[News] FINAL FANTASY XIII Composers Announced (Hamauzu / Shimomura)

Thanks for this, Kaleb.

A little more information if anyone needs it, merely to clarify that these are two separate games that form a three-piece compilation:

Quote:

Big news today. Final Fantasy XIII was officially unveiled at Square Enix's pre-E3 news conference. The game, set to be more futuristic than all predecessors and intended for the PlayStation 3 console, will be directed by Final Fantasy X's Motomu Toriyama and feature character design from Tetsuya Nomura once again. It has been revealed that Masashi Hamauzu, the highly respected Square Enix composer who recently scored Dirge of Cerberus Final Fantasy VII, is producing the score. Nobuo Uematsu will be composing the main theme, like he did for the upcoming Final Fantasy XII Original Soundtrack. Hamauzu, who also produced several popular themes on the Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack and worked on UNLIMITED: SaGa, is a diverse composer that has won critical acclaim, though it has yet to be seen whether the masses will consider him a worthy successor to Nobuo Uematsu.

However, that is not all. Two spinoffs for Final Fantasy XIII have been announced. One, Final Fantasy Agito XIII, is a mobile game that accompanies the main story of Final Fantasy XIII. The other, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, is an action-packed PlayStation 3 game. It will, rather surprisingly, be scored by Yoko Shimomura, the composer who has won popular praise for her work on the Kingdom Hearts series, Parasite Eve, and Legend of Mana. Together, the three titles are set to form the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy XIII, aka The New Tale Of The Crystal: Final Fantasy XIII, compilation.

This is, quite simply, excellent news. I'm curious to Yoko Shimomura's works, but CANNOT WAIT for Hamauzu's.

How ya doing, buddy?

(Technically, they won't be collaborating. They are working on two separate yet related projects.)

A little clip of the music, by the way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxOJ3UL2peA

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Quote:

As long as Shimomura doesn't use MIDI quality sound that she used in KH2 (I'm sorry but that sound quality was dissapointing), I'll be happy. Hamauzu will no doubt want to use live sound in the soundtrack

A lot of Hamauzu's magic (or anti-magic to some people) is his close role with Ryo Yamazaki, the synthesizer operator for Dirge of Cerberus, UNLIMITED: SaGa, Musashiden II, and some of FFX. His synth is unbelievably realistic, especially in DoC, and they have a special bond (read this to learn more). I'm sure there will be numerous live performances too, likely involving an orchestrator, though Shiro Hamaguchi is away right now.

As for Yoko Shimomura, I'm curious as to what synthesizer operator will work with her. None of her works have really shone in terms of synth quality, though I prefer Yamazaki's synth for Kingdom Hearts far more than Takeharu Ishimoto's for Kingdom Hearts II. Given Ishimoto has been officially upgraded to a composer, though, I think it'd be wise to anticipate Yasuhiro Yamanaka (Code Age Commanders, Front Mission 5) or Mitsuto Suzuki (a newcomer).

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

Originally Posted by Omega Weapon

I can't wait to hear FFXIII. Hamuazu's stella deus classical style should prove to be very impressive on this game.

Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata scored Stella Deus, not Masashi Hamauzu.

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