Thread: SE: The Soundtrack in 2.0 and Beyond

Originally Posted by Elexia

Style. Style. Do you know what Style means? There's a distinct difference between the composition in XI and XIV, the composition in XI fit adventuring a lot more than the composition in XIV does. Nobuo said he only had concept art to work with when he composed XIV's soundtrack, which is why a lot of it doesn't fit pretty much any location.

Only the dungeon theme is really fitting if you listen to the melody of it.

I like a lot of the battle music we have now over most of XI's. It's done a lot better.

Also, Gridania's theme reminds me a lot of Arrapago Reef.. both of them are pretty hellish.
Thanalan's sad theme is also quite moving to me.

I think a lot of XIV's music is superior to XI.

I personally think the current soundtrack for this game sucks. Doesn't fit in with the atmosphere. The songs for the newer content have been great though.

I'd like them to at least double the amount of field tracks and make sure that they fit the locations better. Especially town tracks seem really off in mood everywhere except Grid and even there adding a night variation to it would be nice. It's much nicer to hang out and do questing in towns when the music isn't trying to be that impressive and loud as LL is 100% of the time.

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, guys!

I'll agree to the point that some music doesn't fit. Nobuo didn't have a lot to go with when he tuned our tunes, and that isn't really fair to judge them based on that. If you're going to judge anything, go back to the beginning with the original team, putting together the original game. They're the ones that wanted completely simultaneous, linear development and never bothered to give the guy much direction.

Mizuta is a great composer, but also remember that he has an entire game with established lore, great looking zones, and an overall theme to work with. He also has past MMO experience. Nobuo had pictures. Many of which didn't make it into the game or didn't wind up looking as intended.

We come across an interesting crossroad:
On one hand, the world is changing. Dynamically. The game is changing as a whole, and the music should change with it.
On the other hand, we have established areas and lore and backstory that will not change (save for aesthetics and general meshing), thus, the overall feel of them should not change. They are the same.

What I suggest? And probably won't happen?

Arrangements. Let's have the best of both worlds. Let Mizuto take Nobuo's original works and turn them into what they should have been. Think about it. This can only be a good thing. Mizuto grows as a composer (not saying he needs to), gets to work alongside Nobuo (part of me raging with envy here...), the game keeps the feel of it's early days and pays homage to where it came from, and the game grows and changes with the crashing of Dalamud.

It gives Mizuto the opportunity to keep some of the melodies and ideas Nobuo had, but change them to fit the world of our game. Best of both worlds, my friends. We get the sense of adventure that Nobuo envisioned but never got across to us because of the early Dev. team, we get Mizuto's expertise and unique style, and nothing changes while, oddly enough, everything changes.

....

Except the dungeon music. Don't change that. It's awesome. It's actually, like, my favorite track in the game. If more songs were based on it (it's structure mostly, such as layering with action or it's melodic structure), I'd be one happy adventurer.

Actually, if I could suggest one thing to Mizuto, it would be to layer the music of every interactive zone in the game exactly like the dungeon theme we currently have. Walking, running, talking, fighting, riding, harvesting, crafting....it's a big undertaking, but if the music, at all times, reflected what we were doing, one could completely snare their audience. It'd make us want to explore.

To do everything, everywhere. We spend a lot of time caring about our characters anyway. Doesn't that suggest a deeper connection with them? We want to be like our characters. Some of us want to BE our characters, if only for a while. The moment you completely immerse us, by portraying each feeling and task, emotion by emotion, that is the moment you have completely captivatde a player base.

Dynamic soundtracks, my friends. Just one piece of a big puzzle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SPtbsKd4bE

Suzaku forgot one of XIV's most important melodies.

Mizuta is on board? News to me!

It's just kinda exciting not really knowing what they plan. Can't wait to see what they add/change theme wise with all their music. FF music has always been amazing to me.