2:01:42 chills. What a great video game. One of the best stories i think regardless of medium or genre. These characters live within me truly. Those notes truly made me rember celestes story and feel her pain. I literally feel for these characters and story 30 years later.
Correction: I wrote the time signature behind the clef. It always goes clef, time sig, then key sig, then notes. SMH...only been doing music for 20 years. Sorry.
thing about Shadow's theme, people in chat were pointing out the fact that it was a western sounding theme for a ninja character, yeah it seems like it shouldn't fit on the surface but for those that played the game and got to know Shadow's backstory more, it makes perfect sense.
It's 2023, and Terra's theme (which should be the first track of Part 2 of this React since it follows the order if the OST) still gives me the same goosebumps as it did the first time I heard it in 1994.
This entire experience, story, music, gameplay was truly life changing to me. 30 years later and i am as familiar w its entirety without having played it in 10 years or so. ❤️
Best game in the entire franchise in my opinion. Probably the darkest one too, hitting such crazy lows in terms of feelings and emotions, that gaming industry as a whole hardly ever dares to even touch, and it does so elegantly and so subtly that you can only respect it. Let alone for the period it was made this was beyond fantastic. Its all about the characters and each one's individual journey. Never has it felt so good to band with these party members. Each so memorable, so self-driven and with such great depth and characterization throughout the whole thing. They sure knew how to make a masterpiece back in the days of SUPER NES. You actually CARED for each and every one of them. From all the jrpgs out there, only this and chrono trigger ever hits such a perfection. Needless to say the music, and each track individually is memorable AF too. The emotions of the narrative are just TOO strong. Thanks for covering this masterpiece of an OST. Its an immortal soundtrack for sure.
Me, an intellectual, at the start: only 2 hours 19 minutes? He skipped Dancing Mad. You, 10 minutes remaining: we are going to do a part 2 and 3. There it is. Great breakdown and you playing over/along with some of the tracks actually rocked pretty damn well. That i liked that so much surprised me some, because this soundtrack i hold in such high regard. I think its the best video game soundtrack to this day, and my favorite Uematsu compositions. Really well done Dan.
Uematsu did such an amazing job with the reoccurring leitmotifs and music themes in this soundtrack. Terra's Theme, Celes' Theme, Locke's Theme, Kefka's Theme, the Battle Themes, Omen, Catastrophe, etc.
I heard it said before that what Uematsu was able to do with the FF6 OST on the SNES technology is like managing to paint the Sistine Chapel with crayons.
I'd argue that Mt. Koltz is alternating between Ab Lydian and G Lydian for that section that comes after the A half dim 7, rather than it being a bII-I in Phrygian Dominant. The Lydian feel is especially prominent over the G with all those #4 notes
How could i forget Final Fantasy VI!? I got this on the PS1 release the same year i for Final Fantasy X for PS2, 2002, Christmas Day! It was an amazing game, and the first ever 2D Final Fantasy I ever played, and took me back to Secret of Mana, the in-game sprites being reminiscent of those days for me, and also the soundfont style :) the music was just so beautiful. Nobuo Uematsu is a genius, I'll never stop saying that, because it'll never stop being true! ❤
Agh, here's one I wish I caught live. This OST has replayed in my head tens of thousands of times over the decades... It's hard to express what feels and nostalgia the music gives one after so many years, the way those character archtypes just "worked" in the 90's when this came out, each character with at least 1 theme. You get this attachment to the characters and themes, so when one starts playing after you've warmed up to the story, you get this pavlovs dog emotion come out. The coin song, Sabin and Edgars theme, is tough for me to hear. Reminds me of my brother who's stuck in Ukraine. I'm the little brother but he was always the meathead.
2:04:35 The only video game composer I've ever heard of who might be better than Nobuo Uematsu, in my estimation, is Ryu Umemoto, possibly the smartest composer since Bach. YU-NO and Desire OSTs are especially recommended for those interested. Still, I think Uematsu has the edge on emotional/psychological depth and naturalness of melodies.
Something to point out: Uematsu always wanted to compose an opera. He used FF6 to realize his dream. The song(s) he used for the opera will likely be in part 2.
We're only getting started with this soundtrack, I guarantee disc 2 will throw you for a loop! Also, hopefully you'll remember some of these themes and leitmotifs because they get called back upon throughout the OST.
A lot of the songs in the game reference each other all throughout the game. The title of the songs, motifs, and the references ALL MATTER so much where the music itself tells the story of the game. Just keep this in mind when you get to later soundtracks. Nobou Uematsu is a genius, no questions asked.
When he reacts to dancing mad, he should listen to a version of it that doesn’t loop each section, just because I feel like it would be an easier listening experience for him
well, for many, and myself, it’s the best FF, and I agree the OSG is very strong all round! It’s just so damn good and Squaresoft hitting on all cylinders. I have a hard time picking this or CT as my ultimate favorite. 6 is one of the more consistent FF that has been consistently ranked in the top 3 for 30 years in Japan and the west. 6, 10 and 7 usually trade places in the top 3 rankings. 6 released before RPG reached wide popularity and on a smaller install base, but with emulation and later releases it has continued to find new fans. Personally, My rankings: 6> 9> 7 >7 7 rebirth>7 >remake> 10> 4> 5. In the largest vote we’ve had in 2021 on a national channel in Japan the top 3 were:10,7,6.
I am so bad about checking when streams go live. I need to be on this, in the coming Saturdays. This was my first FF game (mainly through watching my dad play it, as I was 4 years old, when it was released) and one of my favorites. I'm excited to see your reaction to Dancing Mad, perhaps the most epic final boss battle of any SNES game. Hope I have enough temporal awareness to catch that one live. Keep doing what you do!
The balance and instrumentation and composition all in concert in the 2nd half of Gau's theme is the most beautiful in the entire game, without question.* At least, that's true on a consistent and elongated basis. In a similar vein I think the Game Over theme is also underrated, albeit a very short theme. Oh and the very very end of Celes's theme. *This also makes his final scene in the game with his father the most heart-wrenching.
Also, Gau's theme is my favorite. The cello part only plays ~once~ then it just loops, but that melody and the counterpoint throughout is just haunting. Gau is a lost feral child raised by monsters, yeah, but he's also Edgar and Sabin's abandoned brother/half brother, which the game only implies to you. They character never really put the dots together. Gau could've been a king/prince like them, but ended up raised by the wilderness without even basic speaking skills. Similar with how Shadow is Relm's father and it's never quite explained why he abandoned her or what happened to her mother, there's a weight and mystery to the music beyond what's obviously presented in exposition.
I don't know where you're getting Gau being related to the Figaro Brothers. Mother died during childbirth and the crazy man who wants you to fix stuff is his father.
17:27 i don't know why, but i almost get like a "throw-back-and-forth" between the Returners in FFVI and Avalanche with the teamwork vibes anyways, but in hindsight, i can see where some of the Avalanche FFVII Remake inspiration must've come from :) and i feel Barret's theme tune vibes also with Locke's theme tune. Hes a charismatic character, Locke, love the guy 😁
I'm amazed you didnt pick up that Metamorphosis is the theme from Awakening/Terra's theme. Its been reharmonized into the creepy diminished harmony used to make it feel so unsettled.
you really should react to Fable soundtrack (Fable 2 and 1), all of Fable's songs are just incredibelly beautiful and epic. you should react to the song "Bowerlake" from Fable 2 (I can't seem to find any reaction's to Fable's soundtrack)
One of my all-time favorite game and soundtrack! Nobuo Uematsu is a legend, even if he still was young back when he composed the earliest of Final Fantasy soundtracks. You should DEFINITELY check out the recent Pixel Remaster series soundtracks, which have significant improvements like real intruments and enhanced arrangements while staying true to their original form. Uematsu himself supervised these arrangements.
By far one of my favorite video game soundtracks of all time. The game itself is a masterpiece, but Uematsu's music elevated it even further. Just phenomenal.
58:39 if I had a nickel for every time a blue-themed ninja in a video game had a whistling western tune theme, I'd have at least two nickels which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened twice on that note, I'd love to recommend the Asura's Wrath OST but outside of the boss themes (which *rock*) there's a lot of unremarkable battlefield themes in-between
We are finally here and im here for it lol...there was recently a remake of all the 2d FFs with orchestrated songs hope u get to hear some of this game as bonus tracks
2:07:00 You could be thinking of one of the pieces that played in the Star Wars original trilogy, I know it plays in Ep 4 and I don't know what it's called. I played a lot of lego star wars growing up so I caught it right away lol. Wish I knew the name of it though.
Belatedly, it's interesting that there was a comment about Kefka's theme sounding like a marching band; I always perceived it more as an overexaggerated, demented oompah-style circus tune, fitting with Kefka's presentation as a jester (with the bombastic back half of the song reflecting both his enthusiastically horrific personality and his rise in narrative prominence as the game progresses).
Did kenneth ever figure it out? Is it something like a bagpipe or a banjo "drone", where you play the same note in between all the other notes? Bloody Tears is a pretty good example of this i think
The first 8 tracks are some of the most iconic pieces to represent a video game ever. IMO at Mt. Koltz I think Uematsu kind of went off a little bit on his own terms rather than continuing the perfection of the first 8. It's still a super great place in the game, but musically I can't help but feel it jumps out of the cinematic feel.
