Hitoshi Sakimoto and Diversity

[Fatigue]

Everybody knows Sakimoto for his sweeping orchestral skills, but not many people know about his more diverse scores. These two scores stand out the most:

Legaia DuelSaga:

This score is probably one of my favorites as Sakimoto really shined and composed some excellent themes (Lost Forest and Ending are the best!!!).
Mitsuda also did some good work, but Sakimoto creates the best. Sadly, Oshima doesn't live up to Sakimoto and Mitsuda's standards.

Breath of Fire V:

Sakimoto combines electronica and orchestral in this beauty. I think this score truly exceeds Vagrant Story as Sakimoto's best solo work to date. Like Legaia DuelSaga, Sakimoto works with Mitsuda but he is only the sound programmer, but thanks to him, the score sounds very different. The best theme is definetly Electricity Supply Building.

Please feel free to add :)

[Zenning]

Indeed, Sakimoto is a very varied, versatile composer, who can do both electronica and orchestral music.

Other works by him you may want to look at are: Gradius V, Radiant Silvergun, and Stella Deus.

If you wanted a Final Fantasy Tactics II soundtrack, Stella Deus is basically just that, in that how it sounds.

And, of course, I will also reinforce your recommendations of Breath of Fire V ~ Dragon Quarter and Legaia Duel Saga to Sakimoto fans, as well.

[Fatigue]

Other works by him you may want to look at are: Gradius V, Radiant Silvergun, and Stella Deus.


Ah yes. The reason why I didn't add them to my list was because they, with the exception of Gradius V, are all orchestrated with little diversity.

[Zenning]

Ah yes. The reason why I didn't add them to my list was because they, with the exception of Gradius V, are all orchestrated with little diversity.
Ahh, so that's what you meant. I thought you just meant that Sakimoto is able to compose in a diversity of styles.

Yes, Gradius V is straight-up techno, and Radiant Silvergun and Stella Deus are both straightforward orchestral, and don't jump back and forth between styles between the different compositions on them.

They're still good soundtracks, though. :/

[LunarHeart]

Well.. to be totally honest, I thought very few tracks from Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics were attractive, the overall wasnt a too high standard, I bet people will disagree, but hey, we all got different taste..

But on the other hand.. the Breath of Fire 5 Soundtrack is very good.. its my favourite Sakimoto work..
The best tunes in my oppinion are:

Lift
Electricity Supply Building
Symptom
The Strong Enemy
Attack!
Small Departure
Bio Public Corporation

But I say this as I say about many Game Music Soundtracks, to get the full effect of the tunes, you really have to play the game.. Its amazing how the game itself creates character to the music.. I guess thats the clue with games and the music combined.. it strengthen eachother ALOT

The Legaia Soundtracks best Tunes are in my oppinion:

Fight Then Riot (Best Track Of The Game)
God Of The Evil Ones (oh man!, when Golden Eyes Shows himself for the first time, its creepy)
Paying The Worthless War (haha, if you listen to this, then Small departure, you'll notice similar chord changes at some parts, very commersial Chord changes these days, FF X-2 also have it)
Status Change
Lost Forest
Maya
Tanza
Pirates Pride
Heaven And Earth's Valley (Although Hitoshi and Yasunori has the overall best Amounts of tunes that are good on this soundtrack, the tunes made by Michiru Oshime is LEGAIA, he created the legaia feel, his tunes symbolize the series the best, so he keep grand character to the game with his tunes)
Beast Of Darkness
Gods Fist
Unique Person's Banquet (The sound is very weak though, like the battle tune)
Ending

[Fatigue]

LunarHeart: Michiru Oshima is a She. Yeah, Sakimoto obviously took influence in "Paying the Worthless War" when he created "Small Departures".

Zenning: All Sakimoto compositions are good :D

[Jormungand]

LunarHeart: Yeah, Sakimoto obviously took influence in "Paying the Worthless War" when he created "Small Departures".
He borrows from himself all the time, and it's apparent in nearly all of his works. It's alright though, because even though a lot of his music ends up sounding similar, it's still his own unique style.

Better that he copies himself than someone else. ;-)

[Rain Corale]

I love Sakimoto. He can borrow from himself as many times as he pleases. :)

I am getting really antsy waiting for FF12 to come out. I wonder what his approach is going to be for the soundtrack...

[Fatigue]

I am getting really antsy waiting for FF12 to come out. I wonder what his approach is going to be for the soundtrack...

I predict orchestral style :D

Whether it is orchestral, electronica, accoustic, trance or even rock, it is guaranteed to be good.

[KujaFFman]

It is orchestral. He announced it last July. Let's just hope it won't be orchestral from the beginning to the end (especially his orchestral). That would be nice to use the same amazing exotic style from Legaia Duel Saga, since FFXII takes place in an exotic world.

[Jormungand]

It is orchestral. He announced it last July. Let's just hope it won't be orchestral from the beginning to the end (especially his orchestral). That would be nice to use the same amazing exotic style from Legaia Duel Saga, since FFXII takes place in an exotic world.
Well, there's that one dungeon track that's been released thus far. That was pretty exotic, what with the acoustic bass and percussion and all. I think we can count on some divergences every now and then from straight orchestral.

[erefen]

His other works are excellent, but my fave is still vagrant story. Some of the songs nailed down the feel of perversity and monstrous illogic that is downright terrorizing, i.e, Rosencrantz, Dark Crab, Dark Element, Banquet of Transmigration (final battle 1).

re: legaia and BoF V, legaia is surprisingly superb. BoF also. One thing I noticed is that his softer tracks, like paying the worthless war, everyday tranquility, a small departure, sound similar to new-age music..especially ET, with its flutes and guitar, and the chord changes. These are nice tracks, too, so I hope he'll be doing more of these stuff in the future - although with FFXII I think it's gonna be heavily tilted toward straight orchestra (even Pennelo's theme is an epic orchestral track!).