[Album] FINAL FANTASY XII Original Soundtrack (SVWC-7351~54)

I'm listening to it now and the difference between the OSV and the psfs is often quite astonishing. The percussion in particular is far more pronounced in the OSV. More thoughts later...

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I'm actually not sure I like the OST version of "Boss Battle." Maybe it's because I'm so used to the mixing on the PSF version. I have similar qualms with the final boss piece.

On the other hand, "Nalbina Fortress Underground Prison" sounds FANTASTIC on the OST, the added percussion really adding to the tone.

The "Ending Movie" track is lovely. It was the only piece I hadn't heard in the PSF set and the quality is very high. The second half has an orchestrated version of "Destiny" that sounds... well, awesome. I can't wait to hear it in the game.

This is quite possibly my favorite FF soundtrack (up there with FF6).

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I think the PSF set used the FFX driver. Don't quote me on that though.

As for the Boss Theme, the demo had a shorter version of it. The final game adds a second half that makes all the difference.

How ya doing, buddy?

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I'm a bit miffed that the "Symphonic Poem" track on the OST only includes the 1st, 2nd, and 5th movements, but it's still a lot better than nothing.

Yeah, it sounded edited to me (probably to fit in the main credits, along with "Kiss Me Goodbye"). They could have at least slowed down the credits to fit the whole thing in there. Ah well...

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Sakimoto's strengths don't usually lie in his melodies. It's his textures and instrumentation choices that fascinate me. If you're looking for static, pretty melodies that stick in your head, you probably won't find this soundtrack very memorable. It's more like a film score than anything else (as is most game music these days), a progression that I welcome.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Hamauzu's biggest advantage is that he often mixes real instruments into the synth. It helps more than you'd think. When my ears hear a real instrument, they're often tricked into thinking that the rest of the piece uses them as well.

It doesn't hurt that he's one of VG's finest composers.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I've always considered VS's first final battle theme to be stronger than the second. In the game, I felt they should have been reversed.

"Battle for Freedom" is great. Works wonderfully in the game too. I'm surprised they looped the battle part of the track. It's quite lengthy.

FELIPE NO

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However, given the massive ammounts of music that's here (just under 5 hours), it would have been impossible to do the whole soundtrack live (without having a recording budget the size of, something really big.)

I'm not sure I agree. If you count looping, there isn't much more than two and a half hours of music here. There are many film scores that are that length and considering the budget that the average FF game has, I don't think there was a good excuse (aside from inexperience).

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I find that the more emotional tracks are very strong.

Stuff like "A Moment's Rest" (one of my favorite tracks on the soundtrack), both "Sorrows", "Time for a Rest" and "White Room" are simply gorgeous.

The town themes are equally as good. Hell, the entire thing is just outstanding.

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Just to be sure, the final battle is "Batte for Freedom", do I stand correct?

Indeed.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

On the other hand, DQ8 also had streaming music and they proved the technology was possible with such a large RPG.

Honestly, I don't know why they didn't stream FFXII's music. Disk space might have been an issue. FFXII had four times the amount of music as DQ8 and twice the amount of DoC.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

And of course, they could have made it a dual-layer disc. Then again, I can't think of many PS2 games that have been dual-layer...

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Really? Do dual-layered take longer to read? That's interesting... Might explain why there's so little dual-layered games out there. Xenosaga is the only one I can think of...

I was speaking idiomatically.