On the tenth anniversary of the launch of the thirteenth installment, we are left with the aspect of the game that most arouses consensus
On December 17, the birth of Final Fantasy XIII in Japan was remembered with various pieces in the international press and some threads in forums around the world. It is said that the weather lime the roughness and there are few games that have found in the passing of the years a claim of their quality and their ideas, but the truth is that that moment does not seem to have arrived for the game directed by Motoru Toriyama , which although it has a minority of defenders, continues to arouse rejection, misunderstanding or indifference among a considerable part of the fans of the saga.
But we are not here to talk about the game, but we want to pay tribute to the aspect of it that does not raise doubt, one of the most overwhelming triumphs of the game: the soundtrack that brilliantly composed Masashi Hamauzu practically alone and for the first time as responsible for carrying the baton of a main Final Fantasy -in Final Fantasy X participated under the leadership of the historical Nobuo Uematsu, along with Junya Nakano, and before that he was the main composer of the spin off Dirge of Cerberus-. Hamauzu spent a whole year composing, with the enormous responsibility of giving soul to a project that sought to be a turning point for the saga and becoming a kind of turning point that marked the way forward for Square Enix in a new era.
The composer knew of that spirit that fueled development, but he made no conscious effort to do something groundbreaking with tradition, but merely observed the world he had been given and created the soundtrack that he believed according to his own sensibilities and what I thought I needed every moment. Precisely, the first song he composed was the much celebrated "Blinded by Light", one of the most praised and remembered songs of Final Fantasy XIII, but when he composed it he didn't know much about the game, he only had some pieces of it from a world on horseback between fantasy and science fiction, so he imagined those first chords based on that, helping to forge his earliest identity.
A total soundtrack
The soundtrack is eclectic and enormously varied, with a multitude of records, although in it two recognizable souls can be distinguished, those of Cocoon and Pulse, two very different parts at all levels that required different rhythms. Hamauzu knew that it was a long game and therefore felt that he needed to imbue the variety soundtrack so as not to "bore" the player, but without losing a certain consistency that spun everything. In that search he did not hesitate to dare with all kinds of sounds, from the orchestral work that forms the main column of the musical experience of the title, to all kinds of themes that give color to plots, scenarios and characters. For example, for Sazh he devised themes close to jazz and blues as his main theme, or “Daddy's Got the Blues”, although precisely in these specific cases he asked his friend Toru Tabei for help for the arrangements, for being a music style with the one who was less familiar. The exceptions to the Herculean work are to raise the more than four hours of music that the project treasures.
There are numerous aspects that we could highlight from the soundtrack. The songs he composed for the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Yoshihisa Hirano, are beautiful and complex, very technical (a good example is the main theme of Fang, a regular at the Final Fantasy concerts held throughout the world). The groundbreaking, without ever reaching the raucous, of songs like "Defiers of Fate" and its combination of synthesizers with orchestra. Or the beautiful choral work of "Ragnarok", which does not have the enormous power of the Hymn of the Fayth that he composed with Uematsu in Final Fantasy X, but which is a fantastic theme in its own right.
It is possible that the soundtrack of Final Fantasy XIII does not resonate as much in time as that of other deliveries of the most popular saga and with more emblematic themes for the emotional connection they represent, but on this tenth anniversary, we want to contribute with our grain of sand so you don't miss a job that can only be described as outstanding and deserves to be valued, appreciated and remembered by fans of the saga and good music.
