I'm surprised no one has brought up this new release yet.

In short, I think it's one of Sakimoto's finest works yet, along with VS. The emotional tracks are lovely, the dungeon and town tracks are fantastic and the battle music is some of the best I've ever heard (especially that final boss theme. Whoa ).

Iwata and Matsuo made a few contributions to the score but on the whole, I didn't find their work as captivating.

Thoughts? Comments?

Yeah, you'd think if you only had to compose two or three tracks, you'd want to make them your best.  Although Matsuo did an outstanding job arranging the Opening and Ending Movies.

As good as the soundtrack is, though, it really doesn't surpass VS.  Sure, the sound quality and compostional detail is better, but VS had a sound uniquely its own, whereas this is simply a cross between an (albeit very good) RPG and film score sound.

I was let down, actually. Dragon Quarter, Gradius, even Vagrant Story to a certain extent all showed how effective he can be when he removes himself from his Ogre Battle/FFT niche, but this doesn't go more than a little outside the box. There's some great stuff, definitely - Rabanastre is a favorite - but not enough to say it was worth the wait.

Yeah, I think VS will remain my all-time favorite Sakimoto work (and indeed, some of the best VGM, period). I wasn't sure what to think of the music based on the psfs but the soundtrack sounds so much fuller. In some cases, the tracks sound completely different.

It's pure Sakimoto, which is not a compliment from my point of view.
The soundtrack did very little for me whilst playing the game, and it doesn't contain much more than a couple of nice songs, so I don't know if I'll be picking this up, although the packaging is very nice, and I'm a sucker for First Prints.

I don't think Sakimoto will ever improve on Dragon Quarter.

"It doesn't contain more than a couple nice songs"
...Have you listened to it outside the game?  And not the rip?

"I don't think Sakimoto will ever improve on Dragon Quarter."
Dragon Quarter has a nice, unique sound (besides the horrible brass), sure, but half the tracks, especially the slow ones, use like the same three-chord progression over and over.

No electronica here, but many, many tracks with counterparts in Dragon Quarter (Sorrow (Liberation Army Version), The Secret of Nethicite, Rabanastre (Both Versions), etc.)

But then, considering your post in my other topic, maybe you just really don't like orchestras.   
Although, of course the pop tracks in Katamari trump the (still good) orchestral ones.

Speechless Battle is also very Dragon Quarter (Sakimoto, I don't care if half you rip off Copeland.  Give me all the xylophone you got!).

I take back my criticism of Matsuo.  Rebellion is lame, but Leviathan is golden. 

....And I never liked Iwata that much, so no loss.

On the other hand, "Challenging the Empire" is pretty bad, too, so I dunno.

I just can't stop listening, so add this one to the list of songs that are anti-Sakimoto: "The Tomb of Raithwall"

As far as Iwata's tracks go, I am quite fond of "The Sochen Cave Palace."

Wowowow, HamandSushi, five posts at once talking to yourself. That must be a new record here. Can't you just use the 'edit' feature?

I'm finding that, while I enjoy this soundtrack, I miss the much wider canvas that Final Fantasy soundtracks have offered in the past. I don't object to Sakimoto's synth orchestra - it sounds very nice - but to me, an FF soundtrack should be as the title describes "fantastical", full of all sorts of arrangements. FF12's soundtrack, while "nice", seems to ground itself very noticeably.

I wouldn't have minded so much about there being so many synth orchestral tracks, were it not for the fact that the electronic stuff is almost completely missing :-/

The soundtrack has a nice sound and there are some genuinely good pieces, I'm just not sure I feel like I'm listening to a Final Fantasy score right now. At least, not an FF release from the signature series (and not one of the side releases like Tactics or CC)

M;.

I don't think the FFXII OST measures up to either Sakimoto's earlier work or the Final Fantasy series' music. There were a few nice tracks and arrangements, but the majority of the four discs is simply boring and bland. Sakimoto has a very monotonous instrument set here, which really starts to show on a four-disc soundtrack, and his style doesn't seem to fit at all as well as in Vagrant Story or Gradius V.

Ever since hearing samples of the music, I've been fearing this would be a dull soundtrack, and unfortunately, the end result didn't manage to surprise me. There is still the chance that it will grow on me on repeated listenings and during the game, but I'm not really counting on it anymore.

I love it, it's absolutely amazing.  Yes the instrument set is kind of bland but that's okay, it's all good synth orchestration and from what little premise i know about the game, it sounds like it  fits the plot and characters pretty well.  It's not your prance around in a forest style music.  I'm also glad there are no annoying electronic songs or those bland instrumental/industrial crap that was on BoFV.

Matsuo's Abyss and Seeking Power are both awesome songs.  Desperate Battle is easily my favorite song on the album.  Best release of 2006 so far.

"Wowowow, HamandSushi, five posts at once talking to yourself. That must be a new record here. Can't you just use the 'edit' feature?"

But that would fail to showcase my endearing schizophrenia!

The game really doesn't grant many opportunities for electronic experimentation (or really anything outside of the orchestral genre).

This goes for everyone, really. Wait until you hear it in context before you condemn the music. It really does work well in the game (which is equally as fantastic).

I'm pretty sure I don't need to be told how I can judge music on its own basis, regardless of context. At the end of the day, music is music. It might fit the game, as you suggest, but in which case I can't see it doing much to enhance the experience.

Take FFX's ending theme. I heard that on its own before I'd even played the game, and it was one of the most amazingly beautiful pieces I'd ever heard, even moving me to tears. Then I heard it in the context of the ending, and I was equally moved, because the ending to the game was not only wonderful but had a fantastic score to back it up.

And this is just one of many, many examples where I will hear a good piece of music on its own and be moved by it. Now, in the context of the game, it may serve to enhance it or, if the music is entirely inappropriate, can actually work against it. But that in no way should change the enjoyment of the music by itself.

That's not to say I haven't heard the odd track which I'd previously glazed over, but then later found I actually enjoyed more on having some context applied to it. That can be a situation where I think of music in a light I hadn't previously considered.

However, I have yet to witness an entire soundtrack of mediocre quality be lifted just by being in the context of something else. I have no doubt the music serves the game admirably, but I'm unlikely to appreciate it a great deal more other than those pieces in the score I already enjoyed particularly to begin with.

And I stand by my accusation that this is not the kind of fantastical score that I have grown accustomed to in the Final Fantasy series. And not even the kind of level I'd expect from Sakimoto - he's certainly proved he can do the unusual and whimsical with Gradius V, and there is none of that energy on show here.

I love this OST, at this point I think it's my favorite FF OST behind FF8. (I doubt anything will ever top that)
Anticipating FF12 and its music, and going by the samples that were released ahead of the game, I doubted it would best some of Sakimoto's older works, such as FFT, and VS...
After having listened to the OST for a week now though, I think it's head and shoulders above anything he's ever done.
It sounds a lot like FFT and VS in a lot of spots, but the actual composition is night and day imo.
Tracks like Eruyt Village, Jahara, the Phon Coast, Rabanastre Downtown, Cerobi Steppe, and a slew of others really show how he's matured as a composer.

I have to say that I like it quite a bit.  After hearing the music in the demo, my expectations were pretty low, but I'm pleased to report that Sakimoto does not disappoint.  I don't think it's quite up there with his best stuff (Legaia Duel Saga and BoF5), but it's a very enjoyable listen nonetheless.

ALL Final Fantasy soundtracks have amazing Final Battle songs, and FF11's was no exception either. I didn't hear any of the Add-On music albums (Ziraat, etc.) but now that you mention it, one of 11's strongest suit(e)s (pun intended) was its battle songs. I still listen to 'Tough Battle' here and there nowadays, four years after the fact, it never seems to get old (although it sounds very BFM-inspired, doesn't it?).

I know I really shouldn't do this but I just can't help myself right now..

assertation*

Never mind the wait, what about the pricetag?

No, I'm sure I meant what I said, thanks. Try harder to assert accusations correctly

Like how 9, 11, and Crystal Chronicles have maybe one disc worth of "fantastical" scoring?

;/

At best. 9 in particular has maybe one disc worth of tracks that I'd revisit. The rest sound rushed and uninspired, Uematsu on auto-pilot.

11 isn't much better.

9 I really loved - I find myself relistening to much of that soundtrack regularly. But the most important thing is that there are tracks which stand out.

It's not like the entirety of an FF soundtrack is pure gold, but at least I could name you a dozen tracks from each that I really enjoyed. Apart from "Kiss Me Goodbye" there's nothing in FF12's soundtrack that has been drop-dead wow for me yet, and even less so anything that's stuck out in a way that I remember it particularly.

I won't defend 11, though. To be honest, I'd actually kinda moved that one out of my mind as regular canon, since it isn't strictly a normal FF game, purely an online adventure. I don't really care that it IS number 11

I'll agree on XI, for sure, but FFCC is one of my favorite soundtracks from this generation.  There isn't a single track I skip on either disc.  Well... except for the world map music.  After hearing that crap way too much during the game, it just grates on my ears to hear it now.

Don't take it personally man, but my opinion of your opinion just zeroed out.

Meh, each to his own.

Now that I've played FFXII for several hours, I think I can give a better opinion of the music in-game.

Simply put, it sucks. Don't get me wrong, the music as presented on the soundtrack album is magnificent but it's butchered in-game. The sound quality is inferior (I'm not entirely sure why) and even worse, the sound mix is awful. During cinematics, you can barely hear the music and in battles, the sound effects take priority. It's one of the worst sound mixes for a video game that I can recall.

Why bother even having music if you can't hear it? Quite a shame.

(Game is fun though. Just don't put your expectations too high if you're expecting great character development because it ain't there)

So FFXII doesn't allow one to set the music louder and sfx/voices quieter?

Not that I can see.

I wrote up my full review of the XII OST on RPGFan.

It's greak compositionally, but as for me, I don't really like it that much. And I usually like Sakimoto.

Ramza