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

Originally Posted by Raijin

Btw, will we get a translation of this interview (or even some parts of it)? I think we have an explanation of why a such big difference between the in-game sound and the OST in this interview.

Maybe after I'm done with the current batch of releases, depending on if I have the time, and if someone doesn't do it already.

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

Well, I didn't listen to much of the PSF set (I was in Sakimoto overload at the time, playing through Dragon Quarter and FFTA), and didn't play the demo more than once, so this was pretty much my first real experience with the music at hand. And it's sorta...well. Maybe a metaphor will help.

There's this clockmaker in town, who makes timepieces of all sorts. Exotic, decorative, utilitarian, antique. When he makes an exotic one, it's a doozy. But more often than not, he prefers to make the quaint antique models that are his signature style. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. It's his personal taste, and what's the difference so long as it tells time?

Eventually his talents land him an order from a high-profile client, and with more than two years to fill said order, the town buzzes in anticipation of what is expected to be the crown jewel of the clockwork king's career. The big day arrives, and both the client and townsfolk are present to witness the unveiling. The curtain finally rises, revealing...

...dozens of quaint antique clocks.

Maybe I'm just spoiled by Dragon Quarter's unique qualities, or the extra creative touches which elevated Vagrant Story above most of his other, er, clocks, but FFXII seems lacking. Some tracks are very nice (Rabanastre, Eruyt), some are admittedly pretty bad (Barbarians, Speechless Battle), but most of it is sadly nondescript. Sakimoto has made plenty of good music in his career, but I want to hear him challenge himself more. There's no room left on my shelf for another quaint antique clock.

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

There was only a handful of good songs, sadly.

Opening Movie, Ending Movie, The Skycity of Bhujerba and Nalbina Fortress Underground Prison were the only standout pieces by Sakimoto, which was something to be expected by him. He did a "standard Sakimoto work" on this, but I was kinda hoping for something exceptional, on the level of Vagrant Story's OST. Sadly, he didn't deliver that.

The other composers' tracks really stand out from the mass by being better and different, alive and organic.

The Gilgamesh battle theme was a funny homage, but didn't really pack the same punch as the original - one of Uematsu's best battle pieces ever. Victory Theme seemed cheesed down, but the Prelude and Final Fantasy main melody weren't as raped as I feared they could've been.

This just doesn't feel like a Final Fantasy, more like a side game following the lines of FFMQ and FFT, having a completely different tone and most likely the game will be such too.

3/5, because I actually wasn't repulsed by anything. Just bored.

I was speaking idiomatically.

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.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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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I havent listened all of the tracks, but I must say Hitoshi Sakimoto's composition is really classical and grandiose on this OST. my only favorite so far is 125 Giza Plains.

None of the tracks are memorable. I eventually got sleep already when listening to the CD.

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

I've listened to Disc 1, and just as I thought, I'm not digging it. Sakimoto's music is too ethereal and his instrumentation sounds the same all the time.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

in short... overrated?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I wouldn't go as far as saying that, but it's certainly not my cup of tea.

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

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.

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People often say Sakimoto's music is hard to appreciate. I tried FFT, FFXII, Gradius V, but I'm still not fond of his work. I dig some of his "heavy" orchestral themes (such as the second part of the FFXII Loop Demo and Esper Battle), but I don't enjoy his other music that much (though there are exceptions such as the great "Lost Forest" from Legaia Duel Saga).

I was speaking idiomatically.

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.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I'm almost done listening to the soundtrack and I have to say, I really have only been looking forward to the non-Sakimoto works. It's not that I don't thoroughly enjoy his pieces, it's just that many of them have the same motivic elements that I've heard in other games like FF Tactics and let me tell you, it's getting old. Sakimoto has some good ideas in his thematic development, but they're the same ideas that they were 5 years ago. And this is speaking from a seasoned videogame music veteran and composer.
It's not that I don't really enjoy this soundtrack regardless. I would still highly recommend it to anyone. It's just that in many of the tracks, it's like I've already heard the music before! Get some new ideas Sakimoto, and for the love of all that is holy, some new string synths for the fast runs. Ew.

Edit: Now that I've finished the soundtrack, I was delighted to find that the final 6 tracks of the 4th disc are worth the purchase of the album alone. It's like a non-stop joyride that you don't want to get off of once you reach those final 6 tracks . There are other tracks that are notable throughout the soundtrack, but other people have made mention of them already. Overall, very highly recommended! (but I still stand by my Sakimoto comments!)

FELIPE NO

I just wanted to point out that the full version of Symphonic Poem "Hope" actually plays during the ending credits for the game (just watched my friend beat the game earlier today). The 4th movement is hard to mistake, so I know it's not just the PV ver. Would it have killed the OST producers to use 4 more minutes (of which was in fact available) to fit the entire thing on? I know this is likely because of the single, but it seems stupid to have a 4-disc OST and not include one of the game's hi-light songs.

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

The version of Symphonic Poem that is on the OST is the one for the English dub version trailer

I suppose it's a way of making you go out and buy the Symphonic Poem single

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.

I agree with you. Usually I appreciate certain soundtrack after listening them twice (DoC, Unlimited Saga). I guess you couldn't treat Sakimoto's work as melodious as Uematsu. I'm sure I will appreciate this soundtrack later as the time being, after listening for two or three times.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Kaleb.G

I just wanted to point out that the full version of Symphonic Poem "Hope" actually plays during the ending credits for the game (just watched my friend beat the game earlier today). The 4th movement is hard to mistake, so I know it's not just the PV ver. Would it have killed the OST producers to use 4 more minutes (of which was in fact available) to fit the entire thing on? I know this is likely because of the single, but it seems stupid to have a 4-disc OST and not include one of the game's hi-light songs.

I basically agree with you, though I guess those that bought Symphonic Poem "Hope" would have been mighty peeved if the full thing turned up on the FFXII OST after all. Partly commercialism, but also probably intended to avoid provoking a backlash of some kind.

Quote:

I agree with you. Usually I appreciate certain soundtrack after listening them twice (DoC, Unlimited Saga). I guess you couldn't treat Sakimoto's work as melodious as Uematsu. I'm sure I will appreciate this soundtrack later as the time being, after listening for two or three times.

It takes me a lot longer than two listens to really begin to appreciate a Sakimoto soundtrack, but I'm glad you basically agree. I hope you warm to it.

How ya doing, buddy?

I quite like this soundtrack, despite the fact that only a few melodies have sunk into my head. I'm going to listen to them some more though, so that I can truly appreciate it.

Currently, my favorite track is Penelo's Theme. It's so light-hearted and sweet. And 'Parting With Penelo' proves how well the song can sound on the piano. Has there been any talk of the FFXII Piano Collections yet?

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

Originally Posted by Kaleb.G

I just wanted to point out that the full version of Symphonic Poem "Hope" actually plays during the ending credits for the game (just watched my friend beat the game earlier today). The 4th movement is hard to mistake, so I know it's not just the PV ver. Would it have killed the OST producers to use 4 more minutes (of which was in fact available) to fit the entire thing on? I know this is likely because of the single, but it seems stupid to have a 4-disc OST and not include one of the game's hi-light songs.

As I've obviously not played the game yet, but do have the torrented version (haven't listened to 4th disc yet), I'm looking at the listings and it says for the last track
"20 Symphonic Poem "Hope" ~FINAL FANTASY XII PV ver.~ 3:53" as found on the link on the first page. So basically they didn't include Road of Hope in the OST? What the hell? That's honestly one of the first songs I've heard of FFXII and IMMEDIATELY fell in love with it. Correct me if I'm wrong here. I hope throughout the game that perhaps a few scenes here and there will contain it, but perhaps not, looking at the order of listing of tracks. =/

I was speaking idiomatically.

The Refrain is there. The OST version is identical to the Hope trailer version, if youve seen that.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yes I have, I think. There's been quite a few FFXII trailers I've seen so I'm sorta getting lost which one now, but I can obviously remember the music.

FELIPE NO

While I've mentioned many times before that I'm not a big fan of Hitoshi Sakimoto (So far I've only enjoyed his score for Vagrant Story and it's the only OST of him that own....nope, I'm forgetting I also have his Breath Of Fire V score, since it's part of the Breat Of Fire I-V special boxset)...I cannot deny that the FFFXII OST is absolutely magnificent!

I had many doubt, since both the FFX and FFXI OST's didn't really rock my world (while also having a handful of spectacular tracks) and I didn't expect the FFXII to be any different....especially coming from a composer that I didn't really care much about.
I did like most of the pre-released tracks and the music heard in the demo (that came with Dragon Quest VIII), but I wasn't expecting the rest of it to be so good.

So far I have to disagree with a lot of people here.
~ The monotone soundscape heard in FF Tactics (and a bit in Vagrant Story) which people are talking about isn't apparant at all in this OST.
I actually hear many kinds of spectacular and varied instrumentations!!
I'm also highly impressed by the overal sound quality of this OST....especially since it sounds so much better then in the game and as the PSF's (like many people here have already mentioned before).
~ As far as I'm hearing, this OST has more then enough melodic substance.
Maybe not to the same degree as mr. Uematsu compositions, but it all sounds memorable enough to me.
(and I'm guessing this will be even more the case when I'll finally be able to play the full game)
~ The synth instrumentation on the FFXII OST sounds spectacular to my ears and all the whining about this subject by some people here really irritates me.
This is videogame music.....just listen to moviescore's or other "live" compositions if you want to hear "real" instruments!
I understand that these people probably aren't the people who fell in love with VGM when simple 8-bit/16-bit chiptunes played on the console's and probably haven't noticed VGM untill very recently (when games didn't rely on chip-tunage anymore).
But a videogame is a videogame and "synth" just belongs in a videogame, even if it might try to mimic certain instruments in a way you might not like.
I consider it to have it's own unique identity/quality, even if it makes certain mimiced instruments sound somewhat artificial!
Sure, I love that more and more VGM score's include orchestral compositions, but I definitely wouldn't want it to completely overtake synth music.
(I love both equally)

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Originally Posted by Tappy

~ The synth instrumentation on the FFXII sounds spectacular to my ears and all the whining about this subject by some people here really irritates me.
This is videogame music.....just listen to moviescore's or other "live" compositions if you want to hear "real" instruments!

I completely disagree here, if only because his writing lends so naturally to real instruments. If you're going to write for synth, you don't write things that sound bad on synth! As stated before, there are quite a few tracks that are adversely affected by poor synth quality, and this could be avoided if Sakimoto had the synth limitations in mind while writing. Now, I imagine he wasn't the sound engineer on the project, and that he had quite a few other people programming the music into the game after he wrote it, so some quality is lost in that process. But still, throwing out a final product that has sudden random dynamic punches and unsynchronized instruments is just dissapointing (and unappealing to the ear!).

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Quote:

The Refrain is there. The OST version is identical to the Hope trailer version, if youve seen that.

I had a listen to it, and REALLY wondered what seriously happened to that. Road of Hope (movement #3) is my absolute favorite, but I'm very surprised they did it in the order of the Overture and then March of the Wisemen then the Refrain, interesting, but somewhat saddening.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I can't say there was really much that stuck out to me on this soundtrack, so I guess it was a little disappointing for me. However, I've thought that about soundtracks before and then after listening to them more, they grew on me. So, maybe my opinion will change eventually.

On a strange note (no pun intended), I don't know if someone's already said this, but "Basch's Reminiscence" (disc 2, track 15) has an odd resemblance to the theme of Halo.

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