https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UBZW0VQHWw

I envy the Japanese; they always get all the good games while here in North America we either do not have them or get them much later. The latter is true for Final Fantasy V, which only came in North America with Final Fantasy Anthology for the PSX (and with less interesting music). While the gameplay suffered from the “curse of the odd FF” – the story line was rather weak, especially compared to Final Fantasy IV – the soundtrack was excellent. In fact, listening to it over the Internet was my main motivation to get back to it and finish it. Yes, as incredible as it sounds, the soundtrack (mainly towards the end) is what motivated me to get back to a game I had tossed aside because it was too difficult.

As such the soundtrack has definitely better “instrumentation” than FF IV. The trumpets sound a little less high-pitch – it got annoying for the battle theme in the end – the arrangements flow better and there is also more diversity. There are more town and castle themes, more dungeons themes and even more overworld themes.

However, despite more “mature” arrangements they mostly (by themselves) are not as interesting as in FF IV. Four Hearts (first overworld theme) seems to be muted and doesn’t have the epicness of its predecessor. It also lacks the general epicness of most overworld themes. On the opposite end, Legend of the Deep Forest has been overdone. The main track is too loud and the harp in the background sounds too repetitive for my taste. Even the Prelude doesn’t sound as good; the harp doesn’t sound as realistic in the first part of the loop and they use muted brass in the second part, taking away its magical feeling from IV. The Final Fantasy Theme too suffered from Uematsu “trying too much”. Even though the arrangements are more modern, using muted brass doesn’t make the theme as epic as in IV.

But of course, since the soundtrack got me playing after leaving the game aside it’s not all that bad. Most of the themes, even if they don’t rank among my all-time favorite, are excellent for how appropriate they are for the situation. The Opening Theme starts very slowly, with a “choir” in the background to add to King Tycoon’s strange feelings that something is wrong. It gets louder and louder and the King leaves and we see others having the same feeling that something is wrong with the wind. I especially love the “clock ringing” towards the middle, which added a lot of drama (you can even hear X-Death’s theme). The town themes range from quiet and welcoming (Town Theme), jolly but sounding like cheap Celtic music (Harvest) to ruined and desolate (Cursed Land). That latter one was done very well, taking the dark piano from the opening theme and timbales in the background.

Since the game shows a world going down in ruins because the crystals stop shining, the sadness in the music is very obvious and appropriate. Deception is one such theme; although I don’t like the theme as such, the main track sounds very sad and the violins in the background just add to the sorrow felt when it’s heard. Reminiscence is also a good one; you see the strong pain of Faris’ souvenirs, how she was separated from her sister. There is a “choir” in the background, but also a musical box. Speaking of which, there is also a musical box theme, when the hero remembers when his father dies. It doesn’t sound quite sad but it’s very relaxing nonetheless.

Going back to sadness, a New World (third overworld theme) sounds appropriately slow and more desolate than the two others since the world is going to ruins. I find the banjo in the background towards the middle a little silly, but it’s overall excellent. Slumber of Ancient Earth is also excellent when considering the context: the Earth is rotting and quicksand have stopped. It mixes both sadness and drama.

Finally, let’s talk about the part that motivated me to play again: the Decisive Battle. This would normally be the “major boss” battle theme, but since you only hear it against X-Death I guess it’s part of the final boss battle. Anyway I discovered the track on RPG fan, and even though it was only an excerpt I immediately got hooked to it. Short of the Phantasy Star IV battle themes, I can’t think of any 16-bit battle themes that sounded so epic. The next time you want to blow off steam, listen to this track with the loudest volume your ears can take and add as much bass as your speakers can take; you will know what I mean. Speaking of epicness, Search the Light (the core of the Void) was also a theme I learned to love even though I couldn’t reach it inside the game. It sounds very epic and joyful with the cheerful trumpet and constant drums.

In short Final Fantasy V is a soundtrack that should be in every RPG fan soundtrack library. Despite a few misses it’s still a fine piece of music. I love how they even put all the piano tracks (8 of them) and the fanfares at the end, as a kind of bonus.