In terms of an orchestra, “Paradox” is an impressive piece with these highly melodic string stabs that create this moody atmosphere and remind me of film composer Craig Armstrong’s work. It’s hard to classify his contributions because he takes on so many different styles, but let’s jump in. He’s really stepped up his game here and has done an excellent job with his productions to conform with the overall quality of what has previously been done with Final Fantasy XIII. That leaves us with Naoshi Mizuta who provides most of the biggest surprises of the album. “Parallel World” sports ethereal female vocals and “Groovy Chocobo” is very abstract with light bossa nova-style female vocals calling out, “chocoboooo…” Finally, “Limit Break!” is a somewhat cheesy electro-heavy metal with gutteral male vocals, electric guitar and rock percussion that grew on me over time, and I bet it’s great in-game. “New Bodhum” is kind of a pop vocal track, while “Historia Crux,” one of my favorites, gets super funky. Not too unlike his work on Neurovisionand other solo works. Suzuki also deals with a lot of vocals in his tracks. Suzuki interestingly blends his regular and aggressive mixes with no gap, creating a continuous listening experience that is pretty cool to experience. One thing of note on this album is the addition of ‘aggressive mixes’ for certain tracks that are heavier versions of their original themes. It’s then on to Mitsuto Suzuki’s contributions which are not surprisingly electronic-oriented and very abstract. “Serah’s Theme ~Memory~” gets vocals by Frances Maya, and proves Hamauzu’s prowess as a pop composer, while “Lightning’s Theme ~Unguarded Future~” is a mellow and distant piano arrangement of her theme from the original title. “Eternal Fight” is one of my favorite tracks, moving along decisively with string stabs and a ride cymbal to lend a cool ambiance. Other tracks of Hamauzu’s that stick out are “Knight of the Goddess” with its battle-like sound, not too unlike “Flash of Light,” although that one is admittedly hard to top. It’s repeated a few times throughout the score, taking on a similar role to “The Promise” from the original score. “Final Fantasy XIII-2 ~A Wish~” is more in line with what I was expecting, coming as a beautiful orchestral theme with a great melody. It isn’t until the end of the album in “To a Land of Hope” that the original overture appears in an emotional string-based arrangement.
He gives us a similar cinematic orchestral style to what was done with the original Final Fantasy XIII score, although his dark and electronically infused “Final Fantasy XIII-2 Overture” had me surprised given how upbeat his overture for the original game was. He opens and closes the album, which seems appropriate for continuity purposes. There are some other people who contribute as well, including GEM Impact’s Yoshitaka Suzuki, arranger Sachiko Miyano, and recording artist Shootie HG among others. Before you get nervous about that, continue reading through the different artist breakdowns below. Hamauzu and Suzuki handle approximately a quarter of the tracks each while Mizuta gets nearly half. I’m sure people are wondering what the composer breakdown is. Despite the different styles presented here, the production values are very high, and the different styles of music really play together quite nicely and somehow manage to avoid feeling fragmented. Oh, and about every other track is a vocal theme. I’d say it’s certainly the most funky and electronic-oriented Final Fantasy soundtrack to date. You’ve likely heard by now that you’ll be hearing a pretty eclectic mix of music, from jazz to rock to hip-hop to rap to orchestral. Despite these things, I’m kind of excited about Final Fantasy XIII-2, in part because they’re ignoring convention.įeaturing music by Masashi Hamauzu, Naoshi Mizuta, Mitsuto Suzuki, and a few others, is the Final Fantasy XIII-2 soundtrack diluted and unmemorable or a successful experiment?įirst things first, this isn’t your standard Final Fantasy soundtrack.
#Final fantasy xiii ost mega series#
Actually, I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not as people would argue that the Final Fantasy VII spin-offs hurt the series more than helped it, and after watching a trailer for Final Fantasy X-2 where Yuna jumped in slow motion while firing dual pistols, I didn’t come within 10 feet of the game. Square Enix has been really good lately about throwing convention out the window.
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