Overview

December 21, 1988 was the day that gave birth to the release of the original score that pretty much shaped what we know and love today. Yes, I am talking about All Sounds of Final Fantasy I & II, Nobuo Uematsu's first album in the magical world of Final Fantasy. This soundtrack includes every piece featured in the games Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II, and pretty much marked the beginning of a very successful stream of soundtracks after. How did Uematsu fair on his first score for this beloved series? All shall be revealed.

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The soundtrack opens with some fairly decent synth work from Minoru Akao; "Welcome to Final Fantasy World" is an arrangement consisting of various key themes featured in the first game. Michiaki Kato takes the stage here and manages to capture the essence of the Final Fantasy world. This epic arrangement sets the scene for the grand adventure that follows.

The real Final Fantasy journey begins with the popular "Prelude" which is simple and fairly straight to the point. If you ignore the simplicity of the piece, you are forced to admit that it does remarkably well in capturing the mystic feeling of the game. The other simple themes featured in the first half of the disc like "City Theme," "Shop Theme" and "Menu Screen" are also charming and cute in their own way. Fans that are familiar with the themes featured in a lot of Final Fantasy soundtracks will relish in pieces like "Opening Theme," "Main Theme," and "Matoya's Cave."

A personal favourite of mine that is featured on the first half of this disc is "Sailing Shop," which consists of a very catchy tune, similar to the one featured in "The Floating Castle." This is really chip tune music at its best. To truly appreciate the melodies featured in this half of the disc you have to break down all the fancy synth you know today and go back to the basics. It certainly forces me to shift my head from side to side in glee, especially when I listen to the classic piece "Battle Scene," which is easily threatening. To create a threatening theme with the limited sound quality that the NES system had to offer is no easy task.

"Prelude" marks the opening of the second half of the soundtrack, which is dedicated to all the sounds of Final Fantasy II. This rendition of the "Prelude" theme sounds slightly different from the former version, which just goes to show how adaptable it really is. The second half consists of few battle themes; there's "Battle 1" which features a fast paced riff and a catchy tune, and "Battle 2," which is slightly more threatening and boss-like. The interesting thing about this battle theme is that it relies heavily on bass and fancy scales; a remarkable battle theme indeed!

Fans of Final Fantasy scores will be pleased to see the inclusion of "Rebel Army Theme" and "Main Theme," which were both featured in the Final Fantasy Symphonic Suite. Both themes are worthy of being crowned as the best themes on this album. "Main Theme" captures a very mysterious aura, similar to the one in "Magician's Tower" which also weaves a very mysterious feeling. Final Fantasy fans will also be happy to be able to listen to the very first version of the "Chocobo Theme," which is only 22 seconds short but captures the fun loving feeling that we all know and love.

The only gripe I have with the second half of this soundtrack is the amount of filler tracks included; "Dead Music," "Fanfare," and "The Revived Emperor" are prime examples. I feel they could have been dealt away with and more "unreleased tracks" could have taken their place; for example, the awesome "airship" theme which really makes the listener feel as if they are flying through white clouds with the breeze in their hair.

To mark the end of the second half, Michiaki Kato puts together a lovely arrangement of themes featured in the second half of the disc. The synth sounds very rich here and it is certainly a welcome change to the chip music we had heard before. Each track featured in this arrangement transitions nicely into the next.

Summary

To sum up, this album is a very special one, but it is certainly an acquired taste. You have to have the patience to sit through just over 50 minutes of pure chip tune music. The highlights of the soundtrack are of course the two key arrangements included. Of course the reason why fans would be attracted to this album is the fact that it was Uematsu's classy entrance into the world of Final Fantasy, and that his compositions on this album are very enjoyable. Ranging from cheerful melodies to dark and brooding ones, Uematsu gives birth to a range of themes that have really shaped what the Final Fantasy series is so well known for. I highly recommend it for Uematsu fans; you certainly will not be displeased. Indeed, if you prefer music with decent sounding quality I suggest you look at Final Fantasy Symphonic Suite! This features key themes from this album but performed by a live orchestra instead of the low quality sounding NES sound chip.

Overview

The Final Fantasy series is, at this moment, a veritable institution. It is the console RPG franchise with most worldwide success, even with people that are unaware of what an RPG is. But even veritable institutions have a beginning, and this series started with a humble game the success of which was probably not expected by anyone involved. One of those was Square's composer Nobuo Uematsu, whose score was one of the highlights of the game, and of course he, alongside most of the original team, was again involved in the sequel. Although a lesser success than the first one, Final Fantasy II was enough of a hit as to consolidate the series into a viable franchise, and its music into a staple of game scores. Eventually the soundtracks for both games, in all their unarranged chiptune glory, got released in this album.

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I just said it, but I will say it again: this is an album of chiptune music. Except for the two arranged pieces that bookend it, of course, but those are there mainly to add colour and variety and I don't consider them integral to the soundtrack, even if, aurally, they might be the most pleasant tracks (provided you have not developed an allergy for late 80s digital synths, and I assure you many people have). This poses a difficulty both for the composer and for the reviewer; for the composer because all he can work with are the purely structural elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, and so on, having a limited palette of timbres available, which means also that every piece must be distinct and noticeably different, as the common option of reusing a tune with a different instrumentation is not feasible. For the reviewer because he also cannot use instrumentation to describe the tracks, so no mentions of lush strings or pastoral flutes here. Hence why in this review I will have to go into discussion of chord progressions, harmonic structures, form, background textures, pitch ranges, tonalities and so on. Be warned that I am purely an amateur and a dilettante with respect to music theory, so the more musically trained among you might cringe from time to time with my descriptions, in which case I apologize most humbly.

To begin, I will try to find out what the very distinct two scores have in common and then I will try to explain how they are different from each other. Then I will comment briefly on how this music would influence the rest of the franchise, and finally I will give a detailed track-by-track review.

Among the common elements between the two soundtracks I can find a strong emphasis in melody (which is almost a given for old school chiptune music), most of them eminently hummable, usually built on common harmonic progressions and song structures. The influence is decidedly Western, both pop and classical. Most pieces are constructed in such a way as to make the looping of them sound natural, for example by avoiding the use of perfect cadences which would make it sound like the tune was landing and taking off continuously. The instrumentation is quite consistent, mainly using the two square wave channels of the NES sound module for melody and counterpoint or for melody and arpeggios, and the triangle wave channel for basslines or the occasional arpeggio; although the listener will hear that in the score for Final Fantasy II there are some small adventures in timbre, most relying in simple time-shifting effects to give melodies an eerie, cantabile ambience. The noise channel is not used and there are not any percussive sounds, so when an agitated or excited mood is needed the rhythmic elements are purely given by the bass lines and the chordal accompaniment.

However both scores are also very different from each other and the reason for it really boils down to one thing: the mood. It's a bit of a cliché to say that in the Nintendo era "the odd numbered Final Fantasies were gameplay oriented and the even numbered were story oriented", but it's true to an extent. Although the heroes of Final Fantasies I, III and V managed to save the world in the end, at times it was felt like your real purpose in life was to find new and exciting ways of gaining experience and make use of your character's job abilities. Just compare your parties in those games (which even in FFV really are a mostly non-changing quartet of blank slates) with the revolving door parties of very different characters in FFII, IV and VI. Musically this is true as well, as the comparison of the "happy-go-lucky" overworld themes of I, III and V with the moody overworld themes of II, IV and VI would quickly demonstrate.

Thus, the music of Final Fantasy, while serious (there's a line between "happy" and "goofy"), is mainly uplifting, quick-paced, and jubilant. In contrast, the music of Final Fantasy II is much more somber, melancholic, slow and oppressive. There are exceptions to both rules, of course, but even when our Final Fantasy II heroes are safely walking though a town, the music never let us forget that the world is in serious trouble; and when our players are deep into a dangerous dungeon, the music of Final Fantasy usually seems to highlight the bravery of our heroes while the music of Final Fantasy II sometimes gives a genuine sense of dread. Compare, if you wish, FFI's "Gurgu Volcano" with FFII's "Imperial Army Theme".

Thus, being the first two scores for the Final Fantasy series, and helping codify the two main moods the franchise would explore in the future, these had a deep influence in how the music for the series would develop. Aside from the obvious contributions, i.e. the recurrent themes like the Prelude, Final Fantasy theme, Chocobo theme, Victory fanfare, or battle music intro riff, some of the conventions followed here, while not exactly invented for these games, would eventually become defining traits. These include the overworld theme being used to convey the main mood of the game or storyline, the final dungeon's music designed to be as much as encouraging as it is dreadful, and the friendly towns and caves expressing how you're in a place that, while affected by the events taking place in the world, offers you the security that while you're there you have nothing to fear. From the basic foundation laid by these two soundtracks, the main evolution would come from increasing the particularization of the themes — different themes for important areas, characters, etc. which, although not present here, will slowly appear beginning already with the third game on the franchise (but that's another story which must be told in another time...)

A quick note about the presentation of the music on the CD. The chiptune tracks are mostly made to loop twice before fading out, and there has been a noticeable amount of reverb and equalization applied to make a slight simulated stereo sound (like those "electronically processed stereo" pop albums they issued in the Sixties), although it's subtle enough to not annoy the listener.

Summary

It's extremely difficult to give a final verdict on this album, since the very good points it has to offer, like memorable melodies and solid compositions, are a bit offset by its drawbacks such as the shortness of the tracks and the bad sound quality. However it is a very notable effort and a worthy opener for the subsequent offerings of Final Fantasy music — as such I am going to give it a moderate rating, to which you can safely add a point or two if you're willing to disregard its obvious aural hindrances. But, as far as NES chiptune soundtracks go, this is one of the very best.