I found a hidden track on the promo Dissidia music CD that was given out at the Square Enix Party and I wondered if anyone's heard it before. It almost reminds me of some other game music...a battle scene or something...I haven't yet listened to Takeharu Ishimoto's other FF music, so it could have been taken from Before Crisis or Crisis Core for all I know.

Anyway, have a listen:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/laakbo

This is not from Dissidia, but Monotone, a mobile phone game also scored by Ishimoto.

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/mobile/mono/

Thanks! How did you get that info on the Monotone music, though? As far as I can tell, there's nothing about the music on the Monotone website.

I read that on a reliable Japanese blog. Well, it may not be true after all, but I consider this as highly probable. I can't imagine this kind of music in a dramatic-looking game like Dissidia. Besides, the BGM of the website sounds just like this hidden track.

Still not sure what to make of Dissidia as a game, but a recent gameplay video shows off what the music could end up being like.  Here, a rearranged version of "This Is The Last Battle" accompanies a FF3-themed dual - capped off, naturally, with "Fanfare":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqsvZ2E6LZ8

I think that's FF3's standard boss theme, actually. As for the game itself, it looks an awful lot like a cross between Psychic Force and Kingdom Hearts 2. That's...I dunno. But it's somethin'.

Ah, you're right.  I guess I was mistaking that melody line with Last Battle's.  They do sound fairly similar in tone.

.... Seriously, me and This Is The Last Battle just aren't having the best of luck this year. *_*

I've yet to hear Dissidia in its entirety, but wowsers, the track -DISSIDIA- Ending, a stunning eight minute orchestrated medley of every main series Final Fantasy from FFI-XII, is flat-out incredible.  FFII's Finale and FFV's The New Origin, in particular, made my knees buckle.

Giving this a first listen today, and when I got to track 19 (FF4 Dreadful Fight) I found myself whistling along and bouncing in my chair like a kid.

Guess I really do freaking love that song, those epic boss battles just wouldn't have been epic without it.

Watching gameplay footage. The game looked cool until Cloud started running up the damn walls. At that point I couldn't take it seriously anymore.

This might just make me break down and finally get a PSP...

This, Crisis Core, and the upcoming Kingdom Hearts game, yeah.

Fortunately, I just won a PSP by eating pudding

What? Sounds like an awesome story. Do tell.

Anybody know where a person could score more samples, hopefully undisturbed by sounds of gameplay?

This soundtrack was the opposite of what I expected. I liked most of the original compositions and vocal tracks even though they were by Takeharu Ishimoto. However, I found the arrangements were mostly either sloppy or uninspired with a few exceptions. I actually preferred the Chocobo album. There were a few highlights on Dissidia, but not enough for it to really commemorate the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy music. Mr. Uematsu would not approve.

Yeah, I agree. The arrangements are very...well...droll; not /bad/ as it were, just not even close to worth getting as far as yet another set of FF arrangements.
The arrangers could have learned from Smash Brothers Brawl....but didn't.

Haha, well, it's not a very awesome story at all, actually.

It's just that I likes me my dessert after dinner, and one day, I spotted a brand of pudding in the local supermarket that was holding some kind of campaign where you could win a PSP, cos they were giving away 200 or something.

Every pudding has a serial code, and if you register at their official website and enter that serial code you get 1 point. You need to collect 10 points to get a chance at winning a PSP, so I just told my girlfriend that from now on, when doing groceries, she should bring back one of those puddings every day.

Fortunately, she knows how much I love videogames and sweets (a lethal combination) so she obliged and I had my 10 points rather quickly.
So you go to the homepage, register the points, and when you get 10, you get 3 doors on your screen and you have to choose which one you think the prize is behind, so I chose left, which was WRONG.

Fortunately though, to try your luck a second time, you only need 5 points instead of 10, so about a  week later I had amassed enough points again, tried again, and AGAIN chose the left door, figuring that it would have to be Left eventually, and BAM, right on the money!

Considering the puddings are like 100 yen a piece, that means I got meself a PSP for only 1500 yen, less than 10% of the retail price
And a PSP-3000 at that!

I still can't believe I actually won! Normally I never ever win stuff like that, but it seems even I can be lucky sometimes

It's funny you should mention that, cos the other day when I was shopping around some of my favorite Game Shops over here, I actually saw a store where they were trying to sell Dissidia as "Final Fantasy Brothers Brawl"
Seriously, in Japanese it said "Dairantou FF Brothers", LOL.

So, how's the saying go?  "The proof is in the pudding"?  Or in this case, the PSP. :)

'Grats, Amazingu.  Good win!

Speaking of the PSP-3000... is the screen problem still evident in them?  Anyone know if another PSP model is coming to fix it?

Damn, Amazingu, I'm twelve kinds of jealous.

Nothing's official, but I've read rumors that there will be another new PSP model this fall, though I wouldn't get my hopes up for any massive changes considering how little difference there is between the 2000 and 3000 series.

Bumping an old topic to ask a question for anyone familiar with the soundtrack and/or game...

The track used for fighting Chaos is "Chaos -Last Battle 1-", right? The weird vocal one?

So, uh....why the "1"? There doesn't seem to be any other "last battle" themes (except, obviously, the arrangement of last battle themes from previous games). Are we guessing this is another sign of Square apparently not realizing people expected new music until probably a month before the game came out?

I put the game down last month after about 120 hours of play (it's awesome) but I seem to recall there only being 1 song for the Final Battle, which IS split into 3 parts.
The music test in the game DOES have a Final Battle 2 and 3 though, but I have no clue where they're used. The guide states you unlock all 3 Final Battle themes by clearing the game, though I'm pretty sure the last 2 themes aren't actually used during the Final Battle...

So in other words, the soundtrack is incomplete.

on that info, I poked around some more, and I thought the videos here would clear things up:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p … E110D81C27

unfortunately, they are either inconsistently labeled or something funky is going on. All I can tell is that the other last battle themes seem to be edits made from "Cosmos" and "Chaos". Given the fact that the discs are already running at 75 minutes apiece, I suppose quite possible there are separate edits they decided not to include.

So like the first Dissidia, I've found Dissidia 012's arrangements of classic Final Fantasy pieces to be pretty hit or miss.  There's no denying, however, that the Ending is again a total knockout.  While the structure of the medley remains largely the same from the first, careful listeners will hear and appreciate the minute new additions sprinkled throughout.  For instance, they've added brief excerpts of FFIII's Eternal Wind, FFIV's Kingdom Baron, FFV's Ahead on Our Way, and FFVII's Aerith's Theme into the mix.  They've opted to take out the "Cayenne/Cyan" part of the FFVI Ending, and replaced it with Tina's.  There is, of course, a new piece for FFXIII, and you'll also hear that the "Prologue/Final Fantasy" theme now bookends the intro and finale.  Oh, and there's the blink-and-you'll-miss-it rendition of the Chocobo theme.

The orchestra itself sounds more robust and resonating this time around.  FFVIII's Eyes on Me got an especially lovely face lift, and FFV's The New Origin sounds better than ever.