Final Fantasy XIII's soundtrack, now on vinyl

by JC Fletcher on Feb 5th 2010 2:00PM

Square Enix hasn't announced a release for the Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack outside of Japan. Instead, it has announced a second FFXIII music release in Japan that is going to make you even more jealous. On February 26, the publisher will release a collection of eight songs from Masashi Hamauzu's Final Fantasy XIII score on a 12-inch record, including an exclusive version of "Ragnarok."

The limited-edition vinyl record, W/F: Music from Final Fantasy XIII, is exclusive to Square Enix's E-store. Importer NCSX secured a shipment of the record through one of its vendors, but that has already sold out. Maybe we'll have better luck when Square releases the eight tracks on 8-track.

[Via VG247]

Source

Tags: final-fantasy, final-fantasy-xiii, japan, masashi-hamauzu, Microsoft, record, soundtrack, square-enix, vinyl, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (91)

Vinyl FTW.

who has a record player anymore?

Vinyl is making a comeback, due to a number of reasons including higher audio quality.

I do and so does my friend. He has a ton of used bob dylan albums.

Vinyl has been making a comeback for the last 25 years.

Plus, for you tech geeks, there are some USB-powered ones out there, including one coming out called Linos.

Vinyl is the "in" thing amongst the kids right now.

I mean, Go into a hot topic :x

It's not that Vinyl is actually better or anything (because it isn't), it's just that some of the things applied to CD's that tend to make them worse for audiophiles aren't applied to vinyls.

There's nothing stopping a CD from sounding better, other than appealing to idiots.

THAT said, a ton of the people buying vinyls at the moment aren't doing it for those reasons.

A My Chemical Romance Vinyl isn't suddenly going to cure that band of the "Sucking" disease.

I'm no audiophile, but even I can tell the difference in sound between just a CD and digital downloads.
It really didn't occur to me until I couldn't update my iPod and had to listen to the CD of Alive 2007 (brilliant album, by the way). When I finally uploaded it into my iPod, I turned it off after the first song and reverted back to the disc.

@romevi Alive 2007 does indeed rock.

Psh, Cassette tapes, that's were it's really at.

Has two record players

And if records are pressed on decent 180gram vinyl and played through a decent setup the sound quality is noticeably much better than any cd iv ever heard

test

Can't wait until Final Fantasy XIII comes out in the U.S. so all the Mass Effect fanboys will finally shut up once they experience a TRUE RPG.

They're BOTH RPG's. Can we please stop this stupid RPG war over which variant is better?

Final Fantasy XIII is better. It was voted the greatest game of all time by Famitsu.

Mass Effect: "Oh, look, I'm shooting people. I'm so an RPG!"

Grow up. No one made you buy ME2.

I didn't buy it. I rented it and it was crap.

Enjoy your alien sex and bald space marines.

I won't go on to say it's the best game ever, but it's far from crap.

I have always disliked Final Fantasy. Always have always will. I love Mass Effect. But I'm not gonna tell you that Final Fantasy is a poorly made game because it didn't appeal to my tastes, I may not get why FF7 is still considered one of the greatest games of all time but I will say for its time it was a well made game and I'm sure this new one is too. No matter how much you disliked Mass effect you can't say its a poorly made RPG.

Indeed. Grow up.

They're two ENTIRELY different games. I'd quit gaming the day that ALL RPGs are like Final Fantasy. They're both RPGs though. And both are damn good games.

It's completely idiotic to say one is better than the other or that any game is better than the other. A game sells better than the other, period. Otherwise there's no other distinctions besides personal enjoyment. Regardless of what you think you've learned on the internet, only you can decide what game is enjoyable even if it's reviewed poorly.

So, stop with your childish games and start enjoying what you buy and respecting what others buy. They all go towards the same cause!

I love Final Fantasy and I plan on getting XIII the day it releases in the US. But to say Mass Effect is bad is complete idiocy. As I've said before, I don't even think people on this site actually even enjoy video games.

" As I've said before, I don't even think people on this site actually even enjoy video games."

Joystiq ate my comment, but in short I mostly agree with you. It seems the people who waste time commenting on here all day hate games pointlessly.

Play games, have fun, have no allegiances. Companies don't care if you support them, they don't give a shit about you. Why let bad reviews prevent you from TRYING a game, or overhype prevent you from enjoying a great game? If you have trouble enjoying a game because of others, you need to re-prioritize your shit.

I can jump from FPS to sports to JRPG to WRPG to Action to Strategy and enjoy myself with "crap" games like Too Human, Shadow Hearts, or Infinite Undiscovery... To overly hyped games MW2, Halo: ODST, GTA4, Skate, NHL 10. Games are meant to be enjoyed, not critiqued. So no, Naruto may not be the Shadow of the Colossus of the 360 generation - Doesn't mean it can't be fun for a weekend of kicking ass as a bright orange ninja.

Why would anybody want to play checkers when there's chess? Chess is so much better. It takes real strategy and concentration. Checkers is for babies that can't handle a real game.

Chess is overrated. Do you know how hard it is to pick up that game? It's flooded with jerks that'll blitz you before you even have a chance to figure out what's going on. And it takes so long! Checkers is a better game. I pick it up whenever I want and play with anybody. No worries about 12-year-olds yelling, "Checkmate, F*#*ER!"

Everybody knows Japan makes the best board games. Chess and checkers are just weak western copies of Go. If you want to know what a real game looks like, look at Go. There's no bald space marines in Go!

Shogi > Chess > Go

I know that is off-topic, sorry, but how do you get your avatars working. Are there any special requirements? Cause I uploaded my avatar many times through 'edit picture'. It says the avatar will be seen in 5 minutes but nothing ever happens.

How many records does the 360 version come on?

Presumably, you'd have to change discs 2 times during one track.

What I've heard sounds okay, but not having Uematsu will probably be to the music's detriment.

I have the entire OST and its definitely got some good stuff, but probably not as memorable as Nobou's work.

Nobuo Uematsu is overrated, not by much, but certainly a tad. I love most of his work, but really I only missed him in Final Fantasy XII. The music there was extremely average. It did the job but I don't actually have or want that OST. I don't think there was a single song I can remember that's worth remembering.

Final Fantasy X-2 had some of the best arrangements (Piano) than any other Final Fantasy, and he didn't work on it directly if at all.

As far as my heathen self is concerned, he peaked at FF VIII for a total OST and then in between his work and Black Mages, he's only had a few gems. The rest was average like all other composers.

I'd argue that his work in FFX was probably some of his best.

Don't get me wrong, the other guys can compose, but sometimes you lose a little something.

Massmass, I agree that some of his stuff isn't as good as the others. But I certainly dont think he's overrated, I really think you should give FF IX's soundtrack a listen to.

True, I forgot about Final Fantasy X. That's shameful on my part :P I just remember not caring for most of IX and stopping there, although it had some good points and definitely felt like Final Fantasy to me.

I also agree that for Final Fantasy games you get a little more from a Nobuo soundtrack. His imprint has been on it forever and that may be why I couldn't get hooked into XII. It was missing something besides a coherent story.

I'm one of those weird people where music can make a movie/game better or worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLnZ5jcsRpc

Yep, for me it goes:

Favorite Album:
X
VI
VIII
X-2
VII

It'd be great if all Final Fantasy Albums, in their entirety, were arranged for classical composition and professional playing. It really adds a lot more to it.

@Traceur

There's a reason that vid has 5 stars. One of the best pieces of video game music ever.

No Uematsu does hurt the franchise a slight bit - but their direction of the series has changed so much that it kind of feels right not having him. Nobuo + Amano + Sakaguchi had a great chemistry I think. I do think FFX was one of the best FF albums, but he didn't work solo on that. I really enjoyed his work on the Smash Bros. Brawl theme and most of Lost Odyssey though. He's done great things since starting Smile Please

And blasphemy to saying FF9 didn't have a good soundtrack. "The Place I'll Return to Someday", "Black Mage's Village", "You're Not Alone!" and "Bran Bal - The Soulless Village" are all awesome tracks. I think you need to relisten to that album and give it another go.

Traceur_Ryuk, thanks for the link! Reminded me the first time I got to that spot in FFX and really dug that track. So much I would keep running back and forth killing the same enemies just to keep hearing that song. Hope I still have that memory card with the save at that spot! :)

I would love to use this on my turntables, so well guess thats why I use Serato ScratchLive.

Yay now I can play a bad soundtrack on a dead media. Thanks Square!

Dead media? Since when? Everything these days is remastered and auto tuned. At least most vinyls are true audio.

Or those who appreciate true quality of musicians. Don't bring stereotypes to the table just because you are ignorant to a media format that is still striving.

I don't consider myself a hipster and I use Vinyl. Am I a freak of nature?

@Art Vandelay

Yes because digital media with remastering and auto tuning singers is true quality. Right..

When you compress something, it ends up compromising the quality of the music. That's why a CD will blow any MP3/AAC out of the water, and a vinyl will blow a CD out of the water.

Has anyone bought one of those Blu-ray music discs yet? Any good?

@Bradwart

Well said.

Vinyl is certainly one of the best analog sources I know of. Comparing it to digital is silly since really they're two different things. But for most music, I must say I tend to enjoy a clean vinyl more. I also like the package they come in and I was born in the mid 80s!

Besides, how does having another media form become threatening enough to start calling names and getting all huffy about it? Be happy for those that get products geared towards them. It is your choice not to buy, read, or import their ideals. Imagine that...

I worked in a record store back in 1985, back when it was news when an album was available on CD. All of the arguments back then were about how superior CD audio was - "you can hear ambient studio noise from the master tapes!"

Seems a little too fashionable to me. Same argument being made to justify the exact opposite conclusion. They should do a super-high bitrate uncompressed soundtrack and put it on DVD.

Or not, I won't buy it anyway.

That's what they made SACD for. But not many albums get released on it and not many things support it. The PS3 supported it but the newer models don't.

And I think the argument about superior audio in CD's was more against cassete tapes than vinyl.

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days

Vita 'UMD Passport' won't be offered in US 220 comments
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 153 comments
David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 108 comments
Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 95 comments
Battleship movie adapted into FPS by Double Helix 93 comments

Final Fantasy XIII's soundtrack, now on vinyl

Reader Comments (91)

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:06PM Hamildad said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:08PM fuk said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:10PM Alan Smithee said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:12PM Sidebuster said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:19PM TheOtherJames said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:25PM romevi said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 3:24PM Otimus said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 3:29PM romevi said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 4:28PM EvoHelix said

Posted: Feb 6th 2010 9:12AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:09PM fuk said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:10PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:11PM Alan Smithee said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:13PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:18PM Spike Spiegel Humble Bounty Hun said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:20PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:21PM Spike Spiegel Humble Bounty Hun said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:27PM Comet 20 said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:27PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:44PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 3:24PM Punkrawk Bbob said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 4:38PM TheOtherJames said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 4:39PM TheOtherJames said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 4:44PM TheOtherJames said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 6:35PM Punkrawk Bbob said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:12PM Cammie Dunaway Nintendo of Ameri said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:12PM Shagittarius said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 3:10PM Cammie Dunaway Nintendo of Ameri said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:12PM Alan Smithee said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:23PM MyAbsolution said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:33PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:35PM Alan Smithee said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:38PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:43PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:52PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:58PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 3:03PM Alan Smithee said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 3:32PM Punkrawk Bbob said

Posted: Feb 6th 2010 1:53AM Dao Jones said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:14PM ZombieRobot said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:16PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:20PM Spike Spiegel Humble Bounty Hun said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:28PM Spike Spiegel Humble Bounty Hun said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:29PM Comet 20 said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:31PM Spike Spiegel Humble Bounty Hun said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:34PM Alan Smithee said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:38PM Spike Spiegel Humble Bounty Hun said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:38PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:26PM McBrick said

Posted: Feb 5th 2010 2:30PM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Double Fine Kickstarter passes $1 million in under 24 hours, breaking yet another record

Featured Stories

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier brings information warfare to the front

Rhythm Heaven Fever review: Crazy into you

Remedy not done with Alan Wake

The most popular postsin the last 7 days

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days