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Now that XIII has finally come out, a new soundtrack has been added to the great video game music genre. Does it live up to the standards first put into place by the master, Nobuo Uematsu? This thread is open to anything concerning XIII's soundtrack and anything audio about the game (this includes voice acting, but if it becomes too much of a distraction from the music portion, I'll create a new thread for that).

Some topics to think about....

Masashi Hamauzu, did he pull it off?
Compare and contrast with ye olde game soundtracks
New chocobo songs! (Chocobos of Cocoon and Chocobos of Pulse)
Character themes, appropriate or not?
Battle Themes, with new faces come new instrumentations
Missing you? Should Hamauzu have added the Victory Fanfare, Prelude, and FF Theme?
Do vocal tracks belong in the field, or are there just too many voices?
Battle of the Main Themes (Kimi Ga Irukara versus My Hands)
Piano Collection petition or not? (inspired by Psy Angelos)

And of course...
What was your favorite song and why?

Any input is appreciated, but please explain why you enjoy or dislike something. It's all well and good that you like Snow's theme, but that's not very interesting. Does the stong bass remind you of his strength and reliability, or do the over-the-top guitar riffs convey his powerful, in-your-face personality? Explanations, stories, and emotions are more fun to read, so go all out.

If you haven't heard any of the music, or don't have any of the songs to reference to, the link below is to a youtube channel created by SilvaGunner. She has posted up the music from XIII (as well as other soundtracks if you get video game music happy) so just click on the playlist and look for the song you want to listen to.

http://www.youtube.com/user/silvagunner?blend=2&ob=4

Thanks and have fun! I'll be joining in once I see how this goes.

Oh and I've also created a poll above with the character themes. Some people might wonder what the other names beside some of the themes are. I've noticed that while the theme songs have the character name then theme, there are some other songs that incorporate the theme and just make better names. It's just one of my theories that I may write about later (and if someone knows a song that uses Snow's theme please let me know...I just may not be listening close enough sweatdrop ).

Edit: Omigosh I failed so badly! I totally forgot about Sazh's theme for the poll! What's worse is that I actually really like the song. The timing was totally boggling (which annoyed me at first because I'm a dancer and I immediatly try to figure out the timing of something in the first four/three bars). I finally asked one of my friends who's a music major to try and figure it out. The jazzy tones and timing, just make it a wonderful song to listen to and contemplate. I'll add it onto the poll, but the only problem is that I have to take the poll down first, so if you voted, please revote. I'm so so sorry!

I love Snow's theme! I remember the scene where you finally get Snow back and that song plays....wow I fell in love. I actually just stood there for a little while just to listen to the amazing song. heart

FF XIII's music is ok the themes are good but Nobou Uematsu needs to come back he is alot better! And it is missing the victory fanfare, and even though all FF's had the same battle music this XIII's is annoying

Awww, no option for Sazh? His isn't actually my favorite anyway, but it's only fair.

I am going to disagree! My favorite songs, actually, are the ones with vocals. I like the pretty pretty voices, and it helps the songs stand out a lot more as real songs, and not just white noise. I'm actually pretty awful at understanding the lyrics, too, so I guess that makes it feel more like background music, but it feels more natural.

That brings me to my next point... Chocobos of Cocoon! I love it! Not the best chocobo theme I've ever heard, I don't think; the instrumentation isn't really unique or special in any way, but it's definitely my favorite since... maybe IX. I haven't listened to Chocobos of Pulse yet, because I haven't actually ridden any chocobos on Pulse yet, and I don't want to spoil it. Ergo, I cannot compare them.

As far as character themes go... I'm honestly never given them much thought in any game. I can never even pick out when a certain character's theme is playing; I just don't notice the fact that the song that's playing is so-and-so's theme. sweatdrop Listening to them all now, though... I think it's great thematically/symbolically that Lightning's incorporates the battle theme, but my favorite is probably Hope's or Serah's. Serah's, well... is a vocal, and I've already mentioned I like those, just by themselves, and I do think it ties in well with Serah. Hope's, though, seems really especially emotional. This is going to sound dumb, but... it sounds really plucky, right? Like, literally plucky, as in plucking on the strings. It feels to me like pulling on his heart... all of his troubles, and his big decision he wrestles with, pulling him in different directions. That is, when he's actually being thoughtful about it and not being a hardheaded moron.

I do miss the victory fanfare a lot... it's such a little thing, but it just makes it feel that much more satisfying when you win a battle, y'know? Plus, I'm just a sucker for throwbacks. The "fanfare" we actually got just doesn't feel as special.

I'll be honest; I do really wish Nobuo would come back... I hate to say that, because I don't want to make it sound like Masashi Hamauzu did a bad job. He didn't. This is a far better soundtrack than most video games can boast, but... man, Nobuo is just so amazingly brilliant that I feel like it would be insulting to anyone else to try and directly compare them to him. sweatdrop Overall, I think there's a lot of variation in the quality of songs. A lot of them do suffer from XII's problem to me, that is, they're just forgettable. But there are a few others that do stand out to me as being really good, so I happy.

(On a side note... when I go in my iTunes to search "xiii" and "theme" to find the character themes... it works pretty well, only in addition to the ones I was looking for, I got a couple of others stuck in. "Red XIII's Theme"... and "Theme From Rocky XIII (Rye or the Kaiser)." xp )

Edit: Oh whoops, forgot one thing two things! Kimi ga Iru Kara is nice... but somehow, I really love My Hands. It took a couple of times listening to it before I got used to it, but now, I definitely like it better. As for a Piano Collection, oh I'm sure there'll be one... probably. confused

Edit 2: Crap, why does this post keep getting longer?! Anyway... I actually really really like XIII's Prelude. Especially as it goes with the opening movie, it gives you a really great feeling to begin on. The beginning builds itself up so well to give you this awesome feeling of suspense.

I haven't listened to the characters theme songs yet... Unfortunately, I can't hear ANYTHING on my laptop- due to sound issues sad I'm going to have to try to figure out another way to listen to them... When I do, I'll be back to give my opinion on which one(s) I liked and didn't like.