Final Fantasy Music Challenge pt. 3

Day 13:
It’s time for everyone’s favorite part of the day: when I post video game music. Based on today’s theme, you’d think we’d be done, but I’ll never be done!

What game has the best Ending Theme? Over the course of the last 33 years, how an FF game ends has varied wildly. Sometimes it’s just the prelude. Some of the older games get a unique song underneath the credits. In the middle, the games played the Overture/Theme as we saw the closing moments of our journey. In recent times, it’s a wonderful J-Pop ballad! But my pick is from Final Fantasy VI.

Balance is Restored plays while the party makes their daring escape from the crumbling Tower of Kefka. We see the last heroic, comedic, and edge times that all of these characters are known to be together. It does something no other ending has done, and that’s incorporate every character's unique theme song into the greater melody. And, in the end, plays the Overture that got me a little teary-eyed when I played it last month. Playing it back just now reminded me of everyone’s exploits in the escape. If it had any lyrics, FFVI could say it incorporated every other FF endings into it.

I can’t find the actual song in one part, so here’s the whole ending cutscene. Spoilers, obviously.

https://youtu.be/2v6G2_JLghE


Day 14:
Sometimes, you need a diversion in your plan to kill god. Why are you killing god? Because it’s a JRPG. But what do you listen to in Final Fantasy when you don’t want to kill god?

Vamo Alla Flamenco from FFIX. Many games have a unique track for every side quest, but not IX. Whether you're impressing nobles in your play or giving your Chocobo brain damage, you’ll hear this track a lot. But not when you’re playing cards. I prefer this song to all the others because of how much fun the games it plays over are. Chocobo Hot and Cold is my second favorite mini-game in all of Final Fantasy. I dig that slow windup into that mellow paced melody. I don’t know how a Spanish guitar fits in a game with several allusions to Hawai’i, but I’ll allow it.

https://youtu.be/tQYmHsTPtKY


Day 15:
So, I’ll be honest, I don’t think I fully understand today’s Final Fantasy Music Challenge topic. It’s your favorite in game arrangement. An arrangement is a reimagining of a song by another, but there’s also a topic coming up called best remake. I don’t know what the difference is. So, I’m just gonna throw song-ghetti at the wall and hope it sticks by posting a slightly different version of a song from the same game.

Final Fantasy often ties tracks together with similar motives. Aerith’s Theme and Flowers Blooming in the Church, Cosmo Canyon and Red’s Theme, To Zanarkand and Memories of Green are all examples of songs that share some melody between them. Final Fantasy IX’s Rose of May is one of the best tracks ever. Beatrix’s theme also shares a melody with Protecting My Devotion.

The song plays early on in Disk Three when the baddest woman on Gaia becomes temporarily playable. Beatrix and her knight in rusty armor defend their home from a greater evil. The scenes leading up to this moment were triumphant and humorous. They take a sudden serious edge to them now, becoming profound and pivotal to the development of nearly every character and the story. The seriousness is amped up around the time everyone puts their differences aside to stop Alexandria from being destroyed. What plays gets you excited to do battle, defend my favorite hometown, and maybe even kindle a romance.

https://youtu.be/m_LoqQ3QKFc


Day 16:
Day 16 of the Final Fantasy Music Challenge is the best piano arrangement. It’s another reason why I was confused yesterday, but I know exactly what I’m posting today.

Uematsu’s music has been rereleased, rearranged, and transcribed into multiple styles a multitude number of times. Famously, or at least for this topic, each game since IV has had official piano releases, along with sheet music. Out of all of those albums, I think Rydia, of Mist is the best arrangement.

Let me tell you a story. Back in 1996 or so, my next door neighbor had a copy of Final Fantasy IV. I borrowed it a few times because I was enthralled by the whole package: music, story, characters. I didn’t appreciate it all at the time, of course, but looking back, Rydia quickly became my favorite character. Before the word even entered the zeitgeist, she was my first waifu. You first meet her after the tutorial dungeon, and you ruin her life. During the game, she grows unlike any FF character has, or even since. We see a fragile child afraid of fire become a being of pure annihilation, as she’s the first named black mage and summoner in FF history. And her theme represents that. Somber in tone, but it’s also laden with a melody of peace and love. The piano piece for it makes all of those intricacies shine even brighter than the 16-bit MIDI’s we got in 1992.

https://youtu.be/R7FmBjVj1qU


Day 17:
Day 17 of the Final Fantasy Music Challenge involves the innumerable amount of times the various games have been remastered. Pretty much every game has been re-released on several consoles, remade across five decades, and remastered...like, once. Oftentimes, nothing much is changed, graphics are occasionally updated, and music sometimes needs to be redone. So, which song from all of these touched up games is the best?

There are only about seven games that I’d strongly suggest for this topic. The first four games had their music changed from 8-but MIDI blips to full fledged songs, while seven and ten had massive changes. Some have been redone for the MMOs. I prefer my remasters to be similar to the original, as heard at how terrible FFX’s is. It’s hard to pick exactly what song from the first four to choose, but I’m gonna pick my favorite from Final Fantasy III.

Boundless Ocean plays about 2/5th of the way through the game. You hear it after you leave the Floating Continent, a lively place that seems massive until you realize it’s barely noticeable on the greater world map. When you leave, you descend into a dead, lifeless, flooded world. It’s the exact opposite of what you’ve been seeing. There’s only one place to go, and that’s to meet the Water Maiden, Aria. We might be hearing her later... Boundless Ocean is incredibly sobering, somber, and “eye” opening. There’s something strange going on in this world, and we’re the only ones who can do anything.

https://youtu.be/BprpzeWQSzc


Day 18:
Wanna hear a dirty secret about myself? I’m tired of orchestral arrangements in video games. I know, I know, they’re musically impressive from a musician, composer, and listener perspective, but I’m sick of hearing them time after time, in game after game, regardless of importance. Every song doesn’t need to have the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing it. Ya hear me Final Fantasy XII? Plus, the first orchestrated song in Final Fantasy was the best.

That’s right, let’s talk about the Opera Scene from Final Fantasy VI. Draco and Maria. The Dream Oath. Aria di Mezzo Carattere. Whatever it is, it’s amazeballs! A multiple part, twelve minute scene right out of an opera is impressive, let alone for something on the SNES. It’s about a woman, Maria, who’s pulled in two directions because of war. Her love, Draco, is from the west. But she’s to be married to Prince Raise, a nobleman from the east. The eest conquered the wast, and I guess Maria was the prize. Look, we come in halfway. We’re gonna need to fill some gaps. The opening act has Maria, played by our war hardened Celes, singing about how she misses Draco. Beautiful lyrics, although the GBA version is better, about love, longing, and regret. She dances with a spirit of Draco before throwing flowers off a castle wall, reminiscent of her potential suicide later on in the game. Sometime later, a ball is held where Maria dances with her soon-to-be-husband, the Noble Prince Raise. He seems noble, at least. I’m busy fighting an octopus now, so I'm only kinda paying attention. Then, Draco returns! He and Raise duel for Maria’s hand. In the end, Raise yields to Draco and the three part under oddly peaceful circumstances. Assuming the aforementioned, octopus doesn’t ruin it.

It’s parallel to the soldier turned actress’ life. She, too, is being pulled in two directions. Or several opposition ones, depending on how you look at Celes’ story. Her heart, her past, her magic, her humanity.

https://youtu.be/nEuf9ZSJrdg


Day 19:
Today’s Final Fantasy Music Challenge is specifically designed to highlight someone other than the only FF composer I recognize. What’s the best song not done by Nobuo Uematsu? HASHTAG NotMyMusician

I’m being facetious, as there are plenty of amazing songs in FF’s history not done by Uematsu. He may have done the entire main series from I to X, but the greatness didn’t stop there. The quality may have suffered, but the rare gem is still aplenty. Tactics has some great songs, the best part of Crisis Core is the music, and XIII has no business being as good as it is. However, I’m picking the first song I ever heard, from X-2 by Noriko Matsueda.

Eternity ~ Memory of Lights is the main menu theme from the first direct sequel in FF history. I got the game for Christmas in ‘03, just after I moved to the south side. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t that great. It was fine, not too bad, but X is one of my favorite games I’ve ever played. I don’t really have a story here...

The point is, sad piano songs are just as good as sad guitar songs.

https://youtu.be/A5BzGwUqGzk


Day 20:
More dirty secrets on day 20 of the Final Fantasy Music Challenge. What’s the best song from a game I’ve never played?

I’ve played many a Final Fantasy in my life. It kept me out of trouble, away from my family, and even further away from girls. Alas, there are many I haven’t played: the entire Crystal Chronicles series, two Tactics spin-offs, the MMOs. And, most embarrassingly, Final Fantasy XV.

I try not to listen to, or know, anything about games I haven’t played, but I occasionally hear something just by being in the fan club. I don’t have any stories about this, but I’ve heard Lunafreya’s Theme a few times and enjoyed it. I don’t know her story, but from what little I do know, I seem to have a type...

https://youtu.be/cK4ttZsU2gI


A Link to the Past tomorrow...