Square Enix has been really good lately about throwing convention out the window. Actually, I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not as people would argue that the Final Fantasy VII spin-offs hurt the series more than helped it, and after watching a trailer for Final Fantasy X-2 where Yuna jumped in slow motion while firing dual pistols, I didn’t come within 10 feet of the game. Despite these things, I’m kind of excited about Final Fantasy XIII-2, in part because they’re ignoring convention.
Featuring music by Masashi Hamauzu, Naoshi Mizuta, Mitsuto Suzuki, and a few others, is the Final Fantasy XIII-2 soundtrack diluted and unmemorable or a successful experiment?
Find out in our review after the jump.
First things first, this isn’t your standard Final Fantasy soundtrack. You’ve likely heard by now that you’ll be hearing a pretty eclectic mix of music, from jazz to rock to hip-hop to rap to orchestral. I’d say it’s certainly the most funky and electronic-oriented Final Fantasy soundtrack to date. Oh, and about every other track is a vocal theme. Despite the different styles presented here, the production values are very high, and the different styles of music really play together quite nicely and somehow manage to avoid feeling fragmented.
I’m sure people are wondering what the composer breakdown is. Hamauzu and Suzuki handle approximately a quarter of the tracks each while Mizuta gets nearly half. Before you get nervous about that, continue reading through the different artist breakdowns below. There are some other people who contribute as well, including GEM Impact’s Yoshitaka Suzuki, arranger Sachiko Miyano, and recording artist Shootie HG among others.
Let’s start with Masashi Hamauzu. He opens and closes the album, which seems appropriate for continuity purposes. He gives us a similar cinematic orchestral style to what was done with the original Final Fantasy XIII score, although his dark and electronically infused “Final Fantasy XIII-2 Overture” had me surprised given how upbeat his overture for the original game was. It isn’t until the end of the album in “To a Land of Hope” that the original overture appears in an emotional string-based arrangement.
“Final Fantasy XIII-2 ~A Wish~” is more in line with what I was expecting, coming as a beautiful orchestral theme with a great melody. It’s repeated a few times throughout the score, taking on a similar role to “The Promise” from the original score.
Other tracks of Hamauzu’s that stick out are “Knight of the Goddess” with its battle-like sound, not too unlike “Flash of Light,” although that one is admittedly hard to top. “Eternal Fight” is one of my favorite tracks, moving along decisively with string stabs and a ride cymbal to lend a cool ambiance. “Serah’s Theme ~Memory~” gets vocals by Frances Maya, and proves Hamauzu’s prowess as a pop composer, while “Lightning’s Theme ~Unguarded Future~” is a mellow and distant piano arrangement of her theme from the original title.
It’s then on to Mitsuto Suzuki’s contributions which are not surprisingly electronic-oriented and very abstract. One thing of note on this album is the addition of ‘aggressive mixes’ for certain tracks that are heavier versions of their original themes. Suzuki interestingly blends his regular and aggressive mixes with no gap, creating a continuous listening experience that is pretty cool to experience.
Suzuki also deals with a lot of vocals in his tracks. Not too unlike his work on Neurovision and other solo works. “New Bodhum” is kind of a pop vocal track, while “Historia Crux,” one of my favorites, gets super funky. “Parallel World” sports ethereal female vocals and “Groovy Chocobo” is very abstract with light bossa nova-style female vocals calling out, “chocoboooo…” Finally, “Limit Break!” is a somewhat cheesy electro-heavy metal with gutteral male vocals, electric guitar and rock percussion that grew on me over time, and I bet it’s great in-game.
That leaves us with Naoshi Mizuta who provides most of the biggest surprises of the album. He’s really stepped up his game here and has done an excellent job with his productions to conform with the overall quality of what has previously been done with Final Fantasy XIII. It’s hard to classify his contributions because he takes on so many different styles, but let’s jump in.
In terms of an orchestra, “Paradox” is an impressive piece with these highly melodic string stabs that create this moody atmosphere and remind me of film composer Craig Armstrong’s work. This piece is also a key theme, finding its way into many pieces throughout the score, which is a good thing. Another piece, “Caius’s Theme,” which Mizuta works on with Sachiko Miyano, sports a defiant ascending melody, choir, string stabs, and lots of brass. It’s completely epic and amazing. One of the final battle themes also stands out for its ascending melody, reminding me of “Awakening” from Xenogears. On a more playful note, there’s “Fighting Pudding with Pudding” which is both elegant and fun.
Mizuta delves into rock with tracks like “Run” and “Last Hunter” that had me thinking I was hearing Tsuyoshi Sekito here, while “Xanadu, Palace of Pleasure” and “Win or Lose” visit jazz territory with the former being ultra funky and playful as one of my favorite tracks on the album and the latter being more traditional in approach. I’d love to hear an entire jazz album produced by Mizuta after hearing this.
He also gives us some vocal themes with “Noel’s Theme” and “Recollection for the Future,” both coming as sweet piano solo and female vocal ballads, and “The Song Written in Time” stands out with its acoustic guitar and female ‘la, la, la-ing,’ creating a very beautiful and soothing sound. There’s also hip-hop with “Worlds Collide,” the battle theme I mentioned from the demo at E3, and a weird talk-rap in “Invisible Invader,” which is not as bad as I was expecting, but still strange. I prefer the aggressive mix on the latter with its more explosive percussion, even funkier bass, and less effects on the vocals so they stand out more. Finally, “Yeul’s Theme” is what I see as the definitive vocal theme of the album, featuring melancholy acoustic guitar and beautiful and touching vocals by Joelle that talk about protecting the one you love.
There are funky electronic pieces with “Ruined Hometown,” with icy and razor-like synth sweeps and ‘cool’ synth arpeggios and “Plains of Eternity” which is a very cool electronic track with sweet vocals that is another of my favorites.
To mention a few other tracks, I can’t get away without mentioning “Crazy Chocobo” by Shootie HG. It’s honestly a track that I normally wouldn’t like because it’s so silly and over the top, but the chocobo theme has become so stale over the years that this heavy metal screaming and guitar work is just incredibly funny to me. The lyrics are amazing, screaming, “So you think you can ride this chocobo?” It’s a lot of fun.
I should also mention Yoshitaka Suzuki who arranges one of Mizuta’s tracks and works with him on two others, lending his cinematic Hollywood sound that he was likely brought on board to contribute.
Finally, the limited edition of the soundtrack comes with a special DVD. It contains an E3 2011 trailer with voice acting in Japanese as well as an exclusive 7-minute music trailer featuring footage from the game as well as key themes from the soundtrack, acting as a sort of music video.
And that leads me to the packaging. The regular version is kind of standard fare for Square Enix titles, but the Limited Edition is quite a beast. Each disc comes housed in a separate DVD-sized case that must be unfolded to gain access. It’s complicated and hard to put back together, so I’ll get into that more with a future unboxing video.
In all, however, I am incredibly surprised and impressed by this soundtrack. Hamauzu returns and gives us more of the same (a good thing) while Mitsuto Suzuki lends his unique style to the game and Naoshi Mizuta really shines with his diverse contributions. This is a fantastic soundtrack that I can’t wait to hear in-game. Mizuta has really outdone himself, offering what’s easily his best work to date both in terms of production and composition, and I’m looking forward to more like this from him in the future.
I highly recommend checking it out if the eclectic style speaks to you. It’s available from Play Asia (LE and regular) and CD Japan (LE and regular).
Let us know what you think of this dramatic departure as well as Naoshi Mizuta’s contributions.
Tags: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Masashi Hamauzu, Mitsuto Suzuki, Naoshi Mizuta, Reviews, Square Enix, Yoshitaka Suzuki
I really, really couldn’t bring myself to like this score. To be honest I found the hole socre incredibly distasteful and boring (yes, borign), all in all i had very high expectations and finished amazingly disappointed by it…
(huge fan of the page by the way,thanks for the amazing work!)
@jhaalp: even though I just gushed about the soundtrack, I can say that I understand. If I had listened to this 5in years ago I would have thought the same thing (like with FFX-2). Guess I was looking for and got something very different this time.
I must say that when I first heard it, I was quite disappointed. Probably because I expected another FFXIII, which it really isn’t. Once I accepted that this is in fact a Mizuta soundtrack, somehow functioning inside the musical world of FFXIII that Hamauzu created (with some additions by Suzuki), I realised that it’s a great score. It’s just VERY different from the masterpiece that is FFXIII, or in fact any other FF soundtrack. I shouldn’t compare it to XIII, even while it seems completely normal to do so.
The soundtrack has some problems though, but I was especially disappointed with the final battle theme; IMO it doesn’t compare in the slightest bit to Nascent Requiem, Born Anew or in fact most of the final battle themes in the series. Also, I could have lived without tracks like “Invisible Invaders” and “Limit Break”, although I found “Crazy Chocobo” quite hilarious, but awfully placed as the second track on the final disc. It’s still a great soundtrack, however nearly everything it does, FFXIII does better; but then again, I probably shouldn’t compare it.
On a side note, while I agree with everyone that Mizuta truly shines in this soundtrack, his contributions really made me wonder: what defines Mizuta’s music exactly? I always thought that before this he often seemed to imitate Uematsu somehow (correct me if I’m wrong, I haven’t listened much of his music), but in this soundtrack, at some times he’s just plainly imitating some of Hamauzu’s trademark harmonic style and instrumentation. I could’ve sworn that “Run” was a Hamauzu composition because the harmonies and even the melody was so reminiscent of Lightning’s theme and the same applies to Noel’s theme, Last hunter and lots of other tracks. Meanwhile, some of the endgame tracks sound as if he wanted to imitate typical Hollywood music; admittedly, he does a great job at it, but what exactly is Mizuta’s own style?
I do feel that there are some conceptual and continuity parallels between this soundtrack and FFX-2′s soundtrack. They both stray significantly stylistically from their parent soundtracks, so much so that they can hardly be considered reminiscent of anything FF-related, but still seem to work exceptionally well in context. Unfortunately, we in the west don’t have a context for this soundtrack yet, so a lot of people seem to be judging it based on the context of FF13, which is just completely wrong and setting it up for immediate failure. I bet that in the context of the game itself this soundtrack works impeccably.
I do hope that some of the vocal tracks get, uh, re-dubbed for Western releases, because some of the English in those tracks is laughable at best.
Also, for shame for not having played X-2. It’s probably one of the few FFs I can recall that are genuinely fun (both in gameplay and in storyline, which are both very playful in nature). I don’t see it as a bastardization; in fact, I think it’s one of the most believable transitions from Yuna’s maturation and redemption at the climax of FFX to then. A whole lot can happen in a year’s time; anyone who’s lived should know that.
I have to say that I absolutely adore this soundtrack. I’m glad Square Enix decided to try something fresh instead of sticking to XIII’s sound. The vocal tracks, especially the ones sang by Origa, give off some huge Nier vibes to me, which is always great.
I’m rather surprised at Hamauzu’s relative lack of involvement with the soundtrack, but after hearing what Mizuta and Suzuki had to offer, I’m perfectly fine with that. Mizuta especially surprised the heck out of me. I wasn’t a fan of his at all before this (I never did enjoy his stuff on XI, 4WoL, etc.), but he absolutely blew me away this time. “Run”, “Last Hunter”, “Giant Impact”, “Xanadu: Palace of Pleasure”, and “Win or Lose” definitely made me a fan of him.
All of that Mizuta gushing having being said, “New Bodhum” is probably my surprise favorite track on the album. Origa’s wispy vocals combined with the overall ethereal feel of the track just mesmerizes me. I’ve had it stuck in my head for days now. :<
I'm not sure if I prefer XIII or XIII-2's soundtrack overall, though. What I do know is that I think both are absolutely perfect at what they try to do, but that it probably isn't fair to compare them, seeing as they're both entirely different from one another.
Also agreed with the above poster's assertion that X-2 is a fantastic game.
I think you nailed it Jayson. The OST is amazing, and you really were right on with your analysis on almost every track.
Mizuta really outdid himself on this one. His stuff on FFXI was always fantastic, but it was extremely conservative and Uematsu-ish. I was truly stunned to see such an extreme level of experimentation, and to see him just nailing it each time. Some of his tracks are a bit obnoxious, like Run, or the Caius Theme. He’s still an unpredictable composer, that is really hit or miss – but he was really hitting on tons of tracks on this one. Joelle has a really great voice.
Suzuki was kind of held back this time by the Origa vocals. I like Origa a lot from the GitS: SAC OST, but she was just a bit grating on the ears this time. Historia Crux is amazing, and I initially really liked New Bodhum; but it can fatigue the ears a bit when you hear it in a zone over and over. Eclipse is one of the best tracks on the album, and reminds me of Suzuki’s work on The 3rd Birthday (Terminus Zero).
Hamauzu was a bit overshadowed this time, which was unfortunate as he’s pretty much my favorite composer. Lightning’s Theme, and Eternal Fight really stand out and a lot of his other tracks are great too. I miss his electronic and vocal-driven songs the most. The orchestration stuff was a bit toned down from XIII, with simpler compositions – as opposed to the massive full orchestra for XIII. In that way, the original XIII OST is just going to be untouchable, no matter what comes after. His Ameratsu stuff is more laid back as well, so I’m curious to hear more new work from him and get a sense of where he’s going musically.
The OST is not working so well in the game itself, which was a surprise to me. They don’t use any of the aggressive mixes nearly enough; they use a lot of original tracks from XIII, and using these songs in extremely short bursts can sometimes feel jarring and abrasive. I’m still near the beginning of the game though.
As far as SQEX Music, I think this album was a huge accomplishment and really signifies the final nail in the coffin of the Uematsu era. People who are interested in progressive musical experimentation with high quality recordings and instrumentation are being catered to very well. I feel like the musicians are not being held back now, and it’s been great so far. Once again, I feel like they’re almost transcending game OSTs and are just creating fantastic music, period. Some of these pop songs are good enough to be on the radio by themselves.
Great discussion here.
@Ramon: I wouldn’t say the English is terrible, and I enjoyed “The Ruler of Time and Space,” which I imagine is one of the at least close-to-last-battle themes. In terms of Mizuta’s style… I guess we can easily say now that he defies classification!
@Electvirus: I thought NieR when I was in the car driving home the other day. I didn’t want to use that word because it’s really one of my favorite soundtracks of all time. Dunno if I feel that way about XIII-2, but I did want to suggest to Suzuki and Mizuta to use Emi Evans in their future projects. Regarding X-2, I may go back and try it, but then again, I didn’t like FFX as it was, so I was looking for an excuse not to play it. Have always enjoyed “Eternity” though.
@Shinta: Thanks for the kind words. I really loved “Caius’s Theme.” So epic. Sounded like something from FFT or something. Surprised to hear that they re-use a lot of music, that’s a shame given how much content is here, and I loved the aggressive mixes (meant to mention how the Ruined Hometown aggressive mix dropped the vocals, which was different). In all though, yes, huge accomplishment, and one of my personal nominees for OST of the year!
@ Jayson: Yes, I did enjoy “The Ruler of Time and Space”, totally forgot about that one! It looses some direction in the second half though. As for the English, that was wohdin’s comment
I guess one thing that I should say is that while I don’t think this lived up to pure Hamauzu goodness that is XIII, XIII-2 chooses to be different and feels great for it all while maintaining the aesthetic created with XIII. XIII-2 is a very enjoyable OST.
Also, while Hamauzu only composed about a quarter-ish or so of the tracks in this album release, in the actual game itself music from XIII used in almost equal parts to XIII-2 exclusive music. So while Hamauzu didn’t do most of the tracks on this album, by no means is his presence diminished in any way while playing XIII-2. His sound and pieces still have the largest presence in-game by far.
I also noticed that Mizuta seemed at times to be mimicking Hamauzu’s style, perhaps to better fit in with the FF XIII OST. Some of the tracks played in the trailers surprised me when I found out that they were composed by Mizuta and not Hamauzu.
I think part of why XI’s soundtracks (which I also love) sound so different from Mizuta’s XIII-2 stuff is a combination of lower production values and the game being set in more of a traditional fantasy world.
However he arranged some of his XI songs in more contemporary and experimental styles for the Star Onions CDs, and you can definitely hear similarities to his new stuff in those.
I admit, I laughed at your review name. What a great way to play with Serendipity’s theme song’s name! Haha.
I agree with almost all points you made, but I felt that you neglected to mention the significance of the Aggressive mixes, as they seemed to be worth more a greater part of discussion. Some of the aggressive mixes show more a significant improvement or differed so much from their originals that they may as well have been renamed.
Eternal Plains comes to mind; the aggressive mix deviated entirely from the original, replacing Joelle’s voice with a solo violin which did wonders to my ears. Augusta Tower; adding a synth melody as well as a groovy, upbeat backing to an otherwise ambient piece which didn’t really do much of an impact. New Bodhum; distorting ORIGA’s voice and adding more heavy synth to an already pop-ish track to make it that little more threatening while keeping the initial wonder. The other aggressive mixes did much the same to their respective tracks (It made Invisible Invaders more bearable for me. Aimee sounded more like she was reciting poetry rather than rapping). I felt that the aggressive mixes added a complexity to the whole soundtrack that otherwise would have been slightly empty of -something-.
Mizuta sure shocked me though; when you’re used to the more mellow and subtle undertones of his FFXI tracks, you here these and go, “Wow”. I really look forward to when he is able to produce his own soundtrack, much like Masashi Hamauzu with FFXIII, Nobuo Uematsu with FFXIV (the soundtrack of which I happen to love to bits). Perhaps a potential FFXV or FFXVI? -grin-