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

I don't know it, but I'm guessing it is Hope of the Future, because it's the last song and it sounds like the ending (all the themes are presented just like in Musashiden 2).

It's a masterpiece, don't listen to my other comment.

PS: Well done Uematsu on Suteki da Ne! If he gets an orchestra instead of synth sounds his music jumps from crap to heaven.

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

I'd say the song sounds better thanks to Hamaguchi's arrangement rather than its sound quality.

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

Uematsu composed the melody for Suteki Da Ne, but was rushed. Hamaguchi provided most of the additions in both the main and orchestral versions. As for themes that featured the melody modified, this is usually Hamauzu; "Someday the Dream will End" and "Spiran Scenery" were both crafted by him, though "Yuna's Theme" and "Daughter of the High Summoner" are craptastic arrangements by Uematsu himself.

Also, while I see were you are coming from Josh, I agree with Kaleb that saying 'only true Hamauzu fans can appreciate it' is elitist and going too far.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I remember Uematsu saying he composed the melody in one night because the deadline was close.

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Originally Posted by katchum

I don't know it, but I'm guessing it is Hope of the Future, because it's the last song and it sounds like the ending (all the themes are presented just like in Musashiden 2).

The Ending FMV does indeed use "Hope of the Future."

How ya doing, buddy?

I need to know the names of following tracks.

The one that plays in night stage,where Vincent has to escort a little boy(who opens door and stuff).

The other one is played when the HQ is attacked and Vincent has to fight the guards,i forgot what HQ was called in game.

Thanks i don't want to download whole album to find these two,so any expert lend some hand here.

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

Just today I completed my download of this series soundtrack. At first glimpse, I was deeply disappointed and suspected that Hamauzu has changed his classical style, following the cinematic-ness of Motoi Sakuraba. But after I listen about 7-8 tracks, the album begins to grab my attention, I'm glad that this album still left the trace of Hamauzu classical style like we found in his previous works such as Unlimited Saga, FF X and of course, the Saga Frontier II.

I will give 7/10 for this soundtrack... the main reason is because most of the music dont represent Hamauzu at all. I find only few enjoyable tracks in this album, which is a shame because I enjoy all of Hamauzu's previous works. His classical style is nearly chopin... but here I feel like listening to Wagner.

Let's expect the return of his style in upcoming FF XIII soundtrack!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I disagree, Eriol. This album has Hamauzu written all over it. Even though he tried something new, his style is still present. Not just that, in this album he improved upon his past works and achieved a solid score. It takes a few listens to appreciate it fully.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Hamauzu is more akin to Claude Debussy, actually. A lot of Hamauzu's work is impressionistic. The parallels signature to Hamauzu were used quite frequently in Dirge of Cerberus. Marching Tune is a fine example of his ordinary writing style.

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

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?

^

Agreed. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on FFXII. Unfortunately, the PSFs are a fairly accurate representation of what the music sounds like in-game.

In a way, it's ironic. DoC works for me better in-game than on disc and FFXII works better on disc than in-game. You think it would be the reverse.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Upon nearly a hundred times listening to this soundtrack, I'd say that, this is the soundtrack of the year if not for the FFXII OST.

The music is extremely complex and well-composed. I fell extremely excited listening to it not only because of the way Hamauzu employing primary themes, impressionistic chord progressions here, but also because of the different genres combined in the soundtrack. I would certainly give it a 10 out of 10.

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Never played the game (but i want to...) but i heard the Gackt song, its one of my favorite Gackt songs with U+K, specially on 02:17

FELIPE NO