Layers of Harmony

[mithrigil]

For Assignment #2.

A warning: I come from a musical angle. A lot. Spoilers for the endings of VIII, IX, X, X-2, and XII.

--

Layers of Harmony

the End Credits Idol Song as Apropos of the Heroine

Erica Kudisch

Following the advances in technology that allowed the implementation of vocal tracks within console games, Final Fantasy has capitalized on the

Comments

[shahrizai]

I'm no musical expert in any sense of the word (my father never taught me to use any of the instruments he knew because I'm totally tone deaf), but I'd just like to say I love it when members of fandom use their specialized knowledge to dissect things.

[mithrigil]

I am seriously considering upgrading this to a twenty-pager.

[darcenciel]

The love story between Julia and Laguna and then Laguna and Raine is one of the great hidden love stories of Final Fantasy, I think. Too much attention is paid to the story between Squall and Rinoa, and I think that if we stepped back and looked at it through the context of Laguna's story (who is in a sense what a lot of FF8 ends up being about), it would seem less trite.

[mithrigil]

Fully agreed. And Laguna's story would make the more interesting game, come to think--what little we have seen of his Timber Maniac Miasadventures proves heartfelt and humorous and still poignant.

[mariagoner]

Oh my God, I can't conjure up enough WORD to justify how greatly I agree with this post. All throughout the FF8 story line, I kept wishing I could just fast-forward all the treacly scenes of romance between Rinoa and Squall (who are, IMO, the most mashed-together and mismatched couple in the history of the FF games) to see more of Laguna's crazy adventures with the women in his life.

In a lot of ways, despite the fact that Laguna acts more childishly than Squall, his interactions with others felt deeper, stronger, more powerful and more affecting. I honestly think that if the entire game was about him-- with only the occasional flash-back to the "future" containing his dreary son-- FF8 wouldn't be quite so much the red-haired, bastard step-child of the series!

[mariagoner]

I admit, I can't really comment on much more than the first and last part of the post, since everything in between FF8 and FF12 exists in but a hazy dream state for me. (I have approximately the memory of a gold-fish hooked on smack, woe!)

But this is a really lovely and thought provoking essay and the idea of analyzing the centerpiece songs to understand more about the characters of the FF games is sheer genius. I think you actually helped me... well, no, I wouldn't say you lessened any of my sheer disdain for Rinoa. Nothing short of the sweet embrace of death could probably do that. XD But it makes my heart sort of evilly (is that even a word?!) gleeful to think of her being linked to so soppy and futile a song!

And you're absolutely right about how freaking inappropriate 'Kiss Me Goodbye' is for FF12. All throughout the story, we're steeping in this quasi-medieval world of princesses and knights and empires-that-done-us-wrong... and all of a sudden, at the end, we're assaulted by this blast of 1980-ish pop. (And Penelo's sheer

EDIT: Chord spelling.

[mithrigil]

I was disappointed by Sakimoto's music, but only because I know how much BETTER he can do. I found FFXII to be simplistic and populist, stuffed to the gills with four-bar-phrases and not as motivically subtle as Vagrant Story and FFTactics. This in part has to do with the materials Sakimoto was using

[lilych0uch0u]

So insightful ^_^ Certainly more thought than I ever put into the vocal tracks although I did come to some similar conclusions. Mayhaps I should take my fandom more seriously :(

It also makes me want to listen to my Final Fantasy soundtracks once more.
For instance, concerning Melodies of Life, I never perceived a filial dimension but perhaps...
Yup. Kiss me Goodbye was painfully out of place. So much so that it made me want to turn down the volume during the ending/epilogue. It would have made just as much sense if they replaced it with an Abba track.
I didn’t find components of the song itself memorable…And the English translation failed to make much sense to me.
I happen to be a fan of Angela Aki, couldn't they have done better?

[mithrigil]

...Dude, now I am going to associate ABBA with idol songs. Hm. Which one? "Lay all your love on me?"