Most underrated soundtrack?

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Originally Posted by Darth Ganon

A prime example being Aerith's Theme. It's nice, but I'm not a huge fan of it on its own (it's used earlier in the game and didn't spark anything in me). The moment where it's playing instead of J-E-N-O-V-A during the Jenova LIFE battle and the scenes before and after it is what won me over. That was some powerful stuff to me back in the day.

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This is something that Final Fantasy is, or at least used to be very good at: tying music to the story itself. They did this in FFIX, where you could hear "You're Not Alone" for a specific battle instead of the normal boss music.

Here's one of my favorite themes from FFXIII's soundtrack, which I think is extremely underrated when compared to the rest of the amazing OST:

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Originally Posted by Darth Ganon

A prime example being Aerith's Theme. It's nice, but I'm not a huge fan of it on its own (it's used earlier in the game and didn't spark anything in me). The moment where it's playing instead of J-E-N-O-V-A during the Jenova LIFE battle and the scenes before and after it is what won me over. That was some powerful stuff to me back in the day.

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& @Scruffington

I agree! I think understanding music emotionally is what gets me to like a certain track over another. There's also something else that I wondered and that's how composers decide what to write for music. Do they write according to a scene being played out before them or do they come up with concepts without seeing any actual visualizations of the game itself? I've always wanted to understand their choices and selection of music.

I'd like to understand music period. I can grasp the creative process of most other art forms (I'm not good at them, but I get it), but the act of creating an unheard of piece of music is 100% lost on me. I'm literally unable to even make up a simple tune that isn't a part of something I've already heard.

Composers are wizards from my point of view.

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Originally Posted by Darth Ganon

I'd like to understand music period. I can grasp the creative process of most other art forms (I'm not good at them, but I get it), but the act of creating an unheard of piece of music is 100% lost on me. I'm literally unable to even make up a simple tune that isn't a part of something I've already heard.

Composers are wizards from my point of view.

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It's actually a pretty precise craft with tons of rules that you can definitely learn. Of course, some people manage to just feel their way out, but all music can be analyzed and follows specific rules that can be replicated.

You can trust me on this, I spent 12 years in music school and my wife has a degree in musicology :p It's far less mystical than the general public perceives it as.

I've dabbled with music here and there, and can come up with melodies in my head, but have no way to bring them to life in any satisfactory manner. I also don't have my instruments or any worthwhile software available to expand on. But I believe there used to be tutorials on Newgrounds from some of the top composers there

Ooh, somehow forgot entirely about FFXIII (and FFXIII-2, to a lesser degree). It has a fantastic soundtrack. The downside is that it's in one of the games most heavy on sound effects and voices. This means that there's a constant sound of your footsteps and characters talking this and that, and with that happening, it really drowns out the music. But when I was playing FFXV, it was the FFXII and FFXIII soundtracks I tended to play the most, and I guess that shows how good they are.

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

Ooh, somehow forgot entirely about FFXIII (and FFXIII-2, to a lesser degree). It has a fantastic soundtrack. The downside is that it's in one of the games most heavy on sound effects and voices. This means that there's a constant sound of your footsteps and characters talking this and that, and with that happening, it really drowns out the music. But when I was playing FFXV, it was the FFXII and FFXIII soundtracks I tended to play the most, and I guess that shows how good they are.

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XIII-2 has some of the most amazing pieces of music I've ever heard in a FF game. The themes of Caius, Yeul, Noel and Heart of Chaos are among the best in the entire series imo.