Entry 958 - Final Fantasy VII

Style: Video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: One of Uematsu's best soundtracks, a showcase of the PS1 soundchip

Thoughts: Final Fantasy VII. A game that multiple people in my immediate friend circle consider one of the greatest games of all time. While I don't consider this one of the finest games ever created, it was the reason that I bought a PlayStation and I do consider it to have one of the better soundtracks for a Final Fantasy game.

At the risk of sounding nostalgic, I remember walking into my local Funcoland and hearing the Final Fantasy Crystal music playing from somewhere. The screen in the corner of the store had some game that I had never seen before playing. It was the new Final Fantasy. The game that I thought was coming out for Ultra 64, but now had switched to Sony's new console. I was floored, and I had to have it.

That was an uncanny long time ago, and I still remember it vividly. This game series meant a lot to me back then, and to some extent it still does. The music in particular reminds me very much of my youth and playing these epic games that took me into another world for hours, days, weeks at a time.

Listening to this in modern times is a little bit different for me. I miss being able to think that the biggest worry I had was if my save kept over night or not until I was able to buy a memory card. I miss being able to spend endless hours on a game without worrying about anything else. These songs remind me of what life was like back then and I miss it.... to a certain degree.

Despite the rose tinted glasses, the music remains of high quality. The soundtrack contains music that draws out the same emotions now as it did years ago. Be that the tense bombing run to start the album, or the incredibly epic One Winged Angel. I still remember the first time I heard the choir in that song and how I never would have expected actual voices to be used in the soundtrack. I was floored.

Each of the character themes also bring back memories from the game. The cast of VII is much smaller than that of VI, but that also means that there can be more focus put on each of them... more character development. In the same way the music associated with each of the characters also develops in ways that the soundtrack for VI did not. Be that having a more intricate arrangement, or  simply a more varied instrument palate for the music to be constructed with... the music in FFVII is incredible.

While VII is not my favorite Final Fantasy, some of my memories of the game are. I remember so many wonderful things playing this game, and those will stay with me until the day I pass. So even though this record has a ton of surface noise, and a ton of imperfections it remains in my collection as a reminder of what this game meant to me nearly thirty years ago.

Written September 17th 2024