So which FF Vocal Tracks do you like?

[MurasamE]

I don't know, I always paid attention to Ashe's more human problems than her "queen" problems. Then again, I am one of the five people who loved FFXII's story to death.

[Free Spirit]

Yeah, I always hated Ashe and thought she acted like a cold-hearted bitch straight from the beginning of the game to the end, so I never had much patience for her "problems". Every time she opened her mouth and told Vaan to shut up I kept waiting for him to slap her in the face and say "I'm the hero, bitch!".

[Nilfalasiel]

Originally Posted by Free Spirit

1. It is never heard in any form at all for the entire length of the time you're actually playing the game. It's just, okay, you beat the game "BAM!" here's a song with words for you. Most other vocal tracks play at some key moment during the game, defining that specific moment as well as the song itself. Kiss Me Goodbye is just tagged onto the ending credits like an afterthought.

2. The song sounds like nothing else in the game. Its style is completely different from the rest of the soundtrack, and that is more than a little jarring. Of course FFXII's soundtrack wasn't very melodic to begin with, so that makes it even more jarring.

3. Ashe's "plight" just isn't that important in the game. At all. Heck I never even considered her man troubles to be a plight in light of the larger troubles of the loss of her empire and all that. Ashe never really seemd to care about her man troubles either. Outside of the times the Occuria used Rasler's image to manipulate her, she didn't seem too chuffed about her love life. None of the characters in the game really deserved a Kiss Me Goodbye style tribute song, and that's another part of the problem with the song.

1. It still makes sense in relation to the moment where it's played. But it's true that there aren't any variations on it in the rest of the game. I agree that it's a minus.

2. It's much less jarring than, say, Otherworld in FFX. That one pretty much defined "jarring": it may have been cool in itself, but it really stuck out like a sore thumb in the soundtrack.

3. Of course, Ashe's issues aren't comparable in magnitude to the bigger plot of the game. But since I'm probably part of the five people that MurasamE mentioned, I also found that her human problems had some relevance.

Spoiler:

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Rasler is made a big deal of for a long while, as she struggles with his memory, and that clearly influences her role in the storyline as a whole: it makes her decide not to take a piece of Sun Cryst, after all. Then, she's clearly very upset by Balthier's stint on the Bahamut (even if she probably knew that he wasn't interested). And Penelo makes a point of saying that she misses Basch during the ending...cue both of them wistfully staring into the distance.

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I'd say that her issues were being given their screentime, as much as they could be, considering the rest of the plot, and the generally subtle way in which these things are handled throughout the game. It may be a little odd that they chose to bring them to the fore in the ending, but the song does fit that particular focus.

[Free Spirit]

Originally Posted by nilfalasiel

2. It's much less jarring than, say, Otherworld in FFX. That one pretty much defined "jarring": it may have been cool in itself, but it really stuck out like a sore thumb in the soundtrack.

I dunno, Otherworld seems like just another notch up from Challenge, the "big boss" theme of the game. And I think the fact that it's one of the very first songs you hear in the game makes a difference too. With Kiss Me Goodbye, you've had the entire game and the entire soundtrack behind you when you hear this song, but Otherworld is thrown at you right off the bat, and with nothing else to really compare it to yet, your first impressions of it won't be quite as shocking. Also it probably helps that I like the song quite a bit. :P

[MurasamE]

Oh god, I had completely forgotten how much I cringed and WTFed at Otherworld.

[Fincher]

I just felt Kiss Me Goodbye was oddly overt and sentimental for a game whose characterization was so subtle/ambiguous. "You say my love is all you need to see you through..." Um, who said that? About whom? Are we talking about Rasler's ghost here?

I felt that there was something going on between Ashe and Balthier, but that quote is something that Balthier never had and never would say. Is Ashe pulling a Rinoa and becoming delusional? "No, Balthier, just kiss me goodbye and follow your dreams. Don't shed a tear for love's mortality." Don't worry. He won't.

Simple and Clean's lyrics didn't match up in KH, but at least the feel of it fit the game. Here you have a dry, thoughtful political thriller, and at the very end, when no sort of romance comes out of the woodwork...boom, love song!

[Nilfalasiel]

@ Fincher: All I can say is that the song may point to Ashe's reckless tendencies: despite her political position as a leader, she has a strongly sentimental side to her. Because she's a bit desperate with the men she chooses, isn't she? Maybe it's just me, but from that flashback she had of Rasler at the Phon Coast, saying that they were supposed to play a part in their marriage, I got a sense that that's exactly what it was to him: convenience, even though he respected her as a person. He didn't seem to be particularly affectionate. She, on the other hand, clung to his memory for a very long time.

As for the situation with Balthier, well, there's some flirtation going on, because that's what Balthier does. And I'm pretty sure they have a connection in their morbid fascination with nethicite (very subtly handled on Balthier's side). But, in the end, any commitment he may have (and that's probably not much) is to Fran: the scene at the top of the Pharos makes that pretty clear. So once again, Ashe gets a bit too involved and is left with the short end of the stick.

That just leaves Basch: not sure that Ashe ever considered him as a valid choice during the game, but Penelo seems to imply that she does so after the ending. But of course, considering the path he chooses...that's obviously not gonna work. Or will take an enormous amount of effort.

So yeah, the only thing left for Ashe is to accept to let them go. It's the lesson she learns: freedom's a two way street. You may want it for yourself, but you have to accept that others may want it too. The song gives a sentimental spin to it, but that's essentially the meaning. Probably a tenuous tie-in to the storyline, but a tie-in nonetheless