Nothing westernised is ever good news for you? They have picked British talent, and my god has she got some talent to be in a big release. I think this is great news.
How is Leona god awful? Sure some of her songs are a bit shouty but I don't think anyone can say she's a bad artist. Just because it isn't some Japanese j pop song everyone is throwing a bitch fit. I'm personally glad that SE are looking at NA/EU and changing small things that we may appreciate more.
Although there will be the ones that bitch every time anyway so I don't see why I bother.
YAY. She's really amazing and this song is actually really good, I could see how it would go well.
Nothing westernised is ever good news for you? They have picked British talent, and my god has she got some talent to be in a big release. I think this is great news.
How is Leona god awful? Sure some of her songs are a bit shouty but I don't think anyone can say she's a bad artist. Just because it isn't some Japanese j pop song everyone is throwing a bitch fit. I'm personally glad that SE are looking at NA/EU and changing small things that we may appreciate more.
Although there will be the ones that bitch every time anyway so I don't see why I bother.
I just don't like Leona Lewis, and I don't see why people like her.
Plus, one other complaint, would it have really been so hard to have just done an English cover of Kimi ga Irukara like they've done with Melodies of Life, 1000 Words and Kiss Me Goodbye, or how about just doing an instrumental version of the song?
Those would have been a billion times better than getting Leona Lewis to do a theme song for FFXIII that in NO FUCKING WAY MATCHES WITH THE THEME OF THE GAME'S NARRATIVE.
Now, you may think that I don't like Westernized stuff, and I haven't been good at portraying that I actually do like Western music, comics (Especially DC Comics), films, etc.
Furthermore, when it comes to things like this I'm a purist, if any unnecessary changes are made, I will complain and I will work to get things back to what they were.
What I do not like though is unnecessarily changing things for International releases.
FOR EXAMPLE:
- 4Kids Entertainment "Americanizing" Japanese anime (Though I have to admit their work on Shaman King was actually pretty decent)
- Yen Press changing the cover of Spice and Wolf's novel for a badly photoshopped image that looks like bad werewolf porn.
Furthermore, Kimi ga Irukara was worked on by Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu, It's insulting to see their work replaced by such a crap song.
To put it simply:
"Ima let you finish Uematsu and Hamauzu, but Leona Lewis' song is the greatest choice for FFXIII's theme of all time!"
God I feel dirty for doing that >_>
"Because You're Here" (君がいるから, Kimi ga Irukara)
"My Hands"
You CANNOT say that "My Hands" by Leona Lewis is a better choice, because IT FUCKING ISN'T!!!
"My Hands" is more suited for a terrible AMV rather than an actual theme song!!!
Edit: I may as well add that Kimi ga Iru Kara is a more emotional song than My Hands, which is basically Leona Lewis talking about HERSELF!
Edit 2: And I just have to ask, would you REALLY choose a song that has been worked on by the staff who made the music for the game, who know the theme of the game, who have been working on this game for OVER 4 YEARS, or would you choose a trashy song that was shat out in six months!!!
It's truly sickening to see REAL talent get pushed aside for trash!!!
Edit 3: Finally, SE are just taking one song from an album rather than ENCOURAGING HER TO MAKE A NEW SONG THAT FITS WITH THE GAME'S NARRATIVE. I'd be more forgiving if they did that instead of taking one random shit song off a crappy album and just copy/pasting it in there!
I just did. I would rather have a song I can understand then a song in a different language. Sure you can call me an "untrue" fan or whatever but it's what most of the general public will feel also. I can assure you that 95% of my friends would rather have an English track on this game. What SE did was smart in my opinion.
I don't understand how you can call her trash either? I mean I don't like certain singers but I still understand and see their talent it just isn't to my preference. I think it's just the fan boys getting all emo over something that is actually not that of a huge deal.
I just did. I would rather have a song I can understand then a song in a different language. Sure you can call me an "untrue" fan or whatever but it's what most of the general public will feel also. I can assure you that 95% of my friends would rather have an English track on this game. What SE did was smart in my opinion.
I don't understand how you can call her trash either? I mean I don't like certain singers but I still understand and see their talent it just isn't to my preference. I think it's just the fan boys getting all emo over something that is actually not that of a huge deal.
Then I ask again, would an English cover really have been so hard to make?
I give you several example!
Melodies of Life:
1000 words:
Kiss me Goodbye:
These songs all have a part of the game's soul, yes, even if the translations are a little sketchy, they are still a part of the games soul. Now I ask you this. If the same thing as what is being done now were done with these songs, would you still say that you would prefer trash over this?
Now I don't want you to answer immediately, I'd like you to listen to all these songs at least three times, and carefully compare them with each other, then say that to me.
I want you to think about this for an hour. Depend on your answer, I'd either feel sorry for you or find that you are a hypocrite, because either way, your now fighting a losing battle against me in this argument.
Gerry does have a point. It seems stupid to get some musician's song that had NOTHING to do with FFXIII just cause she's popular somewhere (I honestly never heard of her before though XD) and crap rather than just make an English version of the current theme song like they did in FF before. Honestly though.. the music of FF just hasn't been good since X when Nobou was a bigger part of it oh well.
Gerry does have a point. It seems stupid to get some musician's song that had NOTHING to do with FFXIII just cause she's popular somewhere (I honestly never heard of her before though XD) and crap rather than just make an English version of the current theme song like they did in FF before. Honestly though.. the music of FF just hasn't been good since X when Nobou was a bigger part of it oh well.
Uematsu did have a hand in making Kimi ga Iru Kara though. That's the biggest insult to me. They are practically saying that the GOD OF COMPOSERS/MUSICIANS isn't good enough for Westerners >_>
Edit: And yes, I do admire Uematsu so much that I view him as a god among men. I'm that much of a Uematsu fan, I aspire to be like him as a composer.
I like the song, and who's to say it doesn't have any meaning to the game's story? Nobody's fucking played it yet, to me it sounds like it could either fit with Lightning's story, or Snow and Serah's engagement.
The song's theme is moving on after loss, which seemingly based on the trailers, Lightning and Snow have to do when Serah gets crystallized.
If you don't like it that's your prerogative, just wait until the game is released in NA/EU before you jump to conclusions based on the song.
And we don't even know if they cut out Kimi ga Iru Kara, they have another Japanese theme song "Eternal Love" coming for it as well. They may have all 3 songs in it, we just don't know until we get it in March.
Either way, it's a song that'll probably play once in the game, prolly during the end credits, mute the fucking tv if it pisses you off.
Honestly if they keep every other song where it is and just put it in the credits, fine I don't care I don't mind added shit, but I don't like when they change stuff (aside from language) but ah well. It doesn't really piss me off so much as "what's wrong with just dubbing the song already in there?". Far as I have read they are replacing that song with this one and that makes me sad.
I honestly have loved Nobou's music since I first heard it when I first played FF series (I forget if I played FF4 or FF6 first.. I think I played 6 first and then 4 at my friend's so ya, good music foundation to start from) and I have pretty much loved it all until now (everything he did). Even when he only did one or two songs for a game they were always the most awesome in the game (see Distant Worlds for FFXI). So it kinda would be insulting to Nobou if anything and kinda pisses off a lot of FF fans. Every other forum I browse the FF fans are pretty upset that Nobou's one thing for this game might not be in the western version.
Well, least you have the entirety of FFXIV's music to look forward to.
Yeah I understand some frustrations, if they do replace it.
If they don't and just put "My Hands" in the game somewhere w/o replacing the 2 Japanese theme songs, that's the best situation. It could end up replacing the other song "Eternal Love", which is what I'm betting on if it replaces anything, and from the snippets I've heard of "Eternal Love" I'm not fond of it.
Best case scenario, they put in "My Hands" somewhere in the game w/o cutting any songs.
Mid-case, they cut "Eternal Love" and replace it with "My Hands"
Worst case, they cut "Kimi ga Iru Kara" and replace it with "My Hands"
Either way, the contracts are already signed and they aren't going to alter whatever plans they have due to a small minority.
Gerry you're overreacting. Not buying the game cuz of the theme song? Um, mute it when it comes on if it bothers you that much and move on with your life.
I don't really like it either, but the 10 mins of play time the song is gonna get isn't gonna take away from my enjoyment of the game.
Hehe, I forget if I've heard any of Eternal Love yet hmm.. should go look for it, but ya. I'd prefer they just add songs to it than take away and replace some. I'm sure there's room with the 360 discs for some added songs without making them expand to another disc (I mean the amount already probably planned by them).
Edit:
Oh, and so yeah. I was right about the chocobo's, the ones from earlier screens look that way because they had to evolve to survive on Pulse, the normal looking ones reside on Cocoon.
Now we just need to see how Moogles will look like in XIII.
I really didn't think there would be this much rage...honestly. I agree with DW and Tiael for the most part due to the fact that although I do like some Japanese music I do prefer the English.
Gerry I know you're saying about other Final Fantasies having an English cover and what not but as far as I know it was the japanese singer of the song that switched over to the English cover. 1000 words were both done by Koda Kumi, The same goes for Kiss me good-bye by Angela Aki. It's even happened in Kingdom Hearts where Utada Hikaru translates her songs to English. I've listened to those songs a couple of times now and for me the English cover was always greater/better...simply because I could understand the songs and could relate it to the game more.
You say you hate Leona Lewis, but that might not be the case with some people that will play this game and Like Tiael stated it may relate to the sad parts of the story which SE seem to be showing a lot of in their trailers and jazz. I don't understand how you knock stuff before you even know how it fits into the game, Patience is a virtue and so far you've gotten over every little thing that they've thrown at you to piss you off...I'm sure you'll get over this dude it's really not that big a deal.
My basic point since I think I've completely strayed from it was simply, Leona's song may have relevance and SE who have done more than enough English covers with the same artist may not have been able to with the artist they chose this time and therefore went with a new and upcoming artist that is pretty decent and successful for the most part.
Again that's just my opinion compared to yours but I do like to understand the lyrics I'm listening to. (When X-2 came out I could sing along to 1000 words in english that's how much I loved it over the japanese one because I understood it better.)
All things said, I think this a pretty smart move. Thoughts on the quality of the song aside, the fact that they can get a rather famous singer to contribute her song to a franchise and genre which is still quite a bit niche is a step in making gaming more mainstream.
I don't know about the rest of them, but I can tell you Koda Kumi's 1000 words was scrapped and done again by someone else. Not that it really matters but it was a different version in the game.
But I agree, I prefer the english versions of the songs. And while it would've been better if they had just translated it, they didn't and I not that upset about it.
That's a problem for me though it feels like you compromise your creation just so you can get more mainstream and "more money!" at probably a loss of quality in the creation. Granted, I can't say for sure until I've played the game full (and some how able to compare what might have been changed) but ahh well... I've just seen from a lot of times in the past that "doing something to make it more mainstream" usually disappoints me more than if they had just kept it normal (say what L4D was going to be from the beginning and then what it became. It's fun now but it was far more niche zombie fans and better imo from what it was going to be, ah well).
For me, I don't really listen to lyrics so much with most music these days. It's usually "meh" to me and I care more about the sounds behind the music. All the instruments, the chords, melodies, harmonies, etc.
Edit: btw, I think I heard something about the entirety of the game's music being changed by some X-Factor people or whatever (probably BS) but I'm curious what people would say if they took EVERY sound that we've heard so far in FFXIII and "westernized it".
I'd say my overall problem though, thinking more about it, is that her music just doesn't sound "Final Fantasy" to me. I mean, granted FF hasn't sounded FF to me since FFX-2 for the most part (lack of Nobou, though FFXI sounded very FF to me entirely though-out) but this sounds even further from FF than those. *shrugs* ah well.
I personally just want to play the game, I think I'll be satisfied with that. Of course I do enjoy video game music to a high extent as it adds to the game for me, but I don't think such a minor change lasting maybe 3 minutes out of a game consisting of several hours.
When ever games had a vocal song within it, I never really listened to the lyrics. I just let the music flow like it was supposed to. In this case of replacement, it really doesn't affect me at all. To those who say it's unfitting, I'd have to disagree. The lyrics may not mix and match with what you know of the story right now, but I think the actual music and voice sound pretty fitting to me. As I said before, lyrics have hardly phased me when I'm playing the game, so in the end, the voice and music is all that matters to me.
In the end, I just want to play the game and enjoy it. Whatever happens, happens, deal with it. It's not as bad as some people are making it out to be, really.
That's a problem for me though it feels like you compromise your creation just so you can get more mainstream and "more money!" at probably a loss of quality in the creation. Granted, I can't say for sure until I've played the game full (and some how able to compare what might have been changed) but ahh well... I've just seen from a lot of times in the past that "doing something to make it more mainstream" usually disappoints me more than if they had just kept it normal (say what L4D was going to be from the beginning and then what it became. It's fun now but it was far more niche zombie fans and better imo from what it was going to be, ah well).
I don't know about the rest of them, but I can tell you Koda Kumi's 1000 words was scrapped and done again by someone else. Not that it really matters but it was a different version in the game.
But I agree, I prefer the english versions of the songs. And while it would've been better if they had just translated it, they didn't and I not that upset about it.
What about real-emotion? I didn't know about 1000 words but still when you have an understanding of the words you can relate more towards what's going on with the story and how it all fits etc etc.
Yeah, Jade Villalon under the Sweetbox name was approached by SE to do 1000 Words, Real Emotion and 1000 Words (orchestral) for the English version of X-2 after they scrapped Kumi Koda's versions.
oh well.
I don't mind added shit, but I don't like when they change stuff (aside from language) but ah well. It doesn't really piss me off so much as "what's wrong with just dubbing the song already in there?". Far as I have read they are replacing that song with this one and that makes me sad.
