Anyone have the Japanese copy?  Anyone play the demo and have opinions about the music featured there? 
Where are the reviews for this!?

I've played the demo only so far and can say the music sounds fantastic!  The battle theme has grown on me!  Bresha Ruins is especially great!  But, I found out the Japanese version of this track has an incredibly annoying woman rapping over it!  It sounds quite terrible.  The rap was taken OUT of the US Demo and it sounds so much better!  I am hoping that the soundtrack included in the LE of the game will have that terrible rap omitted!

I like it a lot.  Disc 1 is great.  Disc 2 is awful.  Disc 3 is a slow incline upwards from awful.  And Disc 4 seals the deal with amazing.  I think it has the best staff roll of all time.

I absolutely love that amazing recurring motif that starts with Disc 2-05 and occurs all over the album thereafter. 

I hate every single one of the -Aggressive Mix- and original versions thereof.  They're just awful.

I don't like any of the vocals except for that one that just has a "lalalala" randomly throughout.

Hamauzu's songs are amazing (as always) but don't offer much variation from the original FFXIII stuff (that's not a bad thing in my book).  Naoshi Mizuta is pretty good on this, I don't usually like his stuff but this is pretty good.  Mitsuto Suzuki's tracks are overall not my flavor.

This. Exactly this. I left the fourth disc on repeat once I reached it.

I also liked the vocal songs quite a lot. Especially the full track by KOKIA, she's just amazing

I do particularly enjoy the Origa track AND it's aggressive mix on Disc 1.

I was particularly tickled when I heard the Pantera style (screaming) version of the Chocobo theme.

You know, I only like this thing because it's so bad.

Oh, I am 100% on board with you. KOKIA is my hero(ine). Noel's theme with the lyrics. I just melt. When she sings "Hunting, searching for futures I've dreamed" and she does that vibrato hold on "dreamed" ... chills / goosebumps every damn time.

This soundtrack deserves all the praise I've heard for it, and I have huge respect for S-E packaging the entire four disc soundtrack with the collector's edition instead of throwing a shitty "best-of" one disc release at us (as was their usual deal in the past).

Also, f*ck the haters, Crazy Chocobo really isn't that bad. You can hate the vocals, fine, but the in-your-face guitar and double-bass-pedal drums make the song a hell of a lot of fun. As for me I think it's a hilariously fun and self-aware tribute.

I have the FF XIII-2 Collectors Edition that comes with the 4 CD soundtrack.  Just to let everyone know, the Invisible (Unseen) Invaders track that plays during Bresha Ruins DOES have that terrible girl rapping on it!  The game itself DOES NOT have the rap like in the Demo and is actually a much better track.  I figured they would've put this version on the OST but it seems they left the original Japanese version with the rapping.

Anyone know where the instrumental can be gotten!?

Also, I've heard the music up to Disc 2 so far in the game and OST and I think this OST is VERY strong!  The Hamauzu tracks are absolutely amazing (listen to Divine Conflict NOW!). Major chills!

"Eclipse" on Disc 2 by Mitsuto Suzuki is mindblowing as well!

Here you go!  http://vgmblog.tehmiker.com/post/159522 … demo-loved

I also ripped the US version of "Worlds Collide" which is just slightly different than the OST version.  http://vgmblog.tehmiker.com/post/169839 … -of-worlds

I totally agree with you, by the way.  I've heard all the songs with vocals up to disc 3 of the OST and I love them all except that awful rap on Invisible Invader (Unseen Intruder).  That lady just plain sucks at rapping.  Square Enix USA made the right call by getting the vocals out of there.  As for Worlds Collide.. I like both versions, though the US edit with the distorted vocals seems to have a more epic/sense of urgency feel to it.

I KNEW IT!  I KNEW on Worlds Collide the guy rapping sounded different.  It seems they put some sort of "distort" effect on his voice like he's rapping through a walkie talkie.   And when I heard the version on the OST his rapping was crystal clear and thought "hmmm... the version in game sounds better"!

I wonder who decided those two tracks get those changes. Invisible Invaders being the more prominent change.  The USA version has like a whole new part to the song (which sounds better).  Was it SQUARE USA that went back to Naoshi Mizuta and was like "Hey man, you gotta change this song and take out vocals" lol.  Or was this decided at Square in Japan?  The composer?

And why change those two songs and not the other vocals in the game. Why not take out some of the other vocals?  Why only Invisible Invaders?

I think the most likely scenario was that Square USA didn't approve of the song for whatever reason so they went back to Mizuta/Square Japan to get it re-done.  Could have also been a legal issue, maybe they didn't have permission to use that lady's awful "rapping" skills in the US.  Either way, I'm glad it worked out the way it did.  I would have developed a hatred for the Bresha Ruins if I had to listen to that on an endless loop.

I'm sure when a "FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 Original Soundtrack PLUS" is inevitably announced, these two changed tracks will be on it.

Hmmm.  My feelings don't seem to mirror many here on this OST.  To each his own, I suppose.

I listened to the discs slightly out of order.  When I got my copy only jb really had commented on each disc separately.  I decided to listen in the following order: his most hated, his 2nd most liked, his 2nd most hated, and his favorite.  I figured that if I were to agree I'd get the bad disc out of the way first and save the best for last.   
So my order of listening was disc 2, 1, 3, 4.

Overall I loved disc 2.  I will fully admit that woman is horrible at rapping, but you know what...it grew on me!  I kind of like its badness now.  Most of the rest of the disc I legitimately liked a lot.  I've listened to the full disc 4+ times at this point.

Disc 1 was pretty good, though there are a lot of skippable tracks on it.  Some of the best and some of the more mediocre tracks.  I've listened to the full disc twice and certain tracks many many more times.

Disc 3 was mostly garbage.   Two or so tracks  (I don't even remember which ones) stood out and a few more were ok.  Otherwise, by far my least favorite disc.  I listened to it fully once and took it out of the player.  Scared to listen through it again...

Disc 4 = boring.  A heck of a lot of ho hum music that sounds like it is for cutscenes.    A few gems on the disc for sure, but I'm not anxious to replay it.  Listened through once only so far.

I listened to everything in the car except disc 2.  All the other discs were listened through casually while driving.  Therefore I don't know track names or which composers did what  for the most part (except some tracks which are obviously Hamauzu).  I certainly cannot identify Mizuta based on his other works.
I think I'm going to retry discs 3 and 4 especially and start really solidifying my top picks and figuring out who composed what.  I listen to most of my music on disc, so it would probably be beneficial for me to burn a 1-2 disc mix of absolutely incredible stuff from this OST.

Honestly, a car is probably the worst listening environment for this kind of music. Well, maybe a construction site is even worse...

My car actually sounds better than my crappy computer speakers or mini stereo system half the time.  Certain tracks will not work in the car (especially with very heavy bass-- most recently I found the FFXI Abyssea theme unbearable on the car speakers) but I often find myself taking CDs to the car so I get a slightly better sound.  Disc 2 sounded better in the car than in the house (ever so slightly).

One day I should upgrade to a nice sound system, I just can't justify the cost at this time.  If I won the lottery(if I played the lottery) I think it would be in my top 10 things to do.

Either I have some serious problems or my taste buds are just so damn awesomely different, but so far at start of third disc I still haven't heard a bad track.

I've mostly been surprised about Naoshi Mizuta, since when he started composing really good stuff? Seems that I really need to buy this album soon.

Also, Crazy Chocobo is the second best arranged version of the theme after FF X-2's Chocobo theme. Lovers will love.

I wouldn't go thaaaaaat far but I do think Crazy Chocobo is awesome.  Even more fun hearing it while you ride a red chocobo in the game.

I find it atrocious/laughable/ridiculous and really wonder what the heck it's doing on an official FF OST.
To each his own.. XD