Is Masashi Hamauzu trying to be like Shoji Meguro?

FFXIII-2 is starting to feel like a Persona game, music-wise. Am I the only one who noticed this?


  I'm sure most of you have already seen the trailer and the gameplay videos of Final Fantasy XIII-2, when Noel and Serah are searching for Atlas in Bresha Ruins. By instinct, you will have to check out the new stuff that's being shown in the video. Play, pause, check out, pause, rewind, play, pause. You wanna know what's on my mind?


  Oh cool, it's raining and the raindrops are messing with the screen in a good way. Oh cool, you can now talk to the soldiers from Cocoon that used to be your enemies on the first game. Oh cool, XIII-2's starting to feel like a Persona game now. Oh wait, what?


  Okay, so i noticed that the one of the BGMs has its female vocalist doing some rap/chant this time, which reminded me of "Backside of the TV" from P4. I mean it sounds nice but I think it's way too out-of-place for a Final Fantasy game. Or maybe it's just because it actually sounded like Meguro's.


  The first game had vocals on some tracks too, but it fits the atmosphere and still sounded Hamauzu-ish. In the battle against Paradox Alpha, there was a part when a dude was rapping a-la Lotus Juice. Again, the track sounded cool but I was like, "Wait, what? Hamauzu, are you trying to sound like Shoji Meguro?"
FFX and its sequel has a huge difference in music, but the change is quite acceptable in FFX-2 because of the character's change in personality and the overall 'feel' of the game. In XIII-2, the game is bound to be darker and Hamauzu's take on it was different. It sounded a little more action-packed this time around, while still keeping an 'ethereal' feel on some of the tracks. To date, the new battle theme has become my favorite, shoving away "Blinded by Light" to second place in my list. :)


  I'm a sucker for awesome videogame music. To me, Hamauzu, Meguro (and let's not forget Uematsu, Shimomura and Mitsuda) are awesome composers. The FFXIII-2 soundtrack looks promising but unlike the soundtrack for the first game, it doesn't sound original anymore, after hearing a couple of tracks. Probably anyone who hasn't played a Persona game wouldn't have any problems with it but for someone like me, a huge FF and Persona fan, it's hard not to notice these kinds of things. Or maybe that's just me being an OC when it comes to music. XD


  Let's see if Hamauzu went all-out once we get to hear more of the tracks in the upcoming days. Oh, and I wonder how the theme song would sound like this time around. :p