The announcement of these classic Final Fantasy-themed music boxes...um, a full five months before their actual release date, for some reason, really delighted me yesterday. A little candy-colored crystal thing that plays a sweet version of a classic FF tune. What a neat thing to have! Man, I wonder what they're doing for FF4...
...*sigh.* I don't know why "Theme of Love" has become such an unassailable standard-bearer for the FF4 OST. Such a whiny song. Fits a whiny character.
(I know they're going for bittersweet, memorable, emotional tracks given the music-box medium, but the main overworld theme is the epitome of that for me. Just transcendent beauty and sadness. It is a crying shame that we're not getting a music box of that tune.)
(...And on the note of great crimes against music: I just loaded up the FF4 overworld theme on YouTube to listen to it again after typing that paragraph, and one of YouTube's suggestions - lower on the list than the original, thankfully - was the Pixel Remaster version of the track. Wondering how that turned out, I gave it a click...and some marketing genius who had never heard music before decided that the composition would be vastly improved by adding a Muzak record scratch by way of Silent Hill every other second. Square's modern handling decisions regarding its classic properties keep on winning.)
Maybe it's better just to go with the classic among classics. I assume that the "Opening Theme" is the composition that goes with that image, but given the developments above, I should know better to assume.
Like Locke usurping the spotlight from any character with two X chromosomes, "Searching for Friends" has gradually been replacing "Terra" as FF6's main theme in recent years. It's not a travesty like the constant paeans to Locke's ego, but I think "Terra" is still better, one of the great FF tracks, evocative, mysterious, sad, and adventurous, with a strong melody throughout. "Searching for Friends" is no slouch, and its tone of fledging, tenuous hope is perhaps more thematically representative, but the second half kind of goes nowhere.
I do have to say, though, that "Terra" gains a lot from its instrumentation, so maybe "Searching for Friends" was the right call here.
(Why is this box burnt umber? The FF4 one is the color of coal, but it deserves it.)
The obvious and probably correct choice here. After listening to the OST again yesterday, though, I have to note that "Pirates Ahoy" wouldn't have been bad, either. A bit specific in focus, but it would have meant more Faris, so who cares.
I'm not complaining about "Home, Sweet Home," but: "Dear Friends" would have also been worthy. There's a really satisfying sense of emotional closure with that song that I don't think any other FF track touches.
I wasn't going to do FF2, even though I've played a good chunk of it, but I loaded this theme up for laughs, not even remembering what it sounded like, and: Not a bad choice. ...Well: it's a memorable track, a memorably weird track, but most of that weirdness comes from the reverb of the lead synth. I think that a lot of its mystic flavor is going to be lost in a music-box translation and that it might sound rather plaid. Also: extremely short.
I still haven't played FF3. I listened to this track. It doesn't seem to go anywhere. The start resembles that of the FF2 selection, actually. Certain elements of it wouldn't be out of place in a racing game. It has no strong melody, though, and that's speaks poorly of it as both a classic FF track and as music box fodder. Doesn't speak well for the FF3 OST if this were the brightest light to cull for it.
