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

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~

How ya doing, buddy?