RPG LAND

[VsPluckyDuck]

You know what bothered me about this game's music? It's becoming more prominent as I'm perusing the soundtrack.

The music is great music, but it didn't fit so well in the game in the story scenes. It doesn't grab the reins and take charge, say to your face "I'm here and I'm relevant." It fades into the background a lot, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when you're trying to develop musical themes (which is what provides FFIX's soundtrack with such staying power, everything is so well connected) it can be a detriment.

I'm looking at the track listing. "Lightning's Theme." "Hope's Theme." I couldn't tell you what any of those character themes sound like. What are they? When did they play? How do they go? There wasn't a single musical melody that the game seemed to directly attach to a character. If it did, it wasn't strong enough, because I can't remember them or the association was muddled. The main theme of the game is supposed to be Serah's theme, I guess, which caught me off guard because it plays throughout the game, often at times when Serah was the furthest thing from my mind.

Compare FFVI, FFVII, FFIX and Treasures of the Rudras (bleh game, great themes). There are more that I'll think of, I'm sure. You know which song belongs to which character from when and how they queued up and the themes repeated. With FFXIII, you don't really get that. There are melodies that you hear several times, but they're not well connected to the characters.

One of my favourite tracks? Turns out it's "Sazh's Theme." Oh, it's a character piece? Good thing I associate it with "that Vile Peaks area with the cogs and walkways," instead of my favourite character, and good thing it played all of once.

The ones that stuck were the area pieces, rather than the cutscene ones. Probably because you hear them longer and nobody is talking over them. As a batch of CDs, FFXIII's soundtrack is good to listen to, but in the game, it was kind of mild and didn't pair with what was onscreen very well.

Listening to it after the fact, I'm enjoying it more than I did in the game, but I don't regret scoring the sound the way I did, because you can't expect everybody to grab the soundtrack and listen to it that way, and in the context of the game, it did not give me a good emotional grip on things because it was too vague.
My favourite tracks, by the way, are Sazh's Theme, Dust to Dust (Oerba Village), and Fighting Fate.

[Wein Cruz]

Gamespot gave Final Fantasy XIII an 8.5/10. http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/rpg/finalfantasy13/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;read-review

Oh well, I still want to get this game. The linearity might've bothered me in the past, but not so much anymore, and from what I can tell, the game opens up substantially after the 20-30 hour mark. And the story looks like it's gonna rock. =p
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[Omegarage]

The reviews have been all over the place. I've given up trying to read any of them because they range from "This is utter bs" to "One of the best rpg's ever made."

I've resolved to pick up my copy, grab some snacks, and enjoy the ride.
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"The teen passed out during the ceremony and the town decided to drown the cow."

[VsPluckyDuck]

[Omegarage]

[Idin Leis]

I saw a commercial for FF XIII today. It made me feel embarrassed that I ever liked the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole.

[LiQuid!]

That's funny that you say that. Out of everything that I've heard about FFXIII from all the press outlets and hands-on play time, the summons is the only thing about the game that I think is awesome.
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[RagePirate]

[Omegarage]

[Idin Leis]

[Omegarage]

[Idin Leis]

[Strategos]

[Pandar]

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[Omegarage]

[PipArchDevil]

[Idin Leis]

[J.L.Jones]

[NR]

[Idin Leis]