Ode to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

This is a post I’ve wanted to work on for a long time. For all intents and purposes, this is my favorite game of all time and it has a musical score to match. Recently a sequel was released in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. The soundtrack reworks many of the original songs from a Link to the Past in some truly beautiful ways. I really wanted to talk about that soundtrack but decided it would make more sense to pay tribute to the original first. As I forewarn with all of these tributes: GAME SPOILERS TO FOLLOW(although seriously if you’ve never played A Link to the Past, can you really call yourself a gamer?)

I want to start out with a big shout out to Koji Kondo! I did not learn his name until recently but he has composed almost all of the best Zelda and Mario soundtracks in existence. You should learn his name too because he deserves to be known.

Title

Right from the title screen this game captured my heart. The beautiful harp as the triforce comes together and then the crashing regal castle theme. A Link to the Past was probably the first game where the music made me feel cool. Epic is the word that comes to mind. This game had scale. A huge (for the time) open world to explore, dungeons to explore, weapons to collect, giant monsters to defeat and secret caves to discover. Every time I turned the game on, this title screen music would prepare me for the battle ahead.

Select Screen

Just like the crystal music in Final Fantasy, the fairy music in Zelda is always a soothing place to start the game. A rest if you will before the coming onslaught. I could sit on the file select scene for hours listening to this soothing theme.

Opening Demo/ Time of the Falling Rain

If you let the title screen sit when you turned the game on, you were treated to a cool opening demo(this happened a lot during the SNES era) and the music that plays is a longer version of the song played in the prologue “Time of Falling Rain”. I love that the game opens during a storm. This music combined with the rainy visuals really set the prologue apart. First of all I was wowed by the storm visuals. Secondly it provides a different perspective of the overworld vs. later in the game. It creates this very specific place in the timing of the game. When you trudge through that same area by your house later in the game and its sunny, you actually have memories of the area from a different time. You think to yourself “Man, remember when I just woke up in my bed and had to walk through the rain and sneak into the castle to rescue Princess Zelda? ” I love that feeling and this is probably the first game I played that provided that experience for me. The feeling of the progression of time and all they did was change the weather and add some mood music. Genius!

Hyrule Castle

I  love that the game throws you almost immediately into an adventure. You sneak into a castle, obtain a sword and shield and a dying wish from your uncle, rescue a princess from a mace wielding knight and then sneak out through the sewers! Thats how you start a game! It helps that the Hyrule Castle music is so epic! I like how it makes you feel like a sneaky ninja and a brave knight all at the same time as you take out enemy knights left and right. I love that the game also has more than one way of taking care of threats. Who can forget the first time an enemy’s shield deflected your sword while he was just a little too close to the edge. Watching his hopeless face as he tumbled off into the darkness to that whistling sound. Epic.

Cave

Who can forget the creepy cave music? Traveling through dark tunnels with nothing but the light of your lantern facing rats and snakes while stepping in puddles. This game was the master of atmosphere and its unique area themes helped cement that feeling. Its this kind of music that made you feel weary of strange travelers you’d meet in said tunnels who want to follow you to an exit. An early form of character trust. There was this element of, I met this guy in a seedy cave… is he going to help me or hurt me when I lead him out. (referring to a cave on Death Mountain)

Church

My first experience visiting a church in a videogame. A fitting end to the opening of the game. After traveling through the dungeons of a castle and through some eerie caves, our secret door at the end of the cave leads to…. A church? So cool! The weird SNES choral music and the stained glass windows. I like that you never give a second thought to leaving Zelda in this sanctuary. Its just that serene there.

Overworld Theme

Definitely the most prominent theme for the first half of the game, the “Overworld Theme” is first heard after rescuing Princess Zelda and exiting the sanctuary. The storm has now passed and you walk out into the sunny world of A Link to the Past. This theme is infused with a sense of adventure! The horns boost your confidence about the world around you and the marching drums pleasently accompany you as you travel across the world. I love that they dont provide you with much direction at the start of the game once you reach the overworld. You’re free to travel as you please within the limits of your equipment and to explore the nearby town for some instant gratification of item rewards. A Link to the Past is a perfect example of being an open world game within bounds. You can travel where you want to and uncover new secrets all the time without feeling like there’s just way too much to explore (ie: Bethesda Games). A Link to the Past is a perfectionists dream. Enough variety to keep you on your toes without jamming a bunch of busy work unnecessary content down your throat just to pad out the completion of the game. Every single heart piece and side quest is unique and fun.

Kakariko Village

Your first stop is the nearby Kakariko Village. I love how peaceful the theme is. Its like coming home after a long day at work and finally getting a chance to sit down and rest. I love that the town immediately rewards those who want to explore. Ive played a lot of games recently where they allow you to go off the beaten path and explore but when you do, theres nothing to find. This actually can be detrimental to a gaming experience because if you then later have the opportunity to explore again, you may pass it up because last time it was a waste. Here you can immediately collect bombs and rupees from secret treasure chests, blow up hidden walls to get pieces of heart, purchase your first bottle and get a bug catching net! Stopping by the town, you get to leave with almost double the inventory and you feel much more prepared for your journey.

Soldiers of Kakariko Village

I love the almost ironic intensity of this short theme involving soldiers chasing you after you’re reported to the police.

Guessing – Game House

If you’re going to have minigames that people must play multiple time to achieve victory, you better have an addicting, fun theme to go along with it! There were plenty of minigames in A Link to the Past but two spring up in my mind immediately when I hear this. The first is shooting arrows at faraway targets with precise timing to earn rupees and the second is digging digging digging for that final piece of heart.

Sanctuary Dungeon

Zelda games can really be divided into two distinct pieces. Overworld exploration and Dungeon Exploration. A Link to the Past has some of the best dungeons in gaming history and this theme propels you forward through them. My favorite part is the subtle horn solo. So beautiful. I could sit here and talk about all the joys that await you in the dungeons of a Link to the Past but you really just have to enjoy them for yourself.

Boss BGM

Another staple of Legend of Zelda is epic boss battles. Monsters many times the size of your measly Link. I found this cool video that tributes all the bosses so feel free to watch it if you want some serious nostalgia. Boss music needs to be in your face and intense to amp up the feel of the battle and this short but powerful theme works wonders in making the bosses feel scary.

Boss Clear Fanfare

And every game needs a victory cheer to reward you for that hard earned victory.

Turned Into a Rabbit

One of the MOST WTF moments in gaming! The first time you use the warp portal to enter an alternate universe and become a bunny rabbit!? You see a goblin kicking around a little plushy character. Nothing makes sense! And then before you know it, you’re back in the real world tackling the temple for the third pendant. I love this short little theme. Its full of mystery and fills you with a sense of curiosity. It also foreshadows one of the greatest twists in gaming history. At this point in the game, no one could have imagined that there was an entire second world in that alternate universe. It’s like watching the first season of SPOILERS Fringe before discovering just how deep the rabbit whole goes into the alternate universe.

Forest

Once again atmosphere wins in A Link to the Past! After collecting the 3 pendants, its time to head to the forest in search of the legendary Master Sword! The forest is a hazy maze full of secret traps and even a thief! I love the flutes.

Master Sword

That feeling you get when you finally reach the master sword and pull it out of the stone!! Theres nothing like it and this music helps reward you experience.

Priest/ Ganon’s Message

Aghanim. The evil priest who caused this whole mess in the first place. His goal is to open the portal between the light world and the dark in order to resurrect Ganon. He whisks Zelda away to the dark world. Link defeats Aghanim in a fierce battle of magic beam tennis and the game is finally over….

Dark World Theme

In one of the greatest twists in gaming history, Link is banished to the dark world, awakening on top of a giant pyramid as this theme begins to play. This is by far my favorite zelda music of all time. So dark and foreboding and yet still filled with that same propulsion for adventure that the Hyrule Theme provides. The best part about this twist is that a game you thought you’d beaten turns out to be barely started. 8 more dungeons await you! Double the amount you’ve already completed! Collecting the seven crystals and bouncing back and forth between the two dimensions is fun beyond all reason. Doing it all to this song… What a masterpiece!

Dark World Dungeon

The dark world also means we get a new dungeon theme. This creepy ominous music accompanies all of the dark dungeons and keeps the tension firm with its shaky strings and deep horns. So many dungeon memories!

Crystal/Rescue Zelda Theme

The dark world is intense most of the time. Your one respite is upon receiving each of the 7 crystals when youre rewarded with beautiful theme to calm you down again before popping back up on the world map. When you finally rescue Zelda, this theme is expanded upon starting at around the 50 second mark. This second hauntingly beautiful little addition to the theme is just so perfectly amazing! I’d love for them to expand upon that theme….

Dark Forest Mountain

When you finally make it back up the mountain in the dark world to tackle the final dungeon, you encounter yet another amazingly epic victory theme. Nothing pumps you up for the final dungeon like this theme does. I’m a firm believer in games having unique music for their final dungeons/bosses because once again, they provide a sense of progression, a feeling that this is something different from the run of the mill in the game.

Battle With Ganon

Speaking of which, who can forget the music playing during the epic final showdown with Ganon inside the pyramid?? The crazy tension as he starts to turn invisible, toss a giant trident at you and tries to literally end the battle by knocking you out of the arena. Shooting silver arrows never felt so good.

Triforce Chamber

Remember when I said I wished they would expand on that piece of theme in the Zelda Rescue Theme? Well here it is in all its glory! The Triforce Chamber and its haunting melody as you finally get to hold the triforce over your head! Damn that thing is big!

Ending Theme

Beating A Link to Past gets you a beautiful seven and a half minute ending theme complete with a full montage of character endings as we see a birds eye view of the world we spent so much time exploring. The theme really provides a sense of victory. It reminds of when they all win medals at the end of the first Star Wars. There’s just this sense of pride and joy and laughter.

Credits

I love that sitting through the credits provides you with this cool slowed down version of the hyrule theme!

So there you have it! A highlight of some of the best nostalgic music in video game history that accompanies possibly the greatest video game of all time. Let me know if you enjoyed this and what games you want to see next! Should I continue my final fantasy VI tribute? More Zelda? Chrono Trigger? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Thanks again for reading!

Build a Workout Burnout: The Black Mages – Those Who Fight Further

This excellent reworking of the Final Fantasy VII boss battle theme by Nobuo Uematsu’s prog metal band The Black Mages is a great burnout. I think it succeeds for me mostly on the merits of the organ part at 0:24 that repeats throughout the song. My feet land with such conviction when that organ plays.

Build a Workout Stride: Nobuo Uematsu – J-E-N-O-V-A

Something about boss battle music in Final Fantasy games is just perfect for running. While most end up as burnouts, “J-E-N-O-V-A” has a more steady pace that lends itself well to a stride.

Build a Workout Mix: Successful Mix 10

If you’re not sure what this is about, start by heading HERE and reading the introduction to this section of my blog.

For my tenth successful mix, I’ve changed things up significantly! The worst enemy of working out is of course: not wanting to work out. And the number 1 reason for me: Its boring!

That means I have to change up my methods from time to time. Its all well and good to run 7 days a week but if by day 3 you hate it, you’re not doing it right. If you cant make exercise new and exciting, you WILL give up. It happens to me all the time. In an effort to stop that, this week I’ve added a serious workout section in-between to short runs. When it comes to lifting weights, just find some music that gets you pumped. Here, I’m going to focus on those 2 small runs that go hand in hand.

10 Minute Warm Up Run

1. Returns a King – Tyler Bates

2. J-E-N-O-V-A – Nobuo Uematsu

3. Those Who Fight Further – The Black Mages

The main idea here is start off you pre-workout with a ten minute warm up run. The format here being Warm Up – Stride – Burnout, and then heading into your physical workout.

10 Minute Burst Run

1. Start Something – Lost Prophets

2. Jesus Walks – Kanye West

3. What’s the Use of Wond’rin? – Amanda Palmer

The burst run has no warm up! In fact, it starts with a Burnout, then Stride and Cool Down. At the end of a workout I always have pent up energy. I think its adrenaline do to the fact that I just used my body to its full potential. The first few minutes of this burst run are meant to be met at full speed to drag out any left over energy in your body before a final rest.

My warm up run started off slow. It had been a while since I heard this song so after the initial choir section, I thought it would pick up immediately. My body felt ready to spring but the music was still chugging along in a second louder choir section. Just when I was ready to accept this song as a failure of a warm up,  the song burst forth letting me pick up the pace. Use this as long as you’re prepared for and extended walking period for the first two minutes.

Something about boss battle music in Final Fantasy games is just perfect for running. While most end up as burnouts, “J-E-N-O-V-A” has a more steady pace that lends itself well to a stride.

Speaking of Final Fantasy… This excellent reworking of the Final Fantasy VII boss battle theme by Nobuo Uematsu’s prog metal band The Black Mages is a great burnout. I think it succeeds for me mostly on the merits of the organ part at 0:24 that repeats throughout the song. My feet land with such conviction when that organ plays.

All in all a great warm up run that got me ready for the heavy lifting and woke my body up from a lazy slumber.

My warm up run was more soundtrack oriented so I decided to make my burst run full of modern influences.

 

I knew I wanted to run full speed for this section so I pulled out the insanely rageful “Start Something”. That guitar riff that leads into the “1 2 3 4!” combined with some pretty heavy rhythm guitars turn this into a great burnout as long as metal and screaming motivate you. And it gives you a bit of respite at the end with some beautiful piano.

The marching nature of “Jesus Walks” provides the perfect momentum for a relentless stride. I cranked up the intensity on this one when the rest of my body was begging for rest and it got me to keep going full power. Not to mention, as a christian, being reminded that “Jesus walks with me” while on a difficult walk… You get what I’m saying. Empowering.

I’ve always wanted to use this really out there almost unrecognizable Amanda Palmer number for a cool down and I finally got a chance. It did not disappoint! As long as you’re a fan of AFP.

So there you have it! Another successful run that brings something different to the table to keep things interesting. Thanks again to anyone who reads these. I hope they help and inspire you to create your own workout mixes!

 

 

Build a Workout Warm Up: Nobuo Uematsu – One Winged Angel (Orchestral)

Most people who know “One-Winged Angel” would immediately think of burnout. The final boss music for one of the most beloved videogame villain of all time. I chose the lighter orchestral version specifically so that I could use it as a warm up. The song does have a slowly progressive nature as it spins and winds toward something grander. This allowed my body to start off at a gentler pace and slowly work my way faster. It never got me running at top speed but it definitely prepared me for the additional ten minutes on the end of this run.

 

Build a Workout Mix: Successful Mix 5

If you’re not sure what this is about, start by heading HERE and reading the introduction to this section of my blog.

This mix is an altered version of Successful Mix 4 which you can find HERE

1. One-Winged Angel (orchestral version) – Nobuo Uematsu

2. Du Hast – Rammstein

3. IT’S SHOWTIME!! – B’z 2003

4. Aaj Ki Raat – A R Rahman

5. My Body Is A Cage – Arcade Fire

6. Totalimmortal – AFI

7. Baby Boy – Beyoncé

8. Path Vol 2 – Apocalyptica

9. Aint No Sunshine – Bill Withers

10. Down to the River to Pray – Alison Krauss

The first thing you’ll notice about this mix is that it is LONGER! It’s a good idea that you constantly push yourself to run further and faster. To run longer, obviously you want to add more songs but you also want to have more strides since this is the portion where you can gain some steady productivity. Faster requires more burnouts to encourage you to run your hardest. Lets look at the changes.

I started off with a new warm up. Most people who know “One-Winged Angel” would immediately think of burnout. The final boss music for one of the most beloved videogame villain of all time. I chose the lighter orchestral version specifically so that I could use it as a warm up. The song does have a slowly progressive nature as it spins and winds toward something grander. This allowed my body to start off at a gentler pace and slowly work my way faster. It never got me running at top speed but it definitely prepared me for the additional ten minutes on the end of this run.

Industrial Metal and specifically Rammstein music lends itself VERY WELL to the stride. Strides are all about keeping a steady pacing which is most easily found in dance music. Metal rhythms are also great because a good guitar riff works much the same way. “Du Hast” works to combine these two elements into something great. The metal side adds lots of little guitar flourishes to keep your brain occupied and the dance side adds little digital noises like at 2:04. I must also mention that the drums are beast!

Continuing this so far all new mix, we have a new burnout in the form of B’z’s all caps “IT’S SHOWTIME!!” How can a song with a title in all caps and two exclamation points not be a burnout? This song was used a lot in Japan for national sporting events and even the 2004 Olympics. The song was specifically made to ramp you up and thats exactly what it does!

I was then treated to ANOTHER new stride! Here’s another from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack. “Aaj Ki Raat” is a monster of a stride topping out at over 6 minutes! It kept me going with its simple danceable beat and trance inducing singers mesmerizing me for the entire time. So pretty!

We finally get to some familiar ground with the newly located “My Body is a Cage” warm up which I absolutely loved in my last run and couldnt bear to part with yet.

This was followed by two other recent staples, the burnout “Totalimmortal” and the stride “Baby Boy” which both continue to succeed completely. I was definitely getting tired by the time I got to “Baby Boy” and thought I’d slow to a walk. The beat was so good I had to keep running for another four minutes!

“Path Volume 2” by Apocalyptica is one of the rare occasions where the band is accompanied by a singer. This song blew my mind the first time I heard it years ago and I knew it would work perfectly as a burnout. I mentioned how tired I was at the beginning of “Baby Boy” and this point I was ready to collapse. The haunting vocals and insane chugging cellos made it impossible for me to slow down and there I was off sprinting all over again!

Wow. What a beautiful cool down! Bill Withers sexy voice and thumping guitar slowed me way down so that I could stretch out my sore muscles walking the last couple minute of my workout in perfect bliss.

“Aint No Sunshine” was originally intended to finish off the mix. This leads to another lesson for a successful mix: ALWAYS CARRY SOME BACKUPS! In this case, my legs just werent ready to stop walking. They were really tensing up and cramping and I needed another couple minutes to walk it off. Thankfully I always pack some spares so I simply pulled out this wonderful acapella spiritual that I first heard on the O’Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack and walked off those extra couple minutes in peace. This song is the perfect way to cool down after a long and tiresome run.

Build a Workout Mix: Successful Mix 2

If you’re not sure what this is about, start by heading HERE and reading the introduction to this section of my blog.

This is a reworking of Successful Mix 1 which you can read about HERE.

Here is the new tracklist:

1. Lose Yourself – Eminem

2. I Get Around – The Beach Boys

3. Prayer of the Refugee – Rise Against

4. Seventeen Years – Ratatat

5. Toreador – Apocalyptica

6. Misirlou – Dick Dale

7. Ringa Ringa – A R Rahman

8. … To Die For – Hanz Zimmer

9. Una Pistola Per Ringo – Ennio Morricone

I’m happy to announce that another successful mix has been made though today, my body tried to give out on me at multiple points. I cant wait until my legs become accustomed to running and theres less pain and ache for the rest of the day after a run.

“Lose Yourself” turned out to be PERFECT as a warm up! The soft piano eases you in and then once the beat starts to build, there is no stopping this engine. Even Eminem’s flow and lyrics are dead set on getting your body pumped up and ready. I think the song really proves the effect of mood on a work out. Starting out a running mix with this song adds a layer of context to your run. It gets your brain thinking seriously about making things happen. The run becomes more important and that sense of duty moves your body along effortlessly. 

Unfortunately the mood created bu “Lose Yourself” was pretty much killed by “I Get Around“. It wasn’t bad enough to ruin my mix and I did keep moving through the whole song but it does point out the importance of constructing a mix with a theme for it to be perfect. At some point I do plan on putting out some much more calculated mixes that come with high recommendation. These will definitely focus on setting a mood that stays steady through out. It may be serious like “Lose Yourself” or all for fun like “I Get Around” but blending them can cause a hiccup if not done correctly.

“Prayer of the Refuge” brought the mood back down to a more serious place and it still kept me going as a good burn out. I must also again point out that the combination of “Seventeen Years” followed by “Toreador” works extremely well together and will definitely be combined again in an advanced mix.

You’ll notice that I finally switched out “Liberi Fatali” for the new burnout “Misirlou” which you may recognize from the amazing Pulp Fiction! The Beach Boys surf rock encouraged me to try again and Dick Dale does not disappoint with this fast paced guitar party with horn accompaniment. Crazy that I can no longer think of this song without hearing The Black Eyed Peas “Pump It”

The stride staple “Ringa Ringa” helped ease me through a tough cramp during this run and I was thankful that it allows you to keep the beat at a slower pace if need be.

Anyone who didnt think the stampede song was going to end up here as a burnout really doesnt know me very well. One of Hanz Zimmer’s masterworks, this emotional and powerful song accompanies one of the saddest deaths in all of movie history. I seriously cant hear this song without getting crazy emotional. Thankfully it also works to make me run like theres a herd of wildebeests chasing me! Now there’s two ways to go with this one. The second half of this song is clearly a cool down so you can either skip ahead to the next song once the intense part ends or you can do what I did here and place it near a cool down to give you a bit of extra time to rest your body and mourn the death of Mufasa.

Ennio Morricone is a soundtrack king mostly because all of his songs make you feel like the coolest person on the planet. Even his slower music can be used on runs because a good cool down should always make you feel like the hero at the end of a movie.

Overall I didnt think the ruined mood was enough to mark this as a failed mix but it did teach me about the importance of mood for creating the best running mixes so be sure to keep that in mind when you make your own.

 

Build a Workout: Successful Mix 1

If you’re not sure what this is about, start by heading HERE and reading the introduction to this section of my blog.

This mix was built off of Failed Mix 3 which you can read about HERE

This mix isnt perfect but it definitely got the job done without any hiccups! Let’s start with the playlist.

1. Akatsuki – Takanashi Yasuhara

2. I Get Around – The Beach Boys

3. Bloody Mary – Lady Gaga

4. Prayer for the Refuge – Rise Against

5. Seventeen Years – Ratatat

6. Toreador – Apocalyptica

7. Liberi Fatali – Nobuo Uematsu

8. Ringa Ringa – A R Rahman

9. Forever Young – Alphaville

I changed a couple things around for this one. I removed the second warm up at the beginning of the mix for a stride, in this case “I Get Around” and then coupled that with a second stride to keep me going longer. I moved up “Bloody Mary” to keep a familiar song at the beginning of my run. “Prayer for the Refuge” was moved to the burnout position followed by newcomer stride “Seventeen Years” and warm up “Toreador” replacing “Americano”. I put my burnout staple “Liberi Fatali” towards the end of my mix followed by the comfortable “Ringa Ringa” and closed out the mix with a new cool down: “Forever Young”

Lets start at the beginning. “Akatsuki” has been doing a great job as a warm up and today was no exception.

I was a little nervous about using “I Get Around” as a stride but the songs happy-go-lucky nature helped get me in the mood to run and its simple straightforward pacing provided excellent motivation for a steady continued run. I guess surf rock can be used for running too.

“Bloody Mary” worked well as a second stride as its beat continues to keep my legs pumping.

I first used “Prayer for the Reduge” as a stride but the jump in energy from the verse to the chorus didnt really help my body maintain a consistent pace. The songs hardcore punk sound definitely work well to get my blood pumping for another 4 minutes as a burnout at the end of a 6 minute stride. The song is definitely lighter than some of my other burnouts as the slower verse sections allow a bit of leeway in terms of pacing while still providing the all out fire necessary for a burnout during the choruses and the excellent guitar solo and final rush!

Ratatat’s “Seventeen Years” turned out to be a perfect stride! It bursts out in full on electric guitar pop beats and drums early on and keeps things fresh with some fun guitar solos. The longer a stride song is, the more you want there to be a bit of variety so your brain doesnt grow board from hearing the same basic beats. Here this is accomplished by the sheer variety of guitar riffs as well as a subtle shift in the energy of the song about halfway through. This “taking it down a notch” affect allows for your body to adjust accordingly either remaining at higher speeds or slowing down with the music to save some breathe. I can definitely see “Seventeen Years” used to anchor the center of a workout allowing for a quick cool down embedded in the stride before the next warm up.

Apocolyptica doesnt seem like the ideal work out music since it is performed by a band of all Cello’s with absolutely no drums. Thankfully the power of said cellos is more than enough to both keep the beat and encourages those muscles to build some adrenaline. Im a huge fan of stringed instruments and they always make me feel like I’m in some epic fantasy land. “Toreador” is actually a perfect warm up! It starts off very slow and deliberate. With each minute, layer upon layer is added to the song as it starts to grow a bit faster with each minute. By the two minute mark, your feet will be moving and the cello solos will keep you on your toes. This warm up  is great if you want a bit more of a gradual build that still leaves you sweating by the end of it.

At this point, you’ll notice the familiar “Liberi Fatali” and “Ringa Ringa” combination. I did this because it’s important that the songs near the end of your run are the most solid. When you’re tired and ready to quit, you’ll want to make sure you have songs guaranteed to rescue you from that place. Thats why I’ll always faze songs towards the back of my mix and add new songs towards the front.

I guess it all depends on how you feel about the genre but 80’s pop ballads are almost guaranteed to work as cool downs! Something about their cheesy synth pop nature and addictive over the top choruses just really works to make you feel like you had a successful run. “Forever Young” is no exception and it was the perfect endcap to a great run.

Overall I’m happy with my mix and my run today! I took a couple days off to visit my brother in Ann Arbor and celebrate Memorial Day with my family. It’s always tough to get back into a running mood after you’ve had a few days off. Unfortunately your body can also give up earlier due to lack of practice. I’d like to say it was partially due to this mix that I made it through todays run and still kept my time and distance up. Cant wait to run again!

Build A Workout: Failed Mix 3

If you’re not sure what this is about, start by heading HERE and reading the introduction to this section of my blog.

This mix was developed off of Failed Mix 2 which you can read about HERE.

Alright! I got to go for another run and while I didnt think the mix flowed well enough to be successful, I am definitely getting more fit! When I started this project I was putting in 2 miles over 30 minutes. Today I put in 3 miles in 34 minutes! Lets start with the track list.

1. Akatsuki – Takahashi Yasunara

2. In for the Kill (Skrillex Remix) – La Roux

3. Prayer for the Refuge – Rise Against

4. Liberi Fatali – Nobuo Uematsu

5. Ringa Ringa – A R Rahman

6. Americano – Lady Gaga

7. The Decisive Battle – Powerglove

8. Bloody Mary – Lady Gaga

9. Viva Rock – Orange Range

The first thing you’ll notice is that I’ve increased the length of my run. After the last mix came up short, I increased the length to about 34 minutes. The two new song additions were added at the beginning to extend my initial warm up period and replace a failed stride. That failed stride which also failed as a warm up (“Viva Rock”) was moved to the cool down position in a last ditch effort to make it work.

How’d it go? The weakness in this mix was definitely the new additions. “Akatsuki” was an excellent warm up.

I mentioned last time that it can be a bit short so I added a second  warm up in the form of “In for the Kill”. Unfortunately I just couldnt get into the build. It starts off perfectly which is why I chose it. Right up to the first Skrillex dubstep drop at the minute and half mark it works great. The drop just didnt propel me forward the way I thought it would. The other problem is that the song then kind of stalls out before going back to its original momentum. Warm up‘s really require a more consistent build to motivate you to get faster and faster. This one just left my body confused wanting to accelerate when the pace of the song wasnt allowing it to.

I had a similar pacing problem with “Prayer for the Refugee”. While the song is pretty frickin amazing, I just felt that it didnt have the steadiness required for the stride positon. The song has this ebb and flow between its verses and chorus that just doesnt translate to the consistency necessary. Still, I love the song and I’ll definitely be trying it out as a burnout in my next workout.

Speaking of burnouts “Liberi Fatali” continues to be an amazing one! Actually from this point forward I have no complaints until the end of the mix as the rest works as well as it did in my previous mix.

I moved “Viva Rock” to the cool down position. Can you tell I really wanted this song to work? It was too fast paced for a warm up and too jumpy for a stride. I thought it might still be able to work as a cool down with its marching beat. Unfortunately, even here it left me feeling uneasy and confused trying to make my body work when it should have been time to rest. Maybe there is a place for this song in a workout mix somewhere but not for me. I think its time I retire this song after three failed attempts.

Lets hope I learn from these failures and eventually produce another great mix to run to. Good luck on your work outs!

Build a Workout: Failed Mix 2

If you’re not sure what this is about, start by heading HERE and reading the introduction to this section of my blog.

Another run and another failed mix, a bit for the same reasons and a bit for different ones. This mix was developed off of Failed Mix 1 which you can read about HERE.

Here’s the tracklist:

1. Akatsuki – Takahashi Yasunara

2. Viva Rock – Orange Range

3. Liberi Fatali – Nobuo Uematsu

4. Ringa Ringa – A R Rahman

5. Americano – Lady Gaga

6. The Decisive Battle – Powerglove

7. Bloody Mary – Lady Gaga

8. We Are the Champions – Queen

Changes to this mix include adding a new warm up to the beginning of the mix, sliding  “Viva Rock” into the stride position previously occupied by “Born This Way” and replacing the stride “Government Hooker” with “Ringa Ringa”.

What went wrong? Two problems.

The first is that I still didnt like “Viva Rock” in my workout. It didn’t work out as a warm up so I thought it might as a stride due to its happy go lucky bounciness. I just wasnt feeling it. I felt like my body could never get into a good pace with the song while running which is never a good thing for a stride. I powered through it but at the end of the day, its possible “Viva Rock” just isnt meant for running.

The second and more important problem was mix length. This was actually my most productive run so far! It could be that it was my third one this week and my body is becoming more accustomed to it. I made the changes to this mix last minute and failed to look down at the length of the mix ahead of time. Currently I’ve been running 30 minutes and you’ll notice my first two mixes were approximately 32 minutes in length. I like to tack on a little space just in case. This mix clocked in at 28:21! If it had been a tiring day where I didnt feel like going the distance it wouldnt have been a problem. Instead, I had completed my usually distance at 25 minutes and was definitely ready for another stride to keep me going! Instead I was served a cool down and there went the end of my workout. Lesson: Know what you want ahead of time and plan for it. Now that I know my body is developing a bit for longer runs, I’ll either have to increase the length or increase the intensity. Either way this mix just didnt reach that standard.

How did the run actually go?

I started off with the Naruto villain theme music “Akatsuki”. This was an excellent warm up! The song has a full on chorus and lots of organ which are huge pluses in my get pumped to work out brain. The song also has a nice level build giving me enough time to get into the mood. The song keeps heaping on tension so that by the end of the two minutes youre ready to go. If the song has any weakness to take note of, it is definitely the length. This song being two minutes is probably what docked my overall time on my mix. Know yourself, if you need more than 2 minutes of warm up, you may want to tack this on the beginning of another warm up for some extra time.

“Viva Rock” once again disappointed as I mentioned above.

“Liberi Fatali” was just as excellent as ever as a burnout.

You may recognize “Ringa Ringa” from the movie Slumdog Millionaire. I find that the best strides have a consistent drum beat. This song is just 4 and half minutes of stride bliss. The slick tapping drums kept my body moving and the vocals kept my mind distracted and entranced the whole time keeping from thinking too deeply about my run. Thats a good thing.

“Americano” continues to provide a great mid-level warm up that brought me out of my stride to and even faster paced run.

I was starting to get tired but once again “The Decisive Battle” kept me racing for another 4 minutes!

“Blood Mary” rounded out my run with another encouraging stride. All I wanted to do was head into another burn out when it ended.

Unfortunately I went into “We Are the Champions“, my cool down. I definitely felt like a champion, I just wanted to go further.

So yes, another failed mix but its only by failing that we can learn to succeed! Thanks for continuing to read. I hope soon I’ll add enough songs and ideas that you can begin building your own mixes. Please comment, share, like and stay connected.

Build a Workout: Failed Mix 1

If you’re not sure what this is about, start by heading HERE and reading the introduction to this section of my blog.

This next mix is being dubbed a failed mix because it doesnt work for me. It is the first alteration of my Initial Mix. Let’s start by laying out the tracklist:

1. Viva Rock – Orange Range

2. Born This Way – Lady Gaga

3. Liberi Fatali – Nobuo Uematsu

4. Government Hooker – Lady Gaga

5. Americano – Lady Gaga

6. The Decisive Battle – Powerglove

7. Bloody Mary – Lady Gaga

8. We Are the Champions – Queen

First lets quickly go over the changes and then I’ll go into the details. I switched out “Marry the Night” for “Viva Rock” as my warm up. Then I switched out “Judas” for “Liberi Fatali” as my burnout. Lastly, I replaced the not so productive “Scheise” stride for another burnout, ” The Decisive Battle” in the hopes to boost me up for a second wind.

Where did things go wrong? Immediately. Maybe I’m just tired because I worked out yesterday but “Viva Rock” built up way too quickly! I thought the song would work well as a warm up because it slowly builds on itself getting more and more powerful. Unfortunately it goes from zero to 50 in like the first 20 seconds and my body was just not prepared for that level of energy. Having a great warm up is extremely important to your run. If you try to fire up the body too fast, you’re asking for your body to quit on you. That is exactly what mine did. I still think “Viva Rock has potential to motivate me on a run, I’ll just have to shift its position in the next mix.

Thanks to my rough start, I was practically out of breath by the time I got to “Born This Way”. Thankfully, the song served its purpose perfectly as an upbeat stride and kept me going strong for the next 4 minutes despite being very winded.

At this point in my run, I was about ready to collapse. This is where a great burnout can really shine and “Liberi Fatali” is BLINDING! I was about to keel over and yet the second those strings came in, I knew it wasnt time to give up yet.The first minute and a half of the song isn’t exactly burnout material but you can feel the build and that alone kept me at a steady pace. Then at 1:28 things start to go insane! As the choir starts pumping in full power and the drums starst to create this incredible march, the adrenaline just started pumping into me. I pumped the treadmill up to 7mph and was cruising along happily when 1:51 hit! I cranked it up to 8mph and was just running full speed ahead till the end of the song! This is a perfect example of a burnout. One minute I was ready to crash, the next I’m running faster than ever. Add this one to permanent list!

While the burnout served its purpose, I could never been more thankful for “Government Hooker”. I slowed way down to a walk, my body ready to keel over thanks to it being pushed too hard during the warm up. Here I will again mention that a stride serves its purpose by getting you to keep a specific pace and keep going. The speed isnt what matters. I definitely rested through most of this one.

Americano did a good job of warming me back up and I was feeling good again but halfway through the song my body started giving me the give up signals. I powered through it because I knew what was coming next.

Oh Powerglove! Powerglove combines metal with various videogame soundtracks and tv show themes. “The Decisive Battle” is the boss battle theme from Final Fantasy VI and just the little midi version of the song gets me going. Hearing electric guitars power through the main melody gets my body moving like nothing else. There’s a reason termites work faster to metal. Speed and power metal are great for burnouts and “The Decisive Battle” was no exception. I was very thankful I added a second burnout to this mix since it allowed me to push myself a little harder than I would have with another stride here.

This lead into my second stride, “Bloody Mary”. At this point my mind and body were pretty much gone so I dont have much to say about it.

When “We Are the Champions” finally began to blair into my ears, I definitely felt like one, thought a tired one for sure.

Overall this mix wasnt a bad one. It mostly worked and would be listed as my next official mix with a playlist for it if not for the abrupt warm up. Lesson learned. I’ll try again and keep adding songs to my permanent lists. If you havent already noticed, I’ve been adding each successful song to permanent lists where you can go to find music to build your own mixes. Thanks for reading! Come back for more! Comment and share cause I would love some feedback.

Build a Workout Burnout: Powerglove – The Decisive Battle

Oh Powerglove! Powerglove combines metal with various videogame soundtracks and tv show themes. “The Decisive Battle” is the boss battle theme from Final Fantasy VI and just the little midi version of the song gets me going. Hearing electric guitars power through the main melody gets my body moving like nothing else. There’s a reason termites work faster to metal. Speed and power metal are great for burnouts and “The Decisive Battle” was no exception.

Build a Workout Burnout: Nobuo Uematsu – Liberi Fatali

At this point in my run, I was about ready to collapse. This is where a great burnout can really shine and “Liberi Fatali” is BLINDING! I was about to keel over and yet the second those strings came in, I knew it wasnt time to give up yet.The first minute and a half of the song isn’t exactly burnout material but you can feel the build and that alone kept me at a steady pace. Then at 1:28 things start to go insane! As the choir starts pumping in full power and the drums starst to create this incredible march, the adrenaline just started pumping into me. I pumped the treadmill up to 7mph and was cruising along happily when 1:51 hit! I cranked it up to 8mph and was just running full speed ahead till the end of the song! This is a perfect example of a burnout. One minute I was ready to crash, the next I’m running faster than ever. Add this one to permanent list!

 

Ode to Final Fantasy VI Part I

I really really wanted to do Chrono Trigger! No seriously, you have no idea! And I still will. But I could not resist writing about quite possibly my favorite gaming experience of all time. If you’ve never played Final Fantasy VI, I’m so sorry. There are going to be massive spoilers ahead. The second I have you convinced you should play it, immediately stop reading and go play it. The one sad thing about the game is that while it is not dated, it is definitely a 16 bit RPG and that may hold a younger generation slightly back. But I’m telling you, dont let it hold you back. Final Fantasy VI is not only the greatest Final Fantasy of all time, it is the greatest JRPG of all time. From the visuals to the story, to the characters, to the combat, to the leveling system to (Obviously) the music, FF VI excels in every way.

It’s all well and good to say it is the greatest RPG but the question still stands, why? I’m glad you asked because I’m planning to go into great detail on the subject, pointing out through the games music, why there really is no other game like FF VI. I’ll try to be brief because I really want to get to the music but I also think its important to see where I’m coming from before we get into the bulk of the music. (MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD)

Atmosphere: Look no further than the games chilling title screen complete with dreadful organs and a vast array of storm clouds. The game then opens on a frozen mountain and the opening scene may be my single favorite piece of gaming cinema. This dark atmosphere permeates through everything I’m going to mention afterwards so please keep it in mind. Even the color schemes chosen for the games battle backgrounds and enemies are vastly darker than the bright flashy colors of earlier Final Fantasies.

Seriously check out the opening scene. It is mind blowingly beautiful. Even now almost 20 years later you can only shake your head at its beauty. This is from 1994! Look at that snow! It reminds me of something out of a Miyazaki film. Still gives me chills. This is Final Fantasy VI and it is perfect.

Setting: The world of Final Fantasy VI is not a loving one. Unlike the magic filled worlds of previous Final Fantasies where magic crystals fuel the world’s energy, Final Fantasy VI takes on a steam punk vibe that takes place in the years after a huge war of magic has ended and now magic is (almost) mythical. Gone are the good natured fantasy kingdoms (for the most part) and in place, we find the Empire, a war centered totalitarian regime that has secretly rediscover magic and weaponized it for its war machines in an effort to take control of the world.

The Characters: What sets the characters of Final Fantasy VI apart is that none of them set out to be heros. They are just trying to live their lives but each of them has some common hatred for the Empire that draws them together to fight against oppression. They dont do it because they are destined heros. They do it because the Empire is knocking people down and if they dont stand up for themselves, no one else will. And this is a ragtag bunch of individuals! A thief, an ice cold commander of the Imperial army, a gambler, a mercenary, and a genetically engineered super soldier to name a few. Oh did I mention there are 14 characters?

The Combat: Which brings me to the Combat. A lot of characters doesnt necessarily mean a better game. Sometimes new characters are just the old characters in different skins. What FF VI does amazingly right is in making each character unique in battle. No two characters have the same abilities and switching different characters in and out of battles strategically can sometimes be the most important part of battle. It also has an early materia system where character can equip summons (known as Espers) that will teach them magic. These must be constantly micromanaged in the background but can result in your strongest tank character also being able to heal your entire party. The game also causes forced party splits from time to time allowing you to try out different character combinations and learn what works best for you. It’s also the first game to feature limit breaks! Not only do the characters have different play styles, their unique personalities allow for different kinds of people to all get attached to someone. Its fun to talk with friends about who ends up in their party because it often reflects a friends nature and you’ll both laugh about how each of you always puts in a character the other never uses. Except Sabin. Everyone uses Sabin! Ill try to go into a little bit more detail on my favorite character skills during their respective songs.

The Story: Ive touched on this already but the story is one of the most important pieces of an RPG. I’ll even suggest that Final Fantasy VI is one of the reasons that RPG’s are expected to deliver great stories. The game takes huge unexpected plot twists never taking the easy way out. Kefka is also tied for my favorite Final Fantasy villain. The man is an insane clown general! Who would think those things would appear together? Do you like the Joker? Because Kefka is basically the Joker with a God complex. The man lives to create mayhem. Some men just want to watch the world burn. When a castle refuses to give up a hidden prisoner, he attempts to burn it to the ground. In order to make one of the empire’s wars go faster, he poisons another kingdoms water supply killing almost the entire population including the wife and son of one of the main characters. Oh and he laughs while doing it. Probably one of the most recognizable and horrifying sounds of the 16 bit era. And you know how villains try to destroy the world? Well Kekfa succeeds! Remember those unexpected twists I told you about. In the supposed final battle of the game, Kefka defeats your party, murders the Emperor and harnesses the power of the God’s to literally blow up the world. He destroys all current continents reshaping the very world map. Not only that you wake up on a tiny island in a cabin as one of the games minor character and have to start all over. Oh and she contemplates suicide. The second half of the game revolves around traversing the post-apocalyptic world trying to scrounge up as many of your defeated party members as possible for a second shot at taking down a God. An insane clown God.

And finally yes(only because I said I’d keep this brief) the music!! Oh yes the music!! I’ve spoken before in my Ode to Final Fantasy VII about how amazing Nobuo Uematsu is and this is what I’m talking about! The man created the single greatest 16 bit soundtrack ever. It’s like FF IV and V were just warm ups for his masterpiece. He uses the tried and true leitmotif (repetitive themes for characters and places) to create instantly recognizable tunes for almost every major character and place. Not only that, the amount of instruments he creates is astounding. Oh and did I mention he actually throws a 16 bit OPERA into the game?? Seriously, there is an SNES Opera in Final Fantasy VI and it is brilliant.

As an aside. I’d really like to highlight artist Yoshitaka Amano! He is responsible for all of the drawings for characters in the first 6 Final Fantasies and his art is absolutely brilliant! I’d like to try and find pictures of each of the characters I discuss drawn by him. I hope it works out. And seriously if you’re a fan of the early FF’s check out his work. He has a ton of it!

So without further ado…

Opening Theme

Soaring clouds. The camera pans over them. Thunder strikes and so does the organ! Complete with 16 bit choir! Then a mysterious harp theme. A bell tolls. The ominous strings bring in a sense of unease as the games history scrolls by in text. A flute plays. There’s a repetitive fading echo and then the main theme begins to play as you watch three mech warriors marching through a land of ice and snow towards a huge foreboding mountain… Who can forget the wonder of the opening minutes of Final Fantasy VI. It’s as if the game is letting you know, this is not a story for the light hearted. This game will rip your heart out and step on it. And then laugh in your face. But you will love it. The piece that plays over the marching warriors also happens to be a piece of the first character introduced into the story: Terra. Terra is a mysterious slave of the empire that can use magic. Her past is shrouded in secrecy and it is her story that truly pushes the game forward.

Terra Riding a Mech Warrior

Caves of Narshe

The isolation you feel in the caves above Narshe are perfectly reflected in this sparse theme with its subtle bass line that keeps you moving forward with a deep feeling of unease that is peaked every time the piano part jumps up on you. I was already in love with the game just from its first two scenes. My heart was all anticipation for what would follow. Terra enters the caves in Narshe with two soldiers in an attempt to find an ancient frozen esper (a creature of great magic power) The esper ends up killing her captors and then knocks her off a cliff.

Locke’s Theme

Locke was always my favorite character in the game. Maybe it was his cool bandana or his no-care attitude or the fact that he was a good guy and a thief (I mean “Treasue Hunter”) at the same time. All I know is the dude never left my party and once I obtained the monster destroying Atma Weapon, there was just no stopping my Locke. The dude is super altruistic and like most of the characters in the game, has a hugely depressing backstory. Locke’s hometown is destroyed by the empire and his amnesiac lover Rachel is murdered in the attack. Her final words? She remembers his name! How chilling is that? His tale is motivated by revenge against the empire but he also has the even darker desire of raising his love from the dead! He doesnt succeed however and she begs him to watch over the two new women in his life. This shines through in his extremely protective nature of the two main female characters in the game. All I know is that I love Locke, and despite his dark past, his theme is one of constant adventure, hope and conquest. It always plays to motivate the crew towards their next objective. Locke meets Terra after her near fatal fall. Unfortunately she has lost her memory (which we all know now is something close to Locke’s heart). He swears to protect her until she can regain her memories and decides to take her to the resistance, a group known as the Returners in hopes that they will be able to find some form of aid.

Locke

Battle Theme

Lets talk battle themes for a second. Battle Themes in RPGs, ESPECIALLY random encounter RPGS are probably one of the most important themes in the game. You will fight MANY battles. Often times they will interrupt whatever you are trying to accomplish in the game. If a battle theme sucks, it can quickly bring down an RPG experience making you hate wanting to play the game. No matter how good the combat is, if the battle theme doesnt pull you in, you’ll eventually grow tired of the fights. Thankfully, Nobuo Uematsu has composed one of the most memorable and energetic battle themes of all time with the Battle Theme of FF VI. In fact, it is so addictive it actually works as a drug! Every time you hear the loud sound of a random encounter and the screen blurs, its like another hit of your favorite drug. You’re like “Damn! Battle! Oh wait though, its that really amazingly addictive song again… and before you know it theyre playing the victory fanfare theme and youre all like “wait, I wanted to here that 16 bit trumpet one more time!”

Fanfare

Which brings us to Fanfare. It has to have that same addictive quality so you want to keep winning battles and this definitely delivers with a happy bass line that gets you fist pumping as much as the characters in the game. Thats right! The characters fist pump when they win! I can remember endless hours of listening to this and being especially elated when I would hear the extended version while watching all the new spells my characters just learned off of an esper.

Edgar and Sabin Theme

Hmm. Where to begin with Edgar and Sabin? Um… THE COOLEST BROTHERS EVER! You meet Edgar first and the man is amazing. The dashing young  desert prince of Figaro Castle, he has a shaky alliance with the empire but he secretly funds the resistance. When he hides Terra from the evil clown general Kefka; Kefka decides it would be in his best interest to burn Figaro to the ground. What he doesnt know is that Figaro Castle can actually sink into the sands! So awesome! Whats even crazier is than his brother Sabin is a SICK martial artist. The story goes that neither brother wanted to become king. However, Edgar could tell that he was more suited to the task that is care-free brother. He proposed a coin toss. The winner would be free to leave and the loser would rule. Edgar uses a double headed coin to ensure that he will lose so that he can give his brother freedom without regret. And Sabin. The dude can SUPLEX A TRAIN! Game Informer sited that as the single reason Final Fantasy VI is the best Final Fantasy. Because you cant suplex a train in the others. The gang escapes on Chocobos before the castle sinks into the ground and eventually runs into Sabin who is training in the mountains. Edgar and Sabin also have two of the games best abilities. Edgar can use tools which basically allow him to attack entire groups of enemies at will without spending any magic and they can cause status effects as well. Sabin has a bunch of hand to hand combat moves including a suplex. He’s basically a super charged version of the monks of earlier Final Fantasies. Also, all of his moves require you to input fighting moves a la Street Fighter! He can literally do a hadouken. Seriously the amount of variety added to the games combat is just wonderful.

Edgar

Sabin

Kefka’s Theme

I’ve raved about Kefka’s theme in the past as it actually appeared as one of my songs of the day! This is an excerpt from that post:

Just to give you a picture for why the music has the flair it does, Kefka is an insane clown (like the Joker) except that he’s a general of the Imperial Army.  This guy poisons an entire kingdom’s water supply and then says, “Nothing can beat the sound of a hundred voices screaming in unison” and then laughs about it.  The craziest part is this guy actually succeeds in his plan to lay waste to the entire earth and succeeds in ruling the world for over a year, before your characters can mount a counter attack.  So yeah, his theme kicks ass, and they play it everywhere he shows up.

He can also be actually funny like when he walks through the desert and throws a fit kicking his feet around. Then he gets mad that theres sand on his boots and makes two of his soldiers wipe down his boots. And then you know what he does? He laughs at them. The game is full of similar scenes. Oh and one more thing of note, before Sephiroth ever killed Aerith, Kefka killed General Leo. And it was devastating. More on that later.

Kefka’s Laugh

I’m sorry but you need to hear it to understand the full weight.

Kefka

Mt. Koltz

I mentioned before about meeting Sabin on a mountain. This is that mountain. This is also the first real taste of the games difficulty. This game could be down right brutal and you would learn first hand when it was time to fight Sabin’s masters son Vargas at the summit of the mountain. The fight was brutal and it forced you to learn how to use Sabin’s skills on the fly in the heat of the battle or else lose. I lost. Many times. You have to understand, they had never put fighting game moves in and RPG before! How was a boy of little dexterity supposed to be able to input such complicated commands as back forward back?? Yeah I was young. But it doesnt make it any less memorable!

Returners

I’ve never give this theme enough credit. It starts off kind of slow but once it gets going, it really gets going. This is the theme of the rebels fighting against the army of the Empire and is played during a lot of big decision talks in the game where the characters are trying to decide what to do next. The ragtag crew of  Terra, Locke, Edgar and Sabin finally make it through some caves to the Returners hide out. The Returners make a plan to split up with Locke. He will head to a besieged city to slow down the empires plans. The rest of the crew travels by raft down the Lethe River. I believe their plan is to meet up in Narshe.

 

The Decisive Battle

Arguably the only theme more important than the battle theme is the boss battle theme. It needs to be even more epic and intense than the battle theme to really get your blood pumping for an amazing boss fight where you will most likely get your ass handed to you. Thankfully, Uematsu delivers here in spades! I also bring this theme up now because the rafting Returners crew is stopped by the unlikeliest of villains. An insane octopus named Ultros. Best minor villain ever! You win the battle but not before he knocks Sabin clean out of the raft.

Ultros

I think this is a good point to take a break as this is also where the games story takes a new turn by doing something really awesome. The game converts to a black screen with threw parties standing around. One is Locke, the second is Sabin and the third is Terra, Edgar and Banon(the leader of the Returners). You actually get to pick which order you want to play the now THREE separate stories that are taking place at the same time. This game is just constantly breaking new ground. I love it! I hope you enjoyed reading it as well and that you’ll tune in for my next installment as we continue to reminisce about one of the greatest games of all time!

Banon

 

 

Song of the Day 11/29/12: Neil Davidge – Halo 4 Menu Theme

Halo 4 is the beginning of a new Halo trilogy. That means it hired a new composer in Neil Davidge and also axed the Halo theme that permeates through the first 3 Halo games. While Im sad to see it go, the menu theme for Halo 4 is one of the best I’ve ever heard. The first time I turned the game on, I refused to press start for over 3 minutes so I could listen to it. Do you know how amazing that is? A man sometimes addicted to Halo waiting 3 full minutes to start playing the new game? I also know its amazing beyond “love of Halo” because LITERALLY every time I turn on the game, my sister yells “That song is so good!!” from the other room. Halo Reach’s menu theme captured my heart last year but I think this theme definitely stands up next to it if not surpassing it. Especially when theres a hint of Halo 3’s Cortana piano part at the very end. Most days, I still listen to the entire theme before I start playing Halo 4.

P.S. Im pretty sure this song has a name. However Ive looked for over and hour and couldnt find it. Cant you believe it isnt on the Halo 4 Soundtrack?? Bizarre.

Song of the Day 03/08/11: Norwegian Recycling – The Way Blast Barrels Are

Heres another song by Mash-up Master Norwegian Recycling. Of all the mash-up djs, Norwegian Recycling continues to make the best music. He created an album called Donkey Business in which he mashes up music from the Donkey Kong Country video game series with famous Hip-Hop and R&B artists. YES! For anyone else, it would be a gimicky ridiculous idea that would make you laugh, but for NR, its beautiful. I put up The Way Blast Barrels are because i love how he took the chill water level music to the Way I Are to make this really chill version of the song but in all honesty, there is SO MUCH variety on the album, one track really isnt enough. You can download all his albums for free off his website.

http://norwegianrecycling.net/category/albums/

This is my tribute to the Donkey Kong Country series on the SNES, but mainly to the man behind the great soundtrack, David Wise. He is one of my favorite musicproducers and have been a huge inspiration to me. All the tracks on the album are based on a sample from the soundtrack. Then I have mashed these samples to either hip hop or RnB acapellas. On top of this i have added alot of my own production like drumloops, basslines, effects, samples and synths.

Ode to Final Fantasy VII Part III

Finally!!  I’ve had a busy few weeks away from the computer and so I’ve been putting off this last installment in the series.  But I’m really excited to try something new after this, so I thought it was high time I give you what you all wanted.  The stunning conclusion to my Ode to Final Fantasy VII.  Until I do a sequel, or something.

To those who were upset that I didn’t highlight Tifa, Yuffie or Vincent, I’m sorry.  I know!  I love them too.  But I said in the beginning I was going to pick and choose, and they have unfortunately had to sit on the side lines.  Still I encourage you to share your favorite moments with their songs and characters in the comments section.

You can find a playlist of all the tracks from part III HERE.

 

So, we last left off with one of the best moments in gaming.  Let’s move on to the aftermath.

I’m going to be honest, I’m skipping past the beginning of Disc 2.  The Snow caves are really beautiful but they angered the hell out of me.  Collapsing in the snow and time limits and all that.

Who Am I

This is where Final Fantasy VII’s plot starts to go insane.  You trek through ice and snow in the hunt for Sephiroth and finally find his body buried in a block of ice underground.  JENOVA – Ghost – Sephiroth starts sharing all these insane plot points and your mind is like, “WOAH!”  Then you LOSE CLOUD!!  It was like Chrono Trigger all over again!  This is really a music blog, so I’m not going to go into all the minute details of FFVII’s plot.  I will simply point out that this music is perfectly named.  Whenever they played it, you knew they were explaining some crazy out of this world plot twist in the game that just made you go, “This game is amazing!!  I don’t know fully what is going on, but, wow!”

This also relates to one of my favorite parts of the game.  Finally finding Cloud in a wheelchair, in a small town and he has lost his mind!!!!  Then Ultimate Weapon attacks, the town is destroyed, and Tifa falls into the Lifestream with Cloud, where she enters his mind!  Finding out all about Cloud’s past, and just how crazy and twisted it is, was definitely one of my favorite experiences in the game.  It’s like you and Cloud both discover who you really are in those scenes.  It even has these small scenes of Cloud as a child playing with Tifa.  Just amazing.

Weapon Raid

This is where FFVII did something super cool.  Most Final Fantasy games have super powerful endgame, optional, bosses.  FFVII made sure they tied into the games plot.  It made them ten times more ferocious.  Who can forget when the underwater Fish Weapon attacks the city of Junon?  The music on Disc 2 just has this feeling of, watch out, things just went crazy!

Highwind Takes to The Skies

AIRSHIP!!!  The moment you get an airship in a Final Fantasy is always amazing.  First of all, it means you no longer have to walk all around that giant world map… You can freaking FLY!!  The other thing is you also usually get introduced to the game’s airship theme!  Almost every Final Fantasy has an awesome discovering the world airship theme.  They have to be cool because you will be hearing them a lot as you fly around the world doing side quests and such.  This may be my favorite airship theme in Final Fantasy…

A Secret Sleeping in the Deep

I also really like the submarine theme.  In total contrast to the airship theme, it is calming and ambient.  FFVII’s submarine was a lot of fun, as you could explore an entire world down there; finding a sunken ship and fighting the terrifying Emerald Weapon.

Sending a Dream into the Universe

Disc 2 is harder to write about in relation to the plot because everyone’s experience is a little different.  Definitely more open ended, it focuses on gathering the Huge Materia.  It’s definitely one of my favorite moments on Disc 2, when you fly into space on a rocket ship!  I also really like the little strumming acoustic guitar in this song.

Mako Cannon – The Destruction of Shinra

Definitely reaching the end of the game here.  Cloud is once again in tow after recovering his mind, Diamond Weapon Attacks Shinra!  Who can’t remember repeatedly ramming their airship into Diamond Weapon as he slowly walked closer and closer to Midgar??  Or when they fire the Mako Cannon straight through his body!   Diamond Weapon was awesome!  So was storming Midgar!

Judgement Day

Last Level Theme!  I loved the Northern Crater.  I think it was a really great final dungeon.  Lots of different paths to choose from.  Party splitting.  Climbing deeper and deeper into this crater with Lifestream blowing up towards you.  Lots of sub-bosses. Oh, and a great theme!

Jenova Absolute

I really like the remixed JENOVA music for the final fight with her.  Remixed boss music for end game bosses always makes the conflict feel so much more intense!

Birth of a God

It stinks that most people forget this theme because of the one that comes right after it.  Birth of a God is a great boss battle theme.  It definitely has a lot of that prog rock vibe that becomes prominent in FFVIII’s battle themes.  It is more subtle than One Winged Angel, but the parts with the bell that starts around 1:25 are some of my favorite music in the game.

One Winged Angel

Even though this song only play for like 7 minutes in the entire game, it has become probably the most recognized track from the music of Final Fantasy VII.  It’s easy to see why.  It had a freaking chorus!!!  Singing in latin!!!  I really don’t think there is a better Final Boss Theme in all of videogames.  Please, please prove me wrong!  There are some that come close!  “Dancing Mad” from FFVI and “Lavos Theme” from Chrono Trigger come to mind the quickest, but I think neither is as good as One Winged Angel. Not to mention the hundreds of covers of this song by real orchestras since then.

Actually, my favorite memories of this song have nothing to do with Final Fantasy VII.  One memory comes from a time playing Halo 2, back when you could name your player whatever you wanted.  One of our characters was named Sephiroth and two of my friends faced off in a one-on-one tournament and every time my friend got a kill he would sing the choral part of the Sephiroth theme, you know, where they go “SEPHIROTH!”  I went to my computer and started playing this song to encourage him.  When I hear this, I still think of that.

The second is the greatest moment in a little game, some of you may know, called KINGDOM HEARTS!  Hell yes!  Definitely my favorite super boss in all of videogames is Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts.  Lots of games have super bosses but most of them just have tons of hit point and it’s more of an endurance race than anything else.  Sephiroth was different.  He was FUN to fight against!  Yes, it is true that he had so much health that they ran out of colors to use for additional bars of health.  So when you first started fighting him, you couldn’t even tell if you were damaging him.  Then the length of his sword was just so crazy it made you laugh.  This is a boss that the first time you fought him he would teleport at you, make one swipe and you’d think, “OH!  I died…”  He was also the best way to level up at the end of the game, so while beating him was ridiculously hard, each time you leveled up he got a little easier.  It didn’t help that he also had a move that would take away all your magic and leave you with one health, which he would then follow up by teleport slashing you!  If you’ve never seen this fight before, you can definitely check it out on youtube but it won’t fully capture the magic.  That’s because the boss is super hard, so the only people posting videos are those who are like, “Oh, I’m really good, and I can be really cheap and beat him without getting hurt and I’m level 100”.  You won’t see the thousands of people that he destroys because they didn’t post videos of them losing terribly.

That is my greatest memory of Sephiroth.  He wasn’t hard for me in FFVII and he also didn’t look as cool since he was in strange God form.  In Kingdom Hearts, he looked liked human Sephiroth, with the all black clothes, except that he also had a giant black angel wing!  I remember sitting there for hours fighting him and listening to this theme.  Awesome times.

World Crisis

I decided to just post the music over the ending of the game, so you could watch and remember.  World Crisis is a really long song that has many themes built into it based on what’s happening in that last scene.  I remembered being hugely disappointed in Final Fantasy VII’s ending.  No closure!  Especially after being spoiled by FFVI’s ending where they told exactly what became of every character!  Don’t get me wrong, when that life stream music starts up and you see Aerith’s death given purpose in helping protect the planet from Meteor, that’s amazing!  But then what??

That’s why I LOVED Advent Children.  To me, it perfectly continued the storyline of FFVII, capturing all the subtleties of the main characters and finally providing us a perfect ending for the series.  FFVII was an amazing game, but it wasn’t until almost eight years later that I was able to fully appreciated it.  That, plus the release of Crisis Core.  If you haven’t seen that movie or played that game and you’re a huge fan of FFVII, then you MUST!  They will completely enhance your experience with this game and add a lot of respect to it.

Staff Roll

So that’s it.  I hope you enjoyed my 3 part Ode to Final Fantasy VII.  Please like it, share it, comment on it.  Tell me what you loved.  Let me know here or in the  suggestions area on my site, what games you hope I work on next.  Once again, thanks for reading!!

Song of the Day 09/15/12: ACE+ – One Who Gets In Our Way Away

SO… I haven’t worked on my website in the last couple days.  That’s because I’ve been obsessively trying to finish beating Xenoblade Chronicles.  Anyone complaining that there hasn’t been an amazing JRPG this generation has not played this game! It is phenomenal!  The game takes place on top of two giant fossilized titans.  You literally live on the titan’s leg.  Yeah!  And as you progress through the game, you can look up in the sky and see the other titan looming over you.  The combat system is excellent.  The characters and NPCs have an elaborate affinity system, in order to get to know them better.  I mean, I could write for days about this game.  Maybe an Ode to Xenoblade someday…

Which brings me to the music.  Wow!  A combination effort by six composers, including those that worked on Xenogears Chrono Cross and Kingdom Hearts!  There are four discs worth of amazing music in this game, and every theme is awesome.  My favorites are the boss themes that include choral elements.  “One Who Gets in Our Way” is one of the major boss/villain themes in the game.  I can tell you the exact point, while playing Xenoblade Chronicles, that I fell in love with the game.  It was the first time they played this music during a massacre on my home town and the part at 1:43 happened!  That was it for me.  That chorus dropped and I fell in love.  This game now holds the record for longest amount of time it took me to complete a single play through.  I clocked in at a little over 90 hours!  And there’s definitely at least another 50 hours worth of content I haven’t touched.  Did I mention that I was playing the game with a guide to make questing more manageable?  Yeah.  This game is massive.  OH!  And it has new game +.  For the record, I FINALLY beat it last night after starting it in mid- March.

Song of the Day 09/08/12: Random and Lost Perceptions – Cry of the Planet

Since I’ve started posting my Ode’s to Final Fantasy VII, I figured I should share another man’s Ode to FFVII.  Random, best known by his moniker Mega Ran, is a rapper who started creating beats using Mega Man songs and rapping over them.  He was on a long flight playing Final Fantasy VII on his PSP when he got the ingenious idea to create a FFVII concept album!  The album uses remixed FFVII soundtrack beats, created by producer Lost Perceptions.  Random then wrote raps that take you through the basic storyline of FFVII.  It is truly amazing stuff.  My favorite is “Cry of the Planet” where he gets real, tying the Cries of the Planet from FFVII to the real cries of the planet and rapping about problems in our modern world.  If you’re a fan of Final Fantasy VII and hip hop and you’ve never heard this album, you seriously need to jump on that like right now!

Ode to Final Fantasy VII Part II

Here we go again!  Finally!  PART II.  In case you missed out on PART I, you can always check it out HERE!

We left off with the gang finally escaping Midgar in an epic motorcycle chase scene, and we finally get a chance to step out into the first 3D Final Fantasy world map!  Something that modern Final Fantasy games seriously need to bring back!

[You can find youtube playlists for Part 1: HERE and Part 2: HERE]

And once again: ****SPOILERS****

Main Theme

Ah, the main theme of Final Fantasy VII.  I love how dark and foreboding it feels.  And sad.  It doesn’t make you want to go out on an adventure, it makes you want to sit at home and stare at the ceiling.  I think it is fitting since FFVII often strikes me as a game where the adventurers would much rather be at home and hiding from the world, then taking charge of saving it.  Especially Cloud.

On That Day Five Years Ago

A large portion of the game’s plot has to do with a series of events that happened 5 years ago.  This song has that solemn and ominous feeling present in the main theme, and always reminds me of being a soldier and fighting alongside the legendary Sephiroth on the way to Kalm.

Electric De Chocobo

Who doesn’t love the chocobo theme?  So silly!  I love the amount of depth that goes into chocobos in FFVII.  Especially Chocobo racing.  And who can forget catching their first chocobo,  so they could ride it across the swamp and avoid the gigantic murderous snake?

Rufus Welcoming Music

This song cracks me up, because I can remember this scene so vividly.  Having to beat up a guard and then take his place in a line of marching soldiers was hard enough, but then you had to do the twirling gun minigame.  I just remember screwing this up really bad, and cracking up as Cloud tried to fake being a soldier only to fail miserably.  I could be wrong, but I remember the officials higher up commenting on how bad you did when you were terrible.  I also remembering saving right before, because I wanted to do it over and over to get the best items from doing it correctly.

J-E-N-O-V-A

I was really confused about JENOVA when I first played FFVII.  I knew that Sephiroth referred to her as his mother, but I couldn’t make sense of it at the time.  In a way she is his mother, since he was created using her cells.  JENOVA is a planet eater and the main antagonist of FFVII.  She is hell bent on devouring the planet.  You fight pieces of her body throughout the game, and each time you’re treated to this awesome theme song.  Definitely one of the best and the most recognizable of the Final Fantasy themes.

The Gold Saucer

Everyone loves the Gold Saucer!  It is one of the most fun locations in the game, and where a lot of time can be spent doing side quests!  On your first time there, you even get to take one of your party members on a date!  I took Tifa cause I thought she was smokin’ hot, but I know there’s a lot of Aerith lovers out there.  The best was coming back later, after buying a season pass.  You could play basketball, arm wrestle, go snow boarding, ride motorcycles, enter a fighting tournament, have submarine battles, and most importantly: RACE CHOCOBOS!  I spent many hours at the Gold Saucer.  While I love all the minigames in the Final Fantasies, the Gold Saucer was an ingenious idea, and probably the best.  Plus, it had a super fun loving song to go along with it.

Fiddle De Chocobo

Chocobo Racing!  I spent countless hours catching, racing and mating chocobos in order to get the super coveted Gold Chocobo, and the extremely long Knights of the Round summon!

Valley of the Fallen Star

Another of Final Fantasy VII’s best themes!  Finally getting to Cosmo Canyon and learning more about the major plot of the game was great, but hearing this song was what really made making it to Red XIII’s home worth it.  I love the tribal drums and the flute theme.  This theme made me like Red XIII ten times more than I already did.

The Flow of Life

I love that the Life Stream gets its own theme.  It is alive and a major character in the story.  The literal source of life in Final Fantasy VII.  I also think that the theme works really well to represent the feeling of light.  Wow that’s hard to explain.  Plus who can forget being inside the strange observatory talking to Bugenhagen.

Those Chosen by the Planet

Many people associate Sephiroth with his One Winged Angel Theme because that is the theme that was carried over into other games and media.  Truth be told, that is only his theme in the final boss battle.  This song is his regular theme in the game.  More haunting and brooding.  Whenever you hear this, you know something really awful is going to happen.  Like Sephiroth finding out the truth about who he is and burning a town to the ground, then straight up attempting to murder everyone around him.  This, all from a man who was originally a huge hero!  It’s kind of like if Superman were real, and then one day he just snapped and decided to destroy Kansas.

Cid’s Theme

Cid is one of the few common connections between all Final Fantasy games!  While never the same person, there is always a Cid character in every Final Fantasy, with the exception of the original for NES.  He is often a time associated with something mechanical.  Including, but not limited to: Airships.  Cid from FFVII is my second favorite Cid in the series, after the Final Fantasy Tactic’s TG Cid(Thunder God) aka Cidolfus Orlandeau.  He is definitely an engineer in FF VII, working on everything from the Tiny Bronco to the Space Rocket.  Of course his most famous work is his airship: The Highwind.  He named it after himself and even uses it as a weapon for his Limit Break!

The Forested Temple

This song always makes me feel like I’m lost.  Maybe it was because there was a lot going on in this temple… I really like the acoustic guitars in this one and the horns.  All the music on this soundtrack sounds so FFVII!

You Can Hear The Cries of the Planet

First of all, I love this song!  It is so creepy.  The first time you make it to the Forgotten City, you are seriously creeped out.  It’s so desolate.  It feels like there used to be so many people around, and yet now it stands empty.  It is also just so white and clean, yet broken down.  The music does a perfect job of freaking you out.  Your heart feels uneasy.  Something just doesn’t feel right.  On subsequent playthroughs, the music changes because rather than being worried about something going wrong, YOU KNOW FULL WELL JUST HOW AWFUL things are about to go down.  This song actually makes me sadder than any other theme in the game.  It’s because I know things will never be the same once I make it through the Forgotten City…

Aerith’s Theme

Ok, I take it back!  THIS theme makes me feel even worse!  Aerith!  It still hurts, even after all these years.  Aerith’s death serves as one of the worst moments in all of videogames (Emotionally of course. It is also one of the best scene in video games.).  We watch her pray and then see her stabbed from behind.  I think many fan’s favorite villain is Sephiroth because his killing Aerith cements your resolve for personal revenge.  Even though I’ve always felt that Cloud should be with Tifa, it didn’t hurt any less watching him lose Aerith.  Who can forget that iconic scene when he gives her body up to the water?  FFVII’s story is just so freaking deep!  If you have not played Crisis Core and you love Aerith, then you are SERIOUSLY missing out!  Stop reading!  GO PLAY IT!  That game made me cry.  Tears.  Probably the only time I ever cried from a videogame, and Final Fantasy VII is largely responsible for how emotional Crisis Core made me.

On that note, I seriously need a break.  Who didn’t need a break after Disc 1 ended?  HEAVY!

Thanks for reading.  Don’t forget to remind me of the songs you love, that I didn’t mention up to this point.  BUT don’t forget that there will be a PART III, when the shit really hits the fan in the games storyline.

Ode to Final Fantasy VII Part 1

Come on!  We all knew that this was coming, didn’t we?  Final Fantasy VII was definitely going to appear on this list.  So, a few starting points:

1. SPOILERS!!! If you’re actually reading this and you haven’t played the game: REALLY???  Seriously, how have you not played it?  It came out in 1997!  Stop reading this and go play one of the greatest games every made!

2. Why this Final Fantasy?  Great question!  If you must know, Final Fantasy VI is actually my favorite Final Fantasy.  TWO reasons.  The first reason is that while VI is my favorite, VII is still the Final Fantasy who’s story I cared about the most.  Maybe it was because since then they’ve tied some other great games onto the franchise, maybe it was the graphics.  Whatever the reason, I’ve mentioned before that Video Game Music is often tied to my experiences with a game.  Because I was the most emotionally involved in FFVII, I also remember it’s music the most.  The second reason is logistical.  I just did an ode to an SNES game so, while I would have loved to do something like FFVI or Chrono Trigger, FFVII seemed like more fun because it was on Playstation.  And let’s be honest, a lot more people have played FFVII.

3. PART ONE?????  YES!  Think about it.  My Mega Man X ode was super long and that was based on a game you can beat in a couple hours.  This soundtrack was for a game spanning over 50 hours.  So yes, Part 1.

4. This soundtrack was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, who just so happens to be my favorite video game composer of all time.  Nobuo Uematsu is to JRPG’S, what Joe Hisaishi is to anime soundtracks.  He uses a style known as liet-motif, which refers to recurring theme melodies associated with a certain person, place or idea.

5. I’m going to have to pick and choose.  There are over four hours worth of FFVII soundtracks just based on the original game.  Sad that I didn’t include a song?  Post in the comments about your favorites that I left out and why you love them.  If people like this project, I may also eventually do a section on covers of the original tracks that are my favorites.  But also remember that this is only part one.  As with Mega Man X, I will go in order of the progression of the story.

6. As with Mega Man X, you can find a playlist for Part I HERE.

So, now that that’s out of the way, a little history.  Final Fantasy VII is the 4th true Final Fantasy to be released in America.  Final Fantasy was released for the NES.  The SNES saw the release of FFII and FFIII, which were actually FFIV and FFVI in Japan.  The real FFII, FFIII, and FFV were not released in America until much later.  Confused yet?  Whatever the case, FFVII introduced the world of console gamers to the wonders of CGI.  It’s absolutely gorgeous visuals (for the time) drew in millions of fans who would never have considered playing a Final Fantasy in the past.  I think this is the game’s shining achievement.  Way before Marvel and DC became mainstream, Final Fantasy VII was one place where nerds and jocks were on the same page.  I had already been playing a lot of RPG’s, so I was very much looking forward to FFVII and I was not disappointed!  It is still one of the greatest gaming experiences of my life.  I replayed the game last year on my PSP and it was just as enjoyable as always.  I’d like to share some of those experiences with you here.

Thanks for being patient through my long introduction!  On to the music and the memories!

Prelude

The crystal music!  It starts almost every Final Fantasy, so it was refreshing to find it here too.  What I love is that it starts out familiar, but then incorporates the FFVII themes and instruments.  Beautiful.

Opening Theme, Bombing Mission

Have you played this game before?  TELL ME YOU DON’T GET CHILLS EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU HEAR THIS OPENING THEME!!!  Seriously, I cannot hear this and not get chills.  And then when it cuts to the beginning of your mission on the train.  Cloud backflipping off that train!  So COOL!  Yes this game encouraged terrorism, but seriously, how could this not make you want to mischievously blow something up?  My favorite part comes in at 2:17!  And the piano!  And the trumpet at 2:38??  This is how you storm a building.  Ok I have to stop.  Full adrenaline just kicked into my body listening to this.  I’m getting too emotional.  Let’s move on.

Mako Reactor

What’s a mako reactor?  Well, it’s a machine that literally draws out energy from the life of the planet.  FFVII’s industrial themes focus on the city of Midgar and its senseless destruction of the planet.  I just remember the game’s opening moments, as you climb deeper and deeper into the Mako Reactor to this chilling music, while you saw all that green life energy flowing around you.  The game just felt so DARK!  I love it.

Barret’s Theme

As the leader of the resistance group AVALANCHE, Barret’s theme has a kind of militaristic feel to it.  I love all the horns.  I like how his theme has a dark underbelly, with some really happy, quirky sounding horns on the surface.  I think it perfectly defines Barret’s character.  This mostly makes me think of making secret plans in the AVALANCHE base.

The Shinra Corporation

Nobuo Uematsu seems to be a master of creating evil villain music.  Obviously there’s the “Dun. Dun Cha.” that is used to create the Turk’s theme, but my favorite part is around 1:22.  That theme just embodies the horrifying things that are going on at Shinra and captures that really dark feeling surrounding FFVII as a whole.  When I listen to this, I think of the scene where you sneak into the ventilation shafts to listen in on a secret Shinra Executives meeting.  The meeting where they all have different diabolical laughs that make the little characters look like they’re having seizures.

Fighting

Probably one of the songs people can sing on command easiest.  Every Final Fantasy has an amazing battle theme that boosts your fighting skills as you enter battle.  FFVII’s is no exception.  My favorite part is at 0:54.  That theme got me through so many tough spots.  Epic.

Victory Fanfare

Victory!  Just like every FF has a battle theme, it also has to have a victory theme to reward you after each difficult battle.  Can you imagine not hearing a victory theme in Final Fantasy?  It would be so anti-climactic!  Every time I hear it, I can’t help but picture Cloud spinning the Buster Sword around his head.

Flowers Blooming in a Church

Ow, I fell through the roof of a church into a flower patch!  Who is this beautiful woman walking towards me?  FFVII showing its softer side.  I loved how peaceful the abandoned church felt.  The entire beginning of the game takes place in the dark, so when you see the light shining down through the hole in the church… So artistic!

Turk’s Theme

Who can forget the Turk’s theme?  Every time they played this, you knew some dudes in Men in Black outfits were about to show up.  I love the drums.  The song really invokes that mafia hoodlum feeling.

Oppressed People

Who can forget visiting the slums underneath Midgar.  I don’t think I fully understood the geography of Midgar until I saw Advent Children.  The slums are literally underneath the city.  This music always reminds me of trying to find womans clothing and makeup, in order  to dress up Cloud as a woman.  Whenever people get excited about an FFVII remake, that’s the scene I laugh about being remade.  It also reminds me of doing really awkward squats at the gym there.

Still More Fighting

I love how the boss theme of Final Fantasy VII is a progressive rock song.  So cool.  One of my favorite songs in the game.  I longed to fight bosses just so I could listen to it.  My favorite moment is the little part at 2:00.

Crazy Motorcycle Chase

I’m going to be honest, this one is more about the gaming experience than the music.  How awesome was it to drive that motorcycle and actually get to hack away at other motorcycles, while trying to escape in real time.  My heart was racing so hard the first time I played that part!  Nowadays, that scene is no big deal graphically, but at the time it was unheard of.  It’s similar to the first time you play Uncharted 2 and think, “am I actually playing this? This is like playing a movie!”

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to stop here.  I hope you like it and it’s all that you hoped it would be.  If you do: LIKE IT.  COMMENT ON IT.  SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS.  MAYBE EVEN FOLLOW ME.  Check out the rest of the site too!  I’ll be thankful for any and all love thrown my way.  See you again for Part 2.

Song of the Day 02/01/11: Nobuo Uematsu – Kefka’s Theme

A lot of people don’t appreciate the world of video game music.  I am not one of those people.  MY favorite composer in the video game world is Nobuo Uematsu, composer of the first 11 Final Fantasy games, among other things.  His Super Nintendo masterpiece of a soundtrack to Final Fantasy VI is widely considered one of the greatest and most innovative soundtracks of the console.

The fact that this guy can make a 16bit audio system sound like a full orchestra is enchanting.  On top of that, the music is extremely catchy.  Anyone who’s ever played FFVI can hum along lovingly to the entire game.  Kefka’s theme is the theme of the main villain of FFVI.  Just to give you a picture for why the music has the flair it does, Kefka is an insane clown (like the Joker) except that he’s a general of the Imperial Army.  This guy poisons an entire kingdom’s water supply and then says, “Nothing can beat the sound of a hundred voices screaming in unison” and then laughs about it.  The craziest part is this guy actually succeeds in his plan to lay waste to the entire earth and succeeds in ruling the world for over a year, before your characters can mount a counter attack.  So yeah, his theme kicks ass, and they play it everywhere he shows up.