#FINAL FANTASY XIII OST MEGA SERIES#
Hamauzu delivered two Chocobo themes, and one of them, “Chocobos of Pulse”, is probably my favourite in the series so far. He could’ve used the classic “Prelude” instead, and I’m slightly disappointed he didn’t.ĭoes that mean that Final Fantasy XIII doesn’t feature any melodies of Nobuo Uematsu at all? Well, certainly not. There’s very little “music” in there, and it’s even arranged by Suzuki, so I don’t get what Hamauzu’s involvement in this track actually is. However, “Game Over” is mere a collection of… well, ambient noise. “Battle Results”, the track that immediately follows, is a nice piece with piano, Mitsuto Suzuki’s electronica and vocals. But come one, he should have at least made sure he had proper replacements for these tracks! “Glory’s Fanfare” is a rather uninspired five second violin jingle, but fortunately it’s short, so I can live with it. The reason behind this remains unknown for now, although I could understand that Hamauzu wanted to shine without being attached to Uematsu’s legacy. Neither does the soundtrack feature the victory fanfare or the Final Fantasy main theme. Given that Hamauzu doesn’t have the greatest track record of writing vocal themes, I was pleasantly surprised that there are a lot of vocal tracks, aside from the regular theme songs (which I’ll discuss later).Īs you may have noticed, none of the introduction tracks feature the classic “Prelude”.
However, I found it eventually a welcome inclusion to the diverse palette of the soundtrack. At first, I was quite shocked by “The Sunleth Waterscape”, a dance/J-Pop arrangement, since it features English vocals. While it’s rather short, it’s certainly enjoyable. “In the Sky of that Night” is a playful arrangement with piccolo, glockenspiel and piano. But unlike SaGa Frontier II, he actually does something with it. And as any Hamauzu fan knows, he likes to reuse his melodies quite a bit. It features a beautiful, memorable melody by the piano, harp and strings. After all, it has been playing on the official site since 2008. Sadly, the extended mix by Mitsuto Suzuki isn’t featured on this soundtrack.Īs I said, “FINAL FANTASY XIII – The Promise” is also one of the recurring themes in the game and also one which most of you already know. It is an arrangement of “Lightning’s Theme”, one of the most important themes in the game. The second opening theme, “Defiers of Fate” is a powerful mix of electronic and orchestral elements, arranged by Ryo Yamazaki and Mitsuto Suzuki. It may not have the same impact as Uematsu’s “Liberi Fatali” or Sakimoto’s “Opening Movie”, but it opens the soundtrack with a bang. The live strings add extra emotion and beauty to the track, and I was absolutely blown away when I first heard it. What follows is simply one of the greatest melodies Hamauzu has written. It keeps repeating the same thing all over again, but around 0:40 snare drums, brass and strings are added from where it builds up to a climax. The soundtrack’s first two tracks already introduces us to the most important themes of the game: “Prelude to FINAL FANTASY XIII” and “FINAL FANTASY XIII – The Promise.” The former starts with mysterious, impressionistic chords on the piano and a synth pad. Fortunately, I can say that Hamauzu has delivered. How could it ever go wrong? Well, without proper composition. But there’s more than that: vocals, jazz bands and, on top of that, Square Enix arranged recordings with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir for about nine tracks. Almost all orchestral tracks have some kind of live performance in them sometimes they’re solo, but there are even orchestral sections recorded. The game’s production values are extremely high and, in fact, are the highest of any Square-Enix game I can think of. Thankfully, Final Fantasy XIII is his well-deserved chance to do that after all. I have always been a big fan of him since I discovered his work on Final Fantasy X and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, but since the former was also composed by series’ veteran Nobuo Uematsu and the latter was merely an unsuccesful spin-off, he has never really stood in the spotlight. But fortunately, I’m at least able to enjoy the aspect of the game where I was most looking forward to: the original soundtrack, composed by ex-Square-Enix employee Masashi Hamauzu. And you know what? I still haven’t played the game yet. It’s been almost four years since Final Fantasy XIII was announced at E3 ’06.
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