![]() ![]() The opening staccato notes are quiet and simple, like the start of a fairy tale. I don’t want to spoil the in-game context, but I almost don’t have to you can hear the story just by listening to the music. One of my favorite tracks is “Resonating Hearts,” a piece that carries a lot of feelings due to a particularly revelatory moment where it plays. It has special in-game significance and appears in several places, most notably in “Cheryl’s Theme” and “Departure.” “Gravity” is a sweet yet melancholy piano piece that almost serves as a secondary main theme. However, it’s the emotional pieces that shine brightest. From ominous villain themes like “Master of Order” to comic relief anthems like “Prickle and Clicker’s Theme,” the basics are well covered. There’s a nice variety of cutscene music to accompany the various events that occur over the course of the game. ![]() It’s just a really pretty piece all around, especially for an optional area that is easily missed. There’s a kind of madrigal-like quality to the theme, with a single vocal line breaking into a harmony of several voices that are occasionally a cappella but otherwise are accompanied most prominently by a guitar. There are no lyrics in this piece - only gentle “la la la’s” - but that doesn’t keep it from being memorable. “Shangri-La” stands out thanks to its catchy, hummable vocal theme. One of the best tracks on the album comes from an entirely optional area that some players may not think to visit. This concept carries over to “Mechteria,” a dungeon theme in the same area that uses multiple overlapping and distorted piano lines to create a similar, yet more haunting echo effect that feels like an appropriately twisted reflection of the town theme. As such, the music itself employs a sort of echo technique with layered and slightly delayed notes that emulate the sound of dripping water, and even the synths chosen to create this effect sound like something breaking the surface of a lake or pond. “City of Water,” for instance, is the theme for a port town that is meant to resemble Venice. Area themes include towns and dungeons, and while both have tracks that feel typical for the category - such as the sweet and peaceful “Frontier Town” or the mysteriously wistful “Forest Light” - there are pieces that do some interesting and unexpected things. With the general feel of the soundtrack established, let’s talk about the different kinds of music you can find in this album. Just as the game itself is an intended callback to RPGs of the ‘90s, so too does the soundtrack feel like an intentional reference to video game music of the same era. Though this blending of real and artificial instruments is a technique that Uematsu has been fond of for a while, I feel like it has special meaning in Fantasian. But “Junkyard,” the very next track, is a piece seemingly crafted out of electronic noises and sound effects- bleeps and bloops strung together in a way that at first just sounds like noise but eventually becomes a theme. “Teardrop” is an emotional piece of music that utilizes a few strings and woodwinds at first, then eventually a whole orchestra, to create a beautifully sad yet hopeful melody. Uematsu has shown in the past that he is not afraid to mix electronic synths and full orchestration, and this eclectic technique is on full display in Fantasian.Ĭonsider, for instance, two back-to-back tracks that could not be more different in presentation. ![]() When it appears later in the soundtrack, such as in “Stormy Sandseas” or “Thunderous Mountain,” it is orchestrated, and that duality of instrumentation is a particularly noteworthy feature. It has a retro sci-fi feel to it in the first track, heavily relying on synths and featuring a melody that seems to perfectly set the stage for a grand adventure. The “Main Theme of Fantasian” sets the tone for the soundtrack and can be heard in several other pieces throughout the album. Heartfelt emotional themes, soaring boss music, even some goofy tunes used for comic relief - Fantasian has a little bit of everything, and it’s at once both fresh and familiar. The Final Fantasy composer is in fine form on this album. There’s a remarkable nostalgic quality to the soundtrack that completes the package, and as I played through the game, I found myself realizing that I had missed listening to Nobuo Uematsu’s music. This is immediately evident in practically every aspect of the game, from the diorama backgrounds that evoke pre-rendered PS1 RPGs to the charming characters, tactical turn-based combat, and classic story of a rag-tag bunch of heroes saving the world from a genocidal god. ![]()
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