Product Description

Original soundtrack to the highly ancticipated new release from the"Final Fantasy" series, "Final Fantasy XII," AKA "Final Fantasy 12." This four-disc set includes 100 BGM and unreleased tracks from the game, all composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto ("Vagrant Story," "Final Fantasy Tactics," "Radiant Silvergun").

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #110487 in Music
• Published on: 2006
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: Import

Customer Reviews

Some good tracks, but too much filler
The major shortcoming of this soundtrack is its arrangement. It tries to incorporate every tiny musical clip from the game, many of which are simply not well-suited to listening outside the context of the game. Aside from this, the selection is fairly varied and interesting, with some genuinely nice tracks. In these, although the sound is certainly different from Uematsu's, it isn't worse.

One major complaint for me (the reason I gave this 3 stars rather than 4), is that the 'Ozmone' plain track is significantly different from the in-game version. I bought the OST primarily to listen to a few tracks, and this was one of them. The in-game version is great, and I enjoyed listening to it. The soundtrack version seems to be played in an entirely different key, and is mixed very poorly, to the point where the melody becomes obscured.

The adage of bigger ain't always better
Much like Final Fantasy X altered some aspects to the gameplay (in-battle character changes, the sphere system), Final Fantasy XII did a pretty big overhaul as well with a real-time/ATB-style battle system and the other big notable change was Hitoshi Sakimoto of FF Tactics and Vagrant Story fame to do the soundtrack as opposed to series mainstay Nobuo Uematsu. Some were wondering how the change would alter the games and one can say pretty significantly since, while fine music in its own right, it doesn't really define the game and its environments so much as it offers a musical backing for it which Uematsu always knew how to do.

One word that you can use to describe Sakimoto's work here is "epic". The arrangements and instruments used give it a more grandiose nature which Uematsu at times didn't use, save on arranged albums and pieces like Liberi Fatali. While a bigger sounding soundtrack, its more bombastic arrangements come at the expense of melodies. There's not a lot to hum here and while some tracks are very pleasing to the ear or in some cases, like boss battle themes, very massive sounding, they're just not catchy and many times you almost forget some of the arrangements after listening.

That's not to say there's nothing of value on here. The "Loop Demo" which is essentially the Crystal theme is the best arrangement I've heard and boss battles like "Esper Battle", "Clash of Swords" and "Battle for Freedom" in particular are epic in scope and sound then even One Winged Angel or Summoned Beast Battle were but without the identifiable melodies that made those other tracks so memorable. There's also some upbeat tracks like "Penelo's Theme" and "The Skycity of Bhujerba" to eerie tracks like "The Sochen Cave Palace" and "To the Place of the Gods" with choir and more ambient textures.

The soundtrack for Final Fantasy XII is kind of a double-edged sword since this is probably one of the most epic and powerful game soundtracks I've heard but turning it off, I can't remember any of it except the feeling I was blown away by the sound. So that's just the key: walk in and if you can listen with open minds (not to mention a kick-*** stereo), you'll find a pleasing soundtrack.

Different and Fantastic
Many people I have spoken to who have heard this soundtrack were surprised and put off by it. It is indeed different than the many other Final Fantasy soundtracks composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu. However, Hitoshi Sakimoto has taken a very mature and powerful approach to composing music for Final Fantasy XII.

This score is truly EPIC in scope. A fair comparison would be to Howard Shore's incredible score to the Lord of The Rings trilogy. It's huge, it's bombastic, and insanely complex. Unfortunately, for a series that had long been led by the simplicity and cathiness of Uematsu's themes, "epic" and "complex" are jarring and surprising.

Even so, I truly did enjoy this score. It is by far the grandest of all Final Fantasy soundtracks, and simply must be heard to be believed.