Final Fantasy XI OST Review
Since the early 80's, no composer of video game music has been more celebrated than SquareEnix's Nubuo Uematsu. He had been the driving force behind the first ten main Final Fantasy games as well as assorted spinoffs. Recently, Uematsu has taken a back seat in the compsoing of music for the Final Fantasy games. The first of these games is one of the latest installments, Final Fantasy XI. Nubuo Uematsu took a producer roll, and much of the work was done by two newcomers: Naoshi Mizuta and Kumi Tanioka.
Overall, Mizuta and Tanioka put together a good soundtrack. The way the music is arranged is different than most Final Fantasy scores. This may be largely due to the fact that the game is a MMORPG, short for Massively Multiplayer On-line Role Playing Game. A game of this type is more focused on exploration, discovery, and social interaction rather than a deep emotional story like the earlier entries into the series. The music reflects this, as it is more a collection of individual themes rather than the kind of flowing orchestral scores that are common to "story" scenes." The Final Fantasy XI soundtrack is suprisingly short for such a massive game, but quality
definitely beats quantity.
When asked about the Final Fantasy XI soundtrack, most people would immediately mention the opening piece, which combines the famous Crystal Theme into a orchestral and choral score. It is a great piece that was created to fit in with an amazing opening. The soundtrack may be better represented by the music of the
environments that the player travels through. Since the game is built on the trek through these areas, good music is important. The two marches, Vana'diel and The Kingdom of San d'Oria, are the highlights of the group. The use of bagpipe sound in San d' Oria is especially interesting. The rest of the soundtrack is complete with the standard fare of battle themes and mood music. The improvement over other games is the inclusion of four seperate battle themes. Two for world battles and two for dungeon battles. All four are well done, and add some veriety during battles that other soundtracks lack. The themes for the Humes, Tarutaru, and Elvaan classes. Usually, themes are used to somehow describe a characteristic of the class or character. For the Humes and the Elvaan, the male pieces are orchestral sounding pieces while the female versions are dance types. The Tautaru themes are light sounding and fit the appearance of the Tarutaru.
There are several different sounds that are used throughout the soundtrack. From the opening piece and marches mentioned earlier, to the medieval sound of Ronfaure and The Federation of Windhurst, and the overtures like Chateau D'Oraguille, these different sounds compliment each other well. Only the pounding beats of Hume Female and the like seem out of place. The one element that the Final Fantasy XI soundtrack makes better use of than other OST's is the use of guitar. Pieces like Selbina and Mog House use this sound to great effect. Put all of this together, and this is a solid collection of music.
Although lacking the emotion and polish of a Nubuo Uematsu soundtrack, this is a great first effort by new composers in the Final Fantasy world. Mizuta and Tamioka stayed true to the Final Fantasy sound, and fits the enviroment of this massive game very well. The history of Final Fantasy music moves on, and added to its history is one of best soundtracks you will find in any MMORPG.
Overall Score: 7
Best Piece: The Kingdom of San d'Oria |
|
|
Updates |
10/31/09
Final Fantasy Topsite
Our Final Fantasy Topsite is finally up! Join the list and get lots of free traffic from it!
10/22/09
Kingdom Hearts MP3
Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2 Soundtracks MP3 download links fixed.
04/10/08
Crisis Core
Sections Added and Updated: Wallpapers, Digital Mind Wave (DMW), Screenshots.
04/08/08
Final Fantasy 8
Walkthrough completely revised.
04/02/08
Crisis Core
Controls section added.
04/01/08
Crisis Core
Characters section added.
03/28/08
Final Fantasy 12
License board guide added. Pages added: Augments, Magicks, Technicks, Accessories, Weapons, Protectives, Quickenings and Espers
03/26/08
Final Fantasy 7
Complete Final Fantasy VII walkthrough added.
10/13/07
Final Fantasy 12
Espers section added. Pages added: Adrammelech, Belias, Chaos, Cuchulainn, Exodus, Famfrit, Hashmal, Mateus, Shemhazai, Ultima, Zalera, Zeromus, Zodiark.
09/25/07
Final Fantasy 2
Final Fantasy 2 coverage added! Sections added: Armors List, Axes List, Bows List, Controls, Gloves List, Head Gears List, Items List, Knives List, Levelling System, Magic List, Magic System, Shields List, Spears List, Staves List, Swords List, Weapon System.
09/10/07
Final Fantasy 7
Sections added: Enemy Skills, Getting Ultimate Limit Breaks.
09/06/07
Final Fantasy Dissidia
Dissidia: Final Fantasy coverage added.
09/05/07
Final Fantasy 7
Another big update to the coverage. Sections added: Ultimate Weapons, Weapons List, Aeris, Barret, Cait Sith, Cid, Cloud, Red XIII, Tifa, Vincent, Yuffie
09/04/07
Final Fantasy 7
Massive Final Fantasy 7 coverage updates. Sections added: Battle Commands, Battle Formations, Controls, Getting Vincent, Getting Yuffie, Materia Caves, Ruby Weapon, Ultimate Weapon, Worldmap, Kalm Traveler, Key to Midgar, Sleeping Old Man, Turtle's Paradise Flyers, Weapon Seller
05/27/07
Final Fantasy 12
Race section is completely revised.
05/27/07
Final Fantasy 12
Comprehensive Final Fantasy 12 characters guide added. Sections added: Ashe, Balthier, Basch, Fran, Penelo, Reks, Vaan
05/18/07
Staff Openings
Guide writers for Final Fantasy 12, Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantast III DS are needed.
05/03/07
RSS Feed
RSS Feed is back.
04/02/07
Final Fantasy 12
Comprehensive Final Fantasy XII review added.
04/01/07
Links Database
Final Fantasy Insider Links Database is updated with new links.
|
|
| ©Copyright 2005-2006 Final Fantasy Insider. All rights reserved. | RSS Feed |
[Top] |
|
Final Fantasy Insider
