Still listen to Final Fantasy Music?

Originally Posted by GoldfishX

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.

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. 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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.