Mixtape: Best of Final Fantasy

Hi there and welcome to my newest Mixtape. Today I'm paying homage to my favourite video game series and also my favourite game series in terms of original soundtracks, Final Fantasy. Music naturally is very important to a video game; it creates atmosphere and sucks you even further into the game's world. Final Fantasy music does more than that though.

Now before I get into this Mixtape, I just want to talk about the work I've done on Final Fantasy in the past. I have twice before already paid homage to my favourite video game series before. I first did an article called "Why I Want a Final Fantasy VI Remake", which you can read here. I wrote that just over a year ago and it was quite well received, even if people didn't agree with me. My second piece of work was my personal "Top 50 Final Fantasy Characters" listing, which was around two months solid of paying homage to what I think are the best characters in the series. I've also reviewed in the past some of the games, some of these reviews are very old and my writing style wasn't as good back in those days, but you can still read them if you wish. From earliest written review to most recent, I've reviewed Final Fantasy IX six years ago, VI, VIII and X five years ago, and XII three years ago. In the future I will review XIII and XIII-2 when it comes out, but it's not something I want to do at the moment.

Back onto the Mixtape. The best thing about the Final Fantasy series, which is now 24 years old, is the fact that they have certain continuous themes that have been used in nearly every game. There are two themes that are usually used either as the beginning or end of the game. The first is called "Final Fantasy", and this song is considered the official theme of the game series. It's in every single main title in the series, apart from II, X and XIII. The other is called "The Prelude", and is used in some context in all fourteen main titles. There are other themes that are used often in the series too, like the "Fanfare", which is usually played after the victory of a battle, and the "Chocobo" theme, usually played when catching a chocobo, riding a chocobo or just doing anything chocobo related.

If you're not familiar with my Mixtapes, here's what a Mixtape is...

A Mixtape is a playlist of a certain genre, band or era. The list is generally 80 minutes long, the same length of a blank CD, with further recommendations if some of the songs aren't to your taste. Remember kids, downloading is wrong!

So, below is my favourite songs in the Final Fantasy series. Yes I'm biased to my favourite games, VI, VII and IX, but there's a decent variety here. I've included my favourite "Prelude", favourite "Final Fantasy" theme, favourite random battle theme, favourite "Fanfare" and my favourite boss battle theme. The other songs are either my favourite "big boss" battle themes, or just my favourite songs from particular games. It's a good list, it has a good variety. One last thing, some titles have many variances in terms of what the track is actually called, so I've tried to use the official title, and then list other titles too. 

So the format is, the song title, then in brackets what game the song is from, and then bracketed in italics is the other known titles if appropriate. Enjoy the list!

Also, this Mixtape is now available to listen to fully on YouTube so subscribe to me if you want to listen to it properly. 

1. Final Fantasy - (XII)
2. Liberi Fatali - (VIII)
3. Battle - (VI) (Battle Theme)
4. Victory Fanfare - (VI) (Fanfare)
5. Vamo' Alla Flamenco - (IX)
6. Cait Sith's Theme - (VII)
7. Red Wings - (IV) (The Red Wings)
8. Turks' Theme - (VII) (The Turks)
9. Mystery Sword - (IX)
10. Those Who Fight Further - (VII) (Still More Fighting, or Fight On!)
11. Terra's Theme - (VI) (Terra)
12. Electric De Chocobo - (VII)
13. Quina's Theme - (IX)
14. Slam Shuffle - (VI)
15. Snow's Theme - (XIII) 
16. Shadow's Theme - (VI) (Shadow)
17. Heart of Anxiety - (VII) (Anxious Heart)
18. Sulyya Springs - (XIII)
19. You're Not Alone! - (IX)
20. Otherworld - (X)
21. The Darkness of Eternity - (IX) (Dark Messenger)
22. Maybe I'm a Lion - (VIII)
23. One-Winged Angel - (VII)
24. The Prelude - (VII) (Prelude)

Don't like some of these songs? Here are five alternatives:

1. Black Mage Village - (IX)
2. Aerith's Theme - (VII) (Aeris' Theme)
3. Vivi's Theme - (IX)
4. Magitek Research Facility - (VI) (Devil's Lab)
5. Steiner's Theme - (IX)

Well, that's my Mixtape! I hope you like it. These Mixtapes are a lot of fun for me as I create my own personal custom playlists and it gives yourselves an opportunity to play them too. That's it from me today, my next video game related piece of work is most likely going to be my review on Resident Evil 4 HD, but that'll probably be next week sometime. I'll be back in the next few days with football live thoughts more than likely. Until next time, take care.

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