The direction of FFXIV's music.

[OJtheLIONKing]

You know, I was playing FFXIII-2 when it came out, and noticed our good friend from FFXI Naoshi Mizuta composed maybe a third of the soundtrack. You could definitely hear the similar style, but in my opinion a lot of the songs sounded better than FFXI just because of better arrangements. For instance, compare Paradigm Shift from FFXIII-2 with Mercenary's Delight from FFXI.

I don't know the first thing about music, which you can tell by the following statement probably not using the correct jargon, but even I can tell the songs have a similar kind of structure--most of Mizuta's FFXI songs have the same kind of structure about them. While the FFXI songs are certainly nice to listen to, they all have the same very obvious synth orchestral arrangement that makes them sound cheap and generic. Compare this to Paradigm Shift and a lot of the rest of his high tempo songs on the FFXIII-2 soundtrack, where there's either actual orchestra involved (Caius' awesome theme and Chaotic Guardian) or it goes whole hog into using a more techno-symphonic sound--it's much better received. That obvious synth sound passed muster 10 years ago, but nowadays people expect better from their games--for instance, just in recent memory, WoW, SWTOR, Aion and, yes, FFXIII used actual orchestra pieces instead of fake sounding synth stuff. FFXIII-2 and FFXIV are more similar than you might think, after all, songs like the dungeon and chocobo escort music use "aggressive mixes" just like a large amount of FFXIII-2.

This doesn't mean SE needs to spend cash on getting an orchestra for the entire soundtrack, but it does mean they should probably avoid making songs that are fast paced or bombastic with the synth sound, as that's when the artificial quality of it is most noticeable. It works very well for music that's more low key, but for up-tempo music a rock or techno sound (maybe with some light synth or heavier orchestra) has really won me over as the best solution after hearing more and more JRPGs start to use it. Uematsu's FFXIV battle songs are some of my favorite in the series, especially all of the regular overworld battle music and a few of the leve themes. The new ones, while very good when judged compared to other synth style battle themes in the series, overall just don't move me like a good rock or techno song would in the same situation. Similarly, while I love the Coerthas background music to death, the battle theme there just doesn't get the blood pumping the way music in other zones does. It sounds very nice, but it doesn't really have the aggressiveness you expect from a battle song, especially compared to the other battle themes, so it's not as exciting. I haven't looked into it, but I get the feeling Coerthas was handled by the new team rather than Uematsu.

The dev post was good news, as dynamic music is also more of a standard nowadays than looping the same song for hours on end while you're in the zone. There are very few songs I still like to hear after years of hearing them repeatedly, FFXI's Airship theme being one of them. The current music team seems very talented from what I've heard so far, the Goobbue's theme being an example of a kind of low key synth theme that ended up being one of my favorites in FFXIV, I just hope they direct that towards creating a dynamic sound rather than a generic one by not abusing synth orchestral arrangements.

[ZanarkandAbes]

The music in Final Fantasy games is what has been making me thrive to pursue the career I want (Games Music Composer), I made this in about half a day, it's more like a showdown, maybe the sort of thing in Advent Children between Cloud and Sephiroth, but I listen to it when i'm playing FFXIV sometimes. Let me know if you like it and feel free to download from the website if you wish

Click here

[CamAlch]

♪ And I was like Bayohne, Bayohne, Bayohne, oooooh, like Bayohne, Bayohne, Bayohne, oooooh ♪

First off, I LoL'd for real at that.

Second, Different music for Day and Night time? Yes, please.

[Starlord]

Something like this sounds really epic in a game!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwylU...eature=related <------- West Sarutabaruta [S] Theme. One of the best tracks in Wings of the Goddess!

If this was in Thanalan, I would be in Heaven ^^

[Darkhaund]

For me... this song STILL gives me goosebumps..

THIS is what FFXI is all about

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

[Elexia]

For me... this song STILL gives me goosebumps..

THIS is what FFXI is all about

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

Heh, I'd definitely say that. Ronfaure theme tells the story of an adventurer's first steps, while these songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8WJLDHvRVQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ6Es1h8W0g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LqY8...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJbSo...feature=relmfu

Tells the story of an adventures fight for survival, something XIV's music is missing in some instances. And whether you loved or hated FFXI and made it this far:

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

You can't say this doesn't bring back memories and that sense of "Holy shit, I made it..."

[Criterion]

^ SO TRUE
the music is a little too fancy

[Darkhaund]

Ohhh, don´t get me wrong....... i got very very far into 11. I got as far as abyssea.

[Elexia]

I'm not gonna lie though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTHhg...feature=relmfu

I kind of thought this would be remixed for La Noscea when I first seen the alpha clips and previews.

[Starlord]

Music something like this for a battle theme is awesome! =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUKzFYUGbg0