I am not a big fan of his work, so obviously I have some objections to some of his arrangements. Yes, the Fanfare them might be one of the worst now which is disappointing cause it used to be one of the best versions.
I really like it, tbh, but I’m a Hamauzu fan, so that’s to be expected Some of the new tracks are very clearly his work, but he’s also done some arrangements of older tracks. I think you can usually tell where it’s him because I think Mitsuto Suzuki’s are probably the ones that are more straightforward. I will say, however, that I’m extremely annoyed at the use of strings. They’re just such a neutral color that hearing some of the stronger synths from the original replaced by them feels genuinely painful to me. The reactor theme is an example of this, but by far the worst offender is the victory fanfare. They’ve managed to turn the absolute best version of the track into smurfing garbage. And it’s all because of the focus on strings (they’re the last thing that should be playing the melody here) and pretty much removing all percussion, leaving just a timpani which is just... intensely frustrating. And it’s not like this particular fanfare can’t sound good played by a live ensemble, just as long as you keep it jazzy. Case in point:
True, but I'm actually kind of disappointed with a few of the arrangements. Tifa's theme is great (well the one actually labeled as her main theme) whereas Aerith's theme leaves much to be desired. I do like the weird Aerith vs. VII Main Theme track. I also find it amusing they have a track called "The Day Midgard Stood Still" which was a variation of track title in Evangelion as well though the similarities end there. I also think its a bit weird they decided to make a variation of Those Who Fight Further for almost every boss fight. It's a weird OST.
It probably works much better in-game. With a game that has this kind of cinematic approach, you can’t exactly write a soundtrack as you would in 97.
After listening to a bit of the Remake score, I'm a little annoyed how much it likes to start with a wild if underwhelming interpretation of the theme and then about halfway to 2/3rd through the track, it finally just does a straight up arrangement of the original to kind of win you back. I'm not as impressed as I feel like I should be.
Happy Easter
Thanks, I’ll have a listen! Happy Easter!
I figured you would appreciate this: (SPOILER) What surprises me the most is how well this works as an 80s song. Even the lyrics are not far off from some artist in the New Wave movement.
That's what I've heard.
Yeah, it is the rare actual sci fi story. Granted, it does still have its science fantasy elements, but it's surprisingly military SF and hard SF at times.
