Uematsu and Final Fantasy XIV Online

XLord007 wrote:

Whether this means he's actually doing more than a theme song or not, I have no idea:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3174580

"A big news from E3! The release of FINAL FANTASY XIV was annouced, and all the music will be written by Nobuo Uematsu!"

Source: http://dogearrecords.blog92.fc2.com/

Dais wrote:

At this point, I wouldn't consider that blog an authoritative source.

... aha. Why?

WTF? Uematsu has gone senile? That's news to me. Besides, Dog Ear Records blog isn't written by Uematsu himself. It's written by Dog Ear Records staff, usually wappa or sekky. The info they provide is quite accurate. If they say "all the music will be written by Nobuo Uematsu" that likely means that's indeed the current plan. Also, Original Sound Version have got the same info from "a reliable source at Square Enix".

Ordim wrote:

And ALL the music of FF14 will be written by Nobuo Uematsu!

Is it wrong of me to say "really, who cares?"  His work showed a sharp decline after FF6 and the new composers (Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masashi Hamauzu, Junya Nakano, Naoshi Mizuta) have shown that they can hold their own in the big-leagues.  I was absolutely elated to hear that Masashi Hamauzu was doing the soundtrack for XIII.  He seems like the logical successor to Uematsu's legacy.  (Not that Hitoshi Sakimoto didn't do a brilliant job with XII).

allyourbaseare wrote:

Ordim wrote:

And ALL the music of FF14 will be written by Nobuo Uematsu!

Is it wrong of me to say "really, who cares?"

No, not really. I could care less about the game itself (I think it's kinda silly to announce XIV when XIII isn't even out yet) and the series anymore.

Considering how long Nobuo has gone without composing all the music for a FF however, I guess it's alright - he seriously needed to get away from FF for a while and he's pretty much done that in recent years.

I think Cedille is right (apart from the negative remarks about Ring of Fates and Dirge of Cerberus). I love the fact that Hamauzu is a "real" musician, but he probably won't ever have the accessibility of Uematsu. Besides I think Uematsu would do a much more solid job than anyone on the current sound team anyway, especially since Mizuta and Tanioka seem tired from all their samey scores. I just hope he uses better arrangers and synthesizer operators than those of Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon.

Sami wrote:

As for Hamauzu, his stuff in FF13 hasn't sounded very good at all so far. Of course I will give the full soundtrack the benefit of the doubt, but it's possible FF13 will exhaust Hamauzu like FF12 did with Sakimoto.

You're funny!  

Sakimoto continues to be brilliant as shown by the excellent Valkyria Chronicles and Riz-Zoawd OST's.  We can't say anything for certain right now regarding XIII's soundtrack, but from what I've heard, he's brought out his A-game.  Of course, I'm an unabashed Masashi Hamauzu fanatic

Sami wrote:

allyourbaseare wrote:

Is it wrong of me to say "really, who cares?"

Lord of Vermilion is AWESOME, and it's also another Uematsu/Square Enix project. Lost Odyssey was very good also. Now, the trailer music didn't sound very good, but I'm keeping my hopes up that the actual game might have a different intro piece (more akin to FF11's).

As for Hamauzu, his stuff in FF13 hasn't sounded very good at all so far. Of course I will give the full soundtrack the benefit of the doubt, but it's possible FF13 will exhaust Hamauzu like FF12 did with Sakimoto.

I agree on Lord of Vermilion.  That soundtrack is amazing and by far the best Uematsu work in many, many years.  I got the same general feeling listening to LoV OST the first time as I did when I heard the Soukaigi OST the first time (which is a very, very good thing).
I also agree that what I've heard of Hamauzu from FFXIII has not impressed.  I find Hamauzu to be inconsistent.  I have no interest in his Dirge work or his Musashi work.  The Unlimited Saga OST is near and dear to me though.  I guess that game had to have something going for it...

As for Sakimoto, again inconsistent with my feelings for him.  BoFV and Legaia 2 are awesome.  VS is very good.  FFT/FFTA are ok.  FF12 and Riz-Zoawd... not awful, but overall no thank you! 

Nakano... His written perhaps 4 of 5 songs over his entire career I care anything for.  All of them come from Dewprism.

As far as Final Fantasy is concerned, long live Uematsu, Tanioka, and Mizuta.  The news of Uematsu handling FFXIV pleases me.

Oh, and for the person that said Ring of Fates OST was bad, I agree it was bland, but Echoes of Time OST was MUCH improved.

Last edited by Zealboy (Jun 4 '09, 16:43)

Carl wrote:

If Noby will make FF14 sound anything like Lord of Vermillion, that'd be killer.

QFT (Though probably pretty unlikely.)

Here's hoping at least some of the great arrangement and performance of LoV does make it into FFXIV, however.

Angela wrote:

You folks have gotten me interested in checking out Lord of Vermilion now.  What sort of musical style does Uematsu implement in that one?

It's sweet, sweet, metal. I'd recommend listening to it immediately. It's only fault is an over-reliance on the main theme, but I think it's otherwise some of his best stuff since before he left Square.

Last edited by Eirikr (Jun 4 '09, 17:24)

Angela wrote:

You folks have gotten me interested in checking out Lord of Vermilion now.  What sort of musical style does Uematsu implement in that one?

Gritty, generic hard rock, with a few meaningfully melodic exceptions that brought back memories of vintage Uematsu.

Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and Lord of Vermilion all ranged from mediocre to dreadful as far as I'm concerned.  (Lost Odyssey starts promising but can't keep it up through the second disc.)  I'll admit that I've listened through each only once so far but they were so bland and uninspiring from the beginning that I couldn't convince myself to waste any more time on them.

Whatever magic touch Uematsu had, he's lost it in increasing degrees since FF7, and now often seems resorted to trying to mimic his own previous work.  I'm hopeful but skeptical that FFXIV will surprise me, and I may even listen to his recent OSTs again sometime when I have absolutely nothing better to do, but I find it impossible to care about whatever new projects he's announced for when there are so many other composers with more reputable recent output.

Last edited by Adam Corn (Jun 5 '09, 0:33)

allyourbaseare wrote:

Sakimoto continues to be brilliant as shown by the excellent Valkyria Chronicles and Riz-Zoawd OST's.

Haven't heard those. I was only talking about FF12. And I hear Sakimoto's Opoona soundtrack is very good.

My scepticism is specifically towards how Hamauzu will handle a presumably 4-disc score of FF13's scope, something he has never done before on his own, on any game. Even if it turns out bad, it will not make Sigma Harmonics or Dirge of Cerberus any worse, and likely Hamauzu would rebound soon. But to put it shortly, I don't think Hamauzu by himself could be Uematsu's successor, when I even don't believe he can handle a single 4-disc score without strain.

Couldn't give a shit about the actual game, since it's going to be another MMO (why make some of the numbered installments of the series MMOs? Why can't they just call it Final Fantasy Online, and Final Fantasy Online II?) It's like they're trying to trick us into getting an MMO all over again.

Soundtrack might actually be decent.

Blue Dragon was decent to typical, as was Lost Odyssey. Anata wo Yurusunai was original and inspired. Lord of Vermillion is a load of WIN. And I liked FFVII ~ X, what Uematsu composed.

I like Hamauzu even better than Uematsu. SaGa Frontier II was total f--- epic WIN, Samurai Legend Musashi was total f--- chill, melodic WIN, and Dirge of Cerberus grew on me the more I listened to it. Oh yeah, Sigma Harmonics was also TOTAL f--- EPIC PWNAGE. FFXIII's soundtrack should be a nice 4-discs of AWEXOME. Hamauzu might have not done a project of this magnitude in awhile, but I'm confident he won't disappoint.

Last edited by Bernhardt (Jun 5 '09, 12:26)