Blog post ''Square Enix Have Destroyed Final Fantasy Tradition''

[Kenryoku_Maxis]

ZenfoldorVGI said:

Mummelmann said:

darthdevidem01 said:

Mummelmann said:

Wow, I just heard the song... What the hell is that whiny, dime a dozen crap doing in a Final Fantasy game? This isn't RnB hour on MTV we're talking about (not that they play anything besides RnB and Hip-Hop/Rap anyway...) its a frickin Final Fantasy game!

Are we really going to start to forego masterpieces such as this;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J46RY4PU8a8

for the benefit of cheap, plastic pop? Makes me truly sad.

thats one 4 minute SONG in the game, in ONE scene out of possibly 50 - 60 hours

because of this song your gonna ignore the fantastic OST for the game? (after having listened to many pieces it sure is fantastic)

sorry, but thats truly sad dude

Its not the implementation of the shitty theme itself that worries me, its the signals they're sending. It leads me to believe that S-E are willing to sacrifice parts of what makes Final Fantasy Final Fantasy. To me, it'd be like Valve suddenly adding Furby's as enemies in Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Not a huge impact on the game itself but a sign that things were changing and not for the better (I'm not saying people shouldn't be allowed to listen to music I don't like, I'm just saying that I like how videogame music is unique and soulfull in compared to mainstream pop music). 

A. J-Pop is mainstream pop music in Japan.

B. It is not usually unique and soulful. The music you are referring to is the instrumental pieces of past Final Fantasies, NOT the j-pop ending themes. J-Pop certainly isn't any more unique and soulful than R&B, and saying that it is, is an opinion based upon an generalization.

C. I think the battle theme, and all of the instrumental music in this game aren't affected by this.

D. In fact, only the intro/outro song, played once or twice throughout the entire game, is affected.

I understand that you are worried about the message this sends, but this particular act sans message, isn't that bad. It's a step towards better localization, actually, and it is really about marketing.

The game is still the game. This is NOT like Valve changing enemies to Furbies, it doesn't necessarily send a gamechanging message, nor does it affect gameplay either way, nor will it be nearly as noticable, nor will it last more than 4 minutes.

While I understand your line of thought, I think you are jumping to conclusions about the implications of this.

We're lucky actually, despite all the generalization of R&B in this thread, Leona is actually one of the better new artists of the last few years, and certainly a top tier R&B singer. Do me a favor and listen to this.

Now imagine the ending of X-2 with that song, lol. Greatness.

Actually, he's not jumping to conclusions.  Aside from one particular poster who keeps jumping down my throat for bringing this up, its not just Final Fantasy you should be looking at.  Its the fact that SE keeps changing things in ALL their other series they bring over.  And its pretty drastic.  You may just think one song is all they're doing, but next thing you know, it'll be missing dialogue.  Or cutscenes edited out because they think they don't 'work for the American market'.  Or name changes.  Or even entire segments of the game altered just to make the game work for a specific 'region' (aka country).

Did I mention all these things have been done before with SE series?  Some of them have already happened to Final Fantasy, but most people just never noticed.  Dragon Quest is the series where this is happening the most (and the most drastically).  But don't think for a minute it isn't happening to Final Fantasy.  Every game from FFVII to recent FF games on the DS and PSP has had changes, and drastic ones.  It comes with localizations and their feeling that changes are a necessity to make the game more marketable to the western audience.  In other words, a group of 5-10 guys make the decision of how thousands of other people will get the game.  And if you just accept that decision, you are accepting THEIR version of the game, not the creators.  Spoony Bards and all (or not in the case of most recent translation).