Horizon XI — New Music

List of New Music added to FFXI Zones, without music otherwise, in Horizon XI:

Credit to TheGamesBeyond for uploading this stuff to YouTube. (No idea who actually made the tracks*.)

Disclaimer: While I do not like every track, I appreciate the initiative/creativity of adding music to zones without. It added a new 'exploration' interest to my view of horizons. I am rather partial to this and support the idea.

King Ranperre’s Tomb:
https://youtu.be/ysOvVb15jkE?si=iGjq_2SHPfIcAtWO

Jugnar Forest:
https://youtu.be/KKM4KUT9qBU?si=KCB4Pca0tTQitcON

Valkrum Dunes:
https://youtu.be/cpsof9cevTQ?si=nnJfgwYo44r8VIp6

Qufim Island:
https://youtu.be/Ip0aiJrcKLY?si=US92LUXKq_lA11AY

Delkfutt's Tower
https://youtu.be/4wdoytrrGwE?si=IteOaWIIs7-Z_7Gz

Crawler’s Nest:
https://youtu.be/XhBImGK50-g?si=bNhqgChk6_Vs4rCF

Horutoto Ruins:
https://youtu.be/1CfHmcUvJCE?si=Qhm_b4ILOgU3P671

Buburimu Penisula:
https://youtu.be/XAhE2JfaWiA?si=nRtr95MgumjuuXmC

Bibiki Bay:
https://youtu.be/-BH14wOqUa4?si=bl0PxT91SoZSyqAN

Tahrongi Canyon:
https://youtu.be/DIZxDCSlR68?si=-P5ZAxgYhCS7iUMh

Kon Highlands:
https://youtu.be/r9cOxcP7tkc?si=rzoXt-no_g0FX_iu

La Theine Plateau:
https://youtu.be/0ZZYCwz6dSU?si=e9uwmjdkj_Ov9ZKP

Davoi:
https://youtu.be/cb9o_ikD9no?si=BX6o1NBpeXzstKSz

Beadeaux:
https://youtu.be/7U9Jd1fKFbc?si=b8FGc_iFx4I3nhky

Castle Oztroja:
https://youtu.be/50lnDeHchVE?si=FyDbJt2IPAP16ZKf

Sea Serpent’s Grotto:
https://youtu.be/B3XMiGMsU28?si=vCfHy65Umdz0nA_W

Beaucedine Glacier:
https://youtu.be/SKN2HlTD5V8?si=_U6AjdUlXPUVfILY

Uleguerand Range:
https://youtu.be/xYARqt8Zayk?si=OB3xa4iMDtwMbgmf

Quicksand Caves:
https://youtu.be/9PUlLxxO1D4?si=bbMsDVwej8DtsY-l

Temple of Uggalepih:
https://youtu.be/IPnduvJjc8o?si=2JvVR3ZW5TQY33S_

The Boyahda Tree:
https://youtu.be/G_Y_akk9kGk?si=ocXLvV-kiLF-7Y5F

Cape Teriggan
https://youtu.be/Bo__uGNoAgM?si=0kvqD_Kykpw9j3ru

Attohwa Chasm
https://youtu.be/UZ_ZPwdyblg?si=tF4Y5ducIsooohbY

i swear i might get ear cancer out of this, does not feel like vanadiel, its like one of those Pledge MMO soundtracks.

why's it so quiet? is this music for ants?

i honestly wish there is a classic FFXI server,

"Spirit of the game" not captured

Which do you guys like/dislike the most?

Oh yeah I forgot they added all-new music. That reminds me too that they automatically replaced a lot of the game's original audio.

Tweex's "The Land of Vana'diel" album was designed to be listened to on its own. It has orchestral-sounding instruments, and clear beginnings, middles, and ends to each track, making it sound really weird to hear as background music in the game. I remember the HorizonXI team claiming those songs were all-new as well, until I started going around sharing Tweex's uploads from over a decade ago.

The battle theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vha27PWm8yc

Windurst:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOlgqvAH5l0

Selbina:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfaC1BXP7mw

There's a clear difference between music that's supposed to be in the background vs. music that's meant for the foreground. It's really distracting that they don't loop. And it makes me a little bit sick knowing that they used it to replace Mizuta's, Uematsu's, and Tanioka's original works, especially knowing that HorizonXI is some peoples' first foray into Vana'diel.

New music is fine, I was more distracted by the fact some of them don't loop properly. Only notable one was is the solo battle in base zones.

I don't understand why some of the tracks, such as
Sea Serpent’s Grotto:
https://youtu.be/B3XMiGMsU28?si=vCfHy65Umdz0nA_W

have weird static / breaks at the start of the track.

I didn't understand what you meant until I put on a headset. Ya idk man. xD

Truly better than the originals. Thanks for posting!

why would you have music on in ffxi? That ***would interrupt my ASMR loop of anime girls moaning.

kids these days just cant appreciate silent zones

It sucks

Queen Schala's Tomb.

Idk. From a narrative perspective, imo the lack of BGM in certain zones was meant to emphasize the wild/uncivilized nature of wherever you are. It created a clear contrast between the dangers of the unexplored outside world with the relative safety of more civilized areas (though this became less true with later expansions).

From a gameplay perspective, I figure the devs probably assumed most of those zones would be for fighting and you'd be spending your time listening to the battle music while a crab beats the hell out of you, instead of appreciating a pretty melody. Also, budget lol

Never any harm in giving anything creative the ol' college try, but none of this music captures the vibe of XI for me. Might work elsewhere.

Also private servers suck, play retail nerds.

I had to log in for the first time in a long time to deliver an important message....

All of this music sucks massive rectal cavity.

That is all. Enjoy your day/evening

Think they used the same composer

Curmudgeons gonna do curmudgeon things.

I think what really separates these pieces from a "Final Fantasy XI" track is an obvious lack of melody. If you asked a long-time player to hum the BGM to zones like Movalpolos, Sanctuary of Zi'Tah, Wajaom Woodlands etc., they would almost certainly be able to recant at least a verse. These tracks, while not at all bad musically, are much more ambient and repetitive. For instance, I listen to the Buburimu Peninsula one and, while there are building blocks there, you're constantly waiting for some ethnic woodwind to kick in and start dancing somberly over it, but it never comes.

Elsewhere, tracks like the Castle Oztroja one are very misplaced (as if the word "castle" was the entire basis of the track, rather than motifs you would associate with the Yagudo, IE far-eastern customs, cult of personality etc.) - La Theine Plateau is also weirdly upbeat and just gives that generic "collecteth but 10 rabbit hides, o' mighty warrior" vibe.

I agree with Shenaniganz comment about the omission of music in most dungeons being a design choice, and one used rather effectively when contrasting time spent, sometimes hours, in these different environments.

For anyone who might be interested, the Playstation 2 used MIDI playback for the music rather than simply streaming proprietary audio files - this means that the PSF2 format files can be broken down into the MIDI and soundfonts assembled by the actual composers and compiled in most DAW software. Hobbyists can look at these to thoroughly check out the musical elements or use the soundfonts to more accurately simulate the timbral qualities of the game's actual music. This does mean however that any songs made after the PS2 port was decomissioned cannot be broken down in this way.


**For posterity, I have played Retail on and off since EU release and have spent some time on two Lv.75 private servers (not Horizon), so I'm not here to judge either way.

Those who grew up with Squaresoft/Square-Enix as their childhood entertainment seem to forget we freaking had the John Williams of video game music for almost 3 decades...you can't replace that with a casio 32 key keyboard and a mixing app you downloaded.

This isn't even trying to replace/replicate a Howard Shore, a Hans Zimmer...you're trying to replace literally the greatest collection of composers attached to a video game franchise ever seen, and likely will remain that way for eternity considering the direction of video games.

Early Squaresoft realized the same thing that George Lucas realized- the music is always going, and is just as much a character of the story as the actors.

I don't think most of that music would be bad on its own from what was at the time probably an amateur project........

But man none of those songs match the zones, or XI, or Final Fantasy in general. Not even a tiny bit. That Horutoto song for example sounds like the backing sound of a Wile E Coyote cartoon, it really inspires 0 of the emotions I'd want to feel while spelunking in ancient magical ruins.

Ok... Let's now compare this to their remasters.

(Some they just tweaked very slightly and didn't change much [as far as I can tell], so I didn't include those.)

Again, I want to say that I do appreciate the initiative on their part.

Edi Nov 26/23:
• Tweex (artist) is responsible for most of these tracks.


The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah:
https://youtu.be/ek--Gr39Zr4?si=_TuVaZfI3LLEYITm

Sandy:
https://youtu.be/Tq2xUyubFSw?si=XG5y2YnLyR3q2MK3

Ronfaure:
https://youtu.be/MIZRvIXJZdk?si=MFhSod8e0C6BMyom

Bastok:
https://youtu.be/yxxnHSTOoGg?si=rRaFGKI7wBMFFDl8

Gustaberg:
https://youtu.be/7eKql3QKaN8?si=yawOM-CB-uzCGKqk

Metalworks:
https://youtu.be/G7ABQiaLZDA?si=OyCTfFk5LFIh7NDn

Windy:
https://youtu.be/N2Zl0MyLJbI?si=BefZ17iLqLnB4Vks

Sarutabaruta:
https://youtu.be/05mtj9dcRak?si=2xG0iyOjEWmJ_CSM

Heaven's Tower:
https://youtu.be/ISYI41OZYU0?si=VRktD1sgQHdFTNFI

Jeuno:
https://youtu.be/rzl6roi3Lt0?si=gN_gBjWyLp4pv1JF

Ru'Lude Gardens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWvk5BiAZFw&list=PLzZcnnz_fb_Dtoq9A8-a6HuH6DLRU3I63&index=21

Selbina:
https://youtu.be/NpFcE49Cdi8?si=TtiUF539CoNqIupW

Mhaura:
https://youtu.be/TBRR7Dl9jrY?si=HQOSDGxyVkzylnvn

Movalpolos:
https://youtu.be/3QSdWY55gtI?si=x3NcVM_soWC1oWvQ

Rabao:
https://youtu.be/DL6cHt9nh-s?si=JfQytDzdWUURk6tm

Altepa Desert:
https://youtu.be/XOANzYugqZc?si=wlI72FQNrc_J0Vf3

Airship:
https://youtu.be/xfEpZ3nqQrk?si=bu9IU9kXH8RcFpl1

Tavnazian Safehold:
https://youtu.be/Vq9vcmkdDvk?si=t_LJt3gJcVQTJLF0

Pso'Xja
https://youtu.be/dTP_NMKrxDU?si=1cFZAGUkIhHifmJI

Add some slide whistles to Horutoto Ruins and it's fixed.

In the same way that a singer's voice is essentially another instrument, making it meaningful even if you can't understand the language, the way everything blends together and plays off of one another is so critical.

I'm no music theorist, but I'll try my best to explain my favourite song in XI, the Theme of Gustaberg by Tanioka. The sound font she used all gives the feeling of the open sky above you and the rocky ground under your feet. There is no forest canopy, the ground is solid stone. It sounds exactly like you'd imagine the acoustics of Gustaberg would allow. The metal "tink" of the xylophone font evokes the hardness of the ground, the long wind instrument melody evokes the feeling of winds unabated by foliage. It sounds cool, but not downright cold. The music is simple, it's easily hummable, and the way it gradually climbs to its climax before gradually shrinking down to its loop is seamless and never stands out.

Imagine camping Leaping Lizzy to Tweex's "Harvest of Rock and Stone" (his remix of Gustaberg). Instead of growing and then shrinking before the loop, this grows into a climax. It's not designed to loop, it wasn't composed to be in the background of a video game. It's an homage, and I especially love how he interweaves the Galka theme into it at parts. It's amazing, and it makes for great listening, but it doesn't fit as BGM.

And listening to any of the HXI originals, none of them really seem to understand how to capture the essences of the zones they're supposed to represent. They're not terrible songs on their own, but the problem is that the silence helps to reinforce the visuals for some of these zones. You know what captures the cold and barren wasteland of Beaucedine? The cold, ambient wind. The sad cello overwrites the excellent sound design. The Sea Serpent Grotto song is a high-tempo piano with sporadic bassy strings. It makes me think of a fast-paced action game in a castle or something, not sneaking through a dank cave in the middle of a jungle.

Damn Horizon,

Terrible server
Terrible people
and now~~~~~

Terrible Music.

I hope I beat V25 Tree tonight. Luck be a lady tonight. (that's actually a good song. unlike anything horizons able to muster up from their plagiarism)

These are the remixes from Tweex I've been talking about. These songs were composed and released in an album called "The Land of Vana'diel" back in the year 2012.

I'm really not pleased that this YouTuber is uploading these songs under the guise of these being originals for HorizonXI. There's no credit to Tweex, nor link to his original, 11-year-old uploads. And that's not even necessarily blaming this YouTuber. I'd sooner blame the HorizonXI team for not giving credit in the first place. At best they say nothing and hope that you think it's their hard work. At worst, they claim other peoples' hard work as their own. It's disgusting.