coming from with this not being Hamauzu's best work, but if you listen to this OST without and of his other works in mind, you are sure to at least enjoy it. (like piccolo said)

I really thought this was agreat soundtrack. I didn't expect it to be that good, I expected something more akin to Devil May Cry, but it turned out to be just as good as the soundtrack to FFX. I thought the use of live instruments was very good and even when it was mixed with synth it was done convincingly enough and tastefully. I was pleasantly surprised with this one.

My post from the other forum:

I received my soundtrack on the 15th, and I must say that I hugely impresed. I've said it many times that Hamauzu has never let me down with any of his scores. Now that Dirge of Cerberus is out, I can honestly said that that sentiment still has not changed. It's solid from top to bottom. I was curious as to how his darker pieces would be but he did a wonderful job with them. Sure, it's not like the music from him that we've come to know, but everyone should have known that this would be a dark album. The premise, main character and pre-release samples were clear indicators. I'm hearing conflicting opinions on the actual game, but as far as I'm concerned, Square-Enix can go ahead and get started on a sequel so Hamauzu can work on it.

5/5 for me.

This album was flat-out terrible. Certainly Hamauzu's worst...Compared to SaGa Frontier 2 and Unlimited Saga, it doesn't even come close.

It's too orchestral. It's as if Hamauzu forgot what made him such a hit in VGM to begin with. His famous chords and his ingenuity are completely absent, and the result is generic sounding, orchestral garbage. Not to mention that even after repeated listens, most of the songs sound the same.

There are a few good tracks, such as "Ninja Girl" and "Proposal," but in general, this album was a major let down.

I just listen my copy and it's a great music maybe not the best of the composer but very nice.
The orchestre give a strong to the music that a synthetizer can't be.
I love the orchestral music and this one is in the best until the last 2-3 months.

I agree with Onyx. The album doesn't hold a flame to Hamauzu's other stuff, and it does get repetitive. I usually like orchestral stuff, but this is just so bland.

As for LONGING and REPEMPTION...I'm kind of biased. I stopped listening to Gackt after his 6th Day/7th Night albums...so I don't care much for these his newer music.

Some here have compared the soundtrack to Hamauzu's earlier work, I did the same with the original FF7 tunes and well, it didn't quite add up this way for me either. No old themes, too cinematic...
But after re-listening it for a few times, I felt, I wasn't doing this work any justice, because standing for its own it's simply beautiful music and I'd really like to play the game that came with it (though that'd be for other reasons as well, obviously).

As for the Gackt tracks... Let's say he could have done worse (and certainly did over the years). They're not too cheesy and catchy enought that I hope at least one of them will accompany an equally upbeat cut-scene or something.

I was quite disappointed with this album. Also being quite the Hamauzu fan, I wasn't too impressed with this album. All in all, the tracks bored me, and no song gave me and grand sense or feeling of nostalgia that I like with video game music, even if I have yet to play the game. As for the Gackt songs... meh.

Maybe he was forced into this format instead of his usual one.

I'm very disapointed by this soundtrack.It's orchestral but without talent and it's repetitive.

This soundtrack is better than Uematsu's original FF7 OST! Why? Because of the fresh orchestrations, the nice ambient tracks, and of course improved themes for Cait Sith and Yuffie! Hamauzu has always been one to impress his listeners, and this soundtrack further exerts that point. It is certainly one of the finer achievements of the year 2006! Most every track was unskippable for me, and right off that tells me that this score is great. His brilliant and creative takes on the themes for Cait Sith and Yuffie were flawless. For Cait Sith, he used a nice syncopated jazz feel to it, and for Yuffie he used a great light oriental melody with some great piano accompaniment. Plus his epic orchestral pieces really hit the spot. Marching Tune is epic and has a sweeping, yet upbeat feel to it. Its colorful orchestration makes it a brilliant listen. I don't see hardly any flaws with this score. If I were to rate it I would give it a 9 out of 10.

I imagine that was the scenario, myself. For a game so widely anticipated, being able to say that "this game has an orchestral soundtrack" is a major bonus during PR. However, look at UNLIMITED SaGa: Hamauzu experimented with live players and ensembles and succeeded in mixing live instruments with synth. Heck, the whole first half of the soundtrack was (kinda) orchestral.

And I agree with some people that it's a bit unfair to judge this soundtrack against Hamauzu's previous works, however, when you have a composer who raises the bar 10 stories with each new outing (even Musashiden 2 was unique), you can't help but compare it to what he's done in the past. His jazzy, catchy, and unique trademark is what we've come to expect from him...and it's pretty jarring to see that trademark absent from this OST.

I pray that Hamauzu's next album is NOTHING like this one.

I think the whole soundtrack it's wonderfull but i only misss one track, the version of Trigger Situation that sounds in the official website

I wished that the music featured in the Beta Samples were in the OST. The battle music in that was well written, and reminded me of FFX a bit.

I downloaded it and deleted it soon afterwards. Wasnt my cup of tea and came off kinda boring to be honest. I'm relatively new to this guys work so what has Hamauza done besides this? Wasnt much of a good first impression. =\

It depends on what you like. If you like orchestral stuff, try Unlimited SaGa. The first disc is all real instruments, but it is much more upbeat and melodic than DoG. The second disc is mostly darker-sounding techno.

Then there's SaGa frontier II, which is all wonderfully melodic techno. There isn't a single track I don't like. My favorite thing about the soundtrack is the use of game's main themes for every track (such as the main theme and then Feldschlact theme).

Techno is too broad a term to describe Hamauzu's music. It has a lot of jazz, classical, and ethnic influences, too, moreso than techno.

Wait - he did Saga Frontier 2?

I LOVE Saga Frontier 2. Yet I just cant get into Dirge of Cerberus....How odd that one person could produce something so different in style and execution. **shrugs**

From a technical and musical standpoint, this soundtrack is pretty near perfect. The use of instrumentation is often incredible, the integration and fusion of a variety of styles (Impressionism, hints of Rock and Electronica, Jazz, etc.) is flawlessly executed, and the development of each theme is always compehensive. I love it and would rate it very highly.

However, again the issue comes down to accessibility. Unlike Hamauzu's other soundtracks, there isn't as much thematic or stylistic variety expressed, but variety of a more subtle sort. Without direct flauntations of creativity and the integration of a trademark Hamauzu main theme, the soundtrack loses its appeal to many and becomes 'generic'. This is unfortunately, but ultimately a reflection on the level of attentiveness of the average listener's ears and how a melodic basis is considered very important for game music.

So, bottom line: I like it a lot, but many won't and I entirely empathise. 5/5 for me, but 2/5 in terms of general accessibility!

In this context, I was just using "techno" as an all-encompassing term for electronically created music. Some people would also classify Sonic CD JP's soundtrack as "techno", even though it contains much jazz, pop, and swing influence.

Pretty much what he said. It took several lessons to appreciate but I think this is Hamauzu's finest work from a thematic standpoint. So far, I've observed two themes interwoven throughout the score, very closely related to each other. One is heroic and the other tender.

Both can be heard in the best track, "Hope of the Future" (2:40 for the heroic and 0:18 for the tender).

The work is skillfully orchestrated, with real and synth instruments melding seamlessly. This is the way I'd prefer game scores to be done in the future, if they can't afford to have real players all the way through.

The cinematic tracks are beautifully written but it's pretty clear that they're written to accompany visuals and hence, there isn't much room for musical development (especially considering they're often quite short).

In the end, it probably works beautifully in the game and that's where it's meant to be appreciated. Having the soundtrack be so good outside of its intended medium is a nice bonus. However, as noted, the material is treated very much like a film score and that isn't to everyone's tastes.

As a certified orchestra and film score whore, I can assure you that my disappointment with this album has nothing to do with it being too orchestral or too much like a film score; it's far less so than many other pieces of VGM.

The OST is filled with mood pieces that don't incorporate much in the way of melody or theme. While the tracks are generally good at conveying a general feeling (sadness, darkness, night--they tend to be pretty dark), they fade from memory the instant they're done. The lack of thematic cohesion, and the atmospheric nature of the tracks, is what really torpedoes the album.

I've never found Hamauzu to be particularly melodic--lack of melody is one of the biggest beefs that I have with his SaGa work--but it's particularly damning here, where there were strong themes established for several of the characters. Other than a brief allusion to Uematsu's Shinra theme, none of the earlier melodies are reprised. Combined with Hamauzu's sensibilities and the probably-studio-dictated instrumentation and orchestration, interpretation of the existing themes might have made the album.

I'm sure it'll work fine in-game, but this album is dirgelike indeed for me. And the less said about those J-Rock tunes, the better.

2/5

Lack of melody? I can remember many good melodies from Hamauzu's previous works. There were only 2 or 3 main melodies in SFII, but each reprisal was unique and interesting. US, on the other hand, has plenty of good melodies. I could play them all back on a piano without even thinking. There's the character themes, and the battle themes, (Battle theme EX!), and many other highly melodic songs.

Interesting comment about the interweaving of the melodies you mentioned, jb1234. I didn't notice this to the same extent as you did and I agree it gives the score much more thematic cohesion as a whole.

I basically agree here. While Hamauzu limited himself to using only one major melodies in each of his SaGa works, both were full of character and flawlessly written, well-supported by some secondary melodies that also featured throughout the score. I found the integration of the US theme especially impressive, as it still hasn't grown old, despite probably featuring in up to 15 pieces. The US main theme has probably my favourite melody to feature on a SE OST, actually. As for SF2, some say the main theme is overused, but, as PN put it, each reprisal was unique and interesting.

His US work featured lots of great melodies that were not integrated elsewhere in the score. Piece together tracks 1-24 on Disc One with all Disc Two tracks from "Challenge to the Seven Wonders" and you have a whole disc of rich and unique melodies. Much of Disc Two is less accessible melodically, but themes like "Battle Theme EX" and "BT Ver. 5" are pretty much immediately appreciable. The profoundness of most of the electronic pieces isn't, however, their melodies, but overall eccentricity and creativity.

As far as I can tell, SFII has three primary melodies, the main theme, Vorspiel, Rosenkranz, and the Feldschlact theme. Most of the songs are based on either one or more of these, although some, (Like my favorite, Trubsal) have their own individual melodies.

There might be more, but those are the ones that come to mind first.

Yeah... I'm aware of this, though the main theme is definitely used the most prominently. I guess, in terms of reuse of melodic material, though, SF2 reuses more themes than US overall, even if the melodic diversity of US is much greater.

Perhaps it's just too subtle for my cloth ears.

Did ye who find so much melodic consistency in olde Hamauzu find any here, in Dirge of Cerberus?

As I've said, it's his least melodic work to date, by quite a way. There is melodic consistency, but it isn't exactly obvious on first listen. I would have much preferred a clear and highly memorable main theme, to be honest, though have no other issues with the soundtrack.

"Battle Theme EX" is my favorite track from US. ;)

As for DoC, I've found that the second disc is my favorite. It has the best cinematic tracks (which I've seen in the game. They're incredible, albeit somewhat undermixed) and holds the most sway over me. The first disc tends to get slow-going about halfway through with all the atmospheric tracks that have no thematic connection to the rest of the work. Probably works wonderfully in the game but on disc, those tracks are skippable for me.

There isn't really one Hamauzu score that I can come out and say is my favorite. Most of them have some flaw that keeps me from completely loving them. US has the electronica second disc, I've never really warmed up to SF2 and the true tragedy is that Nakano got to provide music to all the interesting areas in Musashi, leaving Hamauzu to do short character themes and jingles.

He provided the best music to FFX though...

I was a bit dissappointed from that OST. On a personal level it didn't do much, but I am williing to consider the context and jugde it as it is.

Hamauzu managed it quite well for a cinematic approach of a soundtrack. The aggressive tracks are fairly memorable and impressive, some of the character themes are interesting (like Rosso the Crimson's mysteriousness or Lucrecia Crescent's lightness). The overall feeling of the soundtrack is a sad and forsaken one, very dark and unique from what I have heard.

On an objective level (production, composition and sound quality) I give it a clean 5/5. On a personal level, it's a 3/5 (more instrumental variety, if not that then at least some reallly memorable themes, and not all those mood paintings).

I agree this isn't Hamauzu's best work, but after a summary of my favorite songs:

1) Singable themes (I count only 3 singable themes) so far for melodic consistency...:

a)Calm before the storm, Splinter of Sadness
b)Ten year reunion, Memories with Lucrecia, Lifestream, Sudden parting, Discovery in Sadness, Forgotten tears
c)Lucrecia Crescent, A Proposal (variation on Lucrecia Crescent), Prologue of DOC

2) Battle themes (not singable but makes you hum with the song in an obsessed rythmic way):

-Counteroffensive: great switch in mood, makes you dance...
=> The Immaculate (variation on counteroffensive) : also makes you dance.
-Killing one another: the strings create breath taking crescendo's
-Crimson Impact: Good Rythm
-Messenger of the Dark: This melody gets in your mind, really.
-WRO March: There is a sequence in the middle of the song that's very original.

3) Violin goodness in oriental style (I'm a bit disappointed I only found 2 of these violin masterworks):
-Girl named Shelke
-Ninja Girl of Wutai
(-Fragment of Memory)

4) Special effects goodness (unlimited saga had more special effects):
-Sneaky Cait Sith
-Azul the Cerulean: I didn't expect that drum in the middle of the song.

5) Orchestral goodness (the all round use of high tones in the background, the harmony of strings, the piano and the rythm):
-Trigger Situation: (I'm amazed at 1:20, that sequence is brilliant: use of the same motive in two absolutely different situations)
-Mysterious Ninja
-A proposal: My favorite piece.
-Return to the Subject
-Marching Tune
-Chaotic end: Order in using every instrument and of course the piano! His Trademark.
-Hope of The Future

Conclusion:

-The other songs are just fillers, we fans have to admit that.
Overall: 27 good songs against 53. In quantity its almost a 5,5/10. Not very good. This means there are too much fillers.

-I find this his best work in terms of orchestration quality, especially the battle themes. Better than Unlimited Saga.

-There are only 2 good themes which is a bad thing...

-The ending theme could be a "little bit" better.

Disappointed? Yes, we have high expectations.
But if you place this OST next to other OST's, Hamauzu overpowers everything.

Uh, no. You left out some of the more brilliant cinematic tracks, like "Return to the Origin", "Finally Reborn", "The Last SND", "Prologue of Dirge of Cerberus".

The ending theme is gorgeous, easily my favorite track on the soundtrack (and works gorgeously in the game itself).

Yes Prologue of Dirge of Cerberus is also a variation on the "A Proposal" theme. Good use of the bell sounds.

The ending theme is great, have to reconsider that...

Return to the Origin is a bit on the boring side. The Last SND doesn't say a thing. Finally Reborn is monotone, has interesting piano tunes, but that's all.

I have to point out, Calm Before the Storm is the most beautiful work of Hamauzu yet, in all aspects. After that maybe "Aeolic Guardian" of Musashi.

You should see them in the game. ;) All three are for FMV scenes and they work EXTREMELY well in their context.

Does anyone know how many FMV's there are + which music?

"Trigger Situation", "Prologue of "DIRGE of CERBERUS", "High-Spirited", "Marching Tune #0", "Return to the Origin", "Marching Tune", "Finally Reborn", "The Last SND", "Everyone's Help", and "Hope of the Future" are the FMV pieces.

I'm interested in how Hamauzu makes his music?

Is it like: he plays the pieces with orchestra and then samples it with added sound effects?

Some pieces are fully orchestrated, but others are entirely midi (A Proposal)

Others are midi in background + real live violin, hobo or flute. (this combination is very common in his works and works well)

Let's analyze Girl named Shelke, Ten Year Reunion, Discovery in sadness or Memories with Lucrecia, Splinter of Sadness and many others:
There is cello, violin, flute, piano but there is always <midi-strings>.

I wonder if it is like this (very unlikely) First Assumption:
the violinist, cellist and flutist wear a headphone and listens to the midi background while they record their playing. Then Hamauzu adds this ensemble to the midi-background and we have the resulting track.

The other possibility is (very likely) Second Assumption:
just using a synthesizer-piano-strings + the soloists in a real live recording.

Conclusion? it's not midi. It's not electronically generated but real live. The question is, why doesn't Hamauzu use an orchestra of violins? Instead he uses a synthesizer?

Let's analyze The Immaculate: It sounds very orchestral, but I'm 80% sure the strings aren't real. (listen to 4:16) I hear sound effects too, these have to be synthesized later on by adding it to the orchestrated part. This has to be midi. But I don't understand why midi can be of such great quality...

Final note: many of the FMV's seem to be fully orchestrated, they have no sound effects and have 100% real live strings. Exceptions are Prologue of DOC and Trigger situation.

So, are there any experts in this field?

Ok I need to listen to the whole soundtrack because for whatever reason, I stopped after track 10 from the first disc and I still dont know why... But the little I heard, I was pretty underwhelmed by it, very strange considering how I usually love Hamauzu work.

Also the bitching against orchestral score needs to stop. I think it's pretty stupid to dislike a score or an OST or whatever because it's using an orchestra and not synth we're used to hear for the last 20 years. Ugh.

*going back to listen to DoC*

This is probably the most likely scenario. He would just paste the live recording onto the midi track.

It's expensive to get a bunch of string players in a room together. I'm sure getting soloists isn't cheap either but it doesn't add up as much as a few dozen string players would.

It's midi, just really good midi. I think the track would have been even better orchestrated but he decided not to go that route (and indeed, only went that route with the cinematics).

"Prologue of DOC" uses an orchestra. You can tell by listening to the brass (which are often the worst as far as midi recreations go).

Well, I'm mostly open to orchestral VGM. Better quality sound is an improvement. I'd rather bitch about FFXII which has an OST full of synths and without any orchestral tracks.

BTW: Prologue of DOC just really seems a mix of two things, the first part with those strings are midi and the second part (after 1:14) has a real orchestra in it.
Also the sound effects have to be added. (I'm experimenting with FLStudio and those effects aren't that difficult to make, I still have to figure out how to patch it on an existing song... I think that's the way Hamauzu does it. Patching different wav. files on each other)

I think that's right. I haven't decided whether the piano in the first half is real or midi. The intro FMV is about six minutes long so roughly three minutes in the middle are unscored.

My 2 cents:

Short version: Meh

Long version: Although not offensively generic, I found most of the tracks sounded like a parody of past Final Fantasy scores. This is just speculation, but I think Hamauzu was probably coached into aiming for a stereotypical Uematsu-esque style too much (to give it a Final Fantasy feel), and the result is pretty boring. For me, there was 3 kinds of tracks: The genuinely good ones (Ten Year Reunion, Undulation, Return to the Subject and Mysterious Ninja stood out to me the most, nut maybe I was trying to be optimistic), the genuinely bad ones (battle themes to a certain extent, Gackt), and songs with misleading chord progressions that at first sounded like they could have turned into beautiful epic pieces but died down before they ever really went anywhere, leaving us disappointed, wading through the boring static phrases.

Also, even though square/squenix went to shit after the merger (or maybe before, the last really good game they put out was Final Fantasy Tactics), there is no excuse for including a single by a soulless J-rock clone like Gackt in one's game. Not only is it disrespectful towards the composer to be told that their entire score takes a back seat to a few uninspired juvenile vocal tracks, it's disrespectful towards the player/listener to have the songs presented to them with the expectation that they will like it. I know it's probably too late for squenix to get out of their habits of spending thousands of dollars to include crappy Japanese pop music in their games to give them identity (I know that 8 and 10 had them, I'm sure some of the others did too), but I'd rather have better gameplay than "Gackt".

How was it with Musashi Samurai Legend? Did Hamauzu choose to have that piece of the Surf Coasters in it, or was it imposed? Because that piece really fitted in the game. I haven't played this one yet, but it might fit too.

Here's what I can't figure out...

How is Final Fantasy X better than this? I thought Final Fantasy X was mostly crap, just because it lacked consistency and the fact that 75% of the score was ambience. Hamauzu provided some great music (i.e. Thunder Plains, People of the North, and Someday the Dream Will End). BUT in no way does it surpass the quality of the compositions found in Dirge of Cerberus. In Dirge not only do you find ambience, but you find sweeping melodic pieces with light woodwinds and booming brass phrases. I know that this soundtrack is different, and that is what Hamauzu was trying to prove. He doesn't want to be bound to one specific kind of writing. I think that he succeeded in the fact that he caught everyone off guard, and treated them to something new and creative. The battle themes are one clue. Mixing rock elements in with orchestral cues. There is nothing in this score that says horrible or un-creative. It is simply different and only true fans of Hamauzu will be able to appreciate its musical quality. And another thing is that everyone is having too high of expectations anyway. Just because it has FFVII on it doesn't mean that it has to give off the same impact as Uematsu's orignal score. One thing that I found amazing with DoC is that Hamauzu did not replicate any of Uematsu's music. Hamauzu has always given the impression (no pun intended) to me that he never restricted himself to boundaries in terms of musical composition. In other words, even though Uematsu made an amazing score for FF7, he didn't seem intimidated by it. And in the end he made a better score, imo. I think that most people who are nit-picking this score are being completely biased, and are only disappointed with this because they feel it doesn't surpass Uematsu's original. As you can tell, I enjoyed this score, and find it thoroughly entertaining.

Now about that FFX OST. I see that Uematsu composed the ending theme. Is that true? Because that was really something special! (but in the game itself they say the composer is Hamauzu, they don't even name Uematsu in the Credits-Composer, they should because many of the themes are from him. Or am I blind? (I only saw the credits once, it could be a mistake) Another thing is that it was Hamauzu that arranged the piano collections and that same ending theme in the piano collections is exactly the same in orchestra version.

Another question: Is "Isn't it wonderful" composed by Hamauzu? I think so by listening to it. But also here Suteki Da Ne seems to be composed by Uematsu on many transcriptions out there on the internet.

Get off your high horse. If you like the music, that's great, but you don't need to resort to this kind of elitist b.s.

Also, FFX is 75% ambient? LOL

I did find FFX to be mostly ambience, and quite boring. The only reason why I liked it was because of Hamauzu and Uematsu. Nakano just plain sucked in it. I didn't truly like Nakano until I listened to Musashiden II Blademaster. He was excellent in that score, just not in FFX.

Uematsu is credited as a composer, in fact, you see his name before Hamauzu's and Nakano's. The ending theme and Suteki Da Ne were composed by Uematsu and they sound so impressive thanks to Shirô Hamaguchi's arrangement and orchestration.

Double Post:
What is the name of that track? At first I though it was Chaotic End, but yesterday I saw it was used in the pre-final battle cutscene (and perhaps in the final battle as well).

I don't know it, but I'm guessing it is Hope of the Future, because it's the last song and it sounds like the ending (all the themes are presented just like in Musashiden 2).

It's a masterpiece, don't listen to my other comment.

PS: Well done Uematsu on Suteki da Ne! If he gets an orchestra instead of synth sounds his music jumps from crap to heaven.

I'd say the song sounds better thanks to Hamaguchi's arrangement rather than its sound quality.

Uematsu composed the melody for Suteki Da Ne, but was rushed. Hamaguchi provided most of the additions in both the main and orchestral versions. As for themes that featured the melody modified, this is usually Hamauzu; "Someday the Dream will End" and "Spiran Scenery" were both crafted by him, though "Yuna's Theme" and "Daughter of the High Summoner" are craptastic arrangements by Uematsu himself.

Also, while I see were you are coming from Josh, I agree with Kaleb that saying 'only true Hamauzu fans can appreciate it' is elitist and going too far.

I remember Uematsu saying he composed the melody in one night because the deadline was close.

The Ending FMV does indeed use "Hope of the Future."

I need to know the names of following tracks.

The one that plays in night stage,where Vincent has to escort a little boy(who opens door and stuff).

The other one is played when the HQ is attacked and Vincent has to fight the guards,i forgot what HQ was called in game.

Thanks i don't want to download whole album to find these two,so any expert lend some hand here.

Just today I completed my download of this series soundtrack. At first glimpse, I was deeply disappointed and suspected that Hamauzu has changed his classical style, following the cinematic-ness of Motoi Sakuraba. But after I listen about 7-8 tracks, the album begins to grab my attention, I'm glad that this album still left the trace of Hamauzu classical style like we found in his previous works such as Unlimited Saga, FF X and of course, the Saga Frontier II.

I will give 7/10 for this soundtrack... the main reason is because most of the music dont represent Hamauzu at all. I find only few enjoyable tracks in this album, which is a shame because I enjoy all of Hamauzu's previous works. His classical style is nearly chopin... but here I feel like listening to Wagner.

Let's expect the return of his style in upcoming FF XIII soundtrack!

I disagree, Eriol. This album has Hamauzu written all over it. Even though he tried something new, his style is still present. Not just that, in this album he improved upon his past works and achieved a solid score. It takes a few listens to appreciate it fully.

Hamauzu is more akin to Claude Debussy, actually. A lot of Hamauzu's work is impressionistic. The parallels signature to Hamauzu were used quite frequently in Dirge of Cerberus. Marching Tune is a fine example of his ordinary writing style.

Thoughts on DoC
 

Being that I already enjoyed Hamauzu's work before listening to 'Dirge of Cerberus' for the first time, I was also expecting his trademark quasi-impressionistic style: more motivic than outright thematic and generally striving more for splashes of color than crystal clarity. However, knowing the look and feel which the game carries, I think we can all agree that was probably not the avenue to start composing on, whether Hamauzu or any composer were striving to match the tone of such a dark game.

Now, I won't write a book about this score (I'll save that for FFXII, of which I have a lot to say), but I will summarize my feelings by saying that before I heard the official FFXII soundtrack (those PSFs are a disaster), I felt like this was the best Japanese-composed video game soundtrack I've heard since Dragon Quest VIII. Masashi Hamauzu's stylistic traits are planted all over this score... they've simply been given a new garden in which to flower. There are indeed a couple of "primary" themes, but Hamauzu's style relies far more on impressionistic motives, colorful harmony (retained wonderfully in this score, simply in a much darker context), as well as his already well-known battle themes, driven by staunch rhythms and orchestrational punches.

This score is everything I've come to love about Hamauzu wrapped up with a wonderfully bleak and forcably dark twist.

Most interesting to me, however, is the bashing this soundtrack is receiving on the basis of having "no melodic basis," (Hamauzu's impressionistic bent and composition as color explains the lack of themes, but there are a couple primary ones as well as many motives sprinkled all about) being "too orchestral," (this one truly kills me; how on earth is this a bad thing now?) or even how his lack of incorporating Uematsu's original FFVII material hurts the score. Personally, I could care less about the lack of Uematsu themes since I consider his Final Fantasy VII score to be the weakest in the entire series; beyond that, however, how many of our favorite video game soundtracks in the past have relied on being heavily orchestral (Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, every Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Xenogears/Xenosaga, et al-- the list goes on forever)? How many have relied more on atmosphere than thematicism and been praised for it (Parasite Eve, Soukaigi, Seiken Densetsu 2 & 3, Super Metroid, Metroid Prime, et al)? Additionally, I don't see how lack of thematic cohesion hurts the music as it is only remotely attached to Final Fantasy VII and --like Star Trek-- is a world that deserves multiple musical perspectives.

All in all, a great score from one of my favorite up-and-coming young composers. It's encouraging to hear him write music out of his tried-and-true style and still succeed as well as he does with Dirge of Cerberus. I'm very excited to hear what he'll cook up for Final Fantasy XIII. Could be the most eclectic Final Fantasy soundtrack to date, and I certainly wouldn't mind more of his beautiful orchestration, colorful harmonies, and glassy ambience.

~Jockolantern~

^

Agreed. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on FFXII. :) Unfortunately, the PSFs are a fairly accurate representation of what the music sounds like in-game.

In a way, it's ironic. DoC works for me better in-game than on disc and FFXII works better on disc than in-game. You think it would be the reverse.

Upon nearly a hundred times listening to this soundtrack, I'd say that, this is the soundtrack of the year if not for the FFXII OST.

The music is extremely complex and well-composed. I fell extremely excited listening to it not only because of the way Hamauzu employing primary themes, impressionistic chord progressions here, but also because of the different genres combined in the soundtrack. I would certainly give it a 10 out of 10. :)

Never played the game (but i want to...) but i heard the Gackt song, its one of my favorite Gackt songs with U+K, specially on 02:17