Favorite of Sephiroth's motifs

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

Some of these might technically be Jenova motifs, but by the time of VII Jenova is being controlled by Seph so I see Jenova and Seph as being essentially one in the same by that point, just so you know.
Anyway, list:
Who...Are You?: Plays during scenes involving Jenova or Seph.
In Search of the Man in Black: plays in Mythril Mines and several other places where the party is searching for "Sephiroth"
Trail of Blood: Plays after Jenova breaks out, and a few other times as well.
J-E-N-O-V-A: Plays during the battles with Jenova BIRTH, Jenova DEATH, and Helletic Hojo.
Those Chosen by the Planet: Sephiroth's theme.
JENOVA Absolute: Plays when you fight Jenova SYNTHESIS.
Birth of a God: Plays when you fight Bizarro Sephiroth
One-Winged Angel: Plays when you fight Safer Sephiroth

 

[Sprites]

.....One-Winged Angel

Actually I'm going to disagree with you on the theme of Who Are You being a theme related to Sephiroth and Jenova.

That theme is directly associated with Cloud and when he's going through a major internal and personal struggle with himself like at the Temple of the Ancients or the Lifestream sequence and it's derived from the World Map theme which is considered to actually be Cloud's theme.

Edit: my apologies, in my sleepy state of writing this last night I mixed up Who Are You with Who am I, I thought it was weird that it was on the list then this morning I realised why...whoops

 

[JayM]

I feel like a bad Seph fangirl, but J-E-N-O-V-A is and always will be one of my favorite themes in anything ever. Also every remix I've ever heard for it, official and unofficial, has rocked my socks off.

 

[Ⓐaron]

J-E-N-O-V-A is superior to all other tracks in Final Fantasy VII, and One-Winged Angel is tremendously overrated (it's still a good song, but it's nowhere near the best song Uematsu ever composed). That is all.

 

[Unlucky]

I feel like a bad Seph fangirl, but J-E-N-O-V-A is and always will be one of my favorite themes in anything ever. Also every remix I've ever heard for it, official and unofficial, has rocked my socks off.

YES. J-E-N-O-V-A is one of my favorite videogame tracks ever, along with Jenova Absolute.

I have to say though, I didn't like the Advent Children remix. It destroyed the eerie, beguiling, alieny vibe present from the original.

 

[Ⓐaron]

The original version is definitely better than the AC version. The Black Mages' version was disappointing too. They didn't do enough to distinguish their version from the original, and relied too much on synthesizers (I know it's a synthesizer-based song anyway, but even so there was just too much synth). The Black Mages' version still may just barely edge out the original in terms of quality, but the shitty mastering means that I seldom listen to it (strangely, the Black Mages' mastering got better with each successive release they put out. Usually it's the reverse).

 

[Lord Noctis]

I'm gonna say Those chosen by the planet. That is by far the best of Sephiroth's themes. In fact, I'm kinda pissed it wasn't used during the Nibelheim Incident in Crisis Core. WTF was up with that piano music they had going there? Didn't fit the scenes at all.

I wouldn't consider either of Jenova's motifs to be Sephiroth's. I know that we're kinda blending them for the sake of this thread, but I don't agree with that.

I do think J-E-N-O-V-A is extremely good, and is easily my favourite battle theme in FFVII.

 

[JayM]

...I kind of love the AC version. XD I'm also fond of the orchestral version from Distant Worlds.

But I also think that the original really WORKS; the video game sound is so perfect for those opening notes. That's one of Uematsu's strengths, though. He doesn't need an orchestra or even decent sound quality to make something amazing.

And yeah I didn't want to be the first one to say it but OWA is way the fuck overplayed.

 

[Ⓐaron]

I think I'd appreciate OWA a lot more if it weren't used in every. single. piece. of media. relating to FFVII. The constant flanderisation the Compilation has introduced of various characters (Sephiroth certainly being among them) has just kind of ruined certain aspects of the original game for me. OWA is one of the unfortunate casualties. It's still, like I said, a good piece, but I don't think I'd even place it in Uematsu's top five battle themes these days, and it's not even like anything he's done recently outstrips it - it's just that my appreciation for other pieces he wrote has increased, while my appreciation for OWA has decreased.

 

[null]

J-E-N-O-V-A is my favorite FF track of all time. There are many better musical pieces but this one is the most memorable for me.

I always felt it was better suited to a recurring fight with a bitter and extremely powerful rival; someone that takes several battles to take down. Like a Proto Man type. Unfortunately there isn't a character like that in this game (well Sephiroth, but final bosses don't really count.)

 

[Unlucky]

I've heard various remixes of J-E-N-O-V-A that were good (including fan made ones) but I still haven't found anything that tops the original. The Black Mages' version is ok-ish.. but then again they have lots of hits and misses, some songs they've done justice by adding their own twist (OWA being one of them imo), some they've butchered.

And am I the only one who gets annoyed when a version of J-E-N-O-V-A omits/ changes that thumping bass on the latter part of the song *coughACversion* xD

In fact, I'm kinda pissed it wasn't used during the Nibelheim Incident in Crisis Core. WTF was up with that piano music they had going there? Didn't fit the scenes at all.

I thought I was the only one who disliked that. The CC soundtrack has good, powerful songs in it, but it kinda fails because of that reason-- one example being that ^. The other that I can think of is the music in the slums-- it sounds like something you'd hear in a fucking telecommunications commercial, plus the look of the slums sucked. The mood is completely destroyed

Another reason-- there were too many renditions of one song. I mean, how many times do I have to hear a different version of Price of Freedom or Burden of Truth in different scenes? It kinda lacks creativity.

 

[JayM]

Another reason-- there were too many renditions of one song. I mean, how many times do I have to hear a different version of Price of Freedom or Burden of Truth in different scenes? It kinda lacks creativity.

THIS, Christ. Any love I had for Crisis Core's original music really went away on the sixth or seventh remix of it.

Actually to continue going offtopic, I thought a lot of the musical choices in Crisis Core suuuuuucked. I loved the remix of Aeris's theme that played in her church, and that medley of OG pieces that plays during the end credits, but otherwise I was really not impressed.

And don't even get me started on "Why?" Why indeed.

 

[Unlucky]

Man, I really thought I was the only one taking issue with the soundtrack.

I guess the OG's spectacular soundtrack might be part of the reason. If you listen to every track of VII, you kinda get the message behind it. Like how "Oppressed People" (Wall Market theme) gives you the impression of a seedy place, or "Tifa's Theme" of a friend who will never leave your side through thick and thin. Even "Aerith's Theme" sounds ominous-- I don't know if it's just me but I totally got the feeling that it ties to something dramatic that would happen.

CC on the other hand is just "good harmony". Yes there are tracks that clearly convey a message (The Burdened, Price of Freedom) but they're very few, and numerous remixes aside-- they all sounded almost the same. Not to mention forgettable.

I have "Why" in my ipod just so I can piss myself off once in a while when it randomly plays.

 

[JayM]

Yeah I downloaded the entire CC soundtrack pretty much the same day I got the game. I eventually deleted most of it, because I couldn't remember where any of it played and yeah, it was all the same shit over and over. I felt similarly about Dirge of Cerberus's soundtrack, honestly, though I liked that soundtrack much better on the whole.

I have "Why" on my iPod because I really don't mind the song in isolation...but WOW did it ruin that ending scene. I mean, WOW.

I guess the OG's spectacular soundtrack might be part of the reason.

And that's why I try not to be TOO hard on the spinoffs. Because of everything you said. Because anyone who isn't Uematsu just ISN'T going to have the same feel for the sounds, the characters, and the world. Because honestly, quite a lot of otherwise-decent soundtracks come up short when compared to FFVII.

But then I wonder why they even bothered writing new music for the compilation at all. How much better would CC have been if they'd just tweaked existing pieces to fit with the setting, a la Aeris's theme? Can anyone even name a piece of original music from AC/C that they liked better than the remixes of the old stuff? I mean, shit, I've got the Piano Collections, and a lot of them are (obviously) very different-sounding on the piano but they're STILL very distinct from each other and they're all fucking gorgeous.

Basically I'm just sick of people not being Uematsu, is what I'm saying.

 

[Unlucky]

I have "Why" on my iPod because I really don't mind the song in isolation...but WOW did it ruin that ending scene. I mean, WOW.

It's not entirely the song's fault imo Both the scene and the song are fail. The FMV of Zack's 'ascension' is too.. "happy". The emotional impact of painfully losing him is lost because that scene follows after. But that's my opinion, of course, I think I could live with it only if that damn song isn't playing in the background.

And that's why I try not to be TOO hard on the spinoffs. Because of everything you said. Because anyone who isn't Uematsu just ISN'T going to have the same feel for the sounds, the characters, and the world. Because honestly, quite a lot of otherwise-decent soundtracks come up short when compared to FFVII.

Yeah, it's unfair to compare anything to Uematsu's work. I do think it's still a good idea to create new music. Just for some fresh additions and because there are tracks that are quite good. Aside from that not all the newer remixes of the old tracks are all good anyway, and it's quite frustrating to hear an old track turn to shit.

I didn't give much fucks to anything regarding DoC.. but as much as I hate the woman I think Lucrecia's Theme is a good piece. Kinda like those romantic themes from a 70's movie, that's the vibe I got from it

 

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

Um, guys, Crisis Core isn't the only game that has a fuckton of remixes of it's main theme. Almost every FF does this. CC isn't even the worst offender.

 

[laurence]

Even though JENOVA is really good, I've grown up obsessed (for lack of a better word) with One winged Angel as a kid. So I voted that one.

 

[JayM]

Um, guys, Crisis Core isn't the only game that has a fuckton of remixes of it's main theme. Almost every FF does this. CC isn't even the worst offender.

The difference between CC and "almost every FF" being, y'know, the other FFs having better music to begin with. Which...was most of what our commiserating was focused on, y'know, the fact that most of the music in CC sounds the same even when it ISN'T the same themes being remixed, and the original themes aren't terribly evocative or memorable to begin with.

I never got sick of "Melodies of Life," in all its worldmappy incarnations, 's all I'm sayin'.

 

[Unlucky]

^Correct. I've never been a fan of the rock tracks in CC in particular. They don't suck.. but apart from being forgettable and sounding similar to each other, they didn't make me feel like I want to kick some ass

The only rock track that I can remember and tell apart from the others is Genesis Avatar's theme. Because that battle took forever and the song was implanted in my head.

edit: I don't recall if Angeal ever had a theme. There seems to be none, but the track "Dreams and Honor" plays in scenes attributed to him. Imagine my surprise when it turns out to be another version of "Burden of Truth"

 

[jazzflower92]

I believe One Winged Angel is the perfect theme for Sephiroth especially since he is supposed to be an omninous presence that has the capable means of destroying the world.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

I love OWA, but Those Chosen is so much more ominous. Every time it played, at least during my first playthrough, it gave me "dude is gonna murder us soon, watch out!" shivers.