Details On The Final Fantasy XIII Soundtrack

Details On The Final Fantasy XIII Soundtrack
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Final Fantasy XIII Soundtrack Information

The Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack doesn’t deviate too much from the foundations of the franchise left by Nobuo Uematsu with his decision to join Mystwalker in 2004, however there are reasons to analyse and discuss the new games score. With a new composer taking full control over the arrangement and the first next-generation upgrade to the game series, there is a lot of impetus on the quality of the Final Fantasy XIII OST. This article will focus on the details behind the soundtrack, how many tracks it contains and some of the various different re-releases or accompaniments that have been made.

Analysis of The Final Fantasy XIII OST

Masashi Hamauzu is the head composer of the Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack, with his prior experience and work for Square playing a part in his appointment. Although series stalwart Uematsu stopped working on the series with its tenth installment, Hamauzu didn’t become the head of the music component of Square Enix until the release of the Final Fantasy XIII OST in 2009. With this said, he wasn’t a part of the games X-2, the MMO XI or the last PS2 release XII. As a further twist to his history, he actually left Square Enix in 2010 after the release of Final Fantasy XIII, in order to pursue his own interests and set up his own studio, named Monomusik.

The full four disc Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack contains sixty-five different tracks, with nineteen on the first and the rest containing twenty-two separate musical pieces. In addition to these selection of musical variety, the international version of the game – or Western release if you so desire – used the Leona Lewis song “My Hands” as a replacement for the Japanese theme song, Kimi ga Iru Kara” by Sayuri Sugawara. This choice was influenced by the need to provide an English language song as the main theme as well as a direct lack of staff on-board that Square Enix could use to produce such a song, hence the choice of a familiar recording artist.

Final Fantasy XIII OST Accompanimants

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Aside from the main Final Fantasy XIII OST, Square Enix released several accompanying albums to top off the auditory experience for fans of the series musicianship. Firstly, a fifty minute collection of tracks not part of the original Final Fantasy XIII OST were included on a disc release named “Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack -PLUS-” . Demo versions of songs not used in the final release of the game were re-mastered and re-produced for a better quality from there original unused version, to match the high production values of the rest of the songs. The usual & expected Piano Collection was released thereafter, with ten piano tracks based off their instrument based equivalents on the Final Fantasy XIII OST.

With all this said on the different versions and additions to the Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack, here are a couple more articles revolving around various subjects with regards to Final Fantasy XIII. These include weapons guides, walkthrough articles and character profiles. Click the links below to be taken to them…

This post is part of the series: Final Fantasy XIII Soundtrack & Wallpapers

Details on the Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack and where to get the best wallpapers.

  1. Is The Soundtrack To Final Fantasy XIII Any Good?
  2. Final Fantasy XIII Soundtrack - Songs, Artists, and More
  3. Where to Find Cool Final Fantasy XIII Wallpapers