Implement Orchestrated Music

The quality of music in XIV is lacking and takes away from the already unfinished polish; it doesn’t evoke a sense of adventure, passion, or adrenaline like the newer generation of Final Fantasies. While this may seem like a bias opinion, I would not have made this argument until I heard Mr. Uematsu’s Distant Worlds concert in New York earlier this month. Suffice to say, his pieces “Navigator’s Glory” and “Twilight Over Thanalan” were breath-taking; the songs themselves were wonderfully composed. The out-dated MIDI music is what strips them of their justice and causes the game to fall short.

Please consider hiring an orchestra or seeking Mr. Arnie Roth himself to help compose music with Mr. Uematsu for future iterations of this game. I understand from the XIV developers’ standpoint that efforts and funding at the moment are being strained to their limits, but the quality of music has been known to save and promote games that would have otherwise never become successful. Convince Square-Enix to allocate additional funding to this end, and it would leave the development team unaffected to address gameplay issues.

Players, please visit this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Druc2wG3RDU

Oh man. That does sound amazing. Might have to turn off the music and just loop that, I reckon.

I have no problem with Nobuos music so far.

Nobuo also commented he wished he could have done a bit more with the in-game music, so you never know, they added music to FFXI in an update before, so we can log in after a patch and have updated music one day.

Do it dev team. What are you waiting for?

I really wish the Distant Worlds versions of the songs were in the game.

In coertas there are orchestrated songs :X even battle bgm

you know how much money that would cost for production of a huge orchestra just to use it for BGM?

im with you though, i do wish that the songs from the distant worlds soundtrack was in the game but maybe one day they will do it.

What is the point? It would not be Lossless in the context of the game anyhow.

The music does seem a little lackluster in places, but that may have to do with the way it's presented more than the music itself. It's worth keeping in mind that many of the pieces in the soundtrack don't get played with the current content, and certain tracks are better than others, such as the NM battle music or the music in Coerthas. Something I find myself doing often when I'm not in Ventrilo chat with my LS is playing all 3 Black Mages album on loop during leves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmtRBTl3gAg

FFXIV has great music, the OST is pretty good! There are almost 80 tracks or so...
(i did listen to all on youtube)
However... The best tracks you barely get to hear and some of those that you hear a lot i do not like much.
Market wards music for example is really not my cup of tea, it sounds a bit like some bossa nova demo sound that is included in keyboards... Also the battle music in the mines is rather weird...

I really love this track here, i would love to hear it in the market wards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2TdRFSUmD8

As cool as having all the in game music performed by a live orchestra would be, this is one thing I can say with confidence we'll never get. And frankly, there's no need for it. The soundtrack as a whole is of very high quality. As people have already mentioned, we've barely even gotten a taste of it so far.

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Originally Posted by GabbaGabba

you know how much money that would cost for production of a huge orchestra just to use it for BGM?

im with you though, i do wish that the songs from the distant worlds soundtrack was in the game but maybe one day they will do it.

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Isn't it ironic that even though it would cost a lot, they have it already? So it must not be that big of a deal. If they want to avoid that in the future they should just do the recording of the orchestra as a special event and sell tickets. Anyway, the recordings exist so they should just use them.

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Originally Posted by Neptune

Isn't it ironic that even though it would cost a lot, they have it already? So it must not be that big of a deal. If they want to avoid that in the future they should just do the recording of the orchestra as a special event and sell tickets. Anyway, the recordings exist so they should just use them.

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It's not that simple, gotta take into consideration that it's event music rather than music produced for the game. The same reason they can't slap Black Mages music into all of the games they've covered, but they can however get them to do specific songs for the games/movies.

I agree. The orchestral music already is here. Why not implement them? I'd love to hear it in-game. :D

I have no problem with the music.. I just would like that custom soundtrack feature to be added.. so I can at least change a few tracks with music I find more fitting myself..

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Originally Posted by Jamaz

I understand from the XIV developers’ standpoint that efforts and funding at the moment are being strained to their limits, but the quality of music has been known to save and promote games that would have otherwise never become successful.

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Square Enix should know that better than anyone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nier_(v...me)#Soundtrack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEtz4K7JpsE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQGHOOBAyzQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiysEY4eN28
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CphXrnTyXpw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrgEoov-RBc

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Originally Posted by Kibo

Square Enix should know that better than anyone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nier_(v...me)#Soundtrack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEtz4K7JpsE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQGHOOBAyzQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiysEY4eN28
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CphXrnTyXpw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrgEoov-RBc

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Yes..! That's the music I want..
If my like button wasn't somehow broken I'd have clicked it..

At least let us have an option to switch to orchestra! I want the orchestra :)

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Originally Posted by Lenneth_Valkyrie

Yes..! That's the music I want..

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Haha I bet, with your name and all. :)

I think Hitoshi Sakimoto should compose some music for FFXIV. I love his music in FFXII and Tactics.

Whether or not we get an orchestrated soundtrack, something needs to be done with the music. I wouldn't say that it's really bad and I like some of it (Coerthas, Mor Dhona, The Black Shroud and La Noscea all have good music in my opinion), but all of it is extremely repetetive and even if I like the tune I find myself wanting to rip all my hair out after a few hours of playing, so most of the time I just keep it off. Also some of the music isn't really fitting to it's surroundings. Take LL and Thanalan for example; the "grand" nature of the music for LL really just doesn't go with the peaceful oceanside atmosphere of the city. Thanalan's music is too "uplifting" and orchestral for the region's arrid landscape. I think some tribal percussion or maybe even some arabic sounding music would fit Thanalan better, and for LL maybe an acoustic guitar piece (think Balamb from FFVIII). As for the battle tunes, seriously what was Uematsu thinking??? We need orchestral battle music, or even something of a more electronic nature, not some stupid pop guitar crap. It completely destroys immersion. Battle music needs to be entirely replaced I think.

But the biggest problem is the repetitive nature of the music; even if it's good it gets annoying. I think the music should change with day and night cycles, so it's not playing over and over and over. Maybe they could even have the music just stop during the night time. I mean, walking around in LL at 3:00 in the mornin with "duuuuuuun DUUUUUUUUUN DUUUUUUN" all over the place is just a lil much! Having the music only play during the day or having a seperate score for night time would make a huge difference (the first solution would be a lot easier for the devs I think). But really this is all just one humble player's opinion; honestly they have more important things to work on, but I really hope they look into this in the future. It's something that has bothered me from the beginning.

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Originally Posted by Sonic_the_Hedgehog

I think Hitoshi Sakimoto should compose some music for FFXIV. I love his music in FFXII and Tactics.

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I completely agree, this style of music would fit this game much better than what we have now.

Battle music is fine really for what the current feel of the game is and based on the areas, a lot of it is "first steps" style, for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t042q...eature=related

Vs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_9aB...eature=related

The Ul'dah, Limsa and Gridania area battle themes has a 'setting off' feel to it compared hitting the mid/peak of your battle career so far. We also haven't gotten the rest of the areas and their music, so I'm sure it will be a lot better as we get deeper into the world like it does now.

Well, if you don’t want repetition, it’ll be hard since you’ll in an area for over an hour while the soundtrack loops every 2 minutes. Unless you want an hour long theme or new music being composed every week to take care of the old ones, there’s nothing you can do about it. Besides, by that same measuring stick, all games have repetitive music. There is nothing to stop the ‘repetitiveness’ of the soundtracks looping, and they'll all eventually get annoying. Just accept the music is there, you can't save it from looping.

Limsa Lominsa is no-way near peaceful. Pirates, bombings and a possible invasion? The storyline sure doesn’t show a peaceful coastal town. LL is more grand than the other cities, in fact, not to mention being a ‘busy’ port for ships. Navigator’s Glory fits LL enough, and it’s not as repetitive as the other soundtracks –cough Black Shroud cough-. Remember, the city is filled with PIRATES.

As per Jen, the battle music is fine. Rock has always been a favourite hobby of Uematsu-san, and IMO, it fits the feel of the current game set-up. FFXI’s starting battle themes were much much sub-par, and not even as much variety. La Noscea, Thanalan and the Black Shroud’s battle themes are just what they’re meant to be, setting you up for the battle. Go to Mor Dhona and Coerthas and battle there, and the music is much darker and faster.

Hitoshi Sakimoto was fine for FFXII, since Ivalice is quite mecha-based, so his percussion heavy soundtracks fit. They will fit quite well in FFXIV, but you also have the problem of the lack of orchestration, even more than Nobuo’s. And if anything, Hitoshi Sakimoto’s tracks lack some of the sophistication Nobuo Uematsu sometimes likes to plug into the tracks.

What I really don’t like is the looping of the soundtrack to the beginning FOR EACH TIME IT IS PLAYED. Take crafting for example; you hear the first 30 seconds repeatedly for each synth you do, and never actually get to the ending which is by far the better part of the track. Perhaps one of the least of the problems which are worrying the devs, but I never get to enjoy the full soundtrack because of that. Battle music suffers the same as well. In fact, the soundtracks which I do get to hear in full are the area themes and levequests. Storyline instances also suffer from the same looping to the front. If it’s possible, could the devs try something like FFXIII’s, where after each battle finished, the field music started right back from when it was cut off?

That's my short summary of FFXIV's music.

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As for orchestration, YES, please put Navigator's Glory in! I love the arranged version....so beautiful...

But we do need to think of the costs. There's no way Nobuo Uematsu can have 80+ tracks all orchestrated; not only will it take ages, the costs will be massive to pay for all the musicians for certain bombastic soundtracks like the Opening Theme, or Quicksand.

Oh and...

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Originally Posted by Elexia

Nobuo also commented he wished he could have done a bit more with the in-game music, so you never know, they added music to FFXI in an update before, so we can log in after a patch and have updated music one day.

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Do you have a link or source to where he mentioned it?

Just more music in general would help. The game is designed to keep the player in one zone for the whole play session and there's about 2 tracks looping while you're playing. I love Uematsu to the moon and back but the actual implementation of his music is just horrible in this game.

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Originally Posted by Kibo

Haha I bet, with your name and all. :)

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You forgot this one though.. :p
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGtnBnmJ8MA

If you look at my channel on youtube you'll see I have alot of unreleased tracks from Nier.. ^^

Also to everyone.. rate this thread up and make a positive comment if you agree..: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...dtrack-manager
I believe we all can be happy with it.. if interest of the players is shown they might consider it..

YES PLEASE!! I agree the music is lacking and dull. PLEASE re-think the music in this game! Some of it takes so long to get into the decent parts, and some like zone music is very short and repetitive, like Gridania. It's plain dull compared to XI's music. :(