the near-militaristic motifs throughout the piece harkin to Cid’s sense of duty, loyalty and his goal oriented personality.
It established a tone and a theme that still resonates through every Final Fantasy title to this very day.Ĭharacter themes are meant to set the character’s tone and personality through music, and none do so as well as “Cid’s Theme” in Final Fantasy VII. In many ways, “Prelude” from Final Fantasy is the track that started it all. It is funny how an ascending and descending harp could become one of the most recognizable and immediately identifiable themes in all of videogames, let alone JRPGs. And what is even more surprising is that this layered and complex music was pumped out of an SNES. Setzer may not be in Final Fantasy VI for all that long, but the Nobou Uematsu composed piece, “Epitaph,” made players feel every emotion possible for the Rogue. “Troian Beauty” from Final Fantasy IV is one such piece of music-Troia Castle boasts one of the best pieces of music in all of Final Fantasy IV. There are some pieces of music in videogames that trigger when you get to certain areas (cities, villages, forests, etc.) and they are so good that you just always want to return to that area, if only to listen to a beautiful piece of music. “Aerith’s Theme”, when listened to out of context, is still a beautiful arrangement rife with both echoes of beauty and melancholy, but when listened to within the context of in the context of Final Fantasy VII and Aerith’s arc, it is ravishingly devastating.
“Eye to Eye” depicts a transitional state between comfort and acceptance in a way that few other videogame songs ever have. Like all nostalgia, it is somewhat sad and fleeting, but deeply emotional and memorable. The flute work and strings harkin to a sense of nostalgia and a sense of home that all of the title’s characters long for. But what makes “Eye to Eye” so special is how heartfelt the song is. “Eye to Eye” is a classical Final Fantasy track at heart-whimsical, deceptively quaint, and brimming with emotion.
If you’re at a loss with where to start with Final Fantasy music, here are the twenty-five best songs of the Final Fantasy series. But most of it is good-the ones composed by Nobou Uematsu stand out as being particularly great. That being said, is all of the music memorable? No. Hyperbole? Maybe, but most Final Fantasy titles boast incredibly composed pieces of music that carry players through the 100-hour-long experiences that are most Final Fantasy titles. The glut of Final Fantasy music now available to stream on Spotify is genuinely staggering, and the world is a better place for it.
from NES titles to Final Fantasy: Tactics to The Spirits Within-yes, they even, have the soundtrack to that awful movie we all saw in theaters because flashy CG animation. But, as of June 5, 2019, Square Enix has put the soundtracks to almost every Final Fantasy title on Spotify. There are awful covers aplenty, from harps to piano to screamo (is that really still a thing?). Spotify, everyone’s “yes-we-tolerate-it” music-streaming service, has always been hit or miss when it comes to videogame soundtracks.