Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack Limited Edition [Soundtrack, Import, Box set]

Nobuo Uematsu (Composer), Masashi Hamauzu (Composer), Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra), Japanese Session Orchestra (Orchestra), Sayuri Sugawara (Performer), Mina (Performer), Frances Maya (Performer), Matsue Hamauzu (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 23, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 5
• Format: Soundtrack, Import, Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Square Enix
• ASIN: B002U4RQ9W
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #119,280 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Brand New and manufacture sealed. First class shipping from New York. Customer satisfaction is guaranteed.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed with the sound quality, March 30, 2010

By 

Obsidian "Hawaii" (Hawaii) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack Limited Edition (Audio CD)

I buy a lot of OST for games and anime. As a Limited Set, it is OK but too expensive. It comes in a nice large white box with a big XIII on the front. It also includes a drama disc (sealed in a foil bag no less), mini-artbook, and the large 4 CD fold-out set. The CD has Bilingual Japanese/English track names. The mini-artbook is all Japanese (except for the credits in English, go figure). I have a beef with the artbook being just stapled sheets. I figure for this price they could make it a hard-bound artbook like that included with Mass Effect 2's Collector's Edition. But not to be, it's just paper.

I am very disappointed with the sound quality of this set. This goes for most of the piano and orchestral pieces. They all sound "tinny" with lots of clipping on the piano sections. This makes me very sad, because those are some of the best pieces in the whole set! And to make the recording so bad, makes my sound system sound like a cheap radio, like an mp3 compressed at 96kb or something. What the hell were they thinking? The only good sounding track is "Afro Blues" on CD2, but I wanted all the orchestral/piano to sound good, and they sure screwed that up. Sad very sad. As far as tracks go, they have all the music in the game that you'll ever want, with some very short tracks. However it is quite complete.

If you want all of the music, then by all means buy this. But if you want better sound quality, I would wait and see if they release just an orchestral tracks version, which hopefully has better quality recordings.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor quality disks/manufacturing were used, July 5, 2010

By 

C. A. Stjohn (Virginia USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack Limited Edition (Audio CD)

Music quality aside, many of the tracks on multiple CDs sound like the CD had been "scratched" terribly. It even had my iTunes freeze up on me multiple times for importing the mp3s. I had to actually buy the tracks off of the iTunes store to get those tracks - nearly a whole CD's worth. Please purchase a different version of the soundtrack than this one. It ended up costing me close to a hundred dollars in replacing the songs.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Final Fantasy XIII (Original Soundtrack), January 16, 2011

By 

Mr Hemmar "Joel Wyncott" (Il, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack Limited Edition (Audio CD)

First off, I'll just say that I would have given this item five stars, but for Amazon's outrageous import prices. I bought this brand new from eBay for $30. Also, the standard, four-CD, 85-track edition (as many tracks as in this five-CD edition) is available from the Square Enix online store for $30. And you can find it right here:
[...]

Quality-wise, this an excellent soundtrack! I don't get why people have been complaining about sound quality from these CDs. It really is excellent, both in sound quality, and in composition. Masashi Mamauzu had some big shoes to step into in taking on the challenge of being the only composer for Final Fantasy XIII. And though I don't think he is as good as Uematsu, who has composed what I think are certainly the best video game soundtracks around, Hamauzu still did a great job with XIII.

This soundtrack is a must-have for any Final Fantasy fan, and a great compositional work in its own right. A worthy collector's item, and well worth the money spent on it, even if you do buy from Amazon.

Track information can all be found on the Wikipedia article on the game's music, at this address: [...]