The best music of Final Fantasy VII

[Lumina]

I don't know if being from the caribbean kind of predicted my choice, but for me was "Costa Del Sol" my main favorite

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3U5vcbdSN4

And right after that, comes the boss battle. I just can't get enough of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JPzyjMQ-rI

 

[Ite]

For me the "Main Theme" is the best one.

Did somebody ever notice:
* the second part of the Main Theme is actually the Interrupted by Fireworks theme?
* the music "It's Difficult to Stand on Both Feet" and "Trail of Blood" share the same "theme" (the first 4 notes from the Tuba on the first is the same first 4 notes the violines play slowly on second)
* Barret Theme and Mark of a Traitor are basically the same, despite the fact one is in Major tune, and another in Minor.
* The "Chasing the Black-Caped Man" music - after the intro (about 19 seconds) - the theme starts with the same 4 notes from the second part of the Main Theme - like "interrupted by F."

Some are easy to hear, some not so much. But it's just an example, there's a lot of theme-related material among the songs, but we can't recognize at first because although the songs share some the same notes, the tonality is different, orchestration changes, etc... someday I'll prepare a music-analysis of FF7 OST!

Uematsu employs leitmotifs in FF6, 7 and 9. "It's Difficult to Stand on Both Feet" is actually Trail of Blood mixed with Oppressed People (the Wall Market theme).

I'd love to see an in-depth analysis of the OST. I was planning on doing them same lol. We should join forces!

 

[Shakarian]

1) Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII
2) Fighting
3) Aerith's Theme
4) Interrupted by Fireworks
5) One Winged Angel
6) Anxious Heart
7) Chasing the Black Caped Man
8) J-E-N-O-V-A
9) The Great Northern Cave
10) Flowers Blooming in the Church

 

[Wiegraf]

I definitely can't choose a singular best. The soundtrack for this alone is almost certainly my favorite main series FF soundtrack, and my second favorite FF soundtrack (FFT is my first favorite). The only soundtrack that I like from the series about as much as this is FFXIIs. And they are all good in their own ways, well besides FFX which IMO had the worst soundtrack to ever grace the main series.

 

[Drax]

I think On the Other Side of the Mountain is my new favorite song. It was used at such a brief point of the game and you can easily pass over it because it only plays in a few text boxes.

 

[clowd]

I wonder why Final Fantasy VII's main theme never got more love then it did

Looking over top 10 lists of "main themes" or "world map themes" on youtube VII's main theme usually makes the top 10 but to me the biggest surprise is Final Fantasy VI's world map theme, or Terra's theme, taking #1 in almost all the top 10 lists.

Terra's theme is a great tune, dont get me wrong. But to me it gets repetitive, fast.

Final Fantasy VII's main theme is a 6 minute monster that has many ups and downs and Uematsu displays such a wide variety of emotion in it. IMO it's superior to VI's theme in pretty much every single way. And I'm looking at this objectively, as I think VIII has far and away the best battle theme for any RPG I've heard but VII has the best main theme for any RPG I've heard

:00-:50 - makes you feel a sense of peace and wonder. Very calming

:53-1:55 - the temp speeds up. You can feel the epic nature of the song and game growing

1:56-2:42 - The piano here is genius. So simple yet so powerful. The song continues to build

2:43-3:50 - Here the song eventually reaches its high point...for the first time! It will grow again later. Who cannot feel excited when hearing the drums? After all these years and hearing it all these times it still gets me amped up

3:52-end - here the song slowly builds up once again before erupting. Epic. This part of the song makes you think about the evil in the world, Sephiroth, Shinra, etc.

Overall I think this song really shows maturity on the part of Uematsu and Square. They wanted to take RPGs into the mainstream and they knew they needed a main theme like this to do it. Using traditional happy go lucky main themes like those from earlier RPGs wouldnt have worked as well.

 

[Ite]

The best use of the main theme is during the *real* Nibelheim flashback. They hadn't used it since Disk 1, and when Cloud takes off the mask, it kicks in right at 3:52 for epic emotional orgasm. That part of the main theme is my favourite part -- just strings, light, tenuous. Brilliant.

 

[clowd]

The best use of the main theme is during the *real* Nibelheim flashback. They hadn't used it since Disk 1, and when Cloud takes off the mask, it kicks in right at 3:52 for epic emotional orgasm. That part of the main theme is my favourite part -- just strings, light, tenuous. Brilliant.

Perfect example of using music to enhance the story. Reminds me alot of the music that plays when Neo stands up to the agents towards the end of the Matrix. Very similiar situation to Cloud standing up to Sephiroth after both appeared to be fatally wounded. Maybe the Wachowskis copied FFVII? lol

One thing I really liked about the music was how it matched everything so perfectly. Shinra's theme matched the Shinra. Cid's theme matched Cid and so on.

These songs matched more then lets say, just playing some dark and threatening song for a villain or playing some happy go lucky song for a happy go lucky character. Yes there is music like that in the game, though. Yuffie's theme is stereotypical for a young anime girl and doesn't really capture the character well IMO.

But Cid's theme matches the character so well. Why? It's hard to describe. You can feel the desperation in the song, the desperation of somebody who literally shot for the stars but failed.

Shinra's theme? You guys get the point.

 

[Arth]

I loved the whole soundtrack and how many songs relate to each other.It gives me the feeling that the whole soundtrack is one great construct based on some pillars like the Main Theme for example.But still,every song has a different feeling in it,mostly fitting perfectly to the scene one song is played in.The only thing that could be changed to make it even better is the quantity of the songs.But this change needs to be done by Uematsu himself.It´s his masterpiece and I think only his genius could give a good addition to the original soundtrack.

 

[Chrno]

Sephiroth theme at nibel (cant remember the name) was just so haunting and dark first time i played it back in 1997

 

[Dawnbreaker]

One Winged Angel obviously but I am very fond of Jenova's theme and Aerith's theme.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

Sephiroth theme at nibel (cant remember the name) was just so haunting and dark first time i played it back in 1997

Those Chosen By The Planet? I have that as my ringtone.

 

[Flintlock]

I just quickly went through the OST to remind myself of the songs I like.

There's a long list. But these are my top five, in the order they appear in the game:

Aerith's Theme
Holding My Thoughts in My Heart
Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII
J-E-N-O-V-A
Tango of Tears
Great Warrior

The Main Theme is my overall favourite, I think. But Great Warrior is the one that makes me feel most emotion, because of what is happening in the game when it plays.