Ah, yes. I gotta love Square Enix. Although their more recent forays into the gaming medium (Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Infinite Undiscovery, Last Remnant) haven't been quite of the caliber I've grown to expect, I have to hand it to em; it's a rare thing to see a single company synonymize itself with the entire genre in its area of expertise. I have the utmost hope that with Final Fantasy XIII the recently slumping Square Enix will put itself back on the map and redefine its entire flagship series. Because I have a hunch that Final Fantasy XIV won't.
Famed composer Nobuo Uematsu had worked with Squaresoft-now-Square Enix since 1985, working on the starting his career in game music on the Sega Genesis. Both he and then-Squaresoft President Hironobu Sakaguchi have since resigned from the company to work collaboratively on such games as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.
But anyway: the soundtrack! Uematsu has always made memorable soundtracks in his works, particularly in the Final Fantasy series, and FFX is no exception. However, this game's music so beautifully goes above and beyond that of his previous endeavors. Sure, FFVII's is the more well-known of the two, but in terms of sheer quality and mastery of the art, there is no competition.
The music is everything it needs to be: be it dramatic, powerful, ambient, calm, jovial, sad- and it's implemented wonderfully throughout. A majority of the tracks are of the orchestrative sort, incorporating use of the piano and violin to give it that beautiful "we're going all out to produce a fine piece of work" feel. The battle themes are both dramatic and catchy, but not to the point of getting irritating after hearing it over and over. The often-heard "Hymn of the Fayth" and its numerous versions appropritately throw lyrics into the mix, and the theme from the various "Cloisters of Trials" throughout the game convey that puzzle-solving, deep-thinking atmosphere.
There are a couple tracks really worth mentioning all by themselves, for better or worse. The first I'd like to call out is heard during the first CGI sequence, and later heard just before the final boss battle. The track "Other World" stands out mostly because it in no way whatsoever fits it the game. It's a heavy rock, in-your-face, bring-the-pain kinda song that just baffles me as to why it's in the game. It's like Uematsu just went, "Okay, if Rob Zombie can do it, I'm gonna give it a shot, too"! So, yeah, I'm not in approval here.
I'm not a big fan of lyrics in any language, but for some reason I find myself drawn to the track "Suteki Da Ne", sung in Japanese. The way it reflects the tone for that part of the game is amazing to behold and so beautifully done it deserves mention.
And the last one I'd like to bring up is without a doubt the most emotional, expertly crafted and well-known song in the game, "To Zanarkand". Its been played at numerous gaming concerts worldwide, many of which it actually moved the crowd to tears. This entirely piano track is truly the musical masterpiece of this game, and certainly one of the best gaming tracks I've ever heard, bar none. I can just listen to it again and again in awe of such a piece. This song makes the game, right here.
In conclusion, Final Fantasy X has some of the best I've heard to date, one track that isn't so hot, but all in all, in my top 3. Kudos to it, and to Nobuo Uematsu for composing it.
SilverTrinity's score: 9.5 / 10
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