The music of the video game Final Fantasy XIII was composed by Masashi Hamauzu. Former regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu did not contribute any pieces to the soundtrack. Music from the game has been released in several albums. The main soundtrack album, Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack, was released on four Compact Discs in 2010 by Square Enix, the developers and producers of the game. Selections from the soundtrack have been released on two gramophone record albums, W/F: Music from Final Fantasy XIII and W/F: Music from Final Fantasy XIII Gentle Reveries, both in 2010 by Square Enix. An album of arranged pieces from the soundtrack, Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack -PLUS-, was also released by Square Enix in 2010, as was an album of piano arrangements, Piano Collection Final Fantasy XIII. The theme song for the Japanese version of the game, , was released as a single by For Life Music in 2009.
The soundtrack received positive reviews from critics, who felt that it was Hamauzu's best work to date and an excellent mix of material and genres which took the series' music in a new direction. The "Plus" album received weaker reviews, primarily due to its perceived lack of tracks that were significantly different from those in the original soundtrack album, while "Kimi ga Iru Kara" was considered bland and disappointing. The "Piano" album's reception was split between critics who felt that the tracks did not deviate enough from the original pieces and those who felt that the straightforward arrangements were sophisticated. Music from the game was played at a live orchestral concert in Stockholm, Sweden, and was added to the permanent rotation of the international Distant Worlds concert series, while tracks from the piano album have been played in concerts in Japan and Paris.
Creation and influence
Masashi Hamauzu composed the game's soundtrack. His previous work on the series was as a co-composer for Final Fantasy X and as the main composer for Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII. The game was the first main-series Final Fantasy game not to include any compositions by original series composer Nobuo Uematsu; although he was originally announced to compose the main theme of the game, this role was taken over by Hamauzu after Uematsu signed on to compose the soundtrack for Final Fantasy XIV. Game producer Yoshinori Kitase chose Hamauzu because he felt that Hamauzu would be the best for the job as he was composing an orchestral-based soundtrack then for Dirge of Cerberus and the Final Fantasy XIII team wanted that style for the game. Hamauzu described the soundtrack in the liner notes for the soundtrack album as comprising multiple genres of music so that the player would not get tired of it, while also using several motifs so as to tie the varying pieces together; particularly in grouping the themes from the Cocoon and Pulse areas in the game. He tried to match each piece and theme to his sense of the narrative and characters involved in the scenes that they would be played in, and feels that being the sole composer for the project allowed him to ensure that the overall direction of the soundtrack was consistent.
Besides some pieces he did for promotional events in 2006 and 2007, Hamauzu began composing the soundtrack in Autumn 2008 and finished it around one year later. When he began the bulk of the composition, he started by composing the motifs he wanted to use, rather than any particular piece. The first track that he composed was "Blinded by Light", as one of the promotional pieces; it was based on the director Motomu Toriyama's vision of the game as a mixture of fantasy and near-future, as the storyline for the game had not yet been finalized. As the game was intended to be a conscious departure from the staples of previous Final Fantasy games, Hamauzu was not constrained in keeping the music in line with previous soundtracks from the series. Despite this, he did not compose the music specifically to "break from the series' past", but rather focused it on the game as it was presented.
The score also features some recordings by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, arranged by Yoshihisa Hirano, Toshiyuki Oomori and Kunihito Shiina. Hamauzu had previously worked with the orchestra on his album Vielen Dank, released in 2007. Four songs in the soundtrack include vocals by Mina Sakai, an artist whom Hamauzu works as a producer for. Two of the songs are in English rather than Japanese, and "The Gapra Whitewood" was intended to be as well, but during practice Sakai and Hamauzu changed it to use a fictitious language as they felt her focus on pronouncing the English words was detracting from the melody. The two English tracks were re-recorded for the English version of the game, as the localization team felt that they did not sound natural to native speakers. On three of the pieces from the soundtrack: "Sazh's Theme", "Daddy's Got the Blues", and "Can't Catch a Break", described as jazzy pieces related to the character Sazh, Hamauzu's compositions were arranged by Toru Tabei, a friend of his, who Hamauzu describes as being more familiar with that style of music. Several tracks in the game were arranged by colleagues Junya Nakano, Mitsuto Suzuki, and Ryo Yamazaki. Hamauzu gave the arrangers creative freedom to add and replace elements as they pleased, although Suzuki has since stated that as he has gained more experience he regrets some of the changes he made.
The theme song for the international version of the game is "My Hands", from British singer Leona Lewis' second album Echo; it was chosen to replace Final Fantasy XIIIs original theme song from the Japanese version, by Sayuri Sugawara. Square Enix President Yoichi Wada has stated that it would have been better if the American branch of the company had produced a theme song from scratch, but the lack of staff led to the decision of licensing an existing song instead. Hamauzu, who composed the music for "Kimi ga Iru Kara", only met Sugawara once, and was not involved in producing the vocal song. He was not involved in the decision to use "My Hands" for the international version.
Soundtrack
Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack is the soundtrack album of Final Fantasy XIII, containing all of the musical tracks from the game, and was composed and produced by Masashi Hamauzu. The soundtrack spans four discs and 85 tracks, covering a duration of 4:04:06. It was released on January 27, 2010 in Japan by Square Enix, bearing the catalog numbers SQEX-10183~6. The limited edition of the soundtrack included a bonus disc containing a radio drama written by novelist Jun Eishima. The radio drama does not include any music not already in the album. The album sold 16,000 copies the day of its release. It reached #3 on the Japanese Oricon charts, and remained on the charts for nine weeks. The soundtrack incorporates both orchestral and electronic music, sometimes within the same track. Almost two dozen of the tracks include vocal performances to some degree, the most of any Final Fantasy soundtrack to date. It does not include many of the mainstay tracks from previous games in the series such as Uematsu's "Prelude" and "Main Theme", and its variation on his "Chocobo", the only repeat track, is so different as to not credit him as the original composer in the album.
In addition to the full soundtrack CD release, two vinyl record albums have been released by Square Enix in 2010, each including a selection of pieces from the full soundtrack. The first of these, W/F: Music from Final Fantasy XIII, was released on February 26, while the second, W/F： Music from Final Fantasy XIII Gentle Reveries, was released on June 30. W/F: Music from Final Fantasy XIII is the first vinyl record that Square Enix has ever released. Each album contains eight tracks, four per side. The first album has a total length of 32:06 and a catalog number of SE-M0001, while the second has the catalog number SE-M0002.
The album received good reviews from critics. Patrick Gann of RPGFan called it an "excellent soundtrack" that exceeded his expectations. He applauded Hamauzu's use of motifs and repetition of melodies across different tracks for tying together a widely disparate collection of material, and called the mix of orchestral and electronic pieces as "incredible". He concluded that the work represents Hamauzu's "masterpiece", though some of the tracks do not fit well outside of the context of the scene in the game they represent. Don Kotowski of Square Enix Music Online similarly approved of the soundtrack, also highlighting the repetition of themes as well done. He particularly called out the variance of musical styles used in different tracks, from the "jazz fusion" of "Pulse de Chocobo" to the rock music of "Snow's Theme". The bonus drama CD was critiqued by Gann as "fun for bonus content" if the listener understood Japanese and as having high production values for a drama CD, but he noted that it did not add any real information to the story of the game.
Track list
Literal translation of the original titles appear in (parentheses) if different.
Soundtrack Plus
Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack PLUS is a soundtrack album of Final Fantasy XIII, containing a selection of arrangements of musical tracks from the game. It was composed and produced by Masashi Hamauzu, and arranged by Hamauzu, Ryo Yamazaki, Mitsuto Suzuki, Toshiyuki Oomori, and Yoshihisa Hirano. The single-disc soundtrack contains 16 tracks, covering a duration of 50:10. It was released on May 26, 2010 in Japan by Square Enix, bearing the catalog number SQEX-10192. Only tracks 5, 9, and 15 are pieces actually used in the game but not included in the original album. The tracks in the album include pieces made for early previews of the game, modified versions of songs used in the international version of the game rather than the Japanese version that the original soundtrack album was based on, and early versions or arrangements of pieces that were not used in the game—for example, "Hope_PfNer3" uses a piano while Hamauzu ended up using a guitar for the final piece.
For the unused versions of songs included in this album, Hamauzu re-recorded and produced them to match the quality of the songs that were eventually used in the original soundtrack. The numbers following the "M" in the title of some pieces refer to the version number of the track, which Hamauzu used to keep track of changes made to pieces during their development, occasionally incrementing them by hundreds for major changes. Hamauzu came up with the idea for the album originally because he wanted to release the English version of "Pulse de Chocobo" as a downloadable song; when he started adding in promotional tracks and alternative-version tracks he found that he had enough material to release as a full album. Several of the alternate version tracks appeared in the game during specific scenes, or were cut towards the end of development. Hamauzu feels that the album represents how large of an undertaking the Final Fantasy XIII project was, in that even the outtakes were enough to fill an album.