Remixed music in AC, Good Idea or Bad Idea?

Recently I was entertaining a few guests, who had not yet seen AC, so I popped in the DVD. Despite losing more brain cells watching this storytelling wreck, I'm really starting to hate the soundtrack. I mean its not that its awful or anything, but its mostly just remixes. REMIXES! I cant understand what the hell Nomura was smoking. You have Uematsu, the man who single handedly made video game music worth a damn back on payrole temporarily, the man who even magazines like Time praise, the man who has made you millions and has even begun to have his music performed by live orchestra's over the past few years, and you ask him to do remixes? Thats like cloning Da Vinci back to life just to ask him to make the mona lisa just a bit hotter, or cloning Einstein back to life just to ask him to tutor you for a year. This man sells games and CD's just by name alone, he's on payrole, you got him, what the hell are you thinking? You already got fan service up the anus in this flick, Did we really need to hear the battle themes again? I dont mind hearing character specific themes again, but I think Uematsu could have done so much better and improved the overall quality of the film if he had more creative freedom instead of just remixing.

Yes, I know the fanboys are going to accuse me of hating on AC even further, which I do, but damn I think wasting a talent like uematsu on reincarnating old works is worth criticizing

Personally, the JENVOA version in the AC is nice but I can't said the same for One Winged Angel.

EDIT: Wait, is it about Music or the sales of the soundtracks?

and I think the theme that plays while the FFVII crew are fighting bahamut is a decent track as well. JENOVA I've heard countless times and remixed multiple ways from piano solo's to orchestral to the Black Mages Remix. I like Uematsu's work, and some of the original stuff in this film is nice, but I'd have a higher opinion of the film and soundtrack if there was just more original work. I consider the man a certifiable visionary and genius. And I think when square decided music that is eight years old would be cooler than new works from this guy, they were smoking the same stuff Kojima was back when he thought Raiden was a cool idea

The only aspect of the AC soundtrack I wasn’t fond of was the new lyrics for OWA, but even they are growing on me now. Personally, I’m glad that they didn’t add a whole heap of new tracks to this movie. It is, after all, a nostalgia feature film.

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Originally Posted by Soul of Tarsis

The only aspect of the AC soundtrack I wasn’t fond of was the new lyrics for OWA, but even they are growing on me now. Personally, I’m glad that they didn’t add a whole heap of new tracks to this movie. It is, after all, a nostalgia feature film.

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Most of the time, I would agree. But this is uematsu we're talking about, he is talented enough to craft new tracks that evoke the feel of the original story, while involving the new themes. In the 2nd Kenshin OVA Seisouhen, many of the pieces Iwasaki composed sound similar to the first OVA, but in listening to both soundtracks that is just because he wanted to evoke similar feelings, while moving forward with new tunes. The only real remix in the soundtrack is a mellow piano version of "half" which was the 2nd intro to the TV series, and you dont even know its a remix until your the piece is halfway through and comes to the chorus, unless your looking at the box that is. I dont see why uematsu couldnt have done the same thing, thus pleasing both the nostalgia crowd and those wanting new tracks from him.

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Originally Posted by Christmas

EDIT: Wait, is it about Music or the sales of the soundtracks?

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The music, Im sure the soundtrack is doing well in japan, though I havnt seen any numbers myself. After FFX-2 I was looking forward to hearing uematsu on FF again, and the more I hear, Jenova, boss battle themes, OWA, ect. in AC, the more I just want to smack Nomura for wasting Uematsu like that.

Your like the energizer bunny of hatin.

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Originally Posted by SoulTaker*

Your like the energizer bunny of hatin.

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You speak as if its my fault AC sucks so hard :tongue:

Why hate on Advent Children?

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Originally Posted by Soul of Tarsis

Why hate on Advent Children?

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shall we have that discussion in a seperate thread my good tarsian?

Hell if I'm the one that revives one of those threads.

i'd take it you wouldn't like the black mages then

I love Raiden. :)

But I think I agree with you on the music. Ignoring all the other comments about Uematsu and the like, it just wasn't pleasant to listen to. Except the song when the credits were rolling. But ugh. Not good.

i thought it wasa bad idea. one winged angel sucked, among others, but that one in particualer really took the biscuit.. although i know it was another remix of OWA, the kingdom hearts version would have done nicely;)

I personally think the remixes were done greatly, remixes whoopdee doo it's still music and the OST was excellent, it's just that some fans of Game OSTs shudder at the sound and sight of a guitar they bash Soundtracks for one solo, I've heard on other forums, the OST was done very well IMO, it was a movie not a game, movie is different to a game.

Can you imagine AC with the old OST of the game? It could be so poor. Remixes are good... I love guitars xD I love The Black Mages xD

While some of the mixes were pretty good, I agree it was pretty much a waste. Plus, they didn't even bother with some songs. All the Piano tracks came off an the "Piano Collections" album. Umatsu couldn't have been in the studio more than a month in total for the project.

Yes, it was a good idea. Any other answer is wrong.

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Originally Posted by Neco Arc

i'd take it you wouldn't like the black mages then

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Actually Im rather fond of them, and I thought the battle theme remixes they released were all entertaining, especially the remix of Dancing Mad. I dont mind remixes par sae, but it just seems like Nomura is trying push square very far away from its roots. On FFX-2 he used the hack that scored the bouncer, and now he uses mostly remixes instead of having Uematsu in all his glory actually score some new stuff, which the fans would have ate up even more. I can appreciate the desire to attempt to break new ground, and try to give new artists a chance, but bloody hell tossing an asset like Uematsu aside like that just screws over the consumers. Uematsu is easily skilled enough to reuse similar themes from FFVII while scoring new tracks, hell he managed to insert the "Melodies of Life" melody into a slew of the tracks in FFIX while still giving said tracks their own unique feel. Nomura the more I see his work, the more Nomura comes across as an egotistical ass who cant accept that FF was great before he came along, and has to move the franchise further and further away from the elements and artists that made it successful in the first place.

Nomura was only a character designer when he first came along. Hironobu Sakaguchi actually wrote the FFVII scenario.

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Originally Posted by ?????

Nomura was only a character designer when he first came along. Hironobu Sakaguchi actually wrote the FFVII scenario.

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not entirely correct, the credits at gamefaqs state that that the final draft was BASED on a story sakaguchi and Nomura worked on together, that Kitase was the director and was the primary writer for the final draft of the script.

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS WITH SONG NAMES!*


There's nothing wrong with rearranging some music for a "sequel" story, IMHO, and I think the amount of FFVII music that was reused in AC was pretty good. I'm not a big fan of the Black Mages, and those distortion guitars do get on my nerves at times, but AC's soundtrack is still, all in all, pretty well done.

FFVII Piano Collections were probably made with FFVII AC in mind. They came out in late 2003 and AC was supposed to be released somewhere on early 2004, but it was getting delayed all the time and didn't see its Japanese release until late 2005. Tifa's theme, Aeris' theme and the Fighting theme had their piano versions playing in AC. Other songs that were taken from the original game? Opening (rearranged for an orchestra), The Great Northern Cave (rearranged with a better synth), Fighting (Black Mages), Still More Fighting (Black Mages), JENOVA (Black Mages), Advent: One-Winged Angel (orchestra, choir and Black Mages) and End Credits (several FFVII themes orchestrated).

The other songs may have hints to other FF themes (such as the reference to Turks in "The Chase of Highway"), but otherwise they're totally new songs. The new songs include The Promised Land (very beautiful), Beyond the Wasteland, Sign, For the Reunion, Water (also beautiful), Materia, Black Water, Battle in the Forgotten City (a great new battle song), Violator, Divinity I and II (both are awesome), Encounter, the Chase of Highway which I mentioned earlier, Savior and Cloud Smiles. Plus there's also the song "CALLING", which isn't that great but it's alright and starts to grow on you after listening to it for a few times.

That said, I think FFVII AC has a pretty good amount of old music but also a nice amount of newly made music to compensate.

i loved Beyond the Wasteland (where Cloud fights the brothers in the wasteland with the violins and all) and Battle in the forgotten city.

but when did the JENOVA remix play????

btw i thought the ending parts (the fast part) of One Winged Angel was nice. :)

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Originally Posted by six underground

but when did the JENOVA remix play????

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It played during the part when (SPOILER)Cloud fought Kadaj before Kadaj turned into Sephiroth. It was a pretty good fight even though half of it was showing the Highwind and the party members having a conversation.

I voted good,whats not to like about it?