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

So, my bittorrent download is complete. I've been listening (I'm only a few songs in) but the first track that I've heard that really kicks ass (other than the East Dalmasca track, which I've already heard, and which kicks the most ass of all of them so far) is "Naivety". what a nice, bouncy, and well orchestrated track! So many layers, but they all work well together. My favorite part is the part between 0:50 and 1"15. The bass sounds very bouncy indeed on my Grados.

Edit: "The Skycity of Bhujerba" is very nice. Many layers and very soft and floaty. Giza plains is great as well.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Quote:

Vagrant Story's Heteromorphic Person...so-so, but not great

Don't you mean "An Odd-Looking Creature"?

And it kicks ass.

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As of now, I'm a little more than half-way through the soundtrack, and one track that has struck me as being particularly awesome is "The Phon Coast". What a nice, uplifting track! It starts off strong and has a wonderful buildup and an interesting and heavily layered instrumentation. The entire composition of the song immediately gives it away as a Sakimoto track. I can imagine flying over a pristine rocky coast with ocean spray and strinking blue sky while listening to this track. Nothing this complex was ever heard in any Uematsu piece. (Although I still love Uematsu.)

So far, this is shaping up to be one of the nicest soundtracks I've heard in a while.

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Well, I've listened to the whole thing, and now I will list some of my favorite tracks from each disc. These are songs that I find myself listening to more than others, the ones that I keep coming back to the most.

Disc 1: Opening Movie, Secret Practice (these short, "bouncy" songs always get me), The Dalmasca Easterland (easily one of the best songs on the whole soundtrack), Naivety, Coexistence (Imperial), Giza Plains, The Garamsythe Waterway, Nalbina Fortress Town Ward.

Disc 2: Clash of Swords (Woo!), Abyss (Matsuo), Nalbina Fortress Underground Prison, Chocobo version 1, (Haha, awesome!), The Skycity of Bhujerba,

Disc 3: The Sandsea, Esper Battle (One of the best songs on the soundtrack), Desperate Fight, Ozmone Plains, The Golmore Jungle, Eruyt Village, The Salikawood, The Phon Coast (imo, the highlight of the entire soundtrack, better than even The Dalmasca Easterland), A Moment's Rest Near the Water, The Mosphoran Highwaste (!).

I'll add Disc 4 later, right now I have to get read for church. Like any Sakimoto, it will take me time to get to "know" this one, but I honestly think it could be one of my favorites.

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

Originally Posted by Mr. Maul

The thing with Sakimoto is that all his works usually shine really well upon closer inspection. It's really easy to find them unmemorable at first, because they're not exactly melodically pronounced, but familiarity can be really revealing. I remember listening to FFTA, Soukyugurentai, and Sword Maniac at first, often regarded as his worst soundtrack releases, and not being impressed, yet then one day, for each and every one of them, it clicked; I fell in love with them and decided to review them all in some detail. Given these were his least remarkable works, imagine what digesting the giants -- BoFV, VS, FFT, and Legaia Duel Saga -- did for me. His work is very hard to digest in large amounts, but the intricacy in all his individual compositions is unparalleled and his phrasing is simply delicious.

I haven't dared to listen to FFXII all the way through in one sitting yet, simply because I know that I won't take it all in and won't appreciate it initially. Yet, I'm digesting it, part-by-part, having now completed numerous listens of the first disc, and am slowly falling in love with the score. I can't exactly say that this slow but steady approach will work for everyone, but Sakimoto's music is remarkable and great, just not immediately appreciable.

Yes. This is exactly what I meant when I say it takes time to get to know a Sakimoto work. When I first downloaded the VS soundtrack, I really thought it quite sucked. But over time, one song after another began to reveal its intricacies to me, and it became one of my favorite soundtracks of all time.

It will take just a long, maybe even longer, to get to know this one, but I have already found so many songs that it like that I think my purchase of the soundtrack was well worth it.

I was speaking idiomatically.

It hasn't bothered me. I've been too busy listening to the music to bother analyzing the quality of the synth. (Which doesn't seem that bad to me, certainly not bad enough to comment on.)

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Say, did anybody else notice that the main drumline in the final battle theme is exactly the same as the drumline in Ultima the Nice Body?

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If you can't pick out any of the many wonderful and diverse melodies, you have some serious problems.

As for the reverb, I fear that too little reverb would make it sound nasty and ugly, like the Vagrant Story remaster that we recently released.

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