Xenosaga or Xenogears?
23 Mar 2001, 3:10-3:30 PM
The Xenosaga album by Yasunori Mitsuda has been getting quite a bit of flak from fans expecting a followup to Xenogears. The following was a reply I made to a post in the Gamingforce.com forums titled “What is better Xenosaga OST or Xenogears OST?”.
Well in my opinon, I’ve been listening to the Xenosaga soundtrack for the past few days. And as an album, I prefer Xenosaga to Xenogears because the tracks in Xenosaga have more flow than Xenogears. I can say that this is partly due to the fact that Xenosaga was composed for the PS2 which allows for more performed instrumentation rather than sequenced music.
The Xenogears OST had some really fantastic tunes, the opening track, for instance, surpasses the opening track in Xenosaga. The bulk of the standout tunes were in the end of second album in the Id and final boss themes. But the soundtrack on the overall was uneven. In terms of game background music, some of the tracks are perfect, but when it comes down to the purpose of cd music, they are merely filler. However, the reason why I think people love the Xenogears OST (which I do btw) is because the music at the end covers up the deficiencies scattered in the rest of the album. I’m sure a lot of Xenogears fans put the last tracks (“Alpha and Omega”, “One Who Bares Fangs at God” et al.) on repeat mode far more often than the earlier songs in the CD. There could be exceptions I guess, but that’s what I think anyway.
In Xenosaga, what I really enjoy about the music is that when I put on my earphones and listen to the music, I can really hear the variety and dynamics of the music. Let’s talk about the standout tracks which are mostly Gregorian influenced for instance. In “Ormus”, if you really pay attention to the music, you can hear the various choral parts and how they diverge and then blend perfectly into each other. It is forceful and yet at the same time subtle. The “Miracle” has an amazing arrangement and is one of the best videogame music I have heard. My only gripe is that it’s too short and I only wish I could have been part of the choir that sung it lol. (oh well, I can always sing along with it).
As for the vocal themes, I’d say I prefer “Kokoro” to the vocal themes in Xenogears.
As to why many fans prefer Xenogears to Xenosaga, one reason I can think of is because the best music in Xenosaga is distributed throughout the album rather than at the end. So there is the lack of the sudden wow factor when the final boss themes overwhelms you towards the end. Another reason is the unanticipated style of music. I think a lot of Yasunori Mitsuda fans have been too used to the type of music he has been producing in the likes of Chrono Cross, Xenogears and its followup album Creid, all of which are obviously Celtic influenced and more ‘joyful’ in nature. So when expectations in terms of style are not met, the most immediate criticism is that it is an album that is not up-to-par. But then I pose the question: how many of you who dislike the Xenosaga music have actually listened to it without any preconception of what to expect? I don’t think it’s fair to criticise a piece of music simply because that it is not of the genre that you are used to. It’s like despising Wagner simply because it’s not Mozart. If music is art, there should be experimentation.
There are 2 kinds of music (I don’t mean good music and bad music =P): the first kind is the music in which you can immediately appreciate. The second kind is the music which grows on you. I’m not sure how many of you here are Led Zeppelin fans, but just as an example, Led Zeppelin was criticised for its album Presence because its style of music differed greatly from its previous albums. However, for me, the music just grows on me the more I listen to it. Xenosaga too, is that type of album. Perhaps it isn’t so suitable as game music because when you play a game, you want something that can immediately stand out from the moment you listen to it. But I think, as an album, it’s pretty much awesome.
