That's what I thought. Kind of sucks to not have the option though.
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Square Enix reveals Final Fantasy VII Remake composers
- Thread starter DiipuSurotu
- Start date
That's what I thought. Kind of sucks to not have the option though.
At least the remasters fixed stuff like He's A Pirate and Rage Awakened. The original Port Royal battle theme was GODAWFUL.
From the description of the video:
It looks like 12 of the tracks arranged for that event were included on an album release, but for some reason, Cosmo Canyon was played at the event and wasn't included on the album (would be curious about the arranger for Cosmo Canyon, since it's not mentioned here or here):
I have little familiarity or opinion on any of these. As for the soundtrack itself, I'm ambivalent based on what I've heard so far. The battle theme sounds good. It was always an orchestral-type track, and the arrangement is well done. The other two tracks I've heard so far, Mako Reactor and Those Who Fight Further, I don't like, as I don't think they successfully translated the vibes of the original arrangements. Mako Reactor has an electronic sound with horror-ish, cyberpunk-y vibes that I don't feel the presence of in the new arrangement.
Then again, I won't be buying the remake because I don't own a PS4, and I can't afford one (or even new games at full price at the moment, for that matter), so my opinion is worth less than nothing.
Then again, I won't be buying the remake because I don't own a PS4, and I can't afford one (or even new games at full price at the moment, for that matter), so my opinion is worth less than nothing.
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Yeah, Uematsu and his colleague Narita did the arrangement for the remaster.
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So Hamauzu directed the singing of One Winged Angel and it is the first time in nearly 24 years I heard about it
Edit: I guess I was the only idiot who didn't:
what the hell is haydn's the creation has to do with OWA?
Edit 2: I have never edited a post so much in my life...
They meant this somehow? It wasn't just stock music, they actually sang this stuff for FF7?
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Actually it's been known since at least 2007:
https://web.archive.org/web/20070303141039/http://www.squareenixmusic.com/composers/hamauzu.html
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They're talking about OWA and the Haydn track in the same sentence, which is a bit confusing, but there's one statement about OWA and another statement about the Haydn track.
If the leaked demo music is any indication, it'll be a combination of rearranged versions of the original FFVII OST, along with newly composed tracks exclusive to the remake. The demo rip featured a handful of all-new tracks (I think I counted six, including that VR Menu theme), which sounded like area/field traversal and accompanying battle BGM.
There also seems to be tracks from the compilation of FF7.
TIL there are people who hate anything orchestral and that makes me sad. I think every member of the SE music department is ace and all have their own unique flair. Not every track they compose is gonna be fire but I think it's safe to say literally all of them have done great work. Soken is also easily the most varied composer in the stable at the moment and he's more than proven he can hang with the big boys.
You reckon? I guess it's a little familiarity bias at play but I expressly remember getting some hilariously framed death threats over KH2.5 stuff after we put out a few interviews on the work/process.
edit: Whoops, doublepost
Really? Wow. The KH2.5 remixes/remasters were great. I wish there were more of them, but they sounded fantastic.
Oh damn, really? I thought by and large it was generally considered an improvement over the original OST. Didn't know people were wilding out with death threats like that
Yeah, for me as well, the battle theme sounds great, and those other two tracks sound good, but not quite as good.
I still like them, as I do like orchestral stuff in general, but something does seem to have been lost in the new arrangements of those two particular tracks, as you describe.
One of Hideaki Itsuno's remarks (completely different context and completely different developer, of course) came to mind: "...It's been 10 years since Devil May Cry 4, so my boss came to me and said that in order to keep it relevant for today, we'll need to make something that you can take one glance at and know that it's quality. So we chose to make it with a photorealistic graphic style..."
I suppose it's conceivable that a similar rule is in effect here, and in this context it meant "...so we chose to make [even those two tracks] with [an orchestral style]..."
Or perhaps it was just a matter of preference, on the part of the folks who did these particular arrangements. Would be interesting to find out at some point, perhaps in interviews.
In any case, I definitely like what I've seen and heard from the game so far, overall.
Good choice. He closed out the XIII trilogy perfectly with the beautiful chaos that is Almighty Bhunivelze
Same. Ishimoto even on the PSP was able to rearrange the original songs while keeping the synth/aritifical feel of the midi type instrumentation while adding in the guitar that was in a few of the tracks like the boss fight theme.
Most anything outside of the fight theme is pretty same-y sounding which is a bummer.
I mean you can even see it on this forum. People think Orchestral = quality. It's a shame.
I love Orchestra for the record. The Orchestral remixes of Shimmomura's work (Drammatica) are almost superior to me than their originals in almost every way. I love the orchestration Motoi Sakuraba did on Valkyrie Profile 2 and I tend to prefer Orchestra all around. I just feel like it can become ambient noise if not executed properly and that FF7 had a specific sound profile due to the limitations of the hardware at the time.
Orchestrated music using strong melodies with good accompaniments can be amazing, but I feel like with most game music, the switch to orchestra or modern tools to make the music doesn't put as much emphasis on the specific chords/melodies that make older game music memorable. There's very rare moments where I feel like game music made nowadays in orchestra (especially anything from a western composer minus a select few like Jeff Kurtenacker, David Wise, Grant Kirkhope, etc) really does much more than add ambient noise, whereas I prefer when music is implemented more heavy handidly in setting the tone of the scene and carrying the gameplay when people aren't talking, which tends to clash sometimes with talking heavy games.
For example Xenoblade 2's orchestrated tracks and most of its music is some of the best music I've ever had the pleasure of listening to, but it still clashes sometimes with the sound balancing they implemented for the speaking parts. That being said I think that OST is the closest recent example of using a lot of different tools to make orchestra fun and varied, ignoring Soken of course, who's at the top of his game after Shadowbringers.
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It really depends. Like, orchestral music generally (not always, but generally) tends to have better sound quality than non-orchestral music, which I think is why people regard it more highly. But on the other side of the fence, it also runs the risk of sounding kind of repetitive when EVERYTHING on a soundtrack is orchestral.
Kingdom Hearts using a full orchestra selectively rather than constantly I think is the best way to do it. Use it for big moments rather than everything.
Even "sound quality" is subjective in certain regards because midis/chiptunes/etc are crunched specifically to produce a certain type of song that is very pleasing to people like myself. Orchestra can be quite unanimously "soothing" as a lot of studies have shown, but the quality of sound can be argued person to person. I just think most people tend to look at music the same way they look at things like say graphics. That the higher polycounts/more orchestra =better and chiptunes/sprite art = less good.
And Kingdom Hearts did it pretty well even if I think the Remind remixes for the old songs have lost most of the umph to me personally.
Could be worse, could be the final boss suite from vanilla KH3 - it's bad MIDI and it ruins a wonderful series of melodies. MIDI done well is great, but that song...woof.
It's like someone did a bad Dissidia remix and then forgot to replace it with the final cut.
That appears to be more of a preference thing with regards to orchestration. Also I don't think anyone here is implying that orchestral by default means quality.
bit.reactor said:
Totally. It's hilarious and so sad.bit.reactor said:
I mean, I'm an orchestra whore because I love to hear how anything is adapted into another arrangement and how it transforms and or elevates the piece; but it is in no way an assurance of quality of necessary for so much of certain scores.
VII's OST by design of its unique sound chip and blend of genres was always going to be probably the most difficult update to translate.
It was always going to need to be an electric-synth instrumental blend with orchestra when necessary and so far it sounds like they really lost sight of the former.
We'll see.
Mitsuto Suzuki to me is the standout guy in that list. He's so damn talented but hasn't worked on anything big since FFXIII-2/LR.
I think they'll be a bit more reserved since this is a remake, but I'm glad that the composers from the XIII games get to shine again.
I think they'll be a bit more reserved since this is a remake, but I'm glad that the composers from the XIII games get to shine again.
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At Square/Square Enix, the director chooses the composer(s). Matsuno is the one who wanted Sakimoto on Tactics and XII instead of the usual Uematsu. Kato is the one who wanted Mitsuda on Chrono Cross (even though the higher-ups were reluctant to hire him because he had just left Square to go freelance). Etc.
That's MIDI? Damn I really can't tell the difference unless I have two different versions of the song.
I'm really confused as to where anyone implied that being orchestral automatically makes the music great. What people are saying is that Hamauzu is a damn good composer.
Jeeeesus Christ whoever is arranging these needs to learn some restraint. Not every piece needs piano with a full orchestra (AND a harp for Tifa's theme). The embellishments are positively relentless.
They sounds like parodies of a credits reprise.
Tifa's theme sounds very nice to me tbh. These are fairly straight forward arrangements.
I think that they're fairly straight forward arrangements for a concert series. Like this is what I'd expect from distant worlds.
As far as soundtracks go these seem unnecessarily unfocused to me. Like, Tifa's theme is associated with peace and comfort. We don't need rising swell into a full orchestra. The main theme seems like the opposite where the original evokes a grandiose sense of nature and the wilderness, but the remake arrangement cycles through a bunch of close mic'd solo instruments and turns it into the sickly sweet sort of mood.
Sometimes less is more. Not every track needs to be written like the orchestrator is afraid of the oboist getting bored.
We don't even know how these are going to be used yet. There could be like three different versions of Tifa's theme. I think they're beautiful.
Sadly I have to agree. I'm not a fan of anything I've heard from the soundtrack, the original OST is one of my favorites but I feel they've lost some of the atmosphere of the originals by making everything with a full orchestra. I'm especially disappointed in some of the earlier tracks sounding very heavy and cluttered. The arrangements are definitely up there with the voice acting as the weakest parts of the Remake.
Also, I may cancel my vinyl preorder. I know picture discs are prone to bad audio quality but holy fucking hell at the mastering of these discs. You can hear cracks every few seconds. Sounds atrocious.
Even the original Tifa's Theme has the strings come in towards the end. Let's not pretend like Uematsu didn't try to emulate an orchestral sound with that.
Quite a few of these alleged "full orchestra" tracks actually do have obvious synths and electronic beats and such too.
(And in fact, I suspect the orchestral elements themselves are mostly synth too. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me Scorpion Sentinel is actually 100% synth)
Quite a few of these alleged "full orchestra" tracks actually do have obvious synths and electronic beats and such too.
(And in fact, I suspect the orchestral elements themselves are mostly synth too. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me Scorpion Sentinel is actually 100% synth)
It wasn't on that album because it was an existing track, there were several Brass de Bravo albums prior to the FFVII one. Cosmo Canyon was included on the second album (along with Gold Saucer. The first had a FFVII battle medley and the third included Motorcycle Chase and Aerith's Theme. There's also a Brass de Bravo Gaiden that I think was only sold at live shows or something which features Ahead on Our Way, as well as a more funk/jazz Birth of a God as a hidden track).
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The Scorpion boss is definitely mostly synth, if not all. The brass is always the give away in this day and age, the same way the strings were 15 years ago.
As long as Uematsu is supervising/giving his blessing to the arrangements and soundtrack I'm fine. But not gonna lie I'm a little nervous about some of what I heard (not all)