Lightning Returns Will Not Feature a 'Traditional' Theme Song

According to the official Square Enix Twitter account, the soundtrack for Lightning Returns has gone to be put through the mastering process. They've revealed that unlike previous games in the series, Lightning Returns won't feature a main theme to be prevalent throughout the entirety of the game.

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Famously, Faye Wong's 'Eyes on Me' melody was used in many of the other pieces of music throughout Final Fantasy VIII, and the song held almost it's own storyline, with the character of Julia having written it about her love for protagonist Laguna Loire. The song then came full circle to both of their children, Squall and Rinoa.

Unlike Final Fantasy VIII, Lightning Returns will focus more on having a musical score for it's theme. To many fans, the vocal music is such a highlight of the games and to some others they... don't go down so well. 'Eyes on Me' has fans divided, and the use of Leona Lewis's 'My Hands' for Final Fantasy XIII was seen as a bold move. Many fans didn't like that Square Enix used an X Factor winner to perform the song.

The soundtrack is being composed by the same team that worked on Final Fantasy XIII-2's. This will include Masashi Hamauzu, and he's being joined by Naoshi Mizuta and Mitsuto Suzuki. So what do you guys think? So you enjoy the vocal songs used in Final Fantasy? Or are you glad to see the back of them for this title? I have to say I'm pretty sad. I do love the cheesey feel good pop numbers they've done lately, although Susan Calloway's 'Answers' was certainly not cheesey or pop-y... I guess only time will tell for this title!

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I like there to be an overarching theme in shows, games and movies when it comes to soundtracks. So I'm a little unsure about it but I trust the orchestral team because i've never NOT liked music from the FF series.

I wasn't really a fan of the music in XIII-2. I found it so repetitive in a bad way, and I just didn't like the whole feel of it. XIII was kind of the same, I wasn't a fan of the musical direction of either of those games, although My Hands was epic. I will not back down on that one!

From what I've read, SE slapped "My Hands" onto the NA/English release of the game due to time restrictions or something... For whatever reason, they weren't able to get the original Japanese theme translated & recorded in English.

"Answers" absolutely -rocks-.. Playing during that opening movie with Bahamut and the epic battle... omg. I saw the live of her singing it with the orchestra on YouTube and it still gave me chills.

I'll always love the constant variations of the theme songs throughout a game. Both "Suteki da Ne" & "To Zanarkand" in X also followed this trend - with variations popping up in Besaid & the path past Mushroom Rock Road going towards Djose Temple (I know the official title is "Sprouting... Movement something something").

as well as "Melodies of Life" in IX ... That was remixed and replayed several times ..

The soundtrack better be phenomenal. The recurring motifs of the main theme throughout these games make it so much more magical. Like seriously, the main themes of most of the games totally trigger the feels in me.

Yes! I agree with you Jiro, hearing the melody of the main theme playing very faintly through another piece of music from the game makes me so delighted and happy! n.n

I hope they do it for this game.

I hated the use of My Hands in XIII. This is mainly because it just felt really tacked on. With Eyes on Me and Melodies of Life, the music really added to the ending partially because it was a theme used throughout the game for key moments in the story. The songs themselves actually played into the story as well, and so it added to the emotion of the ending. My Hands isn't a bad song, but I didn't get that feeling with it at the end. Rather than build up the end of the game, it drew my attention away from it. It just felt out of place.

That being said, I've felt a lot of the music in the XIII games have been pretty weak compared to past games. I would say the music (aside from My Hands and a few others that got on my nerves) always added to the scenes they were in, though. I'm sure it will be the same for this game.

Iv always enjoyed the theme music showing up during important events, I feel like the black sheep on the subject but I liked 'my hands' in ff13 idk it felt proper. I think a good theme song is like a signature on a games events sort of like in the older games mostly if it wasn't for the music becoming so recognizable with the scenes emotion then a lot the scene would have been lost.

As long as the music is good, this won't bother me too much, but like most I really do enjoy those theme songs.

If you want to know, the main theme:

Final Fantasy XIII - Main Theme ~ The Promise - YouTube

is included. It is played in Yusnaan as an easter egg by some treasure chests and later by Morice, a boy who lets you open them for his sidequests. From then he always plays it on his trumpet.

Final Fantasy and Clash on the Big Bridge are also included as easter eggs played by musicians.

The Leona Lewis thing was just embarassing. I did like in previous FFs you had the vocal theme like Eyes on Me, Melodies of Life and Suketi Da Ne (not even going to try to spell it correctly) as subtle details in other themes heard throughout the game.

I really like the Leona Lewis song for FFXIII.

That said, I miss the way that Nobuo Uematsu arranged music. Take Final Fantasy VI, for instance. Most of the songs shared a bit of the same musical thematics. Kefka's melody is hidden through several songs in the game's track. So is Terra's.

Chrono Trigger pulled this off effectively well too.

I really like when a game's music direction can focus around particular melodies and interweave them through-out the different songs in the game, making all the events feel partly related.

I really liked the overarching themes in XIII and XIII-2. The main battle theme (Blinded by Light, I think it was?) was a phenomenal track, and I loved the different ways it was incorporated into XIII. The music was one of the few parts of that game that I never really criticize. I hope we get something similar.

Although as long as they're including tracks from other FF games, they'd better include Type-0. Because that song is simply amazing.