FFVII: Ever Crisis Announced

[oty]

Literally convinced me to buy this 100x

 

[Shademp]

That would be a humorously successful way of advertising Ever Crisis CC.

"CRISIS CORE LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE!
INTRODUCING NEW FEATURES, SUCH AS:
- Genesis no longer having voiced lines
- Genesis getting blurred out and replaced with a black square
- Genesis's dialogue text being replaced with randomized fortune cookie messages
- All mentions of Genesis are reduced to the letter G"

JUST TAKE MY MONEY SQUARE

 

[KindOfBlue]

And then the trade off is every other character in the game, male and female, is voiced by Gackt

 

[Odysseus]

That would be a humorously successful way of advertising Ever Crisis CC.

"CRISIS CORE LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE!
INTRODUCING NEW FEATURES, SUCH AS:
- Genesis no longer having voiced lines
- Genesis getting blurred out and replaced with a black square
- Genesis's dialogue text being replaced with randomized fortune cookie messages
- All mentions of Genesis are reduced to the letter G"

JUST TAKE MY MONEY SQUARE

It's the Shinra approved version lol.

 

[Kuraudo.]

Or hey, maybe that's one of the reason they went chibi. lmao

 

[Odysseus]

I do wonder how closely tied Gackt is too genesis. Would they still owe him if Genesis is a chibi?

 

[Shademp]

It'll also be interesting to see if the pop songs at the end of AC, DC and CC are used for Ever Crisis. If they are, I'll take it as a sign that the music licenses were never a real problem. Fans have speculated for a long time about licenses as potential roadblocks against proper HD remasters, same with Gackt's likeness, but nobody has ever found solid proof that licensing has been this huge hindrance for Square.

The closest *implication* we got of potential licensing issues was when the English version of ACC retained the theme song "Calling" instead of getting updated to the song "Safe & Sound" that was in the Japanese release. Though that could just as easily be an oversight as it might be a licensing issue.

So if Ever Crisis does end up re-using these pop songs I will assume Square has predicted that artist/music licenses won't ever be a real problem.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

(I hate those songs tho. So schmaltzy)

 

[Odysseus]

"Why" was the final nail in the "I don't like Crisis Core" coffin for me. Ugh. At least "Price of Freedom" is great.

 

[Tashasaurous]

It'll also be interesting to see if the pop songs at the end of AC, DC and CC are used for Ever Crisis. If they are, I'll take it as a sign that the music licenses were never a real problem. Fans have speculated for a long time about licenses as potential roadblocks against proper HD remasters, same with Gackt's likeness, but nobody has ever found solid proof that licensing has been this huge hindrance for Square.

The closest *implication* we got of potential licensing issues was when the English version of ACC retained the theme song "Calling" instead of getting updated to the song "Safe & Sound" that was in the Japanese release. Though that could just as easily be an oversight as it might be a licensing issue.

So if Ever Crisis does end up re-using these pop songs I will assume Square has predicted that artist/music licenses won't ever be a real problem.

I don't think it was the music that was the issue. Maybe it was because Gackt didn't like Square using the design of his outfit being used as Genesis' outfit in the secret ending of DC and the whole event of CC. I'm most likely wrong here, but maybe that's why there was never a sequel to Dirge of Cerberus because of the issue of using Genesis again due to the outfit which I really like.

But at least Before Crisis is finally being somewhat released outside of Japan. Not what I had in mind(such as a 3D remake game and on a console), but I suppose Ever Crisis on Mobile is close enough.

 

[Shademp]

There is definitely a certain "cheap" and "disjointed" feeling that surrounds most of the pop songs that video games insist on including at the end.

When the trend started in the late 90s, with titles like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or Final Fantasy 8, it felt like a monumental step in making video games more recognized as an art form. "Look at us, we are like movies now! We have songs with actual high-quality vocals!" and as a youngin' I was indeed desperate for anything that made video games feel mature and serious, due to games still being regarded by many as an unworthy pastime.

But quickly pop songs instead became this obligatory item to mark "checked" on your list of content to include "just because". The worst offenders are of course those where the song and its instrumentals don't jive with the atmosphere of the game at all.

Crisis Core and Remake did the honorable thing of using the song's melody (without lyrics) for the actual game, so that's a good way of bridging the gap between game and pop music. Both the Ayaka "Why" melody and the "Hollow" melody are absolutely wonderful to hear in-game. But it's still largely hit or miss whether the lyricised versions feel like they belong and are used to a positive effect.

 

[Odysseus]

"Hollow" isn't a great song, but it works well for the scene it's used in the remake for and the instrumental versions found in various tracks like the sector 5 theme sound very good. "Why" is just a total mood killer.

 

[oty]

I guess it boils down to personal preference tho? I think Hollow is a great song, but I certainly heard a fair share of people saying otherwise. Same thing goes to CC. While I personally hate "Why" and it's use, there seem to be people who love it to death.

 

[KindOfBlue]

On a similar note, I initially thought Suicide Squad (2016) would be a serious movie similar to Man of Steel or Batman v Superman. Then I saw Jared Leto’s Joker on top of a speedboat with Skrillex and Rick Ross, and I thought “ah, it’s THAT kind of movie”. I dunno, American films and Japanese video games/anime all have a weird sort of relationship with popular music for me.

 

[Wol]

Anyone remembers how disjointed that pop song was during XIII-2's ending.

 

[Odysseus]

At least "Melodies of Life" is amazing in FFIX, anyway. I think I'm happy the original FF7 avoided a pop ballad though.

 

[ForceStealer]

Why is a perfectly fine song, shouldn't have been played over the ending though.

Both Longing and Redemption are genuinely good AND fit well enough, imo.

I have no opinion of Hollow one way or the other. Hearing Stand By Me in XV was surreal, but it actually fit pretty well. Neither XIII song option were good, but I'm of the apparently minority opinion that My Hands was better than the extremely generic Kimi ga iru kara. Kiss Me Goodbye is a good song, but doesn't fit XII at all. I never cared for the way Suteki da ne is sung. Melodies of Life is inoffensive, but boring. Eyes On Me sucks.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Confession: I love both "Why" and how it's used. I think "Price of Freedom" is the most tryhard, pretentious-sounding garbage in all of FF.

Fight me.

 

[KindOfBlue]

All of these songs make me feel like I’m doing karaoke in Yakuza

 

[ForceStealer]

Confession: I love both "Why" and how it's used. I think "Price of Freedom" is the most tryhard, pretentious-sounding garbage in all of FF.

Fight me.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

As an FFXIV music fan, I kinda just look at the entire "Do pop songs work in FF games?" and just laugh...

Given that out of the FFXIV's top five favorite Soken songs... all of them have lyrics in some form! And three of them are definetly pop songs... or rap in the case of Rise....

Wayward Daughter​

Rise​

The Worm's Tail​

Heroes​

Oblivion​

Granted... this *was* before the likes of eScape, The Long Fall, Shadowbringers, and To the Edge came into the game... but still... Actually... out of the fifty songs on the "FFXIV - The Best" album... seventeen of them *don't* have lyrics/vocals of some sort. At least eighteen of them I would consdier "pop" songs given how people talk about the concept in the context of FF. The rest are all more choral pieces.

Either way... It really depends on *how* the music genre is used. The entire build-up to the last boss of Shadowbringers (5.0) has one of the best uses of a rock song in a cut-scene in all of FF... and then the song that plays after the boss fight during the epilogue scenes is to die for. The last thing it feels like is that the songs were chosen "just because" they needed songs with lyrics there. If the song feels "tacked on" then it's not so great.

Granted... having the lyricist of your song also be the Main Scenario Writer of your game also helps with making the theme of the song fit into the game... as does having the composer also do all the rest of the songs on the OST. Which turns it from "there was this one song that is an instrumental version of this pop song" to "this is the third version of this song in this expansion... and all the versions have different caracteristics depending on what they are being used for".

 

[Makoeyes987]

Confession: I love both "Why" and how it's used. I think "Price of Freedom" is the most tryhard, pretentious-sounding garbage in all of FF.

Fight me.

Gotta admit, you got me in the first half.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Gotta admit, you got me in the first half.

How so?

 

[Makoeyes987]

I meant, I was with you 100% with the first half of your comment, then you dropped the hot-take with "The Price of Freedom."

Granted, I'm not that big a fan of it either. However, I wouldn't go that hard on it, lol

 

[KindOfBlue]

Yeah, there’s not enough going on in “The Price of Freedom” for me to hate it musically, it just kinda gets old for a while...usually the lyrics and/or vocal performances are where my ears go “yep, this is some weeb stuff alright”