Quote Originally Posted by Loony BoB View Post
Damn. I think, tl;dr line excepted, Aulayna just summed up my viewpoint really well. So read her post as my viewpoint, and then add in the following...

Music - It's easy to forget the actual FFXV music because you get hyped up for the mp3 player. But the FFXV music really impressed me, and I know when I streamed, I got a few comments from DrAssenov that she really liked certain songs that were playing that were part of the game's soundtrack. I particularly love the chocobo music and the music that kicks in when you get near a camp. Beautiful, calming music that instantly makes you feel safe.
I have two points the bug me with the music, none of which are a slight of Shimomura-san herself. Firstly, there wasn't enough of it. Too often they'd reuse the same track, and though there were nice themes there were few variations on those themes. FFIX had a total track count of over 100 including pieces written for FMV sequences, I expect XV to have well under half that.

Secondly it didn't get used as effectively as it should. Too often in cutscenes it would be so quiet in the mix that it wouldn't have the impact it should have. Another good example is when they play Somnus when you return to the crown city, but a) it's too quiet and b) it keeps getting interrupted every ten seconds with battle themes. Fighting through deamons in the crown city to a background of Somnus would have been so atmospheric, but in the end I had to just stand stationary for a while just to be able to listen to the thing.

One thing I really liked about how they used the music was how it would transition seamlessly from one style to another sometimes. The Chocobo theme is the most prominent example of this; it's a lovely, chilled out piece led by some woodwind when you're on a chocobo at walking pace, but as soon as you start to run the percussion and other instruments fade in. That was very smooth and awesome. More of that please.

EDIT: I remember that Lestallum line. And I think it's reasonable to put that kind of stuff in. I think it's good to have "real" situations, even negative ones. A great example is how much I loved that people were racist against my character's race in FFXI. Meanwhile in FFXIV, the races barely acknowledge anything about each other at all. Hell, I barely know my own culture. I think this is kind of idealistic and sugar coated. It's not nice, but racism is a thing in the world. Sexism is too. The fact that the females are the only ones who work in the factory at Lestallum is another example of sexism, as Psy mentioned. Why? Why not? It's an interesting little tidbit but they don't expand on it enough. I'm not sure it would help them out at all if they did, though, because people will always lose their trout over things like that.
I don't disagree that most of the time this would be fine. If this were a game that I felt generally treated its women with a high level of respect, then I would've just walked past that dude and thought "Well, he's a dick." I wouldn't have been mad at the developers. But in a game where Cindy gets dressed like she is, the main heroine's primary motivation in life is to marry and lay her life on the line for a guy and where crotchless pants are the only fashion option available for every single woman in Lestallum, that otherwise throwaway line just felt like rubbing salt in the wound.