I mention the soundtracks a lot in my FF posts, and it occurs to me that through the magic of embedding it would be pretty easy to throw together a post dedicated to some of my favorite tracks. This is going to be very Square heavy, if not Square exclusive (there might be a Zelda or two thrown in, which I'm considering an RPG series for purposes of this), because my RPG experience is very Square heavy. I don't think there's any question that Uematsu's music in the FF series and Mitsuda's music in the Chrono series are both central to why both series are so beloved (okay, I guess people are a bit up in the air about Chrono Cross), and I don't think it's merely the popularity of the FF series that's led to a world tour of concerts of FF music with prestigious orchestras. That a lot of Uematsu and Mitsuda's stuff was done on pretty primitive music hardware and still sounds good also says a whole lot.
I. Main Themes/Overtures
The Prelude (Entire FF Series)
The sort of strange, ethereal harp music is a perfect way for you to be greeted as you turn your system on. Instantly recognizable, but something you never get sick of.
Prologue (Final Fantasy IV and others)
A nice, epic sounding overture. A pretty early example of how the soundtrack gave the FF series a cinematic quality.
Terra's Theme (Final Fantasy VI)
Amazing. The opening credit's sequence with the mechas stomping their way to Narshe in the show with this playing the background was all you needed to draw you into the game.
Main Theme (Final Fantasy VII)
Pretty sure I already professed by love for this in my Final Fantasy posts. It's used mainly as a theme for the world map in the game, but listening to it it's almost sort of it's own mini self-contained story, starting off kind of somber, building up in intensity, turning dark and ominous, and then there's sort of a cathartic release at the end. This sounds incredible with a live orchestra.
Zanarkand (Final Fantasy X)
I wasn't quite sure what to make of this when I first played Final Fantasy X because the simple piano melody sounded like so much of a departure from what Uematsu did in other games, but I grew to like it. I think it suits Final Fantasy X, which I think is a really enjoyable game, even though it seems to get a pretty bad rap sometimes. The difficulty left something to be desired, but I thought it was as well produced and well conceived as any other game in the series.
Scars of Time (Chrono Cross)
Gorgeous. The kind of Eastern feel to it reminds me a bit of Joe Hisaishi's scores for Miyasaki movies.
No comments:
Post a Comment