The Music of Final Fantasy

I've downloaded a few tracks from the Final Fantasy games, and have to note that for the most part, the music makes a big part of the game.

Imagine putting Final Fantasy VII into your ps1 and hearing the Super Mario Bros 3 theme (which is different from 1's theme, which is probably what you're thinking of). How strange would it be to traverse the world map with the map theme from SMB's 3 in the background? Very strange. It wouldn't have the sense of tragedy which is present in the experience, that's for sure. Just look it up on youtube or something, you'll see.

I've heard people claim to dislike VII's soundtrack because of the 'midi' quality of it's sound. I think that this is what drew me into the soundtrack in the first place. Of course, hearing the music in an appropriate setting like a symphonic orchestra is nice too; but I think that the midi-sound which VII's soundtrack bears has a certain charm to it which isn't possible for reality to reproduce.

The other roman numerals have outstanding tracks of course, too; but this is probably due to their great composer. just listen to anything from IV, VI, or IX to be blown away by a plethora of notes which harmonize in courage, tragedy, and epic scale.

Something about the music of final fantasy which I think has been absent since IX is the haunting cadence which underlies a lot of the tracks. This is obvious in some tracks, like the obvious one from VII and Dancing Mad from VI; but not so obvious in VII's main theme, the opening theme from VI, Kuja's theme from IX, and others which I can't pick the names of just now. For these latter ones, the haunting element is very subtle, and is mixed with the powerful overtones of epic scale and with subtle melodic shifts in tone. This is something I wish were in more VG's.

More poetry posts coming soon.