The Tuesday 10s: Final Fantasy Soundtracks

It's Tuesday, and that means it's time to bring back The Tuesday 10s for a second go-around! With Final Fantasy VII Remake launching last month to rave reviews, including my own, it seems like an opportune moment for this edition of The Tuesday 10s to dabble into the music of the Final Fantasy series. I'm going to name my ten favorite Final Fantasy soundtracks and list some of my favorite themes from each. From mainline entries to solid spin-offs, this list has quality games and even higher quality soundtracks!

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)

Speaking of the game that inspired this Tuesday 10s edition, we kick off this musical adventure with Final Fantasy VII Remake. And speaking of things that are inspired, Final Fantasy VII Remake's soundtrack combines a mix of inspired new takes on familiar Final Fantasy VII themes and creates wholly new themes to go alongside them as well. Hearing tracks from my youth fully realized in new and brilliant ways was such a gas, and made my playthrough of part one of this remake all the more enjoyable.

Bombing Mission

Mako Reactor

Let the Battles Begin!

Collapsed Expressway

Due Recompense

Final Fantasy VII (PS1)

What better way to continue our glimpse and listen to my favorite Final Fantasy soundtracks than by following a remake up with the original article? Final Fantasy VII's soundtrack is implanted in the memories of a multitude of players, young and old. It to this day remains an important piece of a masterful whole that made fans of the original love the game so much, and a reason why new fans find a lot to love about Final Fantasy VII nowadays. The final boss theme, One-Winged Angel is one of the most famous and ubiquitous in all of gaming, and for good reason, too. I wouldn't call the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack Nobuo Uematsu's best work (but then again, that's highly subjective anyway)--I'm saving that for later, but it's certainly a well done one!

Tifa's Theme

Still More Fighting

Main Theme

J-E-N-O-V-A

One-Winged Angel

Final Fantasy IX (PS1)

Nobuo Uematsu closes out the PlayStation 1 era of Final Fantasy games with style and grace with his Final Fantasy IX score. You don't know how difficult it was for me to limit myself to just five song selections from IX. Well, to be truthful, that's how it is for every game soundtrack on this list, but it was especially so for Final Fantasy IX. Something about this particular game score sets me off and in a good way--and that's without even having played through the entire thing. Yes, yes, I know, mark of shame and all that. The fairy tale sound of the soundtrack mixed with some terrific melodies and leitmotifs, a stable for the series, are ever present in this phenomenal end to the PS1 run of Final Fantasy games.

Feel My Blade

Vamo' Alla Flamenco

Battle 2

Freya's Theme

The Dark Messenger

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, 360)

Like Final Fantasy X and XI before it, Final Fantasy XII featured a group of composers lending their works to Final Fantasy XIII's sensational soundtrack, all spearheaded by Masashi Hamauzu as the main composer. Between the intense battle themes Saber's Edge and Blinded by Light (for boss and normal encounters respectively) and Chocobos of Pulse, my absolute favorite rendition of the Chocobo theme, Final Fantasy XIII delighted musically even if, for me, the game itself did not.

Saber's Edge

Blinded by Light

The Sunleth Waterscape

Fang's Theme

Chocobos of Pulse

Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

This soundtrack, to me, is Nobuo Uematsu's finest work, but I'm open for debate on this. (You'll easily beat me down in such a debate since my musical knowledge isn't the savviest anyway!) Regardless, Final Fantasy VI remains my favorite Final Fantasy soundtrack of the mainline games, offering a diverse and impressive lineup of character themes that play gloriously in one final suite at the end of the game, a tremendous series of battle themes (such as the ever-impressive, haunting, ever-building Dancing Mad), and other great tunes. I feel like I'm doing Dancing Mad's impressiveness an injustice by just slipping it in that last sentence so casually, because it's amazing how it was programmed to switch between movements as you entered new phases of the four stage final boss encounter. Goodness, me. I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it!

Locke

Kids Run Through the City

The Decisive Battle

Terra

Dancing Mad

Final Fantasy IV (SNES)

Continuing our journey into 16-bit Final Fantasy soundtracks, we delve deeper into the past with 1991's Final Fantasy IV. This pick is mostly out of my own nostalgia, with it being my very first Final Fantasy game played way back when. The other reason for this pick is that it's just a genuinely excellent soundtrack! Nobuo Uematsu fine tuned his creative spirit and used his first foray with the franchise on the Super Nintendo sound chip with masterful ability, offering tunes that I find myself humming innocuously at random moments to this day. The boss themes, whether the normal (which I absolutely adore), the theme used when battling the Four Fiends, or the final boss theme itself, are etched into my gaming and melodic memories. Ah.... Don't mind me. Just waxing poetic!

Red Wings

Into the Darkness

Battle 2

Troian Beauty

The Dreadful Fight

Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1)

If I had to choose my absolute favorite soundtrack from the Final Fantasy series, a seemingly impossible task considering all the great music that has come from the games, my choice would have to be 1997's Final Fantasy Tactics. Composed by Masaharu Iwata and Hitoshi Sakimoto, a pair also known for their excellent work on the Tactics Ogre series, the drama, the action, and the intensity unfolds in each and every note of the soundtrack. The hauntingly beautiful melodies and satisfying harmonies make for a soundtrack that I couldn't help but make my first game soundtrack purchase when I was a younger listener to the Final Fantasy series' music.

Desert Land

Decisive Battle

Random Waltz

Ovelia's Theme

Apoplexy

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA)

Taking on a much lighter sound to fit the much lighter mood of the game compared to the PlayStation original, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance showed that the less than stellar Game Boy Advance sound chip and speakers could deliver some truly tremendous and high quality music. One of the best GBA game soundtracks is a credit to the composition team led by Hitoshi Sakimoto, who did the majority of the music for the game. While the GBA versions of these tracks are delightful, the arranged versions as part of the official released soundtrack are even more magical!

Main Theme

Amber Valley

Walking in Ivalice

Undefeated Heart

Painful Battle

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (GCN)

Here's another soundtrack from a Final Fantasy spin-off that I'm absolutely in love with. It's Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, a game set to be remastered and released later this year, if arrangements still hold true. Part of my adoration with the GameCube's lone Final Fantasy game was how well the music complemented the journey. The music uses worldly, rustic, earthen instruments, delivering a sound that is quite unlike many other games in the Final Fantasy series. It helps that the melodies and accompaniments are just masterful--just a job well done from Kumi Tanioka!

In the Gloomy Darkness

Maggie is Everything

Amidatty and Eleanor, too

Monster's Dance ~Rondo~

When the Northern Sky is Clear

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (Wii)

We move from one Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles game, the original, to a much more different game in the same sub-series with our finale. It's the Wii's Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, and it delivered a departure from the tried and true heroes of modern Final Fantasy games. Layle was a really cool and charismatic dude! Even the gameplay was off-kilter, even by Crystal Chronicles' standards, offering the ability to pick up and chuck enemies into one another to deal damage, as well as possessing a plethora of engaging mini-game-like activities. The soundtrack, which I should really get into now considering the point of this Tuesday 10 installment, was composed mostly by Hidenori Iwasaki and Ryo Yamazaki, and like the game itself, the music stretched the definitions of Final Fantasy music.

Crystal Bearers Ramble

Zu Ambush ~ Dive

Getaway

Lett Highlands

Selkie Guild

That concludes this edition of the Tuesday 10s! It's with my hope that you won't have to wait nearly a month again for the next installment! In the meantime, which Final Fantasy soundtracks are your absolute favorites? Let me know in the comments below!

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (NSW) "Meet the Characters" Trailer

Now for a game that's releasing soon, Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition for the Nintendo Switch. Last week saw an overview trailer of the game, and now this week it's a character-themed trailer being posted. Check out the party of memorable characters that will join Shulk's cause with this trailer, and play Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition when it launches on May 29th!

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 (PS4, XB1, PC) Announce Trailer

The legendary skateboarding series returns, but hopefully this time around this remake will be more worthy of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater name than the previous few attempts! Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 features both classic extreme sports skateboarding games, updated to 4K, with all the additional graphical bells and whistles fans of the franchise and new players alike will enjoy. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 launches on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on September 4th.

Double-Dipped: Games I've Purchased More Than Once Over the Years

Welcome to the beginning of a brand new series of articles on SuperPhillip Central. Can you believe that after nearly 12 years of this blog being online that I can still come up with new ideas for article series? If you do, then you have more faith in me than I do!

This is Double-Dipped, an article series that talks about games that I enjoyed so much that I couldn't help but take a second or sometimes third plunge on purchasing. These games fill me with such unadulterated joy that I like to play them on any new platform I can--but at the same time, some of these games were bought again for the same exact console. Those stories and more will be shared in this regularly reoccurring series. Let's dive in with the first of six games for this inaugural edition of Double-Dipped!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (NSW)

I was talking about buying a game twice on the same system, and speak of the devil (and no, I'm not alluding to Tom Nook--he's cool in my book), here we are! With Animal Crossing: New Horizons, recently revealed to be the best selling entry in the Animal Crossing series yet, we decided to buy the same game two times: one for myself and one for my brother. This way both of us could maintain our own islands and not at all become limited in our mutual enjoyment of the game. Otherwise, I'd be the one in charge of the main island development while my brother would take a much undesired backseat role, very much ruining the experience for him like it has for others with only one Switch and one copy of the game. Hmm... I'm starting to partly see how New Horizons became the best-selling entry in the series if more siblings or family members were placed in the same precarious situation! Partly, though, mind you, as between the two of us, my brother and I nearly 300 hours of playtime. I'd say the addicting gameplay brings forth a good argument as to why Animal Crossing: New Horizons is selling so well, too!

Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii, N3DS)

Do you remember Project Rainfall? Of course not. Because it was called Operation Rainfall. (I originally had this written as "Project Rainfall" in my first draft, so I'm glad I caught it before I hit "Publish".) For North Americans, getting Xenoblade Chronicles released on this side of the world was like fighting a level 60 unique encounter with a level 1 Reyn--it was a difficult battle. Perhaps that isn't the greatest of analogies, as unlike an underleveled Reyn and his fight, we actually won our battle as Xenoblade Chronicles released in North America--though not without some stipulations. Today, Xenoblade Chronicles is a fantastic selling series for Nintendo, and quite an important one. The game saw two sequels with the Wii U's Xenoblade Chronicles X and the Switch's Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The latter received its own successful DLC side story as well.

I originally picked up Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii, like many hungry Wii owners in search of a meaty role-playing game to enjoy during the Wii's leaner years of top-notch releases. I made it rather far, but unfortunately, other games got in the way that I, who was a much younger, more inexperienced blogger at the time, covered. Picking up Xenoblade Chronicles 3D on the New Nintendo 3DS seemed like a great choice, as I could enjoy a mammoth-sized JRPG from the luxury of anywhere, courtesy of handheld gaming. However, I never even put it in my New Nintendo 3DS for a second, as the thought of starting a 100-hour RPG at the time was a daunting one. Now, they say the third time is the charm, and you can bet I'll be picking up the Definitive Edition's release on the Switch at the end of this month. Here's hoping with quarantine that I'll have a reason to not get so distracted this time around!

Spyro: Reignited Trilogy (PS4, NSW)

So many developers pull this trick on Nintendo fans: release a game a year or more after the original launch date on other consoles so foolish gamers will double dip and purchase it a second time around. Well, as you can tell by the name of this article series, you're looking at such a gamer! Spyro: Reignited Trilogy is a collection of the first three Spyro the Dragon games from the original PlayStation that have been completely remade for a new generation of consoles (and a new generation of fans, perhaps, too, at that). As someone who only played parts of the first Spyro the Dragon (and got a major headache from the game in motion), being able to finally enjoy the entire trilogy in such a glorious and gorgeous way gave me the desire to get the Platinum trophy on the entire trilogy of games. When the Switch version was announced and released, it gave me a second lease on the life of this trilogy, and just like my first go 'round, playing the games in both docked and undocked mode was an experience to remember.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U, NSW)

Nintendo is not gun-shy about porting over its catalog of games from the Wii U to the Nintendo Switch. In fact, a good half or so (an approximate figure) of Nintendo's first-party output comes from the Wii U. While this might stink for Wii U fans (all 100 of us), an entirely new audience gets to play these games for the very first time with these Switch ports. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is but one of these games, and you can imagine that future installments of Double-Dipped with touch on other Wii U-to-Switch ports. Tropical Freeze is an absolute delight and near-platforming perfection. The addition of Funky Kong serves as a nice "easy mode" to a game notorious for its challenge and difficulty. Sure, Funky Mode tends to push the game's challenge the opposite way into "too easy" territory, but for beginning players who wish to enjoy Tropical Freeze their way, who are we to thumb our noses down? Despite originally releasing in 2014, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze remains Retro Studios' latest all-new release, which begs the question: What the banana-loving heck is going on at Retro Studios?

Rayman Legends (Wii U, Vita, NSW)

Like Rayman 2, Rayman Legends was a game that felt like it was ported to every current gen platform under the sun. It sure feels like I've played the game on every platform under the sun as I've gotten the game three times now, each feeling like a different experience. The original Wii U version's use of the Wii U GamePad for the Murfy sections, where you maneuver objects, slide platforms, and the like to guide a smartly-controlled AI character through a gauntlet of enemies and dangers, was a blast and quite unique and innovative. Unlike the PlayStation Vita version that used similar touch-based controls for these sections, with the Wii U version, multiplayer was possible here. The Nintendo Switch version saw somewhat of a "best of both worlds" approach. While the original Wii U version remains my favorite of the bunch, the need to use archaic hardware to play it makes it less than attractive for me, so my preferred way to play is on the Nintendo Switch. Regardless, whichever platform you play Rayman Legends on, you're going to get a tremendous-looking, stellar-playing 2D platformer.

LEGO City Undercover (Wii U, NSW, PS4)

Oh, goodness. Another three-peat here for yours truly. LEGO City Undercover wasn't my first LEGO game from Tt Games, but it is my absolute favorite. I guess that's obvious when you see how many times I've purchased and played through the game. The Wii U original saw smart GamePad usages, such as a helpful mini-map on the second screen, a communicator that NPCs used to contact our hero Chase McCain, and a means to scan the environment for subjects and various points of interest. Like many games on the Wii U, LEGO City Undercover thankfully made the trip to the Nintendo Switch, where it kept all of the Mario references but lost the unique GamePad functionality. This version isn't optimized to the best of the developer's ability, resulting in some nasty frame-rate drops, particularly in undocked mode. Still, playing the game on a system with a better controller and on just a better designed system made for a--forgive me for using this word a third time in the same sentence--better experience. I then moved on to the PlayStation 4 version due to a sale price and because I wanted an easy enough Platinum. Yes, that is sad, but I loved playing through LEGO City Undercover for a third time despite that fact.

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I hope you enjoyed this inaugural installment of Double-Dipped! What games have you bought more than once? Why did you do it? Let the SPC community know in the comments below!

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (NSW) "All About Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition" Trailer

As one might rightfully assume from the name of this video, Nintendo has unveiled a new trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, showcasing a multitude of details regarding the game. That includes the world, characters, battle system, and new epilogue story. Despite being six minutes of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition goodness, I can't help but want more. Thankfully, the wait is just a little over three weeks to go for when the game launches on Nintendo Switch on May 29th.