http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q0_mNC5FQ8&feature=player_embedded

I think its better than the vocal song Masashi Hamauzu composed. He's a good composer but he's not used to doing vocal songs. I've never heard of anyone this big doing a song for a video game. If its released as a single I think this will garner lots of attention to the series. Lots of the fans seem really put off by it. To be honest I think FF fans are snobby towards anything mainstream.

I think we should go back to chip tunes. :/

Honestly, I won't mind the song as long it's not played over and over and over.

it suits the game. but i still prefer an original piece.

I think the song is pretty good. Yeah, it's mainstreamish, but that won't change my view of the game.

I like it ok as a song, but I think it sux balls compared to the original ballad. Why couldn't they just have Leona Lewis sing the English language version of Kimi ga Irukara? I prefer a song to match the game melodically. As it stands now, it will be extremely out of place and unrelated to the game it's in (and probably in a really important moment where it will just be distracting and ruin the mood). Just imagine how horrible it would be to replace Suteki de ne with a Kelly Clarkson song. This feels exactly the same to me, a travesty.

Personally, I don't like the song. But then, I don't like Leona Lewis' music. To me, it just doesn't seem to fit Final Fantasy.

Totally thumb downed the person who said they trusted Squeenix :D

Leona Lewis. Bad.

Heh.
I've got Leona's song lined up.... but haven't listened to it yet. Kinda nervous. So before I do, I'll say this; her career is the product of the most superficial, commercialised venture imaginable BUT you can't even begin to hold it against her when you measure up the girls' immense talent. Her emotion, delivery, range, tone.... it's all incredible. As a massive FF fan, in all the western world I couldn't pick a better singer for the job. 'Course some people are gonna prefer a japanese singer, and maybe they're right, but if Square-Enix were gonna make this kinda change, then Leona's the lesser of thousands upon thousands of evils.
And yup, the publicity's good for the game. I didn't see headlines over here for Riku or Koda Kumi's themes, but everyone here's seen the articles about Ms Lewis, right? Even though we all want Final Fantasy to be a personally involved journey, you know it's better for the continued franchise to bring as many gamers as possible onboard!!
Right. Enough. Gonna go listen to it now, I'll be back here in 10 minutes with a completely different opinion!! *ahem*

I don't think I can agree Rhyming_reason. It would be one thing if they got Leona Lewis to sing the English rendition of the Japanese ballad, that would be fine. It's quite another thing to completely replace it with an unrelated song! I don't care WHO it is.

Just for the record, of the music I've listened to from Leona Lewis, I was quite unimpressed. I thought she sounded like a very generic R+B Pop singer, she could have been anyone IMO.

This is of course absolutely a business decisions to drive sales. The sad part is, it will probably work and the hardcore fans, once again, get it in the ass in the name of profits. The problem is, you piss of the fanboys enough and they stop buying completely. Just like the WII. Don't got one, won't ever get one. Nintendo fucked with me one to many times with it, so now I'm just done with them. They'll have to get their money from grandma and when the next trendy thing comes along and that well dries up, I won't be there to help them out. Nintendo has flat out lost me as a customer. I would hate to see SE go the same route, but it's definitely possible with decisions like this.

Exposure is good for their bottom line, but I think it is bad for the community as a whole. I just think back to what FFVII did to the Final Fantasy community. For every one decent, intelligent fan, we get 100 CloudxSephiroth stupid fanboys who add nothing to the conversation and do nothing by gay up the fandom. If FFXIII is going to be that all over again, I'll just be frustrated and sad.

I think I'll stick to my original plan. I'll keep the Japanese ballad up on the computer while playing, and when I hear this song, I'll mute the game and just play the RIGHT version.

Hey SheriffNotic!
Good argument, can't fault you at all for how you feel about the switch. And yeah, guess you could just cue up the Japanese track for a little home-improvement scoring!
Personally, I just listened to 'My Hands', and was relieved how good it is musically. It's got an emotional punch to it; I think the track's up to the task. Now SE just need to work it in well (and they have a staple of excellent music placement and engineering). Lyrically 'My Hands' is a little isolated, with the singer singing about herself - that's my only negative. BUT since FFXIII has a female protagonist, there's hope yet that it may relate!
'Course it's about improving the bottom line. I was living in Japan when Leona's first album came out there, and the Japanese were loving both it and her. She's big enough to be included as their theme singer, but isn't, so that speaks volumes. But after the development cost of 4+ years of arguably the most highly anticipated game ever (and with the creation of their 'Crystal Tools' development engine for 7th gen consoles), Square-Enix can't afford to only sell copies to the die-hard fans. Sad but true. So I'm gonna give them a break and let them off with this stunt, I find the whole thing totally acceptable.

Some people'll love it, some'll hate it. Man, it's surprisingly comfy on this fence!

I can see the lyrics kind of fitting considering what they've described of Lightning so far, what worries me is that if the song is going to be played at a key emotional scene and not just the ending, how is it going to fit in there? I'm just afraid it won't.

It doesn't really matter how successful Leona Lewis is in Japan since they aren't getting that version except on the soundtrack. Why couldn't they just get her to sing the ballad in Japanese too? I just want the original ballad as written by Masashi Hamauzu, I don't care that much who sings it provided they can sing a little bit.

Obviously SE will do what they have to to turn a profit, but lets not kid ourselves, the Final Fantasy series has been shipping multi-million unit launches for over a decade... a certain amount of success is already assured. Considering how much hype this game does have, It only make me feel like a stunt like this is even less necessary. I don't see this change bringing them HUGE returns, they already have guaranteed purchases from nearly everyone that owns a PS3 and a bunch of new people that will be buying the console just for this game. They also have the XBOX360 port to bring in even more sales. Either they have grossly overspent on the development, or they really are just trying to squeeze every dime out of the audience as they can.

I'm glad there are fans that aren't going to be as frustrated, at least there will be some people who don't feel offended by this, I'm just not one of them.

Japanese version is much better.

Leona Lewis doesn't fit Final Fantasy....

I laugh at all you people saying a pop song doesn't fit Final Fantasy while saying an other pop song fits better. You don't realize it, but that's exactly what you've been saying.

As for the song in itself not fitting, S-E said they chose that song BECAUSE it fits the scene it will play in.

But yeah, you guys know better than them, obviously.



I'd rather have a song by a competent singer, who can sing high notes without shitting her voice than a song performed by a shitty generic singer that has "dear my friend" in its refrain. �_�

I can't stand Leona Lewis.
I do not like that girl. The fact that she is doing the theme song for FFXIII has horrendously put me off. More than it should.

I laugh at all you people saying a pop song doesn't fit Final Fantasy while saying an other pop song fits better. You don't realize it, but that's exactly what you've been saying.

As for the song in itself not fitting, S-E said they chose that song BECAUSE it fits the scene it will play in.

But yeah, you guys know better than them, obviously.



I'd rather have a song by a competent singer, who can sing high notes without shitting her voice than a song performed by a shitty generic singer that has "dear my friend" in its refrain. �_�


lol. she could have at least got that one line correct. ''be a my friend'' is what i heard.

If I heard this on the radio I'd probably change stations.

I like it ok as a song, but I think it sux balls compared to the original ballad. Why couldn't they just have Leona Lewis sing the English language version of Kimi ga Irukara? I prefer a song to match the game melodically. As it stands now, it will be extremely out of place and unrelated to the game it's in (and probably in a really important moment where it will just be distracting and ruin the mood). Just imagine how horrible it would be to replace Suteki de ne with a Kelly Clarkson song. This feels exactly the same to me, a travesty.
same feeling, i just love what you had just said

Even Leona Lewis did put me off a little, which is not her fault because i dislike how english composer being lazy and not think of something that is more interesting.
And i don't think i will dislike this song completely, as i believe that one day this song will be in my ipod playlist. >.<

She didn't write it, she knows nothing of Final Fantasy, what is the point? She'll get money for it. That's the point. It's 100% lame.

So I haven't heard the OST yet FF 13 but it's quite possible the composer has worked in themes, melodies, specific chord changes, etc from the ballad he wrote into other songs in the OST. Composer's typically do this kind of thing. It's really stupid to replace a song he wrote with one he didn't write, regardless if I like the song or not. The composer, hopefully, had a vision or a theme for the OST. I personally would be pissed if I was him. Ripping out one of the main emotional themes of the game I had written and replaced it with a random song...

So I haven't heard the OST yet FF 13 but it's quite possible the composer has worked in themes, melodies, specific chord changes, etc from the ballad he wrote into other songs in the OST. Composer's typically do this kind of thing. It's really stupid to replace a song he wrote with one he didn't write, regardless if I like the song or not. The composer, hopefully, had a vision or a theme for the OST. I personally would be pissed if I was him. Ripping out one of the main emotional themes of the game I had written and replaced it with a random song...
same over here

games over....
After i had heard the japanese theme with the cutscene, i believe it is better for japanese theme rather then "My Hands".
another words "My Hands" will make the scene sound cheesy.......
oh, by the way i am talking about "Eternal Love" not "kimi ga Iru Kara" (the one with No english lyrics line in it)

She didn't write it, she knows nothing of Final Fantasy, what is the point? She'll get money for it. That's the point. It's 100% lame.

Haha I agreed, for myself, They're Stupid to get another singer for our European Version.


Sorry about my poor English I'm French

The "Avatar" song was meh, this song is also meh
�There's something wrong with this lady?

I don't know anything about her history, but I heard her sing and I didn't like it at all. That's it for me.

That's all there is to know. The song will take away all authenticity. Leona Lewis won a talent contest heavily publicized by the UK Media desisgned to produce singers that are both commercially viable and accessible with hefty record deals. It should be as far from the video-game as is physically possible. The video-game industry is already spouting out an endless stream of unoriginal games and franchises, without it being tainted by the absolute core of what is wrong with the music industry.

That's it for me!

Funny you'd say that. Cause the singer for the original Japanese theme, Sayuri Sugawara, comes from the exact same kind of background. �_�

I haven't heard the original theme. I tend not to like the main themes from Final Fantasy games.

It seems like they just slapped Lewis' song onto the game because of the popularity of the artist. I mean, the woman can sing, no doubt, but I dunno if she was the best choice. No Hikaru Utada...? No Koda Kumi...?

I haven't heard the original theme yet, though, so maybe this is a better choice, creatively, but...eh. I can't say this song makes me MORE excited for the game...(>_>)

As big of a fan I am of Utada Hikaru and Koda Kumi, they hold no candle to Leona when it comes to vocal talent. Like, it's an insult to compare them.

This song isn't her best, but I won't be quick to judge. Her voice sounds great, and if they can fit a scene into the music, so be it. I'll gladly buy the game.

It's the most generic R&B ever conceived. But at least it isn't Eyes on Me.

As big of a fan I am of Utada Hikaru and Koda Kumi, they hold no candle to Leona when it comes to vocal talent. Like, it's an insult to compare them.

This song isn't her best, but I won't be quick to judge. Her voice sounds great, and if they can fit a scene into the music, so be it. I'll gladly buy the game.

An insult...? To whom, exactly...?

Regardless of Utada/Kumi's talent in comparison to Leona's, the fact remains that fans(even in the US)were okay with the prospect of the original theme, done by the original composer. I dunno who's insight brought about the decision to exchange the original theme with...whatever you'd call this.

I think it's an insult to think slapping some random R&B song onto the US release will increase sales of the game. Hey, I think Leona Lewis can sing, too-MUCH better than Koda Kumi, at least, which isn't much of a feat-but I have no interest in her sound or what she brings to the world of music...much less what she can bring to this game.

Alas, I have no choice in the matter. Rant over.

An insult...? To whom, exactly...?

Regardless of Utada/Kumi's talent in comparison to Leona's, the fact remains that fans(even in the US)were okay with the prospect of the original theme, done by the original composer. I dunno who's insight brought about the decision to exchange the original theme with...whatever you'd call this.

I think it's an insult to think slapping some random R&B song onto the US release will increase sales of the game. Hey, I think Leona Lewis can sing, too-MUCH better than Koda Kumi, at least, which isn't much of a feat-but I have no interest in her sound or what she brings to the world of music...much less what she can bring to this game.

Alas, I have no choice in the matter. Rant over.

Sigh. I don't know where you go to get your feedback. But before they annnounced that they were replacing the song with one of Leone Lewis', most people disliked the Japanese theme like none others in the series so far.

Now that they've replaced it, they still complain.


Whiny bitches, I say.

I'm pretty much in the same boat as many others here. Really just don't care for Leona Lewis and this so called theme song after hearing it. Hopefully it doesn't ruin the mood for whatever pivotal point the song plays at.

Interesting...I'd have perferred that they pick a pre-made song or cover the original...but well it is what it is. Maybe if we invest in Squenix they might actually make decisions that are relevant to the fans.

I don't think we should blame Leona though. This seems more like a decision made by SONY, and i think we all know how those bigshots rule over their artists.

Yeah, we all know how SONY DON'T rule over Square-Enix. �_�

Why should anyone blame Leona Lewis anyway?

Should people blame the Japanese singer for the original track?

If Leona was approached by S-E to have one of her songs be part of that game, she would have been crazy to refuse given the visibility that it is going to provide her.

So when I start up FFXIII on my 360, this is what I'll hear? Lmao.

For those of you who don't like it. Just email Square to complain not to make these kinds of stupid dumbass marketing changes in the future.

If Leona was approached by S-E to have one of her songs be part of that game, she would have been crazy to refuse given the visibility that it is going to provide her.

Yes, and it is a shame that a song like these are used for that purpose and not any other. Anyway, it's likely Leona Lewis owns no rights to that song as she most likely didn't even write it. End of day: Leona Lewis = nothing to do with Final Fantasy - the false, lame girl probably never heard of it. Simon Cowell - nothing to do with Final Fantasy - just a rich 'record producer' who is shitting all over the UK with his overhyped reality show and his grossly unoriginal barrage of 'singers'.

She can 'sing' to a technically good standard, but I can totally understand and appreciate the annoyance that fans have expressed.

But anyway, I generally hate the FF "theme songs" anyway, seems to just add a really conventional hook to the story. The fact that Leona Lewis is doing this one has merely heightened my annoyance, not least because if you live in Britain you will understand how much hype surrounded her, and how much of a generic disappointment she really is.

/endrant

Sigh. I don't know where you go to get your feedback. But before they annnounced that they were replacing the song with one of Leone Lewis', most people disliked the Japanese theme like none others in the series so far.

Now that they've replaced it, they still complain.


Whiny bitches, I say.

LOL Edit ; I missread the sentence.. Anyway, I haven't heard any complaints about the japanese theme song? And didn't Suteki Da Ne work out just fine?

Having heard this song finally while watching the latest trailer on the official FFXIII website, I can honestly say that although there is nothing wrong with it, Lewis's boring lyrics and the generally dull melody left me rather disinterested.

Sure, this isn't as cringeworthy as, say Suteki de ne or Kiss Me Goodbye, but at least they had some connection to the game, even a very vague one. This song however is nothing more than a cynical moneymaking exercise for Sony. Nothing more.

All in all though, it is still in keeping with the dubious tradition that every FF game since FFIX has had a progressively worse pop/love song somewhere in the game (only FFXI escaped this tradition - although there was still a song in there, Distant Worlds definitely doesn't fall into this category).

Really though, the worst case scenario would have me probably muting the TV once that song starts playing in game, or else I'll just block it out mentally.

Sigh. I don't know where you go to get your feedback. But before they annnounced that they were replacing the song with one of Leone Lewis', most people disliked the Japanese theme like none others in the series so far.

Now that they've replaced it, they still complain.


Whiny bitches, I say.
Poor Square-enix, can never win with the fans no matter what they do, yet they still manage to sell millions of copies of Final Fantasy.

Even when Hikaru Utada sang an English version of Hikari people still screamed bloody murder =\ Everything has to be in it's original state. Nothing should change, etc.

Personally, I like the song My Hands. It felt like it had a lot of soul to it. The only thing I hate about it is the name, but I guess people's taste in music differs.

To be honest, they could have put both versions of the song in the game for our picking, since the song will be playing at several intervals throughout the game, it might get bland after a while.

The song doesn't match. It takes away and is completely irrelevant compared to the JP version.

Blah blah. I could care less if it fits the game or not. It doesn't effect game play so everyone relax. Leona rocks at singing she can hit the high notes and she's probably better than those Japanese singers that sound like they're on the toilet pushing. Juuust saying.

To be honest, I liked both themes.

Though it seems the Japanese ending scene song had an extra English lyric that sounded out of place. (the 'dear my friend' line)

Main Theme on the menu screen is not My Hands, it's an instrumental version of Serah's theme.