64 replies to this topic

[Doriku]

I was on YouTube and found This Playlist of the music from Guild Wars 2 and it is all so freaking amazing! Maybe the best game music I have ever heard. I would have to assume most people would say Final Fantasy has the best music of any game series...and if you look it up online, usually FF VII reigns supreme. So my question is, do you think the GW series has better music than the Final Fantasy series?

Discuss.

[Darkobra]

It really annoys me when people put discuss at the end of a post. If it's worth talking about, people will talk about it. We don't need a cue to drag us in.

And as for the actual topic, they're two VERY different styles of music. You can't say it's better. Nobuo Uematsu achieves very different things from Jeremy Soule. I mean how can you say Eyes On Me has any similarities to The Streets of Whiterun. I'm a huge fan of both composers and I've got a diploma in music myself but to say that one style can be better than another style from different composers isn't really anything worth talking about.

You can say you like one of them better and have a personal preference, but you can't say that one IS better.

[Feralz]

Guild wars are more epic themed.

FF are more nostalgic.

apples and oranges.

[chaosdude]

Doriku, on 01 August 2012 - 06:47 AM, said:

I was on YouTube and found This Playlist of the music from Guild Wars 2 and it is all so freaking amazing! Maybe the best game music I have ever heard. I would have to assume most people would say Final Fantasy has the best music of any game series...and if you look it up online, usually FF VII reigns supreme. So my question is, do you think the GW series has better music than the Final Fantasy series?

Discuss.

Just no.  
Music is subjective, but majority of gamers will go with FF simply because its been around longer.  People on a Guild Wars 2 forum might be a little bias too.

Edited by chaosdude, 01 August 2012 - 07:43 AM.

[heatzzz]

It should be GW vs LOTR.

Edited by heatzzz, 01 August 2012 - 08:01 AM.

[MaZt]

I love both FF and GW2 music. The only thing I noticed is that some tracks of Jeremy Soule sound similar in many ways.

[Hedge]

I have always been an incredible fan of Nobou, because his style reminds me of a beautiful mix between classical music and fantasy. In my opinion, there is only one composer of game music that nears him, and that is Takeharu Ishimoto (of Final Fantasy Type-0).
Jeremy Soule doesn't really compose the same sort of music as them, so it's really hard to compare. Though, I will admit that the only game I don't turn the volume of the music down in, is FF titles (FF13 excluded, because besides from Oerba, it's really.. not.. ugh). Even in GW2 I found myself turning the volume almost aaaall the way down.

As some other user have said, it's really apples and oranges.

[Scol]

I disagree that FF has the best music of any game series, I like GW2 music more and it's still far from the best music in my book.

[FoxBat]

Nobuo's FF work stops with FFX and even then he wasn't the sole composer on that one. I don't know if talking about the *entire* series really makes sense. As for "Guild Wars" you might as well bring up Jeremy Soule's work which has been awfully similar across a large number of famous games, starting from dungeon siege and total annhilation through the elder scrolls, icewind dale and neverwinter nights, some harry potter games, and it looks like he's even credited on MIsts of Pandaria now.

Another difference is that Nobuo has been coaxing catchy tunes out of shitty synths from the nintendo chip all they way up to the not-that-great patches used in FFX (just like most of his JRPG competitors.) Meanwhile Jeremy made a name for himself not just with epic moving scores, but working with his brother to develop a very well-blended and convincing fake orchestra to realize it. Their strengths are just so different. I see Nobuno being more popular just because he is more pop oriented rather than classical/score, he has churned out a huge pile of way more memorable tunes, even if they aren't always particularly emotional or even fit the scene. (I'm looking at you, "eyes on me")

Edited by FoxBat, 01 August 2012 - 11:30 AM.

[Darkobra]

Nobuo. And it did in the rocket scene as it was a love song in a love scene. I'm really not sure what's not fitting there.

[Ankeus]

I've never liked any of the GW songs. Imo FF wins. However it's just a matter of taste in music.

Edited by Ankeus, 01 August 2012 - 11:28 AM.

[FoxBat]

Darkobra, on 01 August 2012 - 11:25 AM, said:

Nobuo. And it did in the rocket scene as it was a love song in a love scene. I'm really not sure what's not fitting there.

Would you drown out a crucial dialogue scene in a romance movie with a full pop song? Because that's what happens when full volume sung vocals meet text dialogue. I don't think the complete lack of  activity helped any either, there's some grand sweeping moments in the song, yet the two of them are barely moving. If there was a place for this song given the tech they had in the time, it would be in a rendered cinematic. It might have just been that I found the entire story abominable, but I don't think so. I mean, I *hated* Aeris with a vengeance, and yet the cheesy synths in her death scene still had me welling up.

Edited by FoxBat, 01 August 2012 - 11:51 AM.

[Hedge]

Also, Nobou's "Answers" (from XIV) is delightful. Susan has such a great voice.

[Swickster]

im gonna have to say the FF is better, it stuck with me. If i hear any, and i mean ANY song from ff7 i will immediately recognize where or even what its from. a games music sticking with you for that long says a lot about how much i enjoyed listening to it. Truth be told i can only  recognize 1 or two of jeremy's works. not to say hes bad, they just dont stick with me as long as Nobou's.

[Darkobra]

FoxBat, on 01 August 2012 - 11:40 AM, said:

Would you drown out a crucial dialogue scene in a romance movie with a full pop song? Because that's what happens when full volume sung vocals meet text dialogue. I don't think the complete lack of  activity helped any either, there's some grand sweeping moments in the song, yet the two of them are barely moving. If there was a place for this song given the tech they had in the time, it would be in a rendered cinematic. It might have just been that I found the entire story abominable, but I don't think so. I mean, I *hated* Aeris with a vengeance, and yet the cheesy synths in her death scene still had me welling up.

Final Fantasy - Crisis Core. End cinematic actually did have voice acting. And it really was drowned out by a pop song. Just because the levels of volume were too great in contrast. If I never had subtitles on, I'd not have understood most of what was said. But it is STILL a scene that has stuck with me and was crushing. And I'm not going to say what the scene is as most people may not have played the game yet and a few of them that played Final Fantasy 7 don't know the full backstory of Cloud and Zack. (And if you don't, you've not actually played the damn game!)

[Hedge]

Darkobra, on 01 August 2012 - 12:43 PM, said:

Final Fantasy - Crisis Core.

Ah, Crisis Core. Such conflicting emotions.

[XgreatArtist]

different styles of music.
I would go for FF/Chaos rings music anytime. Well, if its Square Enix, their music are great.

Gw2 isnt bad too, but it isnt my cup of tea. But i admit, Norn Theme is the best western Game soundtrack i have heard. Goodbye Oblivion, goodbye skyrim.

[AngryTom]

Uematsu is my personal fav. But I'm not going to complain about Jeremy.

Thank god it wasn't Inon Zur or Djawadi.

This thread is a little like Spider-Man vs Batman.

[KodakMoment]

Not a good comparison FF easily it has many titles compared to gw most of the ff games are sp anyway and like the other poster said the music is memorable including the battle music. Also i'd like to add posting a vs. in a fan forum isn't such a good idea because you will generally get biased results

Edited by KodakMoment, 02 August 2012 - 05:51 PM.

[Beta Sprite]

I have some negative feelings for FF, despite the quality of its music.  As a result, I like GW2's music more.

Also, I've liked Soule's work for a long time, all the way back to Secret of Evermore, so...  it's kind of hard to beat my nostalgic feelings with music from a series that I don't care about (FF).

Despite that, I do like Uematsu's music.  It just doesn't draw me the same way that Soule's does.

[Gorwe]

Hard topic.

Uematsu has nostalgic, emotional music that touches the heart. FF VII/VIII scores are the best. And, of course, obligatory "Eyes on Me". I Like it VERY much.
Soule, on the other hand, has epic and symphonic music. For reference on Soule's work listen "Rise of Nerevar"(Morrowind Main theme), NWN 1 Main theme, Dungeon Siege 1+2 music and obligatory Guild Wars music. It does raise Spirit and is VERY catchy, but it does lack Soul of Nobuo's work(lack of Soul applicable only to Oblivion and later games, ie when he started merely changing Tempo and/or Dynamic of his previous scores while adding/removing instrument or two, ie he became quite lazy).

Apples and oranges really. Is Like trying to compare Black Sabbath and Robbie Williams, or more on the topic, score of Star Wars(4,5,6)/Star Trek(J.Goldsmith) to Howard Shore's LoTR score. Piontless. I Like them both(and why shouldn't I?).

[neoryudo]

i love Guild wars 2's music, HECK even did covers of some but nothing can beat Nobuo

Uematsu

when it comes to music, how can you even compare anything GW2 has to








but yeah i have to agree, this thread is like saying GW2 vs Final Fantasy VII

they are both completely different games, and they are both completely different composers one is more orcestric and the other is more 80ish rock XDXD

Edited by neoryudo, 01 August 2012 - 05:19 PM.

[Tallenn]

My subjective opinion is that Jeremy Soule's music is the better of the two.

[Zechs]

I love Jeremy Soule's music, but to me, Nobuo Uematsu is king.

[Naqui]

I'm more partial to Final Fantasy's music with it being my childhood and all. I enjoy the calm pretty stuff they have, not so much the battle music. There are some pieces by Jeremy Soule that I enjoy listening too, but overall it's just not my type of music.

[prplxd]

That's a really difficult comparison, especially since you don't seem to be comparing the GW2 music to a specific Final Fantasy game.
They're very different genres and I don't really think it's fair to say "this one is better".
However, I'll say that I do enjoy listening to Nobuo's compositions more. That's not to say that Jeremy Soule is bad or anything.
(Off-topic: Nobuo's signature is tattooed on my arm. Yaayyy)

[leongrado]

Definitely FF music. GW2 is top notch game music but FF music is just sticks when you hear it.

[Nettle]

Though I'm a big fan of much of Jeremy Soule's music and the gw music, I'm going to have to go with FF.  I'm probably a bit biased though, what with the nostalgia, wearing out all of the piano collection books from playing them, and seeing it live orchestrated.  They're both great in their own ways though.

[Naoroji]

Between


And



... FF wins for me, big time.

[Caledore]

Well, music taste is subjective, and I don't have any nostalgia for FF. But from the tracks in this thread, I don't think it even holds a candle to Jeremy Soule's music. I've only heard a little bit of his GW2 music, so I'm speaking about his larger body of work, but in my opinion it's not even a contest.

But taste is subjective so this thread should be more "which do you prefer" then "which is better".