[VGMM] Video Game Music Month #1 - Final Fantasy

[pkmin3033]

Video Game Music Month #1 - Final Fantasy

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Welcome to Video Game Music Month! It is exactly what it sounds like: a thread dedicated to a specific type of video game music, open for a month, for you to post your favourites from the chosen theme in! Compare, discuss, find new favourites, relax, and enjoy a part of video games that is often overlooked when playing but is often crucial to setting the atmosphere or tone of a scenario: the soundtrack!

Every month from now on there will be a new thread with a new theme. It could be a series, a composer, a general theme (e.g. tracks that play on a beach, or boss themes) or something else entirely! But if you have any suggestions for future months, drop me a PM/VM!

We'll start with a no-brainer this month for our first: Final Fantasy! Main games, sequels, spinoffs, live performances, remixes, share some of your favourites from one of gaming's most well-known series this month :3

I promise you all, here and now: next month, I will make themed CSS

 

[Lumina]

To The Edge, Shadowbringers, A Long Fall, and Where All Roads Lead, all from FF14, and Somnus - The Final Battle from FF15 Episode Ardyn. I'd link them, but they all have varying levels of Big Spoiler. These tracks are some of my favourite video game music of all time, period.

 

[pkmin3033]

My unironic favourite track in the entire series is Shuffle or Boogie from FFVIII, simply because I've spent more time playing Triple Triad than I probably have on playing all the FF titles combined...probably. It really gets in your head after a while.


I also feel obligated to share this, which is easily the best music mod I've ever encountered:

 

[gimmepie]

I'll just share a couple of favourites/thoughts on the games I have played from the franchise so far.

Spoiler: FFV

Over all, FFV's music really doesn't stand out to me nearly as much as the other games' does. It's still solid, but most of it doesn't carry the same feelings that later titles. Maybe this is because of technological limitations more than a lack of inspiration, I don't know. That being said, Nostalgia is one of the most beautifully melancholic tracks I've heard in a game and the Kerwin town music is just so spirited, pleasant and lively.

Spoiler: FFVI

FFVI stepped up the music game pretty dramatically from V. Granted, there was some tracks that I really didn't like that much, there was also so much good, emotional music. Even the map music which is usually some of the least interesting to me is really pretty in FFVI. Other than a surprisingly pretty map song, FFVI also gives us Forever Rachel, Cyan's Theme and Epitaph which carry so much weight behind them and feel so powerful and sad that it's hard not to appreciate them (shut up Dawn, Forever Rachel is glorious and you can't convince me otherwise ;)). FFVI also gave us Dancing Mad and if that song doesn't encapsulate Kefka perfectly, I don't know what does (and the last part is just epic regardless). The music in VI left a really positive impression on me.

Spoiler: FFIX

Musically, IX is weird for me. I wouldn't necessarily say that the music of VI was overall better, but it was certainly much more memorable for whatever reason. Most of it was just never captured in my head the same way. That being said, IX does have some incredible and memorable music in there, including You're Not Alone which is my second favourite song in the entire franchise. That song just conveys so much all through sound. Distant Memory really does evoke feelings of trying to remember a time long past, which is very impressive. Eiko's theme is a really interesting one for me too. It manages to be both wistful and whimsical while also carrying this sense of loneliness and sombreness underneath. IX also has Dark Messenger which in a never-ending war with Jecht's theme for best FF villain song in my mind. Dancing Mad is great, but Dark Messenger just blows it out the water.

Spoiler: FFX

So... X is my favourite FF game overall and the incredible music is a big part of that. It's actually really hard to pick just a handful of tracks because it stands head and shoulders above all but the very best tracks from the other FF games I've played. Hymn of the Fayth captures those religious hymn vibes so well but twists them in a way that sounds incredibly sombre, Mount Gagazet has he most beautiful overworld music I've heard in just about any game, A Fleeting Dream carries such a sense of wonder but also this feeling that it's all temporary and that you'll lose it any moment, Jecht's theme is just... so very badass and then there's To. Fucking. Zanarkand. which is unquestionably my favourite track in the entire franchise. I could probably just go on and on and on about the music in this game to the point of it being annoying lol.

Spoiler: FFXII

I straight up can't remember any of the music from this game. But I try not to think about XII at all if I can manage it. I should probably go back and listen to the OST though because I doubt the music is actually unpleasant seeing as it's FF music.

Spoiler: FFXIV

Okay, so I've only started playing XIV pretty recently and I haven't even gotten through A Realm Reborn yet. So there is probably a lot of fantastic music I've not heard as of yet. Right now, I do really enjoy the music, because it's FF music and is therefore good. That being said though, it's kind of in a similar vein as FFV for me right now. There's a couple of songs that make me go "oh shit, that's pretty" like the Shroud Field Theme and Dance of the Fireflies but, overall, while I enjoy it, it's not leaving a huge impression on me either. Answers from the ARR trailer is fucking amazing though so I'm counting it here lol.

That is the end of my TED Talk. I'll be back with fan covers/remixes I like later lol.

 

[pkmin3033]

Speaking of remixes...I feel obligated to share this even though people are going to hate me for it. xD


There's also this:


...sorry. But I had to. xD