Into the Score - July 18, 2007

Final Fantasy VII

1) Intro
2) Contact Info
a. Time in Gaming FFVII was released
3) Story of the Game
4) Reception
5) Composer
a. Nobuo Uematsu
6) The Music
a. The Theme
i. Main Theme
1. Seems to follow Cloud and his inner struggles through the game.
2. Appoggiatura
ii. Anxious Heart
1. Harmonically, 
iii. Holding Thoughts in My Heart
iv. On That Day, Five Years Ago
v. Highwind Takes to the Skies
vi. Who Am I?
vii. World Crisis (1:25ish)
viii. Staff Roll (2:36ish)
b. Character Themes
i. Aeris
ii. Tifa
iii. Barrett
iv. Cait Sith
v. Cid
vi. Vincent
vii. Yuffie
c. Connection to FF5
d. The Black Mages
i. J-E-N-O-V-A
ii. 
e. Pieces that I just like
i. The Turks
ii. Interrupted by Fireworks
iii. Hurry!
iv. Cinco de Chocobo
v. Rufus's Welcoming Ceremony (quote Arnold Morrison)
vi. Costa del Sol (quote One-Up Mushrooms)
vii. Hurry Faster!
7) Analysis
a. Sephiroth's Themes and Motives
i. Those Chosen by the Planet
ii. One-Winged Angel 
8) Macro-Organization - Compilation of FF7
9) Arrangement
a. OCReMix "Voices of the Lifestream"
b. Reunion Tracks
i. OWA
10) ReMix
a. (Jeremy Robson's Phil Suite?)

INTRO

(101 - OPENING)

I'm Kenley Kristofferson... and this is Into the Score.

Good evening, everyone! This is Episode 10... yes, Episode 10 of Into the Score, the only podcast solely devoted to the academic study of video game music.  I am your host, Kenley Kristofferson and it is the 3rd week in July of 2007, welcome.  My apologies for being late, but as we're playing through a pivotal title in the universe and history of video game music, I just needed the extra research time and life has been really busy.

We are listening to the opening to Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which is the CG movie sequel Square's 1997 release of Final Fantasy VII, scored by Nobuo Uematsu.  For Episode 10, I decided to really dig into a heavy score and discuss a game that is wildly popular and important in the literature - there was really no decision on this one, it had to be FF7.  Also, after this episode, I've spoken with composer/arranger Jeremy Robson who has arranged the absolutely legendary Final Fantasy VII Philharmonic Suite and he has given me permission to play it all, so in an episode following this, we're going to analyze and check out the whole thing!

This is a quote from the FF7 wiki: 

The game received extremely favorable reviews from many well-known gaming publications. GameFan called it "quite possibly the greatest game ever made",[46] while GameSpot commented that "never before have technology, playability, and narrative combined as well as in Final Fantasy VII", expressing particular favor toward the game's graphics, audio and story. The UK-based publication Edge gave the game a 9/10,[77] and Electronic Gaming Monthly granted a 9.5/10, claiming that "No other RPG can pull off a cinematic experience like Final Fantasy VII".[5] At the time of release, multimedia website IGN insisted that "FF7's graphics are light years beyond anything ever seen on the PlayStation", held that its plot "is deep ... and epic", and regarded its battle system as its strongest point.[3] One RPGamer staff reviewer praised the game's soundtrack "both in variety and sheer volume", suggesting that "Uematsu has done his work exceptionally well" and "is perhaps at his best here".[78]

... And that is why we're doing it, but before we dig in, here's the contact info!

CONTACT INFO

Our website is www.songofthefates.com and if you want to send me an email, you can do it at Kenley@songofthefates.com, so k-e-n-l-e-y@songofthefates.com and that's all one word.  While this opening is similar to the one in Final Fantasy VII, it is actually different, as the piece following the opening is one of legendary status among followers of FF music.  We're going to play a bit of the opening and then move into the piece following, called "Bombing Mission" from the Final Fantasy VII OST.

(OPENING - BOMBING MISSION - 0:18 - 2:45)

THE BASICS

I love that piece.  I remember back when I was about 13 or 14, one of my best friends picked up that game from the US because it wasn't available in Canada yet.  The friend's name was Jase and we were sitting in the basement in his younger brother's room checking out the opening scene, with the train entering Midgar... very awesome.  Odds are some listener's here may not be familiar with FF7, but we'll explain Midgar and all that stuff later in the episode.  

Before we begin, I think that it's crucial to say that again, this podcast is a week late because I wanted to make sure that I covered my bases and really did a great job of this bi-monthly podcast... particularly this episode.  Final Fantasy VII is one of the games, if not the definitive game that brought role-playing games to the masses, and you know what? This game means a lot to a lot of people.  Furthermore, it means different things for different people as this game is swarming in themes.  I'm going to talk about those themes when we talk about the storyline to the game and more importantly, how some of those storylines may have influenced different people.  Again, this game changed the way that games are made, particularly in regards to the game connecting with the player.  Speaking of changing how games are made and look at what was happening in gaming while FF7 was made and how the project came together, after we hear a piece that reflects a dominant part of the game, often played during the fragmented memories of our protagonist.  This is "Anxious Heart."

(ANXIOUS HEART  - 0:00 - 1:25)

TIME IN GAMING

1997 was a huge year for gaming, not only because of the Nintendo 64, which made a killing that year, but also because some of our middle-modern classics came out that year.  In terms of Nintendo 64, the world received Super Mario Kart 64, GoldenEye and Starfox 64 - three massive titles for the console and I think that those are three of its biggest titles... also, I love GoldenEye, lots of good memories of multiplayer Bond action in Aaron's basement.  But, not only N64 did well, it seems that a lot of other franchises would release some of their benchmark titles that year as well, particularly Konami with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (largely cited for its creative and unbelievably musical score), LucasArts with X-Wing vs. Tie-Fighter and DMA's Grand Theft Auto... I think the company is called Rockstar North now.  All that was cited from Wikipedia, many thanks to the Web 2.0 dudes who made the "1997 in Video Games" article.

Now, on the topic of Wikipedia and the game of the Episode, also released in 1997, the Final Fantasy VII wiki has 124 citations on it, a lot of which I have checked and they check out.  Also, I've read through the entire wiki... it's huge... and you know what? It's pretty spot on, so if you would like a supplement to this bi-monthly episode, I will be largely referring to that article.  Also, there is an uber-expansive Final Fantasy section on the less-known wikia.org, and the URL is in the shownotes.  It's really quite extensive and very well-compiled.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/main_page.

So, we've talked about what happened in 1997 for all games, but now let's focus on just one.

STORY

On January 31,1997, Square (now Square Enix) releases Final Fantasy VII for the Sony PlayStation in Japan.  North America receives it on September 7th and it is Internationally released on the second of the following month.  Now, the game had a few milestones that games prior to it simply didn't have - 3D graphics and 3D pre-rendered backgrounds, it was the first FF to be on CD and the first title of the franchise for the Sony PlayStation, it was directed by a pillar of the Square company, Yasunori Kitase, who was the co-director and scenarist for Final Fantasy VI and last but not least, it was the first FF game to include "full-motion video" cutscenes, which the culture shortens to FMV.  We'll talk about the development just a bit later, but it's crucial to know what the game is even about before I start talking about how Square did it.

The game's story is long and intricate, so I can only summarize as best I can.  But first, let's set the tone.  FF7 is the darkest game in the franchise, so to set us up, this is "Mako Reactor" from the Final Fantasy VII OST.  The reactors play a large role in the darkness - the music has some mechanical qualities, a driving ostinato, some synth... it highlights the futuristic feel of the game without hesitating to mention the dark factors their technology brings to their world... this is "Mako Reactor."

(MAKOU REACTOR - 0:00 -1:02)

The background to the game begins in a city called Midgar, where a power corporation has discovered the ability to synthesize electricity from the Earth, or in particular, a substance called "Mako Energy."  This power corporation, called Shinra, sets up reactors all through the city and, in literally speaking, takes control through power.  An environmental terrorist group called Avalanche is opposed to this mega-corporation using energy from the planet and is blowing up reactors - this is where the game begins.  But while this is the stage set for the game, this really isn't what the game is about.

Avalanche has hired a mercenary to help with the bombing of Reactor 7 and this hired gun's name is Cloud - he is the protagonist of the story and the whole game revolves around him - while the other characters in the story are important, it seems that what the audience is always really focused on it how the troubles of the other characters affect Cloud.  

Anyways, Cloud is a former member of Shinra's elite military group called SOLDIER, looking up to another former member of SOLDIER named Sephiroth - the antagonist of the game and the slayer of many members of the Shinra Corporation.  Barrett and Tifa, also members of Avalanche, join up with Cloud and the three of them go on a hunt for the serial killing elite soldier.  Along the way, they meet a flower girl named Aerith or Aeris, depending on your location.  Aerith is one of the few people who really get through to Cloud and becomes a crucial character in the Final Fantasy VII universe.  They quest through the world to find the villain and learn about the plight of the world that has been inflicted upon the world.

I don't want to disclose more than that because everyone should play through this game at least... three times :) Well, at least once.  There is so much to this game that ANY description or synopsis could simply not do it justice, so that's my best shot.  Speaking of the plight of the world, there is a town on the Western Continent called Cosmo Canyon, which advocates living as one with the world and one of our characters comes from there, a big orange cat named Red XIII... this is "Red XIII's Theme" by Nobuo Uematsu.

(RED XII'S THEME - 0:00 - 0:40)



DEVELOPMENT

So, how did they do it? According to the wiki article (pretty much word-for-word), production began in late 1995 and required over 100 artists and programmers and had a slated budget of $45 million US...

"Development of Final Fantasy VII began in late 1995,[43][44] and required the efforts of more than one hundred artists and programmers[44][45] using such software as PowerAnimator and Softimage|3D,[43] and a budget of approximately US$45 million.[46] Final Fantasy VI's co-director and scenario writer, Yoshinori Kitase, returned to direct and co-write this installment of the series and expressed a concern that the franchise might be left behind if it did not catch up to the 3D computer graphics used in other games at the time.[2] Development then began after the development of a short, experimental technology demo for Silicon Graphics Onyx workstations.[44] Called "Final Fantasy SGI", the demo featured polygon-based 3D renderings of characters from Final Fantasy VI in a real-time battle and incorporated interactive elements.[44][47][48] This experiment led the development team to decide to integrate these design mechanics into Final Fantasy VII.[44] However, as a result of the high quantity of memory storage required to implement the motion data, 3D models and computer graphics effects involved, it was decided that only the CD-ROM format would be able to suit the project's needs.[43][44][46][47] Nintendo, for whom Square had developed all previous titles in the Final Fantasy series, had decided to continue to use cartridges for their upcoming Nintendo 64 console. This eventually led to a dispute and as a result, Square decided to end their long, often tumultuous, relationship with Nintendo and announced on January 12, 1996 that they would be developing Final Fantasy VII for Sony's PlayStation system.[43][46][47]

The transition from 2D computer graphics to 3D environments overlaid on pre-rendered backgrounds[3][4][5] was accompanied by a focus on a more realistic presentation, which challenged the development team. According to Kitase, "Right from the time the decision to go with CD was made he [producer Hironobu Sakaguchi] set down a ground rule for the team saying, 'If the player becomes aware of the access times, we have failed'", demanding that an immersive atmosphere be upheld, which led to the programming of various animations to activate while the game loaded data.[43] While the extra storage capacity and computer graphics to which the team now had access gave them the means to implement more than 40 minutes of full motion video movies[43] - an unprecedented undertaking in the genre at the time[43][46] - this innovation brought with it the added difficulty of ensuring that the inferiority of the in-game graphics in comparison to the FMV sequences was not too obvious. Kitase has described the process of making the in-game environments as detailed as possible to be "a daunting task".[43] Among the difficulties faced was the potential inability to render 3D polygon models based on the designs of Yoshitaka Amano, the series' long-time character designer. As his style was considered too exquisite to be compatible with the visual format of the project, this issue was addressed by bringing Tetsuya Nomura onboard as the project's main artist, while Amano aided in the design of the game's world map.[46] Previously a monster designer for Final Fantasy V,[49] Nomura's style was more reminiscent of manga, and considered easier to adapt.[46] Another problem faced during development was a rushed production schedule. Veteran series composer Nobuo Uematsu commented in the liner notes of the game's soundtrack: "There is one thing common in all the Final Fantasy games. None of them are complete". Despite delaying the game's release from December 1996 to January 1997, several additions to gameplay and story needed to be made for the game's North American release,[4][46] prompting a rerelease in Japan under the title "Final Fantasy VII International".[46]

Art director Yusuke Naora refers to the game's atmosphere as "strong [and] dark",[50] achieved through lighting effects that he considers "the darkest of darkest",[51] and a story that emphasised realism while drawing on a variety of myths, legends, and religious and philosophical systems to "[use] as a framework for loftier ethical aspirations and ecologically conscious evangelism"

I would say what those are, but I don't want to give any spoilers.  That was directly quoted from the FF7 wiki and are littered with citations from reputable sources and sites, so I would take most-if-not-all of that, to be true.  I wish I knew who wrote that so I could cite them, they did a wonderful job.
 
RECEPTION

So, with all of that development, I sure hope that it did well.  Well, clearly it did.  Within its first three days of Japanese release, the game sold 2.3 million copies and 330,000 within it's NA debut weekend.  In March 2006, Japanese gaming magazine, Famitsu, it placed #2 in its "Top 100 Games of All-Time" poll and GameFAQs.com voted it as the best game ever... ever.  Western gaming magazine,GameFan, said that it was "quite possibly the greatest game ever made."  So yeah, we see the scope of this.

On the other side of the coin, a lot of critics would call this game terribly over-rated, or at least in particular, GameSpy called it the 7th most-overrated game of all-time and its translation was terribly criticized.  

One of the elements of Final Fantasy VII that was quoted almost every time in the positive review was the battle engine.  A good friend of mine, Craig Bailey, calls FF7's battle music as the "best battle music of all-time... ever." And you know, it's hard to disagree, so let's listen.  This is "Fighting" from the Final Fantasy VII OST by Nobuo Uematsu.

(FIGHTING - 0:00 - 1:00) 

BIOGRAPHY

Speaking of Nobuo Uematsu, let's find out a bit about this guy! He was born on March 21, 1959 in Kochi Prefacture, Japan and naturally, is a composer of video game music.  He is self-taught, meaning that he doesn't have a music degree and has little formal training - he does play the piano and that started when he was twelve years old.  His influences range from Elton John and Emerson, Lake and Palmer to Simon and Garfunkel to Tchaikovsky, as well as tons of world influences with Celtic music in particular.  Time Magazine named him an Innovator in the music section of their "Time 100 - Next Wave."  The writer, Christopher John Farley (not to be confused with past comedian, Chris Farley... (CLIP - "living in a van down by the river!"), writes this...

...In those days, recalls composer Nobuo Uematsu, 42, "no one really paid attention to game music." Now, as video-game story lines and imagery grow complex enough to evoke deeper emotional responses, the music is evolving too. In Japan several composers, including Mamoru Samuragoch (Onimusha) and Yoko Shimomura (Legend of Mana), have won acclaim for writing big-screen-quality music for small-screen games. Uematsu, who composed the music for the popular Final Fantasy series (the games, not the movie), is also winning a substantial U.S. following - drawing raves from gaming magazines and teens learning to play his songs... Uematsu, a self-taught guitarist and keyboardist, writes while playing test versions of each game, getting "constant feedback" from the development team. But despite the high-tech aspects of his calling, he is inspired most when "surrounded by nature." Every morning the composer, who lives in Tokyo, walks along the river Tama with his dog Pao, musing on new ideas: "I feel a tranquil environment is necessary so that one can feel the slightest stirring of emotions."

Also, Nobuo has a quip that I think is worth mentioning in the podcast, he says ""What we are looking to create is not the perfect musical composition but a superb video game as a whole" - when all of those things get together, it puts a little bit of light into how he really unlocks the magic that all of us know and love.  Also, the website is in the shownotes if you want to check out the article.

http://www.time.com/time/innovators_v2/music/profile_uematsu.html

Okay, so let's hear some of the work this man composed.  This is the theme of Cid, the gruff pilot from Rocket Town - some serious heroic elements and Jeremy Robson works with this theme in his Philharmonic Suite, so listen up for that.  This is "Cid's Theme."

(CID'S THEME - 0:00 - 1:05)

THE MUSIC

Let's dig into the music. Earlier in the episode, we said that art director Yusuke talked about the game's atmosphere as "the darkest of darkest," and Nobuo's music mirrors this very well - this is by far the darkest game in the series with regards to music.  So, let's start with the Overworld Theme.

As said in previous episodes, the Overworld theme (or the music being played while one is walking on the world map) is most often the theme of the game.  This convention is true because the player will, more often than not, spend most of the game's time on the world map - I mean, hey, you have to get from one place to another, right? This is true AND the convention is true with Final Fantasy VII - the overworld theme is the theme of the game, this is "FF7 Main Theme"

(FF7 MAIN THEME - 0:00 - 3:10)

Okay, so what really draws the beauty out of this theme for us is a harmonic event in the first phrase that is dissonant to our ear, but then resolves to a note of the chord.  What I mean to say, is that composer intentionally jumps to a note that doesn't belong there, and then let's the note slide into place, and that makes our ear feel at rest.  Here's the part that I'm talking about:

(FF7 MAIN THEME - 0:51 - 0:56)

(sing example).  Nobuo writes a big leap for the strings in the melody, but the note at the top of that leap isn't in the chord, it's out of place - then, he resolves it, meaning that the note is now in the chord below it, making it sound pleasing to our ear.  This is our musical idea for the episode...

(MARIO CLIP)

The Appoggiatura.  An appoggiatura is what music theorists call an "accented dissonance."  In essence, it happens when the composer wants you to know that one note is seemingly out of place, so they put it on a really strong beat of the measure - usually beat one or beat three... in our case, it's on beat 1.  But then just as you realize it, he or she resolves it down to another note that fits into the harmony.  Let's hear that example one more time.

(FF7 MAIN THEME - 0:51 - 0:56)

If there was no appoggiatura there, it would sound like this...

(EXAMPLE)

Not as nice, so Nobuo piques our ear with that little bit of appoggiatura, awesomeness.

(FF7 MAIN THEME - 0:51 - 0:56)

Now, knowing that that sound is the real heart of the main theme, you hear it everywhere, especially in leading up to the first statement of the theme in our Overworld Music.

(FF7 MAIN THEME - 0:00 - 0:56)

He does it over and over again, just preparing the audience for the theme... absolutely spell-binding.  BUT, this is not the only piece that highlights the theme.  While most people will say that the theme of the game recounts or tries to explain the whole story involved, I don't think that that is the case with FF7.  More distinctly, I think that it follows Cloud and his inner struggles through the story with the general direction of thematic placement in the game (meaning, where the composer puts the theme in relation to the broader scope of the game) is very downward spiral, mirroring Cloud's psychological condition.  Listen for the theme in this one - this usually involves Cloud and his friend/love interest-ish... a girl named Tifa.  Whenever talking about Cloud's past, regarding a town called Nibelheim in particular, we'll hear this one, it's called "On That Day, Five Years Ago."

(ON THAT DAY - 0:00 - 1:15)

So that's "On That Day, Five Years Ago" and it highlights that thematic appoggiatura again, just kind of using that one phrase of theme in different ways.  While this next piece doesn't make use of a VGM "convention", perse, it still uses the music in a sensible way.  This is the airship music, called "Highwind Takes to the Skies" and is the theme in a more adventurous and epic way.  As Cid has a big part to do with the airship (which is not exceptional in the Final Fantasy series), it seems almost like the theme, but scored in a similar way to "Cid's Theme." Let's just play a little snippet of Cid's Theme to remind us what that's like.

(CID'S THEME - 0:00 - 1:00)

Okay, now "Highwind Takes to the Skies."

(HIGHWIND TAKES TO THE SKIES - 0:00 - 1:25)

Again, very awesome scoring of the theme, especially the rushing lines of the woodwinds and the call-and-response between the strings and brass, I love that.  Now, following that one, we have a piece that may not be directly "thematic", but the theme is shown in the harmony.  In other words, we can hear the theme by listening to what the chords are doing underneath.  We've heard this one before and it usually involves Cloud and Tifa, this is called "Anxious Heart."

(ANXIOUS HEART - 0:00 - 1:20)

Even if it isn't the theme, it's reminiscent of the theme, which is enough to remind the listeners.  The music is getting a bit darker with each piece we look at.  However, there are still some parts of pieces that I'm not playing simply because I can't legally play that much of the piece - for example, the "FF7 Main Theme" has a whole other B-section that is super dark, but I really want to talk about the theme, so I'm deciding not to play that part.  BUT, if the theme really does follow Cloud's descent into self-destruction, this piece is the final destination.  This is called "Who am I?" and it's very dark, in a minor, some alternating metre... very dark.  Composed by Nobuo Uematsu and from the Final Fantasy VII OST, this is "Who am I?"

(WHO AM I? - 0:00 - 0:30)

CHARACTER THEMES

Sorry it wasn't very long, but it's not a very long loop.  Now, while this may be "Cloud's Theme," he is not the only one to get a theme.  One of the most popular pieces of the entire Final Fantasy series is the theme of the leading lady, Aerith or Aeris.  To the best of my knowledge, this piece is played only once in the game and it is the saddest, most heart-wrenching scene that I have ever experienced in a video game.  GameSpy called this their Number 10 Most-Cinematic Video Game Moments in all of history, and the website to watch the video is in the shownotes... but I'm not going to tell you what happens.  For those of you really interested, the "Mad World" trailer of Gears of War was number one... hard to deny that, that's a sweet trailer.  This is "Aeris's Theme".

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/771/771937p4.html 

(AERIS'S THEME - 0:00 - 1:45)

The other leading lady of sorts is Tifa, who we meet very soon into the game.  She's the bartender at the headquarters of the terrorist group, Avalanche, this is her theme.

(TIFA's THEME - 0:00 - 1:45)

That was "Tifa's Theme," and alongside Tifa, we meet Barrett.  In fact, Barrett is the first character that we meet.  He's big, he's bad and he's got a machine built into his arm.  He's a bit reminiscent of Mr. T... or maybe like Samuel L. Jackson and Mr. T... just huge, but his heart is in the right place.  While we don't hear this tune very often in the game, this is "Barrett's Theme."

(BARRETT'S THEME - 0:00 - 1:20)

We've already heard "Red XIII's Theme" so we'll keep going.  The next character is this very large puppet that's controlled by one of the Shinra Executives.  His name is Cait Sith and Cloud refers to him as a "a bear wearing a marshmallow."  I suppose it's really a remote-controlled cat on top of a big white... marshmallow... this is "Cait Sith's Theme."

(CAIT SITH'S THEME - 0:00 - 1:10)

Just two more - the mysterious, gun-wielding animorph named Vincent is next... this is called "The Nightmare's Beginning..."

(THE NIGHTMARE'S BEGINNING - 0:00 - 1:20)

And the last theme for the playable characters is the annoying, shuriken-slicing, material-stealing ninja, Yuffie.

(DESCENDENT OF SHINOBI - 0:00 - 1:00)

Alright, there is one more character that I would like to talk about - in my humble opinion, the best villain in video game history - Sephiroth.  Electronic Gaming Monthly agrees with me, calling him the #1 of the Top 10Video Game Bosses, which is cool, because he deserves it.   Our analysis portion of the episode will not only talk about his music, but talk about him as a villain as well.

ANALYSIS

Sephiroth is the primary antagonist of Final Fantasy VII.  He has long, silver hair, is dressed in a long black cloak and wields a seven-foot katana called the Masamune.




ARRANGEMENT

Alright, the remix and final portion of our show is going to take a look at Sephfire's remix of Hollow Bastion and Destati from Kingdom Hearts.  You can hear the whole thing at OverClocked ReMix, which can be accessed at www.ocremix.org.  So right on, thanks for listening to the show and I hope that you dug and it learned some good video game music stuff.  Our episode today was on Yoko Shimamura's Kingdom Hearts and we discussed safety/danger state music as well as the concept of polythematicism.  In two weeks, we'll be hitting a score that a lot of people may not be familiar with, but they definitely should: Yoko Kanno's score to Uncharted Waters: New Horizons as well as talking about the influence of anime music on video game composition! Going to be amazing, one of my favorite video game pieces is from that soundtrack, so be sure to catch that one.

If you want to check out past shows or updates, you can always check the website at www.songofthefates.com and you can reach me at Kenley@songofthefates.com.  Right on, thanks so much for listening and here is Sephfire's "Above the Rising Falls," Have an awesome two weeks and see you then!

(CLIP)

(END)