https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN8Mp9NxUkY&list=PLD94442A2E3005FC6

Unbeknownst to many gamers, “Final Fantasy” received its name for a reason. At the time of its release, Squaresoft was nearly broke from previous unsuccessful games and the producers thought this was their “final” chance to make a hit, based on a newly-developed video game concept called role-playing game (RPG) for which Enix had a good success with Dragon Warrior in 1986. We all know the rest…

Many say that the success was greatly due to the composer, Nobuo Uematsu. It’s not hard to see why: at the time (1986), video game music was literally just bleeps and boops with primitive arrangements. Dragon Warrior, for example, had loops that lasted at most 20 seconds and got annoying very quickly. I still can’t stand the overworld theme with the high-pitch flute on the main track and the repeated sound in the background.

 The number of tracks were also very limited. Super Mario Bros 1 had three main tracks, just like The Legend of Zelda. In DW, the dungeon music was always the same; it merely got slower as you went deeper underground. And the village music was just a softer variation of the Tantagel Castle theme.

That changed completely with FF. Sure, the soundtrack hasn’t aged well. There is a great lack on what I call fluidity in the arrangements. For example, Castle Cornelia and Chaos Shrine seem to have all the notes stuck together rather than being more detached so we can whistle the theme better. The Opening Theme is the worst of them all; had it been played with a real instrument, it would like someone playing the flute for the whole loop without taking a single breath between the notes.

The music is also very loud at times. For example, the Dungeon Theme has what I call the 8-bit track (in the background) so loud in the second part of the loop that it nearly drowns the rest of the track. The first part isn’t much better; while the arrangements are more elaborate than in DW, I still find them annoyingly loud, as if Uematsu didn’t calculate the volume correctly.

Finally there is some lack of diversity by not having at least a boss theme; Zelda 1 and DW 1 all had a final boss theme.

Nevertheless, the soundtrack is great overall (for the time) and set the tone for what video game music should be. Seven out of the 9 first games used the battle theme from FF 1, and all of them through 10 used the victory fanfare and Prelude, with some variation. It also used six dungeon themes, something Dragon Warrior never did – they at most have a distinction between underground and above-ground. The final dungeon theme (Sunken Shrine) is a very fitting such theme, with its dramatic (sad?) tones both on the main and background tracks. It was actually one of the best tracks on the album; the notes were played clearer and are more detached.

It also created the standard for calm village themes. Despite the annoying 8-bit track, the Town Theme sounds very relaxing and welcoming; you know there is nothing dangerous around you.

Furthermore it never repeats any track by merely remixing it. The village theme is very distinctive from the Cornelia Castle theme, unlike DW 1.

Finally, it was able to create better “epicness” for the overworld theme. I even daresay that it was done better than in Zelda 1, or even all the DW on the NES. Even 30 years later, we can feel that Uematsu wanted gamers to feel that a grand quest is awaiting you.

So what’s the final take? Final Fantasy 1 is an interesting piece of gaming archaeology and should be listened to as such. The arrangements haven’t aged well, but they nevertheless set the bar high for all subsequent games. Find out how some of your favorite theme sounded when most of you were just a vague project in your parents’ mind.