Why choose harsher sounds?

[Daniolaut]

I just randomly was rewatching the Alpha/Beta videos and I noticed that the Ul'dah theme originally had much nicer tones.

I would have liked this style of music orchestration to the current more harsh sounds. I always felt A Realm Reborns orchestrations seemed quite harsh, but I thought it just was Soken's style, but clearly this states otherwise, Soken can and does have access to quality sounds and instruments but for some reasons opts to go for a more harsh low quality sound.

Ul'dah's theme from Alpha/Beta:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW6fL5X1fM4&t=02m36s

To me this actually sounds very beautiful.

Current theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dGWXbZW3hY

This is the current theme, which seems to be the trend they chose to go with.

[Daniolaut]

Also, is it just me or the textures of Ul'dah even better too?

Cant do anything about it now I guess, oh well.

[Vahlnir]

I like the heavier theme, personally. Feels more grandiose.

It's less "Yay you're in Ul'Dah I guess!" and more "WELCOME TO UL'DAH <insert word I can't use on the forums>!"

[van_arn]

1.0 was bad.

[ItMe]

Also, is it just me or the textures of Ul'dah even better too?

The graphics were scaled back for 2.0 because 1.0 was ambitiously made for (at the time) higher end computers and it led to problems...
Like, one of the examples the devs gave in that documentary was 1.0 flowerpots had more polygons than 2.0 NPC models do.

[Vickii]

Personally I prefer the current theme but one thing I noted was this was the only change on that video - the zone music remained the same as far as I could hear.

Perhaps it’s as simple as revamping the main city themes to send the message that this is a new ‘reborn’ game and not the same game with a coat of paint.

[lolicon09]

1.0 was bad.

The graphics were scaled back for 2.0 because 1.0 was ambitiously made for (at the time) higher end computers and it led to problems...
Like, one of the examples the devs gave in that documentary was 1.0 flowerpots had more polygons than 2.0 NPC models do.

I mean, OP is literally talking about A Realm Reborn (if you actually watch the videos)

Also, is it just me or the textures of Ul'dah even better too?

Cant do anything about it now I guess, oh well.

They probably downgraded a little more so the differences between PC and PS3 could be as small as posible. You can clearly see how the poor PS3 is struggling to run the game in the first video

[ItMe]

I mean, OP is literally talking about A Realm Reborn (if you actually watch the videos)

Sorry, I wasn't clear.

1.0 had stellar graphics.
They dialed this back in 2.0.
During 2.0's alpha and beta they were still working on dialing that back (and there was internal discussion if it should happen at all).
So yes, alpha / beta ARR legitimately does have better textures. It's not just you.

[Daniolaut]

Yes if you watch, and listen, to the videos, that is how you will hear what I'm talking about.

None of this had to do with version 1.0 at all whatsoever.

[Seraphor]

That Alpha/Beta track sounds awful OP. Like someone put it together from midi files in a couple of hours.