Finally, it’s here! The FFXIV Stormblood soundtrack is in my hands. What took them so long? Back in the PlayStation era, I guess it wasn’t exactly rare that a soundtrack release wouldn’t come until a full year after – but now, it usually takes a month.
Regardless, a year has passed since the expansion released – and much and more music has been amassed since then. I’m pleased to announce that the soundtrack contains all tracks added from Patch 4.0 – 4.3; a whopping 105 tracks in total! Does Stormblood really compare to the extremely fitting music of Heavensward? (more…)
Last week saw a little incident between nu-metal band Powerman 5000 and the game Final Fantasy XIV. Frontman Michael “Spider One” Cummings took to Facebook to claim the game’s music, particularly the theme played during the 2nd phase of the battle with big baddie Sephirot, was a direct ripoff of their popular hit “When Worlds Collide”, calling it unimaginative and balking at the idea that nobody would notice.
“I mean, this is When Worlds Collide! Using something as inspiration is one thing but a straight up rip off is another!
To clarify, this is music from the game. If it was a song made by a fan, we wouldn’t care.” – Spider One via Facebook
The game’s director Naoki Yoshida responded to the accusations, which can be read in entirety on Polygon.
“…I have been made aware of an allegation regarding similarities between an existing track and the track created for the 2nd phase of Containment Bay S1T7. However, track composer Masayoshi Soken, has also stated to me that he was unaware of the track in question while working on this FINAL FANTASY track.” – Naoko Yoshida
“When Worlds Collide” was a popular song back during the tail end of the ’90s and into the new millennia and has been featured in other games and movies of the past, including Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2. How closely the Sephirot theme sticks to the song can be left to interpretation, but it does raise an interesting question about the overlap between game music and mainstream music.
This would be far from the first time game music has skirted a bit too close to popular culture music. There have been several instances brought up in the past, from the subtle to the blatant, that could be accursed of the same. Chrono Trigger‘s “Robo’s Theme” is a close-runner for Rick Astley’s infamous “Never Gonna Give Your up”. The C64 version of Turrican featured “Subsong 2” which was ridiculously similar to Vince DiCola’s “Escape” from Transformers: The Motion Picture. The comparisons go on through a lot of gaming history, and there’s always some degree of vagueness between what’s “homage” and what’s “ripoff”. Certainly, musicians have sampled each others works and integrated them into their own since forever, whether the original composer knew about it or not. The “Metal Gear Solid Main Theme” had to be taken out of any re-releases and sound collections past Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater due to accusations that it ran too close to classical Russian composer Georgy Sviridov’s “The Winter Road.”
The topic has come up several times in the past, and since the Powerman 5000/FF14 is a new example of the issue, I ask what the game and music communities think of the concept. At what point does a video game track stop being simply “inspired” by other mainstream music, and cross the line into “plagiarism”.
What are your thoughts? Are there any other examples you know of? Let us know what you think in the comments!
It goes without saying (although I’m saying it now) that the Symphonic series is probably the best concert production in the world focusing on game music. Not only are they impressive feats of arrangement and orchestral performance, but Thomas Boecker and crew managed to pull off two such shows in 2011: Symphonic Legends focusing on the music of Nintendo and Symphonic Odysseys, a concert dedicated to Nobuo Uematsu, not to mention a repeat production of Symphonic Fantasies in Japan that just took place a couple weeks back.
While it’s unlikely that we’re see Symphonic Legends on CD given Nintendo’s track record with licensing music (a real shame), we do have Symphonic Odysseys courtesy of Dog Ear Records, and it’s just as good if not better than previous Symphonic efforts.
The music of the Final Fantasy series is not normally the kind of music I like to share with others. That is to say, my initial exposure to Nobuo Uematsu’s captivating scores was such an event that it gave me this neurotic feeling that I was getting my own personal concert; that this music would only be enjoyed by me, alone, in the comfort of my living room, as the soundtrack to the equally memorable interactive stories I experienced in my youth.
This is precisely what scares me about events like Distant Worlds — Seeing this intimate and once-personal love affair become an event, an all-inclusive happening that I must now “share” with others: The screaming fan girls. The cosplayers. And the under-dressed nerds who’ve clearly never been to an opera house that didn’t have chocobo tracks near the entrance.
But for all my stupid, jaded selfishness, I quickly found myself elated to be sitting in a 6th row orchestra seat at Distant Worlds, Final Fantasy‘s symphonic revue of videogame music, when it came to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City. Joining an orchestra led by Grammy award-winner Arnie Roth, guest instrumentals, opera singers and of course Nobuo Uematsu himself were some of the many surprises that defined this unconventional but memorable evening. Hit the jump for photos and impressions from the second night of Distant Worlds’ NYC debut.
Wow, Square Enix had an incredible turn around on this one. You may remember our concert coverage of the Distant Worlds music from FINAL FANTASY Returning Home concert that took place in November 2010, but here we are in January with a full concert DVD and double CD release containing all the music from both evenings’ performances.
Having read Kai’s write-up, I was greatly looking forward to checking this out, and I think you’ll find a lot of surprises in the track list. In addition to world premiere arrangements, there are a slew of guest performers, all of whom perform wonderfully.
Check out our review of the Distant Worlds Returning Home concert DVD and CD after the jump. (more…)
It’s that time of year again. The Tokyo Game Show has come and gone, and Square Enix has once again treated fans to a preview of their upcoming soundtracks, and therefore, games, at the event. The release of these discs has become somewhat of a tradition, as this is the fifth volume of this sampler series, and the third of which we’ve covered on OSV (see Vol.3 and Vol.4).
This time around, we get a much wider selection of pieces, which shows that Square Enix has a lot planned in this coming year. While we’ve covered a few of the releases featured on this disc (Final Fantasy XIV Battle Tracks and Field Tracks are present, for example), the vast majority are still unreleased, and I know a lot of you are with me in wondering what some of these titles are about.
Hit the jump to dig into the Square Enix’s Music Sampler CD Vol.5! (more…)
We hope you enjoyed our unboxing video of the Final Fantasy XIV Field Tracks and Battle Tracks mini-albums last week. It should have given you an idea of just how unique the packaging is for these two discs, but we’ve since given both albums an exhaustive listen and are ready to discuss Uematsu’s return to the Final Fantasy series.
While Field Tracks and Battle Tracks do not present the Final Fantasy XIV soundtrack in its entirety, they certainly do give the listener and idea of what to expect. The albums are due out on Wednesday of this week in Japan, so get ready for a blast of nostalgia.
