Music of the Final Fantasy series
Final Fantasy is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and owned by Square Enix that includes video games, motion pictures, and other merchandise.
[3][9] Although leitmotifs are often used in the more character-driven installments, theme music is typically reserved for main characters and recurring plot elements.
While working at Square, he met Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, who asked him if he wanted to compose music for some of his games, which Uematsu agreed to.
[21] The piece, described as "a fanfare to impending doom", is said to not "follow any normal genre rules" and has been termed "possibly the most innovative idea in the series' musical history".
[22] There was a plan to use a "famous vocalist" for the ending piece as a "theme song" for the game, but the idea was dropped due to time constraints and thematic concerns.
In 2006, IGN ranked VII's music the best Final Fantasy soundtrack to date and cited the "gripping" character tracks and "One-Winged Angel" in particular as contributing factors.
[14] The soundtrack of Final Fantasy VIII (1999), unlike that of VI and VII, did not include character themes, as Uematsu felt they would not be effective.
[25] Although the idea had not been used in the previous game, he thought a ballad would closely relate to the theme and characters of VIII, and composed "Eyes on Me", performed by Faye Wong.
[28][29] Like Final Fantasy VIII, IX included a vocal theme, "Melodies of Life", which was sung by Emiko Shiratori.
According to Uematsu, the choice of language was meant to symbolize the developers' hope that their online game could contribute to cross-cultural communication and cooperation.
[35] Violinist Taro Hakase also contributed a piece named "Symphonic Poem 'Hope'", featured during the game's ending credits.
[14][41] The international versions of XIII feature the song "My Hands" sung by British singer Leona Lewis from her second album Echo.
[42] The theme song Answers was sung by Susan Calloway, with lyrics from game writers Yaeko Sato and Michal-Christopher Koji Fox.
Post-release, and for the A Realm Reborn reboot, additional in-game music has been composed by Naoshi Mizuta, Ryo Yamazaki, Tsuyoshi Sekito, and Masayoshi Soken.
[43] The full official soundtrack with all 104 tracks from the original version of XIV was released in a single Blu-ray compilation on August 14, 2013.
Spearheaded by Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase,[46][47][48] the series consists of several titles across various platforms, all of which are extensions of the VII's story.
Before Crisis's soundtrack was composed by Takeharu Ishimoto, while Advent Children was scored by Nobuo Uematsu, Keiji Kawamori, Kenichiro Fukui, and Tsuyoshi Sekito.
[14] Dirge of Cerberus also had a download-only soundtrack album for its Japan-only multiplayer mode, while "Redemption" and "Why" each had a single release by their respective artists.
Both songs were sung by Jade Villalon from Sweetbox in the English version of the game, and are available as bonus tracks on the Japanese release of her album Adagio.
Crystal Chronicles also has sparked a single of its theme song, "Sound of the Wind" (カゼノネ, Kaze no Ne), composed by Kumi Tanioka and performed by Fujimoto Yae.
[62] Ring of Fates also has an associated single of its theme song, "A World Without Stars" (星のない世界, Hoshi no Nai Sekai), written and performed by Aiko.
[65] The soundtrack of Chocobo's Dungeon 2 was composed by Kumi Tanioka, Yasuhiro Kawakami, Tsuyoshi Sekito, Kenji Ito, and Nobuo Uematsu.
All piece in each book have been rewritten by Asako Niwa as beginning to intermediate level piano solos, though they are meant to sound as much like the originals as possible.
A Video Game Symphony world tour from 2006 onwards, for which Nobuo Uematsu composed the opening fanfare that accompanies each performance.
[14] From November 2003 to April 2004, Square Enix U.S.A. launched an AOL Radio station dedicated to music from the series, initially carrying complete tracks from Final Fantasy XI in addition to samplings from VII through X.
In the 2004 Summer Olympics, the American synchronized swimming duo consisting of Alison Bartosik and Anna Kozlova were awarded the bronze medal for their performance to "Liberi Fatali" from Final Fantasy VIII.
[93] "My Hands", the Leona Lewis theme song for the North American and European versions of Final Fantasy XIII, was not released as a single, but the album it originates from, Echo (2009), sold over 1 million copies in Europe,[94] including over 600,000 in the United Kingdom.
[95] Ariana Grande's "Touch It" (orchestral remix), which is featured in Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius,[96] was not released as a single, but it originates from Dangerous Woman (2016).
In 2012, "Aerith's Theme", written by Uematsu for Final Fantasy VII, was voted into the number 16 position in the annual Classic FM (UK) "Hall of Fame" top 300 chart.
In 2013, music from the Final Fantasy series received even greater support and was voted into the third position on the Classic FM Hall of Fame.
