A Psychotic Little Christmas, Day 4: People of the North Pole

Coming up next in the holiday tracklist is perhaps my favorite of the bunch, albeit from a game I didn't care for all that much. It's People of the North Pole, the theme of Mt. Gagazet in Final Fantasy X, and much like the other tracks in the game, it tells its own story and accompanies the gameplay perfectly. It's one of those things that Nobuo Uematsu got better at with time, and this game's soundtrack is very telling of that fact.

(0:01 - 0:30) Tidus, Yuna and the gang are nearing the end of their pilgrimage. The only thing lying between them and the (alleged) final destination is Mt. Gagazet, a behemoth of a mountain teeming with fiends and blistering cold. The violin sounds sad almost, as if to signal the finality of their situation; this is it, just one final stretch and it can all be over...

(0:31 - 1:01) ...but the journey to the summit is a rough one. Fiends tougher than the likes of which they'd previously encountered are around every turn, and the freezing temperatures are nearly unbearable. The backup violin kicks in here, a really slight touch that intensifies the song.

(1:02 - 1:32) The gang can't give up now, they're in too deep at this point! After so many people have given their lives, and all the hardships they've faced, it's far too late to turn back! The backup drums and violin stop, and the violin changes its melody to one almost urging the party not to give up, to keep going.

(1:33 - 2:02) They get back up, their second wind afoot, and continue their race to the proverbial finish line. Yeah...yeah, they can do this! The drums come back, once again serving to drive the point home that the song is aiming to make.

and then the songs loops but whatever