Quote Originally Posted by Lustre View Post
Soken is very very good, but he's no Uematsu. He relies way too much on Leitmotif. When you realise that a majority of an expansions songs are just a slightly altered version of the Main Expansion theme, it kind of takes the shine off a little. Anybody can slow something down, change the VST instrument and loop it. I'd like to see him be more creative with Zone Night themes specifically in this regard as 90% of them are exactly that. Swap the main instrument for a piano, slow it down by 50%. Sure it works, but it feels like creating music to meet deadline rather than anything showcasing ingenuity, something I am guilty of myself so I know it when I hear it.

I tend to find the songs he creates that include vocals to be a bit corny/cheesy as well. Compare Soken's "Fiend" to Uematsu's "Otherworld" from FFX and you'll see what I mean. One's a badass metal song with screeching guitars, harmonic bends, rough vocals etc. The other sounds like an edgy Anime opening song. But on the whole, he's very good especially in comparison to a lot of other MMO soundtracks. I played WoW for years and I can't recall anything other than ambient noises.
I feel this became particularly bad in Endwalker. We have two cities, both use the same motif IN ITS ENTIRETY just with different instruments, briefly interrupted by a freestyle pause of some sort. Even Stormblood's Ala Mhigan Anthem theme's motif usage had less rigid arrangements, and even Stormblood had unique themes for the cities. Kugane used the Stormblood theme, Rhalgr's Reach used the anthem, hamlets used the saltery theme.
Sadness theme in Stormblood had the anthem's main motif, but almost half the notes are unique to it. Meanwhile Endwalker and ShB's literally just toss the exact expansion motifs, slow down the tempo and make it a sad piano version.

Soken is NOT a bad composer. He made and makes some fantastic game music that you don't hear anywhere else. But when it comes to lower energy, non-combat themes he relies way too much on the leitmotif. Also he literally rehashed the same "trick" from ShB's direction with boss themes. Which is why Endwalker boss theme sounds like a blatant poor attempt at being exactly like ShB's just replacing a motif for another.