First... it seemed for awhile that orchestral scores within actual games was getting high, then the last couple years it went down. The FF series was evident...   FF8 was the first with orchestral... then in FF9 every cutscene had orchestral music, then FF10 had one piece, then FF11 had one... then FF12 just has the credits.   So, what happened after FF9?

Even many computer games as far back as 1995 were having full orchestral scores. Now they don't have that much anymore...

Then...there's an incredible drop of arranged music. Does it not sell good on the market? Because it's been very limited lately.   (and the ones that are released - i.e. the ff concerts - are just 95% re-recordings of old stuff and have no new tracks or new compositions at all)

I was just curious if anyone knew the honest reasonings? Not profitable? Poor sales? No time? Don't care?

Thanks,
~Andy

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Wild Arms was in '95? Or was that just the original Japan version?

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If I had to guess, I'd say that in-game orchestrations have declined for the same reason as arranged albums: Improved synth quality. It's probably no coincidence that the FF series dropped the orchestrations when it made the jump to the PS2.

I'm particularly irritated with the lack of orchestral tracks in FF12. The intro cinematic should have been orchestrated and looking at the credits, it looks like the ending movie is synth too. It is possible that Sakimoto just doesn't like working with an orchestra (and I can only recall one piece of his with one and that's the Vagrant Story Staff Roll).

The intro and ending movies both have orchestration credits (Matsuo), although it could still be synths.  There's no orchestra credited on GMR, but Symphonic Poem at the very least obviously had an orchestra, so in short, I dunno.

I definitely agree. 'Fact, I can pinpoint FF7 as the turning point. The reason I was sorely disappointed with FF7 Reunion Tracks was because the music sounded exactly like the OST, even though it was supposedly arranged. In-game music has gotten so good that I can't tell offhand when it's being played by an actual orchestra.

I haven't heard the ending movie yet but the intro movie is definitely synth. There's no orchestra credited either. I can't figure out why Sakimoto needed an arranger for those two tracks though...

Umm, first of all, there IS an orchestra that is credited for FFXII. It's principally the same orchestra that is in every FF game. And the music in those 2 tracks (Opening Movie and Pre-Ending Movie) sounds VERY different from the synth used in the gameplay tracks. Second of all, Sakimoto needed an arranger because he was incredibly (and understandably) busy. He did work on this project for 2 and a half years with a lot of interruptions.

Toriyama recorded "Symphonic Poem 'Hope'" roughly around the same time as he did "Wind of Phantom" on Genso Suikoden V, but it is a very different orchestra to that used in the Opening and Pre-Ending themes (one being British (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), the other being built out of many Japanese performers).

Uh, except for the last three tracks (and the hidden track) it WAS from the OST. No arrangeing going on.

-Joshua

Game companies seem to go through phases in the styles they use to compose. Around this time 10 years ago, Capcom was pretty much all jazz/fusion all the time. Now they're primarily tech/rock/synth. Perhaps in a few years, orchestral will be in vogue again?

Furthermore, FF7 is frequently derided for poor synth quality. Please tell me it didn't really sound like an orchestra performed those tracks to you, Schala :-(

Ah yes, I was referring to only the three so-called orchestrated versions on the Reunion Tracks CD.

I honestly couldn't tell the difference between the orchestrated versions of the FF7 main theme, One-Winged Angel, and Aeris' theme as opposed to the OST versions. But that was only on a casual listening. If I were to listen to them more carefully now, and through headphones rather than from speakers placed several feet away from my ears, I *might* be able to pick out the difference. Then again, I never really cared for FF7 the game much, so I wasn't really inclined to listen to the music too carefully.

As many have said most games today already have top quality synth and/or live instruments so their is no need for an "upgrade" as what most arranged albums are for. Though, there should be more arranged albums that try to arrange the music from a game in a completely new direction like some of the Gensosuikoden albums. The closest thing we have to arranged music in video games today is when something from the arcade is ported to a home console and the soundtrack is reworked. I would love to see reprints of some arranged albums like ones from the "Battle" series by Konami.

Yeah, I think you're right, actually. Can't comment on the pre-ending movie yet but the more I listen to the opening movie, the more I'm forced to conclude that it's an orchestra. I think the fake choir threw me off.

I never paid much attention to the orchestra/no orchestra thing, but arranged albums have dropped off steadily since the turn of the century and I don't understand why. Yes, synth quality is getting better, but there's still plenty to do with solid tunes (especially heavy melodic VGM tunes, which can be arranged in so many directions). A lot of newer soundtracks have such great tracks, it boggles my mind why they don't bother arranging them. The King of Fighters XI "arranged" disc really annoyed me, since it was basically just an upgraded version of the OST disc and just played through once and faded, like the OST.

Thankfully, there is the doujin community and most of the arrangers there produce near-professional arrangements (and even ones that aren't technically great, but still enjoyable...hey, it's more than what you're getting from official arrangers nowadays). Ideally, companies should probably do what they did with the recent SSH-arranged Atelier Iris: Deceitful Wings album: Start farming the original material out to these groups and release them as official albums. We get our arranges, the groups get money and exposure and the composers/companies get the majority of the money. Everyone wins! Admittedly though, there aren't a great deal of orchestrated doujin arrangements...Rock, piano and dance/techno seem to be the primary styles. Still, they've picked up the slack nicely over the past couple years...Remains to be seen what they come out with this year (been kind of slow).

I don't know... many PS2 games synth still sounds crappy compared to a full orchestra. For example, I didn't really like the Ronfaure music in FF11 until it was orchestrated.  But they used to have an arranged album for every game almost.

But... if Square makes more concerts... Why can't they arrange all new tracks? Aerith's Theme is on EVERY concert and sounds the exact same composition. They at least could have new arrangements...

Shadow Hearts used quite a bit of live instrumentation that I liked alot.

That's right. It does not sell well. Original soundtracks sell a lot more than arranged albums because most people are only looking for what they heard in the game, I guess...