Game Soundtrack Spotlight - Final Fantasy (1987)

Final Fantasy (1987; Squaresoft /
SquareEnix)

by Christopher McElfresh

By the mid 1980's Squaresoft's sales were spotty at best, and one of their lead designers, Hironobu Sakaguchi made the assertion that he will make one more game.  If it failed, he was going to call it quits.  The game, Final Fantasy, titled as such as Sakaguchi was sure it would be his swan song, became a cash cow, and would become one of the most enduring franchises in the industry's history.

Final Fantasy was greatly similar to the Enix title from the year before, Dragon Warrior, wich would become arguably the most popular RPG series in Japan.  The difference would be in the narrative.  The game used storytelling in a way that most gamers had not yet experienced and the ability to form and name your own party brought you into the game like no other game has.

The composer for Final Fantasy, Nobuo Uematsu, is the most recognized and revered composer in the industry.  Never taking a formal lesson, the entirely self-taught Uematsu has made a name for himself by composing game soundtracks that were so far above what players were used to hearing that it made the series an entirely different, richer experience than any other games released at their time.  While the series would have highs and lows in the overal quality of the games, Uematsu's work, along with other composers such as the talented Hironobu Sakaguchi, would stand out as masterworks in the inudstry.

I have chosen to go with the arranged versions of the soundtrack rather than the 8-bit classic version.  I did this because it was a lot easier to find and the fuller sound makes the experience that much richer.  So it begins.  YouTube embeds tend to slow down the page loading quite a bit, so for this and other, longer soundtrack examinations, I am going to link to the youtube vidoes for the songs, rather than put them directly into the article.  I will do this whenever the spotlight features ten or more songs.  For convenience you can simple shift+click the links, or you can right click and choose "Open Link in New Tab."

The Soundtrack -
Main Theme - The Song
This song, which doubles as the overworld theme is adventurous and memorable.  The song is encompases the adventure that is Final Fantasy.

Town - The Song
This is a soft guitar theme, a soft flute melody and a nice little piece of nostalgia.  The Town Theme is one of the more recognizable themes from the game, outside of maybe the Main Theme and...

Battle Theme - The Song
This one has an air of menace and threat yet it is an exiciting piece.  Seeing as how it is probably the one song you will hear more than any other in this game, it is a pretty good thing that it does not suck, eh?

Inn - The Song
In need of a little R&R?  This song has a tinge of Italiano while still fitting in with the rest of the soundtrack quite well. 

Bridge Building - The Song
Light and cheery this theme is an example of the kind of music this series has become known for. 

Temple of Fiends - The Song
The final stage has one of the best themes in the game.  It is haunting and beutiful.  It all leads up to the final bout with Chaos.  Another example of why this series has become so famous for it soundtrack.

Matoya's Cave - The Song
Following the bout with Astos, we get this happy little piece of work.  It is a simple piece but it is actually quite uplifting.  I like this one a lot.

Underwater Temple - The Song
This is a strong piece.  It is both a little dark and lovely.  The strings and piano combo is a personal favorite of mine and this is one of the best video game compositions to make use of them.

The Battle With Chaos - The Song
Final Fantasy has a long history of amazing final boss themes.  The very first one is one of the all-time greats.  The theme is intense, exiciting and really draws you into the final showdown.  It also happens to be another one of my all-time favorite video game themes.

The Ending Theme - The Song
This beautiful rendition of the town theme closes things out with a beautiful air of peace.  Now that you've saved the world, what are you going to do now!?


All above music, Final Fantasy and all elements therein are property of Squaresoft, now SquareEnix.  The video files were found on YouTube and I do not own the videos or their contents.

Game Soundtrack Spotlight - Mega Man (1987)

Mega Man - Bad box art! (1987; Capcom)

by Christopher McElfresh

Where would a blog about video game music be without the Mega Man series.  I decided to start at the series' roots, though it is not the best of the Mega Man soundtracks it does have some great tunes and ranks as an important milestone in games, the creation of one of the most recognizable icons from one of the most consistently good franchises in gaming.

Rockman was the brainchild of Tokuro Fujiwara and character designer Keiji Inafune who were looking to make a leap into the mascot market with a new title.  Rockman, referring to rock music, was just one of the many musically-named characters to grace the Japanese and US versions of the game (it depends on the characters.  There is this whole confusing dichotomy when it comes to the names of some of these characters between the two versions of the series).  There was also Roll (Rock 'n Roll.  GET IT!?!), Bass (Forte in Japan), Trebel (Gospel in Nippon), ect.

One of Mega Man's biggest contributions to the industry as a series was a new outlook on the quality of the music.  Before this series really took off, most game music was very simple.  Melodies and layers were used, but sparingly.  Mega Man, along with titles like Castlevania from the year before, were starting to take greater strides in utilizing the Nintendo Famicom's chip tune abilities.  Harmonization was used in new ways and the music of the Mega Man series became one of its most praised and remembered aspects.  Konami and Capcom would continue to dominate the game music world for years too, with Mega Man, Ghosts n' Goblins, Castlevania and the Gradius series (check out my article on the Life Force soundtrack here) but there was definitely a difference in style between the two companies.  Konami's themes were powerful, mighty and anthemic.  They often invoked a great challenge or a dark mystery, sometimes were Gothic, but were always powerful.  Capcom, on the other hand, went for a slightly more metal solo, upbeat, electronic, full and even experimental (at times) approach.

The music from the Mega Man series was always designed to push the player forward, with levels that often seemed to "dance" to the beat of the track and a rhythm that almost seemed to mimic the players actions, as though the game was trying to coax you into playing Mega Man Guitar Hero (GOD that would be an awesome game) as you jumped, climbed and fired your way through each deadly level.  For me, the series exemplifies great video game music and along with the aforementioned Castlevania and the soon-to-be-covered entries in the Final Fantasy series take the cake for purely consistent quality in their soundtracks.

I decided to start with Rockman, released in 1987 in Japan.  This is where it all began.  Mega Man, the Blue Bomber's humble beginnings.  The game had only six Robot Masters, a mysterious foe in a flying saucer and some strange enemy names.  This game was definitely different for its time.  It, along with the Mario series, is responsible for many of the platforming conventions we know in the genre to this day and it really revolutionized game design and continued to do so for years, up to the point where Capcom stopped giving a crap about the game that made their company what it is, and no, it WASN'T Street Fighter (Sorry, just trolling there.  My fanboy is showing!).  So without further ado, let's look at the six robot master tracks from Rockman.

The Soundtrack -
Cut Man

This theme is a great one to start at.  In it you can hear many of the conventions the compositions of later games will use often.  The electronic beeps and the busy accompaniment as well as the melody are all distinctly Mega Man. 







 
Guts Man

This is probably one of the shortest, simplest themes in the entire series' run.  It works though, as it sets the mood for a dire situation and dammit I hate this level, so yeah... Dire situation.








 
Elec Man

Elec Man's theme is one of those I have mixed feelings about.  I love it, but it always reminded me of the theme song to the 80's cartoon/toy commercial Mask.  It's the same friggin' melody!  Still, the second part with the smooth solo synth sound with the chords hopping in the background does elevate this song a lot for me.






Ice Man

Ice Man's theme is another example of things to come.  It's opening uses a number of sharps and flats to create an otherworldy sound out of key leading into a strong hook.  Unfortunate character design aside, this is a great tune for a great level.








Fire Man

I always found the music in this stage to be a little Middle Eastern.  I could be wrong on that, but I do like it.  The minor key swing into a brighter, milder bridge is another recurring element of music from this series.








Bomb Man

This is my favorite song in the game.  Bomb Man's lively, trumpeted intro, with a beat that keeps things moving without getting too overbearing leading into a memorable hook that flows nicely from element to element.  This is also another example of sublime accompaniment in the music.






Six Robot Masters, six songs.  That's it for now, but rest assured, we are DEFINITELY going to cover the entirety of this series, I'm just trying to keep my selections spread out, both across decades and franchises, so that there is a variety as we build upon our library.

Join us next time where I'll talk about a game from 2005 that is not only one of the best game soundtracks of all time, but is one of my all time favorite games... EVER!  Also, Craig should be sharing a Nintendo classic from the 16-bit era with us here soon as well.  Remember to share these posts and tell your friends about this site, we have so much to cover and we're only growing from here.

All above music and Mega MAn and all elements therein are property of Capcom, Inc.  The video files were found on YouTube and I do not own the videos or their contents.

Game Soundtrack Spotlight - Life Force (1988)

Life Force (1988; Konami)

by Christopher McElfresh

Life Force is one of the earliest game soundtracks I latched onto.  I was always attracted to music in games, but this was one of the first where I really thought I was hearing something special.

Life Force is the US title given to the NES port of Konami's popular arcade game Salamader released in Japan in 1986 as a direct follow-up to the successful Gradius.  The game is phenomenal, representing everything good about the SHUMP genre (one of my favorites).  It had great visuals for its time, even given the limited processing power of the NES.  Released in the summer of 1988 on the Nintendo Entertainment System, it had roughly three years of competition behind it and it outperformed all of its predecessors on a technical level.  It was able to put a lot of stuff on screen at once with little slowdown (Konami as a developer excelled at this) and was a thoroughly enjoyable experience that is still getting its fair share of love to this day.  In fact, IGN gave it an Editor's Choice with the word "Amazing" placed just beneath the box art, and a 9.0 score.

Now, let's talk about the music. The composer of the Life Force soundtrack is Miki Higashino (AKA "Miki-chan".  Source: Wikipedia; The article can be found here), working under the banner of the Konami Kukeiha ("Square Wave") Club.  Miki-chan also worked on another of my all-time favorite game soundtracks, Contra III: The Alien Wars, which we will DEFINITELY be covering at a later date.

The tone of the music in Life Force invokes a sense of adventure and wonder, with big sounds that are anthemic in scale layered with very busy riffs that create a technological feel while giving it a slightly cheery expression.  The music in the game tends to take me back to a different time, where games were about immediacy and excitement rather than length and complexity.  The soundtrack has the exact same feel as the game, a trait that all great game soundtracks share.  If you've never played or seen Life Force, listen to the music, picture in your head a scrolling space shooter and what you imagine will likely not be too far off.  The music invokes a feel that is wholly its own.

The Soundtrack:

Stage 1 - Cell I

The adventure begins.  Approaching a strange organic object from space as distant stars seem to race past you.  Strange ships flutter at you in a haphazard formation.  The music feels like we are building towards something.  It is basically all of the tones of the entire soundtrack in a few measures, giving us a taste of what's to come.








Stage 2 - Volcano

The orientation changes as we to an overhead view of the ship.  Inside a volcano the walls seem to close in around us as rocks are hurled at the ship.  The music feels like space.  I'm not really sure how to explain it, but as you listen to it, you can almost see the stellar objects fill your thoughts. 







Stage 3 - Flame

Back to space (and the side-view) we approach a tunnel of living fire that reaches out to set the ship ablaze.  There is a definite tonal shift with this song.  It sounds much more serious, much stronger, as if we can almost feel the struggle between the small ship and the massive fire tunnel.






Stage 4 - Cell II

The organic motif returns as we climb the spinal column of a strange being.  The song is both adventurous and just a little creepy, instilling a sense that there is something ominous in the near future.










Stage 5 - Sanctuary

 This final theme sounds of a hero's last stand.  Everything has been building up to this and we only have one shot at success.  The question is, can we make it through the final gauntlet and out the other side with the hull of our ship in tact?








Boss Theme - Poison of Snake

 

The boss theme is actually my least favorite theme in the game.  Oh, it's still good, but compared to the strong themes above, the music that highlights the game's awe-inspiring bosses just seems a little weaker.  The sound is both dangerous and evil, sounding of the theme of a great villain sped up in a creepy fashion. 

Some final thoughts:  The soundtrack for Life Force is exemplary.  It is one of the best soundtracks on the NES and for me personally, it brings with it some delightful memories of my youth.  For all of those who have not played this game it is available on the Wii Virtual Console and I believe is also available as an import on the PSN.  Give this game a shot and for those who do remember it, I hope this trip down memory lane put a smile on your face.  Stay tuned because we're going forward about eight years in time for one of Nintendo's greatest outings, and another of my personal favorite game soundtracks ever.

Please feel free to request soundtracks for future examinations!

NOTE: If any of these video links are broken please comment so I can repair them and keep the site running at full potential. 




All above music and Life Force, Salamander, Gradius and all elements therein are property of Konami, Inc.  The video files were found on YouTube and I do not own the videos or their contents.