Hitoshi Sakimoto

Can someone tell me what is good about this man, or any of the things he has done.

He is an absolutely TERRIBLE composer. He has no idea of what chord progressions incite emotions, or when to use these emotions, or even what emotion a given piece needs to have. He fails completely in his attempts to write incidental music (he must not have gotten the memo that incidental music usually needs to... you know, go along with the incidents occuring on-screen...) Probably the worst thing about him is that every song he writes sounds exactly the same. I could post a random work of his and most people who have played his games would not even be able to recognize which game it's from, let alone what track it is.

Honestly, I'm trying so hard to like FFXII right now, and he's really, really making it hard for me. I cannot go anywhere without the weight of his terrible music weighing down on my soul.

And yet, I have seen people praise him - so can someone explain to me where the merit is in his unmitigated dreck?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Hmm, I just rated you a 5 for coming out and doing that...It's been nice knowing you, once the Sakimoto crew is done here.

That said, I don't disagree with anything you just said. I like much of Breath of Fire V and parts of Legaia: Duel Saga and Final Fantasy Tactics (a MUCH better score than FFXII, though not exactly ideal for hour-long battles either) and of course, Bubble Ghost! That's about the extent of my liking anything Sakimoto-related. Too often, I feel like his music does too little in a piece to be effective ("That's it?") or he simply puts too much and makes his music sound busy, with parts that don't seem to work together that well.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Sakimoto is actually one of my favorite composers, personally. This opinion is completely derived from the music itself, too. I don't think I've ever played one of the games that he composed the music for, though I plan to some day. So, I can't exactly comment on your complaint about FFXII's music being unfitting or out of place within the individual scenes. I can, however, try to expand on why he's one of my favorites.

For one, he seems to be a master at evoking certain moods with his work. Unfortunately, this will sometimes produce a wall-of-sound effect that a lot of people tend to dislike. Sometimes the music will end up taking the shaft melodically, but this does not interfere with its purpose to create a certain atmosphere or mood for a particular scene. In fact, this is usually not the case... The music usually does have a melody, but it most likely is being presented in an unconventional way. His atmospheric work is definitely different in style from the compositions of other RPG composers, so I can see how it would take some getting used to. Personally, I find it brilliant and a nice change of pace from a lot of other VGM.

Secondly, the man has versatility. Surely he has a lot of tracks that sound similar, but what composer doesn't? As far as I'm concerned, he's done plenty outside of his atmospheric style as well. It seems that his work on games outside of Squaresoft goes unnoticed more often, but that certainly doesn't mean that it's nonexistant. He's perfectly capable of composing electronic stuff. A recent Song of the Week winner, Mad Buffoon, is a great example. If you give it a listen I think you'll find that it's pretty different from anything in Final Fantasy XII.

I can't really pinpoint why you dislike the guy so much, but I suppose it all comes down to personal taste. Maybe this gives you a little dose of why he's a respected composer, though I'm sure there are bigger fans here who'll have some more worthwhile stuff to add.

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

Hitoshi Sakimoto has never really amazed me; I find his Vagrant Story score a tad mediocre on some levels, and his Breath of Fire V leaves much to be desired. I don't mind his Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced scores though. Maybe that's just a bias towards the FF series, who knows.

I find his compositions to be a bit bland though. I'm not going to bad-mouth him too much, 'cause a track he's composed bears one of my favourite melodies of all time: the track he composed for "Ten Plants", "Kurolera the Factory Chief". If you haven't heard this before, you really should. It shows the frivilous, energetic side of Sakimoto-san. The first time I heard it I just had to play it numerous times...the melody is addictive.

Here's a sendspace link to "Kurolera the Factory Chief"; make sure you listen to it.

So really, I'm a bit conflicted when it comes to Hitoshi Sakimoto's music. When he does a good composition, it's really good, but it's just such an infrequent occurrence, IMO. And for future reference, my favourite score from him would have to be the light-hearted Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced (the remixed versions on the OST, that is). Remixed version of "At the Bar", "Teach Me, Mont Blanc", "Beyond the Wasteland" and "Snow Dancing in the Schoolyard" = .

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haha, yeah I don't like him much either and don't understand the craze around him, but I also dislike how you criticize his music from a technical point of view. Like you were able to tell good music from bad music. Ridiculous.

Anyway, the stuff I do like by him are the obvious Tactics Ogre and FF Tactics, though the latter that was entirely composed by him is a bit hard to listen all the way through. Other than this, there are a few retro goodness moments like in Gdleen or Chip Chan Kick. That's it, pretty much. I guess I just dislike what other love about him, namely his long monotonous depressing synth based atmospheres. =/

Just for the record, I've got more or less the same thing to say about Sakuraba.

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Kanji, please listen to this.

It is an untagged, unnamed track I selected from Final Fantasy XII. It is the background music for one of the locations in the game. Now, without looking it up, try to describe for me what location this song is from. I will paypal you a dollar if you can guess it correctly without cheating.

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Surely he has a lot of tracks that sound similar, but what composer doesn't?

Naoshi Mizuta. Every track he wrote for Final Fantasy XI, and even for it's first expansion (I haven't listened to the others) sounds uniquely different without being completely inappropriate (i.e. there's no techno battle themes or anything like the stuff Uematsu used to pull. Not that I have anything against that, Uematsu is one of my favorites, I'm just saying.) The only songs that sounded even remotely similar were the various battle themes, and yet even they were distinctly differentiated by things like melody and tempo. The only real similarity would be instrumentation.

With regards to the two songs you fellas posted, I liked Mad Buffoon (a lot actually,) but I found the other to be pretty mediocre. It's certainly different, from FFXII but I definitely disagree as to how catchy you found it. But these were both, I'm pretty sure, vastly different types of games. My major gripe with Sakimoto is... well, I'm pretty sure this is his thought process.

"This game has swords and shields?! ZOMG! MUST OVERUSE SYNTH STRING PATCHES AND REPEAT NONSENSICAL CHORD PATTERNS THAT EVOKE NO EMOTION!!"

Really. I have no doubts that he's made great music. But how can someone listen to Final Fantasy X, with its vibrant Okinawa-inspired melodies that reflected a world full of life and sorrow, Final Fantasy XI with its songs that reflected a world filled with different types of environments to see, and then go to Final Fantasy XII and hear music that sounds so non-distinct and be satisfied with it?

Also, niki, I've been a musician for several years, and I've heard quite a lot of music. I may not necessarily be a professor at a major conservatory of music, but I can tell when something is uninspired garbage.

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Odd...I probably apply most of what you said about Sakimoto directly to Naoshi Mizuta and probably a great deal moreso. I can usually tell within seconds something's a Mizuta track and from that point on, listening through the end is a great feat that I find myself unworthy of fulfilling. Sakimoto isn't my favorite, but I've at least found some tracks of his appealing and break from the huge amount of tracks within a work that do sound similar and unappealing ("Phon Coast" would be my immediate example, as I have neither the time, patience or files anymore to go through the FFXII OST)...Mizuta has managed to be awful and predictable in every instance I've heard his muzak. He couldn't even produce convincing Megaman music (from Megaman and Bass, he was a composer).

FELIPE NO

It's all a matter of taste, really. Some people (myself included) are fans, while others concoct rant threads to spew bile against the man.

I'm all for discussion, and like everyone I have my own favorite composers, least favorite composers, and the occasional rant. But posting a hate thread seems counterintuitive, at least to me.

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

Well I disagree about Naoshi Mizuta, I loved his score for FFXI but admittedly that is all I have heard from him. However, certainly you agree, if you have listened extensively to FFXI, that each track was distinctly different from the others, no matter how flawed you found them to be?

Edit: I didn't mean to post a "hate" thread. I really want to know what people find intriguing about this man. I successfully found one song by him that I actually have not stopped listening to yet (Mad Buffoon). I still think his FFXII score is trash, and I'm still dying to see how someone could defend it. Care to take a shot?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Not exactly a huge Sakimoto fan, but I think it only takes three words to justify his existance.

Gradius V Soundtrack.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by BurningRanger

Well I disagree about Naoshi Mizuta, I loved his score for FFXI but admittedly that is all I have heard from him. However, certainly you agree, if you have listened extensively to FFXI, that each track was distinctly different from the others, no matter how flawed you found them to be?

Not at all...Like I said, I found in every instance I could pick his tracks out from Uematsu's and Tanioka's and each time that happened, it was matter of time before I simply HAD to get to another track. I find his music bland, lifeless, repetitive and predictable, although IIRC, he does change up his synths and instrument usage more than Sakimoto does in a single work. I recently got to hear "Promathia's Theme" (from the Chains of Promathia expansion) and sure enough, it was exactly what I was expecting based on hearing FFXI's score. As far as "extensive listening"...I simply wasn't convinced his tracks were worth more than the minute or so I was giving them towards the back end of the OST after getting through the whole first disc alive. I shudder to think of playing the game with them droning in the background.

I just find Naoshi Mizuta a very odd counterargument for Sakimoto, since he's actually one of the few composers I dislike far moreso than Sakimoto.

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

I fear I've made a fool of myself. In an unfortunate accident, I recently deleted all the FF OSTs I had collected on my computer, so I don't actually have the tracklist of FFXI on hand, and I completely forgot that FFXI was done by more than one artist. I did listen to FFXI a lot, but I didn't pay much mind to which composer wrote which song, since I liked them all quite so much. I'll get back to you on this one when I'm a little better informed about it.

Edit: I'm better informed now. I have a tracklist of the game now, and I found that many of the tracks I liked were by Mizuta, with only a handful of them being from Uematsu or Tanioka (Ronfaure, Gustaberg, Metalworks, Airship.) I don't understand how you could call a song predictable if it isn't a repeat of another tune (which is something they strayed away from in FFXI after using it extensively in previous FF's.) I do find some of Mizuta's pieces to be flawed; for example Heaven's Tower is essentially one big long Bb chord (thanks Sakimoto), Sauromugue Champaign is a great piece but felt really stretched for length, being 9 minutes or something in that range, although it would've made a great 4 minute piece with fewer repeated measures, and there are other pieces that are just boring and unmemorable. But he had several strong tracks, too. How can you tell me you found The Federation of Windurst lifeless or bland? What about Selbina? Though the Kingdom of San D'Oria might fall under "predictable" (what RPG doesn't have a regal castle song?) what other faults could you hold against it?

tl;dr: I don't really see how you can accuse Mizuta of any of the things for which I complained about Sakimoto. Yeah, he laid a few eggs, but every composer does that. However, there are one or two tracks in FFXII that stick out as distinctly different from the rest of the game. With Sakimoto, bland and boring seems to be the rule, not the exception.

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

Originally Posted by BurningRanger

He is an absolutely TERRIBLE composer. He has no idea of what chord progressions incite emotions, or when to use these emotions, or even what emotion a given piece needs to have.

Well, I'm not sure if this will apply to everyone. Sakimoto's work has inspired a lot of emotion in me before -- for example, I remember being awe-struck by the opening theme to FFT.

As to the rest, well -- I'm hardly a music student, so I'm probably in no position to talk about his technical flaws or strengths. I'm just saying that what applies to you emotionally may not be the same for other people.

I was speaking idiomatically.

This thread deserves to be in the sewers.

Comparing Mizuta to Sakimoto is pure insanity. Mizuta composes dull and boring music. Hell, even his upbeat stuff is dull and boring.

Also if you've listened to FFT's music and think it sucks there'a 85% chance you don't have a soul.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Uh-oh... oh no you didn't...

BurningRanger: The Dalmasca Estersand. An absolutely beautiful and emotionally moving track. Especially the parts at 1:00 and 1:46. The sense of awe and adventure is nearly palpable. There are many other excellent tracks, such as: The Phon Coast, The Giza Plains, Esper Battle, The Feywood, Nalbina Underground Dungeon, Clash of Swords, and many more. I love this soundtrack.

I, too, once hated Sakimoto's music. Many of my arguments were the same as yours. I couldn't listen to it for long without turning it off. But, I forced myself to listen, and the more listened to it, the more I came to realize that Hitoshi Sakimoto is an absolutely brilliant composer. His work in FFT, Vagrant Story, FFXII, and the other games he has composed for is unmatched, IMO. The first time I listened to "The Phon Coast" I felt chills run down my spine. The music perfecly paints the image of the location it is named after. I could feel the joy and rapture of "Truth" (from VS) long before I ever played the game. The terrible malice of Rosenkrantz! The frantic and harried Tieger and Neesa. Listening to "The Dalmasca Estersand", I can imagine the vast expanse of the desert, the adventure of unexplored territory, the big, open sky, the desert flora and fauna. In FFT, right from the get-go, the beautiful opening music drags you in and doesn't let you go with its ethereal beauty! Songs likes Ovelia's Theme, Random Waltz, and Apoplexy are some of his best works!

I can see why some do not like him; his compositions are often very complex and focus more on the interplay between the musical elements rather than a strong melody with a simple backing. But waltzing right in here exclaiming that Sakimoto is a "TERRIBLE" composer is just stupid and disrespectful.

FELIPE NO

Yesterday I did a lot of traveling by train. I listened to the entire FF XII soundtrack in the trains while doing absolutely nothing else. Just listening to the music for over 5 hours.

It was an amazing experience. Now that I'm actually playing the game, the soundtrack has even more of an impact on me than it already had. For me, Sakimoto's music takes time to appreciate. I don't go "wow!" the first time I've heard his compositions. Not the second time, either. But then, something happens. I start to "understand" the music, and suddenly I'm in utter awe with tears in my eyes because the music is so beautiful.

I don't need to compare his music to anyone else's. He's a great composer, period.

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

Originally Posted by BurningRanger

I really want to know what people find intriguing about this man.

*shrug*

His music is well-written. He has a great grasp of harmony, thematic development and orchestration. Especially in the FFXII score, I find something new each time I listen to its pieces. The music might not be to your taste but you have no grounds for criticizing it technically.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Sakimoto has come a long way, imo. His earlier works don't seem to amaze me, but everything after Vagrant Story has been quite good.

His music DOES have emotion when played by an actual orchestra. I believe that he needs to move out of synthesized music and go either into full orchestra or a mixture of synth and performed. His Opening and Ending themes for FFXII and his Staff Roll for Vagrant Story are all evidence that his music can be melodic and emotional. I find his intricacies the most amusing, as he has such a unique view of orchestration, and I'd say that's pretty good for someone who hasn't been formally taught how to orchestrate music .

His music has always fit the atmosphere of the games he writes for, and in Final Fantasy XII he wrote music that worked for both battle and field themes. He is quite good at what he does.

Mizuta is the most disappointing and bland composer I've ever heard of in VGM, imo. There are some pieces of his that are good, but that's a small handful compared to the junk he calls music.

Sakimoto has this guy beat in EVERYTHING, and Mizuta won't ever get anywhere close to him.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by BurningRanger

Can someone tell me what is good about this man, or any of the things he has done?

That's a pretty subjective question. What's so special about any composer? I'm pretty fond of Chris Huelsbeck, but I know there are numerous people who dislike his work. Conversely, I don't care much for Kenji Ito's material, but he has his followings too. It's all a matter of preferences, what you like in music to begin with. People who are into a lot of chromatic notes and dissonance are perhaps more apt to enjoy Sakimoto.

Sakimoto, for me, is quite hit-and-miss. He's done some work that I simply adore and other tracks that I find dreadful. Even on the same album. However, he possesses a fairly distinct sound, and I give him credit for that.

In studying various Sakimoto tracks, I've noticed that he has two basic approaches: either place emphasis upon a strong melody; or place emphasis upon a strong mood. I tend to enjoy the "strong melody" work he does a lot more, as he's usually able to hold back on overwhelming listeners with the "wall of sound". I'm a big fan of layered music but Sakimoto can pile it on rather thick.

This is the problem with his "strong mood" pieces; it's all about the atmosphere and not so much any one part of the track. As such, there's often too much going on at once. Combine this with Sakimoto's obvious preference for the chromatic notes and you can quickly wind up with music that feels both splintered and out of tune.

A great example of what I mean can be heard in two of his more popular tracks from Final Fantasy Tactics, "Random Waltz" and "Apoplexy".

I think "Random Waltz" is magnificent. It's smooth, possesses a strong melody, has excellent transitions and manages to be deep without being overpowering.
"Apoplexy", on the other hand, is full of jagged noise that seems disconnected from section to section. It's dark, brooding and has all too much going on at once, I feel. The end result is chaos.

Yet both tracks have their ardent fans.

I doubt that Sakimoto would ever take a minimalistic tack to his work; being complex is part of his musical signature. Sometimes it's needless and even annoying, but it's what he does. You either accept this or you don't, as Sakimoto's not going to change on anyone else's account.


However, seeing as this is an issue that will probably not die down immediately, (due to the probability of Sakimoto's fanbase crawling from the woodwork whenever his name is soiled) it's inspired me to select a Sakimoto track as my next Song of the Week nomination. I've been hanging onto a really good track for a while now and I think this is a timely opportunity to show how Sakimoto can be complex and atmospheric without resorting to the cacaphony with which many associate the man.

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

I'm not going to comment much on this thread, but I do see why people wouldn't like Sakimoto's music. It took me a while to appreciate and some scores like FFXII and Vagrant Story required a really long journey. To me, Sakimoto is refreshingly unconventional and I find his musicality quite deep and complex -- a rarity in the VGM world. It's also notable that he's very versatile; I find all his works individually characterised and it's a good idea to check out his early Terpsichorean works (e.g. Revolter, Shippu Mahou Daisakusen, Magical Chase), some shooter works (Soukyuugurentai, Gradius V, Radiant Silvergun), and his 'exotic' works (Legaia Duel Saga, Breath of Fire V).

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Anyway, the stuff I do like by him are the obvious Tactics Ogre and FF Tactics, though the latter that was entirely composed by him is a bit hard to listen all the way through.

FFT and TO were both scored by Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata. Iwata took sizeable roles in each and sounds very distinct to Sakimoto. Much more pronounced and accessible, I'd say, but a bit shallow overall.

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Comparing Mizuta to Sakimoto is pure insanity. Mizuta composes dull and boring music. Hell, even his upbeat stuff is dull and boring.

I completely agree with that. Mizuta's music is often incredibly dull and it has nothing to it -- never-ending ostinato + infantile melody with a few nice instrument combinations usually. His work on Promathia and Art Urhgan did nothing different even if FFXI itself was decent. Sakimoto is much more subtle, versatile, and interesting, in my eyes.

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

Originally Posted by BurningRanger

Naoshi Mizuta. Every track he wrote for Final Fantasy XI, and even for it's first expansion (I haven't listened to the others) sounds uniquely different without being completely inappropriate

Hearing you musically mature (at the very least, that's what I read), I'd really like to know how you think Mizuta's music differs from piece to piece. Regarding FFXI's field themes, Mizuta's composition process is pretty much as follows.

1) creating ostinato with unplugged guiter or xylophones
2) creating a theme with woodwinds
3) and then repeating the two again and again...to the end

Of course, Mizuta's instrumental use is easily wider than Sakimoto, who tends to definitely stick to orchestral music. However, if Mizuta's xylophone were marimba, kalimba or balafon, and his woodwind were flute, panpipes or mizmar, I would always feel his field themes are plain similar and samey for the above reason. Also, the same goes for his battle themes.

I'm not attacking or countering your hatred to Sakimoto. For that matter, since I like both composers an awful lot (Mizuta's latest two expanstion scores were quite boring though), I'd hate to see this thread going to be Sakimoto vs Mizuta, and I personally don't think it's a good idea to cite other composers to bash someone you hate. However, as you seem to have confidence in your musical maturity to an extent and think music is explicable, I'd appreciate it if you explain to us how Mizuta is good and how Sakimoto is bad on an academic level.

Originally Posted by BurningRanger

But how can someone listen to Final Fantasy X, with its vibrant Okinawa-inspired melodies that reflected a world full of life and sorrow

As much as I'd agree the entire FFX score portrayed the wider range of emotions and locations, which I think you tried to say, just out of curiosity, what tracks from FFX do really have Okinawa-inspired melodies or are composed on the pentatonic scale of the land? Because the FFX's world was like tropical locations and its soundtrack fitted the game, it doesn't mean its soundtrack does sound like Okinawa. Indeed, the entire FFX soundtrack does't remind me of especially tropical locations, let down Okinawa (it's quite easy to pick up the masterpieces of that nature, such as "Besaido island" though).

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Crash Landon

In studying various Sakimoto tracks, I've noticed that he has two basic approaches: either place emphasis upon a strong melody; or place emphasis upon a strong mood. I tend to enjoy the "strong melody" work he does a lot more, as he's usually able to hold back on overwhelming listeners with the "wall of sound". I'm a big fan of layered music but Sakimoto can pile it on rather thick.

That's probably the best assessment of him I've ever seen. The biggest problem with it (and I'm going to keep using FFXII as it is the most prominent of his works that I've played) is that there's sooooo many of his "mood" tracks, and I find that they never convey one mood in particular. Part of it, I think, is because of his "wall of sound" technique as you said. His moods, often, are lost on me. And while many of you say things like "it takes repeated hearings to be appreciated," I find that for example scoring a major plot scene witih a "takes repeated hearings" song misses the entire point, because if you need to watch the scene 3 times to appreciate it, then it failed to be an effective scene.

Of his works, I've played Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (only a little, though,) and FFXII. I sadly have not played FFT which you all seem to praise quite highly so I'll have to give that a listen sometime. Of what I've played, FFXII seems far and away the best, although it seems sooo derivative from his Vagrant Story score that it's not even funny. The two major differences I picked up are first, there aren't as many "wow, this is a cave, so here's a quarter note chord, and then 3 measures of rest, and then another quarter note" selections, and that he seems to have backed off substantially on his wall-of-sound bit.

A few more points I wanna discuss about FFXII - this is a game where you do a loooooot of grinding. And even when you're not grinding, each dungeon or outdoor area takes seriously like 2 hours to get through. Really now, after listening for one song for two hours, if it hasn't made an effect on you, then it's a failure. That's more than enough repeated hearing, I'd say. Looking at a track list from the game, I'd say I'm about halfway through the 3rd disc, and I can recall only a handful of tracks (and of those, I can think of only one or two I can sing or describe beyond "oh, that's the one where we're on a snowy mountain, so there's a piano sounding all sad and stuff.") And this is keeping in mind many of the tracks are named after their respective in-game locations. I haven't gotten to some of the tracks you've all named, so I'll reserve my final judgment for when I've finished the game.

Also, I mentioned repeated viewings of in-game cutscenes. This is actually something I did with many of the scenes in the game (just because the voice acting and animation is simply impeccable, and many of these scenes made me want to see them again.) And... I find that those are the only things that stick with me. Everyone can remember the music that played when Darth Vader cut Luke's arm off, or even when Sephiroth stabbed Aeris. Why is it that when

Spoiler:

Gabranth was forced to kill Drace, or even better (and from the same scene) when Vayne took full control of the empire,

all Sakimoto had to say was a really long synth string note? I want to say it wasn't the same note for that full 10-20 second shot with the stabbing, but after watching the scene 3 times, I honestly cannot remember if he even changed the note/chord. 3 times, by the way.

Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek

The Dalmasca Estersand. An absolutely beautiful and emotionally moving track.

I think you kind of missed the point - I didn't want him to name the track, just to describe the emotion to me. I don't really understand "emotionally moving," but it is a good piece, and one of the few that I remember well from the game. (Ironically, it's also one of the places I spent the least time in.) It certainly evokes a sense of adventure, and excitement.

The problem with this, is that it plays in a desert. What is exciting about a desert? What is adventurous about it? On that token alone, it's a confusing selection and seems like a poor decision on his part. But let's compare it with one of the other pieces you mentioned, Giza Plains. Giza pretty much from the get go attempts to create a feeling of uncertainty, of unknown danger (which he does with syncopated string ensemble patches... I don't really see how that works at all, but this post is running a little long so I'll save that for later) The problem with this is that we're talking about, essentially, a savannah. The greatest danger is that there's no water. The only uncertainty is "what's gonna happen when it rains." Certainly the two tracks would be better used had they taken each other's place. While you could argue he meant to go with the emotion of the character, that's not really true - going to the Estersand was something of a chore for Vaan, and it wasn't until he went to Giza that he felt excited and adventurous (because he was going to get a chance to stick it to the Empire.)

Also, for the record, I'm not a Naoshi Mizuta fanboy by any means. I've not listened to any of his work outside of FFXI (although now that Megaman and Bass was mentioned I can remember I didn't like that soundtrack in the least.) I mentioned him only because he composed most of the tracks for the game that directly preceded FFXII. And regardless of the level of musical value or merit of depth of his tracks, they were catchy, matched the locales of the game, and easily hummable. All qualities that are important in an MMORPG, where you could spend upwards of 10 hours in one zone. Being that FFXII is essentially a single player MMORPG, and has many of the same spend-10-hours-here qualities, it's baffling that they chose someone who failed quite so badly at accounting for that.

Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by Taisai

What tracks from FFX do really have Okinawa-inspired melodies or are composed on the pentatonic scale of the land?

It's pretty well-documented that throughout the composition of FFX, the goal was to create a sound reminiscent of the Okinawan style, perhaps the greatest example of which would be the vocal song performed by an Okinawan woman. It probably wasn't correct for me to say the melodies were inspired by Okinawa, rather than the style, I think that was more of a shitty attempt at artistic English on my part.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by BurningRanger

Can someone tell me what is good about this man, or any of the things he has done.

He is an absolutely TERRIBLE composer...
And yet, I have seen people praise him - so can someone explain to me where the merit is in his unmitigated dreck?

I don't like Final Fantasy XII either but to say he is a terrible composer from being exposed to 1 of his numerous soundtracks, leaves your statement feeling horridly rushed.

I think his "failure" is more or less a reflection of your belief that music should speak according to set guidelines. It doesn't, due to its subjectivity. For instance, there is no fixed positioning for chords which might indicate a specific emotional quality. Different chords mean different things to different peoples and inspire unique characteristics.
Personally, if there were a definable set of rules for inciting emotions, I appreciate Sakimoto's attempts at creating something original that defines itself and doesn't use musical methodologies which are already becoming far too commonplace as is.

Here's another principle about the musicality of Final Fantasy XII and can also be true of much of Sakimoto's work; there is a lot going on. Its not as accessible as Nobuo Uematsu's melody riddled efforts, thats for sure. Whereas Nobuo's Final Fantasy music is appreciable right off the bat, Sakimoto's music has a very unique character to it that is often appreciated through continually being exposed to it. His music is much more dissonant, much more percussively driven and quite a bit more complex. That is, it takes time to become familiar with Hitoshi Sakimoto's musical idiom.

At first, I listened to Sakimoto's work in Final Fantasy Tactics and thought to myself, what is this guy doing? He's not developing this piece properly!!!
However, through listening to the music again and again, it becomes understood that there is a methodical precision with which Sakimoto creates music and through realizing that, it allowed me to better understand the intent behind his work. Furthermore, each of his works has its own sense of character, which makes it difficult to pin him down.
Listen to Vagrant Story if you don't believe me.

So in closing, appreciating Sakimoto's musicality requires an effort to understand how it all fits together. Each of the soundtrack's that I have of Sakimoto are unique and brilliant in their own ways. The interesting thing about Sakimoto's music is that it isn't always what it appears to be...its almost always much more.

How ya doing, buddy?

Taisai, you have very good points, but I totally disagree with this:

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Of course, Mizuta's instrumental use is easily wider than Sakimoto, who tends to definitely stick to orchestral music.

I highly recommend that you listen to Sword Maniac, Gradius V, Legaia Duel Saga, Magical Chase, or Hyper Street Fighter II Remixes. With these scores, it'll become evident that Sakimoto is well-versed in the fields of old-school (but hardly derivative) synth music, energetic electro-acoustic shooter scores, exotica, funk, jazz, and even an exotic form of rock. His popular orchestral works (FFXII, FFT, Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, etc.) are just one facet of him. Sakimoto is very versatile on both a discreet and subtle level.

While Mizuta's acoustic palette is impressively diverse, he can do little outside it and doesn't seem to respect the individual capacities of an instrument. I feel his instrumentation use can be formulaic and mechanical.

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In studying various Sakimoto tracks, I've noticed that he has two basic approaches: either place emphasis upon a strong melody; or place emphasis upon a strong mood. I tend to enjoy the "strong melody" work he does a lot more, as he's usually able to hold back on overwhelming listeners with the "wall of sound".

Personally, I've never noticed such a firm distinction. I think it's a big spectrum and I'd typically call Sakimoto quite a melodic composer despite how atmospheric most of his works are. He's much less outwardly melodious than, say, Nobuo Uematsu, but I hear a lot of melodic elegance and witty lyricism underpinning many of his works.

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

BurningRanger, I think you're just stating that you dislike his compositions and you personally felt many of FFXII themes out of the place or emotionally poor, rather than discussing about his music on an academic level, which I believe you initially required us to offer. As some of members said, it's a matter of preference. You say this thread isn't a 'Sakimoto hate' thread, but why not? As long as you, the thread starter, are constantly claiming his music is just garbage or dreck on an unilateral level, it's doomed to be so. I'm not saying it's wrong to have the thread of that kind, but I'd appreciate it if you don't pretend to be fair, objective or musically matured enough to explain your hatred on an academic level.

That said, I'd fully agree many of FFXII area themes didn't fit the landscapes at all and most of sequences themes were forgettable, especially after FFX and FFXI (the sequence themes from FFX were awesome and the area themes from XI fitted the game incredibly). "Delmasca Estersand" for a sand theme and "Phon Coast" for a coast theme were just dreadful treatments. I'm pretty certain many people will disagree over it, though.

It's totally another story, but I've recently noticed Sakimoto love is hard to find in comparison with other major composers, while there're too many Sakimoto detractors here and there. Indeed, there exist people who always cite Sakimoto as a bad example just to praise something they love. What is even worse, they rant even when we just post news related to Sakimoto or when we just vote Sakimoto in the popularity poll. I've seen the administer of a certain gamemusic website to be asked not to cover Sakimoto anymore. I'm pretty sure someone will come to this thread soon and start to insult Sakimoto and accuse Sakimoto fans of loving his music only because it's technical (of course it's just his prejudice ). Hatred toward Sakuraba or Kenji Ito is also very available..., but I still think hatred toward Sakimto is much bigger. Therefore, I regard Sakimoto as the least accessible composer of all major SE-related composers. By 'accessible', I don't intend to be an elite, but I dare to say Sakimoto couldn't meet mass demand.

Originally Posted by Mr. Maul

I highly recommend that you listen to Sword Maniac, Gradius V, Legaia Duel Saga, Magical Chase, or Hyper Street Fighter II Remixes. With these scores, it'll become evident that Sakimoto is well-versed in the fields of old-school (but hardly derivative) synth music, energetic electro-acoustic shooter scores, exotica, funk, jazz, and even an exotic form of rock. His popular orchestral works (FFXII, FFT, Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, etc.) are just one facet of him. Sakimoto is very versatile on both a discreet and subtle level.

However, aren't those titles far less popular games than FFs are? One reason why I adore Uematsu is that he has composed about 10 FF soundtracks in a variety of genres and has always pleased several million people. Even his experiments were also still accessible. On the other hand, when Sakimoto works on major games, he does stick to orchestra and indeed he confessed he had avoided to compose traditional folk music in FFXII. I personally think Gradius V wasn't so freshing, aside from Four to the floor (even which I think Sakimoto had rarely used). The orchestra + Roland XV-5080 synth + sampled beats isn't unusual Sakimoto. Nontheless I'd agree Legaia Dual Saga had some celtic, jazz, folk pieces and his earlier works sound different (Magical Chase and Sword Maniac included).

Jam it back in, in the dark.