OL wrote:I actually think most of the music is a little more complex than many of Uematsu's works, and thus a bit less catchy.
Uemtsu was great at the catchy, immediately memorable stuff. And that's fine. I agree, he's a genius.
But Hamauzu's work (the orchestral stuff, at least) is more complex, and a bit more sweeping than Uematsu's stuff. Memorability isn't the only plus that can be attributed to music, you know.
And I personally don't mind most of the stuff with lyrics. The music that played during the Snow flashback on the beach of Bodhum, for example, is beautiful, and made that scene even better, I think.
Also, I think calling the music in FFXIII "well below average" is incredibly unfair. It's all far, far better than most videogame music out there. Whether it's better than most FF music is debatable, but it's at the very least better than most games of the same genre (or film scores, for that matter).
I don't think i'm being too unfair to be honest.
It's not like I go out of my way to intentionally discredit a video game. You seem to be picking up a habit in this thread of jumping to FFXIII's defense at every opportunity. Trust me pal, I am really enjoyng FFXIII thus far, but it's within my nature to be honest with myself and point out the flaws whenever possible. And for me, the music is one of them.
Like I said, the battle and boss themes are really good. But it seems to follow the same tradition as FFXII, with top-notch battle music and forgettable town/dungeon/map themes.
It's almost as if they are trying too hard to make memorable music, but somehow get lost in creating something catchy and technical. And it is quite technical for the most part. Uematsu was able to make an instant classic in almost any area possible. The Landing from FFVIII, One Winged Angel from FFVII, Rachel's Theme and a handful of others from FFVI. He was simply put - too good at what he did. And perhaps set the bar a bit too high for the new generation of FF and RPG music.
But FFXIII balance has been off in this aspect. Pretty much every song i've heard with vocals has been awful. It's not all as bad as that Chocobo theme, but it just doesn't mix together well at all.
Maybe i'm a bit too critical at times. Fuck it.