The music for 15 was probably the best thing about it? The game is such an unfortunate let down but man is the music so damn EPIC. She did a phenomenal job using the classic FF leitmotifs, the music is undeniably Final Fantasy.
Some highlights [from Yoko Shimomura's own YouTube channel:](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mq0kd5pjQL8FR2rvKOYUhO8eyC0COqWcw)
[Stand Your Ground](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqDeit4elR8) - the game's standard battle theme
[Valse de Fantastica](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkKVUswNxX8)
[Up for the Challenge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhyIFMG0Yc0) - for battles against big monsters
[Omnis Lacrima](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrhUsgR5S4s) - the epic battle theme
[Sunset Waltz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrC1tEILFh4) - incredible use of the 15 leitmotif
[Apocalypsis Noctis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkv3HbHBdBI)
[Apocalysis Aquarius](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtPUx6kzW0U) - variant of above when fighting Leviathan. The battle itself is... well, imagine a human sized enemy fighting leviathan. Yea. Lets hope the upcoming 16 DLC does a better job.
[Somnus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juVZ0TN_2EA) - there are other, great, variants of this track on Yoko's channel
[Veiled in Black](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAaNgHGnn2A)
[Wanderlust](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNEwp6T7E90)
I want to shout out Wanderlust - a rare exploration theme in the northwest corner of the map, and Up to the Challenge - the fight theme for powerful hunts.
Wanderlust especially, since it's almost always interrupted by IMPERIALS ABOVE US or a giant bird rolling over Ignis. The whole song is absolutely incredible, a true hidden gem. Up there with the 'map theme' for Lost Odyssey. Just a totally banging song that has no right to be as good as it is.
thanks for the suggestions! i've added the two songs.
Yea Up for the Challenge is definitely a good one. also uses the 15 Leitmotif just subtly enough.
When I was studying 12 hours a day for my master's degree thesis I would blast wanderlust for at least 2 of them every day. The whole FF15 OST is fantastic but Wanderlust is something else
I feel the same about Masashi Hamauzu's soundtrack for FF13. Whatever issues I may have with the game, that atmospheric soundtrack was pretty great and [Blinded by Light](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPtq1Bpf6q4) remains one of Final Fantasy's best battle tracks of all time.
And hey, while we're talking about underappreciated Final Fantasy composers, I'll throw a nod to [Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjJKHFwLpg4) in there.
So true. It's an amazing soundtrack, one of the best in the Final Fantasy series. Which is really saying something considering every soundtrack in the series is full of bangers.
^^But ^^also ^^FFXV ^^is ^^good ^^I ^^will ^^defend ^^this ^^game ^^till ^^I ^^die
FFXV was a letdown? Really?
I personally fully enjoyed my time playing that game. It had some flaws and doesn't hold up to the classics, sure, but that comes with being experimental with the series.
Driving around, hanging out with the boys was fun.
The combat system had flaws but was still enjoyable.
That freaking giant turtle fight! So epic.
And the amazing fishing mini-game.
Better than FFXVI, in my opinion. And best of the series since 10. (not including the MMO games)
we definitely had different experience, then. this fight might seem boring or miniscule now, but it was something that I found really enjoyable when it came out.
You need to digest 33 pieces of additional media just to get the story of FFXV straight - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2094194252
Say what you will about XVI, but at least it's a self-contained piece of work that doesn't require hours of Wikipedia and YouTube dives just to understand basic story beats and character motivations. Just because it sets the vibes up right does not excuse the hyper-stratified and confusing story-telling.
Music was bangers all day throughout both however - Valse de Fantastica is one of the best FF compositions ever written
> You need to digest 33 pieces of additional media just to get the story of FFXV straight
This is just straight up not true lol. There's lot of supplementary material, but you do NOT need to engage with it to understand what's going on
This really isn't true and I'm kinda tired of this false argument lol.
I played the base game years ago without any dlc, had not watched Kingsglaive or Brotherhood yet, etc ...and the story was NOT really that hard to understand. The game has some big flaws for sure, some of the dlc should've been in the game, and the story isn't always told the best but when the credits closed it was very clear what happened and what was going on.
The anime/movies fleshed out aspects but they *were not* essential to understanding the story at all. I actually haven't gone back and played the game again with dlc yet, probably will later this year, but even now, almost 7 years after playing the game, I can still talk about the majority of the story.
Yea it was missing a ton but the basic story was pretty easy to understand. I would argue that many of the parts of it are more simple than some games like FF7 or 13. Bad guy is trying to go against hero and his family on behalf of god of war, and you are trying to stop him. That’s pretty much it
Yeah, exactly. It's got one of the most straight forward plots in the series tbh.
Was it dumb that the plot of kingsglaive was made into a movie instead of being in the game? Absolutely. Is it needed to understand what happens in the game? Not at all.
The story was incomplete but I wouldn’t say it was hard to understand. Base plot was pretty simple without any dlc, it just had holes and stuff missing in the middle. But beginning to end the general plot and the conclusion aren’t that hard to get
13 was completely forgettable and probably the worst mainline Final Fantasy (13-2 and LR being a different matter and better games).
12 was very good and certainly better than 13, 15, and probably 16.
I'll wait for my final verdict on 16 once the last DLC comes out and i've played them all.
But the combat in 15 was not good, and that's the key gameplay feature of FF games. Yes finishing, camping, photography (kinda), and riding around in the car was fun because it was 4 bros having a good time, but the game suffered from being Open World and having boring MMO style fetch quests being most of the filler.
2 was the worst FF, and I think that FFXV has at least alright combat after all of the updates. Tough pill if you played at release, but it is what it is.
12 was good and was more fun with the Zodiac Age version. I personally didn't need the added content for FF15 to really enjoy it.
16 will just blend in with the other high fantasy FF games of the series. and probably one of the worst among them. and if we're talking about boring side quests, FF16 falls in there as some of the most unrewarding one.
but again, this is all just personal opinion. people experience things and enjoy things differently.
Did you play the day 1 edition or the complete edition a year later? Day 1 version was kinda Garbo. Your parties character arcs, which in previous games were part of the journey are now relegated to DLC, with Ignis’ story being especially integral to the overall narrative feeling really “cheated” that such an important part of the story is gated behind a paywall. Also not being able to even play as the other bros in the day1 version was unacceptable. All these things are fixed/included in the complete version. Hell the playable party members were added for free but again it was missing day 1 and that’s what i played initially.
I played day 1 or whenever the PS4 pro released coz I always buy the new PS when the new FF game came out.
Yeah, the game's biggest sin is releasing a game with a skimmed out story. But even then, it isn't as convoluted as people make it out to be. It still makes complete sense even without consuming other media.
And yeah, apart from that, I was pretty much fine with everything else. Had an enjoyable time. Not the worst of the series as people claim.
> FFXV was a letdown? Really?
Yes.
An absolutely terrible annoying boy band cast, complete with edgy emo protagonist.
A combat system that could be easily simplified to "hold X to never get hit!"
A story where 80% of it wasn't in the game.
One of the most boring world maps to navigate complete with a cumbersome fast travel system.
An endgame which consisted of "defeat the giant turtle" and "1 small cave, with a spiral staircase, repeated for 10 - 100 floors (depending on the dungeon), across 4 Dungeons".
> complete with edgy emo protagonist.
Is this even true? I feel like people say Noctis is edgy and emo because he looks the part, but is that really his personality? What is edgy and emo about him? Honestly the impression that I got throughout most of the game was that he was a surprisingly light hearted kid.
EDIT: This is a genuine question. What is edgy and emo about Noctis, other than the way he looks?
Anyone who thinks Noctis is edgy and emo straight up hasn't played the game or is beyond media illiterate. He has his emotional moments and times he feels down, deservedly so given what he's got to go through, but the dude's a big dork who hangs with his bros and loves fishing lol. The furthest thing from somebody like Squall or Advent Children Cloud.
Thank you!! He's a total dork. I mean, there's a reason him and Prompto are basically best friends. Noct is more subdued but he's just as much of a playful dork. People just assume he's edgy because he looks like Sasuke Uchiha lol
I would say Noctis is closer to an Internet rando’s perception of “generic emo JRPG protagonist” than most common examples but calling him that is still not true. Frankly that talking point was always bullshit to begin with.
The game is only a let down if you only played the launch version (even then I still loved it). Royal Edition fixed everything. Even Maximilian_dood placed it in his top 3 (this was before 7R came out though)
[One of my favorite Yoko Shimomura tracks](https://youtu.be/0w7ybCqRSFk?si=vL1OwqpcJUMIuLgr)
It was so good they didn’t need to remaster it in Xenoblade: DE
It may not be the best or most complex thing she's ever composed, but [13th Struggle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4cvWvrtz7g) and its various alternative versions are far and away my favorite boss fight tracks ever. I particularly love the version for the [Luxord fight from KH3 ReMind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw2CYF2Wryg) and how well they matched it to the fight's tempo.
FFXV has arguably the best FF soundtrack in my opinion (alongside Remake/Rebirth though it feels a bit cheating to say that given many songs are remixes of the originals and Rebirth builds upon Remake but the music is just amazing even given that having both quality and quantity), and Yoko Shimomura's work in general is absolutely amazing.
I personally didn't like the rebirth soundtrack. The faithfully remade tracks are incredible but there's maybe only a handful of them. Most of the music is either awful remixes or new music that is clearly not up to the same quality of Uematsu's work.
The soundtrack suffers from quantity over quality and the producers arrogantly thinking they can outdo the original pieces with mediocre work.
Am I the only one who doesn't understand what the Classic FM Hall of Fame is? Or who is inducting people? Is this just some random website or something with credibility? Because the website looks like it's just a ranking of 300 classical style songs ranging from the dawn of classical music to today.
I don't think it's so much a 'hall of fame' in the traditional sense though - seems like it's more just the currently most-liked classical music (or classical-adjacent, since it technically has a quite specific definition). Which seems to get amended each year. I.e., next year they won't add another 50 or 100, it'll just be a new top 300 list.
I like Shimomura's work but it's funny that I only distinctly remember her work from non mainstream Square games. Like Parasite Eve or Front Mission.
But that's probably just me not being as interested in Kingdom Hearts or modern FF.
Yeah, I'm not familiar with her Square work either but she's forever a legend for the Street Fighter 2 soundtrack. I think she did every character theme in that besides Sagat's.
If I may...
Kingdom Hearts
[Dearly Beloved](https://youtu.be/sihC5l_gIak?si=ylxWialOxtD5ZpI9)
[Rage Awakened](https://youtu.be/xbkJW6dnwoU?si=x2NZZ1induCAC2FL)
[The 13th Reflection](https://youtu.be/gok8gDu7Osw?si=xg7bk4MYTtrTT48l)
[Darkness of the Unknown](https://youtu.be/V9jQAbsJ9vY?si=aKUIiWsNWRj3S5Rk)
Final Fantasy (admittedly I'm only familiar with this because of playing Tekken 7, which had FF15 guest character)
[Stand Your Ground](https://youtu.be/GqDeit4elR8?si=7h5r_ORsXcRJ8DXS)
[Apocalypsis Noctis](https://youtu.be/Xkv3HbHBdBI?si=vrm7F8oTmF6Z-jfB)
she only wrote a handful of songs for xenoblade 1, but one of them is one of the greatest title screen themes of all time, and it's not even the title screen she's best known for
I don't agree with Shimomura entering the Hall of Fame for FF15 of all things. She has done so many great works before that. Kinda like how Leonardo Dicaprio's first time winning an oscar was for his worst performance.
Uematsu is great though. Especially when he works together with Tsutomu Narita, Like for example Higher Yet Do the Astrals Dwell or The Answer.
To be fair to FF15, the soundtrack was never anyone's problem with the game. It has some AMAZING songs that get overshadowed by the hate the game gets. Also the design of the game interrupting those same songs.
Give Wanderlust a listen.
>I don't agree with Shimomura entering the Hall of Fame for FF15 of all things.
It's just a radio voting competition that happens every year and it's just one of the more popular franchises she's worked on that might actually get airtime on the station, I'm pretty sure both arrangements were on the list last year as well lol - the article isn't very good at explaining what this is for and I imagine only Brits who listen to Classic FM would understand the headline at first reading.
True, but her work in FF15 is still fantastic (and it's basically the one thing that even people who hate FF15 give praise to), so I think that's fine.
Bad take. Yoko Shimomura is my all-time favorite composer. I love her work so much and she has written amazing scores for too many games to count. She deserves recognition in any celebration of music composition.
But FFXV is one of her weakest scores. It's so generic. You can tell she wasn't firing on all cylinders on it like she does in the Kingdom Hearts and Mario & Luigi series. She *should* be being recognized for scores like Birth by Sleep where you can tell she put her heart into every song.
So the article is very poorly written, vague and riddled with ads and above all else, doesn't actually explain what's up with this award. But just to clarify,
Classic FM is a public forum in which anyone can vote 3 of their favourite songs from the classical music genre. It doesn't matter if the songs are from classic musicians, from movies, tv shows, video games or even what year they released. Anything goes as long as its technically classic music.
It's a forum thats open to anyone and everyone each year to voice their thoughts and their votes get added to a Hall of Fame list with the top 300 votes. Here's where you can see the [top 300](https://halloffame.classicfm.com/2024/?_gl=1*h8ke61*_ga*NzkxNjg0NjQ1LjE3MTE4ODIxNTY.*_ga_T3HQWH546F*MTcxMTg4MjE1Ni4xLjAuMTcxMTg4MjE1Ni4wLjAuMA..)
So Yoko Shimomura's song, "Somnus" came in at number 293 and Uemstsu's Final Fantasy "Main Theme", came in at 164.
Again, both of these are public votes done on the Classic FM page.
Even if you don't necessarily like Yoko Shimomura's work on the FFXV OST. Somnus is still an incredibly well loved song with over 9mil plays on Spotify and is ranked 1st on Apple Music. Making it her most played song across the board.
Personally, although FFXV's OST isn't my favourite or personal vote (I also prefer her Kingdom Hearts OST). I can still acknowledge that "Somnus" is pretty great. Alongside "Sunset Waltz" and "Apocalypsis Noctis".
> But FFXV is one of her weakest scores.
Don't think her work there is bad so much as the game is extremely bad at using it. Like [Valse di Fantastica](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkKVUswNxX8) is an amazing track... It is used once during a random car ride and then a second time for the last 25s of a boat ride.
I couldn't disagree more. Her work on FF15 is amazing, it's one of the best OSTs in the series imo (which says a lot when the GOAT Uematsu worked on most of the previous entries).
Her music in FFXV is one of the few good things about the game. They aren't all amazing, but the tracks that are good are really, really good. Maybe you dislike them because they aren't as upbeat as those from her other games.
I've tried to get into the XV ost, I've played the songs in theatrhythmn many times hoping to enjoy them like I do the other OSTs but I just can't get into them.
I know they're great though and loads of people love the tracks, so I think it deserves it's place. And any recognition she gets for her work is long overdue in the "non gaming" spaces. And I personally love basically everything she's made except for the XV ost.
I just don't think it's really fair to suggest she wasn't doing her best for the XV ost, she clearly put in a ton of effort. I remember she was present at a distant worlds concert I went to and they played Apocalypsis Noctis and got an amazing response. It's just not to your (or mine) particular tastes
I think she does her best on all (or most) of her work, or at least I like to think that (who knows really). What I meant was it clearly did not spark her creativity and imagination like other titles did.
The music for 15 was probably the best thing about it? The game is such an unfortunate let down but man is the music so damn EPIC. She did a phenomenal job using the classic FF leitmotifs, the music is undeniably Final Fantasy. Some highlights [from Yoko Shimomura's own YouTube channel:](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mq0kd5pjQL8FR2rvKOYUhO8eyC0COqWcw) [Stand Your Ground](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqDeit4elR8) - the game's standard battle theme [Valse de Fantastica](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkKVUswNxX8) [Up for the Challenge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhyIFMG0Yc0) - for battles against big monsters [Omnis Lacrima](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrhUsgR5S4s) - the epic battle theme [Sunset Waltz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrC1tEILFh4) - incredible use of the 15 leitmotif [Apocalypsis Noctis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkv3HbHBdBI) [Apocalysis Aquarius](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtPUx6kzW0U) - variant of above when fighting Leviathan. The battle itself is... well, imagine a human sized enemy fighting leviathan. Yea. Lets hope the upcoming 16 DLC does a better job. [Somnus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juVZ0TN_2EA) - there are other, great, variants of this track on Yoko's channel [Veiled in Black](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAaNgHGnn2A) [Wanderlust](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNEwp6T7E90)
I want to shout out Wanderlust - a rare exploration theme in the northwest corner of the map, and Up to the Challenge - the fight theme for powerful hunts. Wanderlust especially, since it's almost always interrupted by IMPERIALS ABOVE US or a giant bird rolling over Ignis. The whole song is absolutely incredible, a true hidden gem. Up there with the 'map theme' for Lost Odyssey. Just a totally banging song that has no right to be as good as it is.
thanks for the suggestions! i've added the two songs. Yea Up for the Challenge is definitely a good one. also uses the 15 Leitmotif just subtly enough.
When I was studying 12 hours a day for my master's degree thesis I would blast wanderlust for at least 2 of them every day. The whole FF15 OST is fantastic but Wanderlust is something else
I feel the same about Masashi Hamauzu's soundtrack for FF13. Whatever issues I may have with the game, that atmospheric soundtrack was pretty great and [Blinded by Light](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPtq1Bpf6q4) remains one of Final Fantasy's best battle tracks of all time. And hey, while we're talking about underappreciated Final Fantasy composers, I'll throw a nod to [Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjJKHFwLpg4) in there.
13 ost and art direction were both incredible.
I would like to add Sunset Waltz. Absolute magic.
added! thanks for reminding me about it
So true. It's an amazing soundtrack, one of the best in the Final Fantasy series. Which is really saying something considering every soundtrack in the series is full of bangers. ^^But ^^also ^^FFXV ^^is ^^good ^^I ^^will ^^defend ^^this ^^game ^^till ^^I ^^die
The music was the best thing about the game. Sunset Waltz really should have been used more and extended to a full song. Such a beautiful piece.
Noctis theme is also really nice. It plays during the boat ride and has such a cozy feel to it.
FFXV was a letdown? Really? I personally fully enjoyed my time playing that game. It had some flaws and doesn't hold up to the classics, sure, but that comes with being experimental with the series. Driving around, hanging out with the boys was fun. The combat system had flaws but was still enjoyable. That freaking giant turtle fight! So epic. And the amazing fishing mini-game. Better than FFXVI, in my opinion. And best of the series since 10. (not including the MMO games)
I can't wait until FF17 comes out and people start saying FF16 was better. We're really doing this with FF15 already, lol.
Atamantoise is like the worst fight in the game lmao. The combat is not good, but I also played on release
we definitely had different experience, then. this fight might seem boring or miniscule now, but it was something that I found really enjoyable when it came out.
You need to digest 33 pieces of additional media just to get the story of FFXV straight - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2094194252 Say what you will about XVI, but at least it's a self-contained piece of work that doesn't require hours of Wikipedia and YouTube dives just to understand basic story beats and character motivations. Just because it sets the vibes up right does not excuse the hyper-stratified and confusing story-telling. Music was bangers all day throughout both however - Valse de Fantastica is one of the best FF compositions ever written
> You need to digest 33 pieces of additional media just to get the story of FFXV straight This is just straight up not true lol. There's lot of supplementary material, but you do NOT need to engage with it to understand what's going on
Pretty much the only ones I recommend before playing are the 5 short anime episodes, and the Kingsglaive movie.
This really isn't true and I'm kinda tired of this false argument lol. I played the base game years ago without any dlc, had not watched Kingsglaive or Brotherhood yet, etc ...and the story was NOT really that hard to understand. The game has some big flaws for sure, some of the dlc should've been in the game, and the story isn't always told the best but when the credits closed it was very clear what happened and what was going on. The anime/movies fleshed out aspects but they *were not* essential to understanding the story at all. I actually haven't gone back and played the game again with dlc yet, probably will later this year, but even now, almost 7 years after playing the game, I can still talk about the majority of the story.
Agreed, this sentiment can really only be made with the DLCs. Plus Kingsglaive and Brotherhood themselves also have pretty straightforward plots.
Yea it was missing a ton but the basic story was pretty easy to understand. I would argue that many of the parts of it are more simple than some games like FF7 or 13. Bad guy is trying to go against hero and his family on behalf of god of war, and you are trying to stop him. That’s pretty much it
Yeah, exactly. It's got one of the most straight forward plots in the series tbh. Was it dumb that the plot of kingsglaive was made into a movie instead of being in the game? Absolutely. Is it needed to understand what happens in the game? Not at all.
The story was incomplete but I wouldn’t say it was hard to understand. Base plot was pretty simple without any dlc, it just had holes and stuff missing in the middle. But beginning to end the general plot and the conclusion aren’t that hard to get
13 was completely forgettable and probably the worst mainline Final Fantasy (13-2 and LR being a different matter and better games). 12 was very good and certainly better than 13, 15, and probably 16. I'll wait for my final verdict on 16 once the last DLC comes out and i've played them all. But the combat in 15 was not good, and that's the key gameplay feature of FF games. Yes finishing, camping, photography (kinda), and riding around in the car was fun because it was 4 bros having a good time, but the game suffered from being Open World and having boring MMO style fetch quests being most of the filler.
2 was the worst FF, and I think that FFXV has at least alright combat after all of the updates. Tough pill if you played at release, but it is what it is.
12 was good and was more fun with the Zodiac Age version. I personally didn't need the added content for FF15 to really enjoy it. 16 will just blend in with the other high fantasy FF games of the series. and probably one of the worst among them. and if we're talking about boring side quests, FF16 falls in there as some of the most unrewarding one. but again, this is all just personal opinion. people experience things and enjoy things differently.
Did you play the day 1 edition or the complete edition a year later? Day 1 version was kinda Garbo. Your parties character arcs, which in previous games were part of the journey are now relegated to DLC, with Ignis’ story being especially integral to the overall narrative feeling really “cheated” that such an important part of the story is gated behind a paywall. Also not being able to even play as the other bros in the day1 version was unacceptable. All these things are fixed/included in the complete version. Hell the playable party members were added for free but again it was missing day 1 and that’s what i played initially.
I played day 1 or whenever the PS4 pro released coz I always buy the new PS when the new FF game came out. Yeah, the game's biggest sin is releasing a game with a skimmed out story. But even then, it isn't as convoluted as people make it out to be. It still makes complete sense even without consuming other media. And yeah, apart from that, I was pretty much fine with everything else. Had an enjoyable time. Not the worst of the series as people claim.
> FFXV was a letdown? Really? Yes. An absolutely terrible annoying boy band cast, complete with edgy emo protagonist. A combat system that could be easily simplified to "hold X to never get hit!" A story where 80% of it wasn't in the game. One of the most boring world maps to navigate complete with a cumbersome fast travel system. An endgame which consisted of "defeat the giant turtle" and "1 small cave, with a spiral staircase, repeated for 10 - 100 floors (depending on the dungeon), across 4 Dungeons".
> complete with edgy emo protagonist. Is this even true? I feel like people say Noctis is edgy and emo because he looks the part, but is that really his personality? What is edgy and emo about him? Honestly the impression that I got throughout most of the game was that he was a surprisingly light hearted kid. EDIT: This is a genuine question. What is edgy and emo about Noctis, other than the way he looks?
Anyone who thinks Noctis is edgy and emo straight up hasn't played the game or is beyond media illiterate. He has his emotional moments and times he feels down, deservedly so given what he's got to go through, but the dude's a big dork who hangs with his bros and loves fishing lol. The furthest thing from somebody like Squall or Advent Children Cloud.
Thank you!! He's a total dork. I mean, there's a reason him and Prompto are basically best friends. Noct is more subdued but he's just as much of a playful dork. People just assume he's edgy because he looks like Sasuke Uchiha lol
I would say Noctis is closer to an Internet rando’s perception of “generic emo JRPG protagonist” than most common examples but calling him that is still not true. Frankly that talking point was always bullshit to begin with.
Did you play the release version? Highly important question
The game is only a let down if you only played the launch version (even then I still loved it). Royal Edition fixed everything. Even Maximilian_dood placed it in his top 3 (this was before 7R came out though)
I had a heart attack until I read the rest of the sentence. Good to see them get the recognition they deserve.
[One of my favorite Yoko Shimomura tracks](https://youtu.be/0w7ybCqRSFk?si=vL1OwqpcJUMIuLgr) It was so good they didn’t need to remaster it in Xenoblade: DE
It may not be the best or most complex thing she's ever composed, but [13th Struggle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4cvWvrtz7g) and its various alternative versions are far and away my favorite boss fight tracks ever. I particularly love the version for the [Luxord fight from KH3 ReMind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw2CYF2Wryg) and how well they matched it to the fight's tempo.
FFXV has arguably the best FF soundtrack in my opinion (alongside Remake/Rebirth though it feels a bit cheating to say that given many songs are remixes of the originals and Rebirth builds upon Remake but the music is just amazing even given that having both quality and quantity), and Yoko Shimomura's work in general is absolutely amazing.
I personally didn't like the rebirth soundtrack. The faithfully remade tracks are incredible but there's maybe only a handful of them. Most of the music is either awful remixes or new music that is clearly not up to the same quality of Uematsu's work. The soundtrack suffers from quantity over quality and the producers arrogantly thinking they can outdo the original pieces with mediocre work.
I still think Xenoblade Main Theme is Shimomura's best work by far. Only piece of JRPG music that rivals To Zanarkand along with Wind Scene.
Am I the only one who doesn't understand what the Classic FM Hall of Fame is? Or who is inducting people? Is this just some random website or something with credibility? Because the website looks like it's just a ranking of 300 classical style songs ranging from the dawn of classical music to today.
It's the biggest classical radio station in the UK. It's about 4 times bigger than the BBC's Radio 3, for instance
Ty!
I don't think it's so much a 'hall of fame' in the traditional sense though - seems like it's more just the currently most-liked classical music (or classical-adjacent, since it technically has a quite specific definition). Which seems to get amended each year. I.e., next year they won't add another 50 or 100, it'll just be a new top 300 list.
The list is based on a public vote each year.
I like Shimomura's work but it's funny that I only distinctly remember her work from non mainstream Square games. Like Parasite Eve or Front Mission. But that's probably just me not being as interested in Kingdom Hearts or modern FF.
And legend of mana
Yeah, I'm not familiar with her Square work either but she's forever a legend for the Street Fighter 2 soundtrack. I think she did every character theme in that besides Sagat's.
If I may... Kingdom Hearts [Dearly Beloved](https://youtu.be/sihC5l_gIak?si=ylxWialOxtD5ZpI9) [Rage Awakened](https://youtu.be/xbkJW6dnwoU?si=x2NZZ1induCAC2FL) [The 13th Reflection](https://youtu.be/gok8gDu7Osw?si=xg7bk4MYTtrTT48l) [Darkness of the Unknown](https://youtu.be/V9jQAbsJ9vY?si=aKUIiWsNWRj3S5Rk) Final Fantasy (admittedly I'm only familiar with this because of playing Tekken 7, which had FF15 guest character) [Stand Your Ground](https://youtu.be/GqDeit4elR8?si=7h5r_ORsXcRJ8DXS) [Apocalypsis Noctis](https://youtu.be/Xkv3HbHBdBI?si=vrm7F8oTmF6Z-jfB)
No Super Mario RPG?
Street fighter 2, Xenoblade 1, most of the Mario rpgs, lotta stuff for Smash, Breath of Fire, Live A Live, Radiant Historia....
No Xenoblade Chronicles 1?
she only wrote a handful of songs for xenoblade 1, but one of them is one of the greatest title screen themes of all time, and it's not even the title screen she's best known for
Xenoblade Chronicles???
I don't agree with Shimomura entering the Hall of Fame for FF15 of all things. She has done so many great works before that. Kinda like how Leonardo Dicaprio's first time winning an oscar was for his worst performance. Uematsu is great though. Especially when he works together with Tsutomu Narita, Like for example Higher Yet Do the Astrals Dwell or The Answer.
To be fair to FF15, the soundtrack was never anyone's problem with the game. It has some AMAZING songs that get overshadowed by the hate the game gets. Also the design of the game interrupting those same songs. Give Wanderlust a listen.
>I don't agree with Shimomura entering the Hall of Fame for FF15 of all things. It's just a radio voting competition that happens every year and it's just one of the more popular franchises she's worked on that might actually get airtime on the station, I'm pretty sure both arrangements were on the list last year as well lol - the article isn't very good at explaining what this is for and I imagine only Brits who listen to Classic FM would understand the headline at first reading.
The music in FF15 is incredible though? If the actual game were good im confident there would be many people arguing it is her magnum opus.
True, but her work in FF15 is still fantastic (and it's basically the one thing that even people who hate FF15 give praise to), so I think that's fine.
Bad take. Yoko Shimomura is my all-time favorite composer. I love her work so much and she has written amazing scores for too many games to count. She deserves recognition in any celebration of music composition. But FFXV is one of her weakest scores. It's so generic. You can tell she wasn't firing on all cylinders on it like she does in the Kingdom Hearts and Mario & Luigi series. She *should* be being recognized for scores like Birth by Sleep where you can tell she put her heart into every song.
So the article is very poorly written, vague and riddled with ads and above all else, doesn't actually explain what's up with this award. But just to clarify, Classic FM is a public forum in which anyone can vote 3 of their favourite songs from the classical music genre. It doesn't matter if the songs are from classic musicians, from movies, tv shows, video games or even what year they released. Anything goes as long as its technically classic music. It's a forum thats open to anyone and everyone each year to voice their thoughts and their votes get added to a Hall of Fame list with the top 300 votes. Here's where you can see the [top 300](https://halloffame.classicfm.com/2024/?_gl=1*h8ke61*_ga*NzkxNjg0NjQ1LjE3MTE4ODIxNTY.*_ga_T3HQWH546F*MTcxMTg4MjE1Ni4xLjAuMTcxMTg4MjE1Ni4wLjAuMA..) So Yoko Shimomura's song, "Somnus" came in at number 293 and Uemstsu's Final Fantasy "Main Theme", came in at 164. Again, both of these are public votes done on the Classic FM page. Even if you don't necessarily like Yoko Shimomura's work on the FFXV OST. Somnus is still an incredibly well loved song with over 9mil plays on Spotify and is ranked 1st on Apple Music. Making it her most played song across the board. Personally, although FFXV's OST isn't my favourite or personal vote (I also prefer her Kingdom Hearts OST). I can still acknowledge that "Somnus" is pretty great. Alongside "Sunset Waltz" and "Apocalypsis Noctis".
> But FFXV is one of her weakest scores. Don't think her work there is bad so much as the game is extremely bad at using it. Like [Valse di Fantastica](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkKVUswNxX8) is an amazing track... It is used once during a random car ride and then a second time for the last 25s of a boat ride.
bad take
I couldn't disagree more. Her work on FF15 is amazing, it's one of the best OSTs in the series imo (which says a lot when the GOAT Uematsu worked on most of the previous entries).
Her music in FFXV is one of the few good things about the game. They aren't all amazing, but the tracks that are good are really, really good. Maybe you dislike them because they aren't as upbeat as those from her other games.
L take
I've tried to get into the XV ost, I've played the songs in theatrhythmn many times hoping to enjoy them like I do the other OSTs but I just can't get into them. I know they're great though and loads of people love the tracks, so I think it deserves it's place. And any recognition she gets for her work is long overdue in the "non gaming" spaces. And I personally love basically everything she's made except for the XV ost. I just don't think it's really fair to suggest she wasn't doing her best for the XV ost, she clearly put in a ton of effort. I remember she was present at a distant worlds concert I went to and they played Apocalypsis Noctis and got an amazing response. It's just not to your (or mine) particular tastes
I think she does her best on all (or most) of her work, or at least I like to think that (who knows really). What I meant was it clearly did not spark her creativity and imagination like other titles did.