Music has always been an important part of the Final Fantasy series. The popular role-playing games have typically featured catchy, eclectic soundtracks filled with beautiful orchestrated melodies.
Things are a bit different in Final Fantasy XIII-2, which publisher Square Enix will release on Jan. 31 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The sequel to 2010?s Final Fantasy XIII not only has terrible rap, as Wired.com pointed out in our E3 preview of the game, but a heavy metal rendition of the Chocobo theme song and other assorted pieces of atrocious music. The game’s soundtrack leaked on the Internet on Tuesday morning, and we’ve been more than a little disturbed with its contents.
Don’t believe us? Let’s play a guessing game: Read the below list of song lyrics, telling us which are from the Final Fantasy XIII-2 soundtrack and which are from the rock band Nickelback. Can you guess the source of each lyrical facepalm? (Answers on page 2.)
1. If everyone cared and nobody cried / If everyone loved and nobody lied / If everyone shared and swallowed their pride / Then we’d see the day when nobody died
2. People of the light come out stand tall / Be strong through the night come one come all / Warriors stay loud stay proud don’t shroud the features you are blessed with
3. Don’t be ashamed of your race or the place that you’re from
4. It’s not a human walk, it’s the human race / If we were living on the edge, taking too much space
5. Saddle up if you think you can ride in this rodeo
6. So I’ll be holdin’ my own breath / Right up to the end
7. This is where time ends
8. Now is the time, today is a new day, no shadows of doubt all has been done away / A feeling washes over me make me into a higher being wash away this anguish / I am feeling
9. So cute yet fierce, is he from hell? / I cannot tell, yet I don’t even wanna know
10. [unintelligible screaming]