The final battle against Emperor Mateus, returned from Hell in his demonic form. He canonically defeated Satan for his power, which I think is neat.
For this game, I listened to FINAL FANTASY II (Original Soundtrack), but two of the songs were missing for some reason ("Waltz" and "The Princess's Seduction") so listen to those on YouTube:
We're not quite able to finish the album this week, as there are a couple of very short songs remaining, but we will defeat the Emperor, and we will talk about Swan Lake, so let's get right to it.
The Ranking
Tower of the Magi
We arrive at the Tower of Mysidia (no, not that one), which holds the final spell Ultima, a first appearance for the series. A mystical wizard's tower, the music is somehow playful and foreboding at the same time with a lovely sliding melody. Pay special attention to the bass channel here, it's very nice and poppy with some fun variations. Great dungeon track in a game chock full of them, and so it doesn't quite set itself apart.
Ranking: 14/31
Escape!
Our first of many escape/hurry/run songs in this series, this one is nothing to write home about. Featuring a fast tempo but only two chords in the progression, it's not supposed to play for long as the Dreadnought explodes around you. Still, it's not a great track, we'll get much better rushing music later on.
Ranking: 27/32
Ancient Castle
Can't place exactly why, but this song really reminds me of Shovel Knight, maybe it's just very similar to the style. Anyway, this song is good, another solid dungeon song with a nice hook at the beginning of the loop. It appropriately evokes the sense of a bygone era as you seek out the last living dragon. Not a standout, but I'm not mad about it.
Ranking: 17/33
Dungeon
Ironically, the weakest dungeon theme in the game is the one named "Dungeon". It has some eerie sounding slides followed by an attempt to escalate the tension that doesn't really work for me. The little scales that play between the main sections sound out of place and I think less would have been more.
Ranking: 24/34
The Emperor's Rebirth
This is another nothing kind of song, very similar to "Revival". In fact, the similarity is what makes me like it more, because I really do see this as sharing that song's motif. Structurally, these two songs are almost identical, arpeggiated chords with a forward momentum repeating ad nauseum, only the Emperor's version is in minor key and has one additional chord.
Thematically, on the other hand, they songs are really mirrors of each other: at the very beginning the Emperor sends his guards to slay Firion and friends, and only through a revival by Rebel healers does he make it as that song plays. Later, Firion slays the Emperor who then fights his way out of hell, and as he is reborn, this song plays. It sets up our main protagonist and antagonist as foils to each other, which I can sort of see but I'm not sure the game's script does anything with.
Still, it's interesting to think about! And it warrants a slightly higher ranking, I think.
Ranking: 32/35
Battle Theme 2
Our first boss/final boss track in Final Fantasy! Fun fact: this song is not just the final boss theme, it was also originally used for the major late-game bosses such as the Behemoth and everything afterwards leading to the Emperror. Which is kind of a shame, I think it would have been so exciting to get to the final boss and hear this for the first time.
But how is the song, you ask? Well, we have a new best battle theme in Final Fantasy, that's how good. The song starts so strong with these slides rising in pitch and increasing in tempo until the song drops into the chaos of a climactic battle. I really love the driving bass note in the intro (yes, just one, repeated very effectively). The main section of the song is off-putting in melody and rhythm, I love the "trumpet" blasts that repeat in a slowly fading echo, and the second channel is really going all out with flourishes throughout the song, really pulling out all the stops here. Finally, we have a wild staccato rhythm and circling arpeggios that evokes Hell itself and we loop back to the beginning.
This might be Uematsu's most complex composition thus far, really intricate with a lot of detail in every section. I've already been clear how much I loved the FF1 battle theme, but this is showing us that he has the technical ability to back it up, a real sign of what's to come. I'm not sure if readers are listening along to the tracks as they go through my rankings, but if not, please give this one a listen; it's not one of the more commonly referenced FF songs, but it's a real gem.
Ranking: 2/36
Victory
Yay, we won! Time to run across the screen! Not much has changed here, all we have is a kind of weird fake panning effect on the last note of the melody, which I don't really care for. Still a classic, but not really much different at all.
Ranking: 17/37
Finale
Starting with our "Revival" motif once again, we follow with an unhurried melody that mostly repeats. Not the most interesting tune either, with a few sudden shifts in pitch that add a bit of variety, the accompaniment is simple but it works. We have a very soft return to the FF1 song "Town", which was also featured in the ending of that game. It's just not a particularly exciting composition, which kind of matches the game's ending which is just one page of text and then credits. Sometimes an ending can be a bit mid, unfortunately.
Ranking: 25/38
Waltz
Reminder: This song is not in the digital OST, so go find it on YouTube if you want to hear it.
Anyway, I was worried we wouldn't have a waltz in this one at first, but remembered this little scene after the first time you defeat the Emperor. It's a cute little tune that accompanies some sprites dancing, something we will revisit time and again in this series, but with some more interesting compositions. Perfectly fine, and a rare example of an upbeat song in this OST.
Ranking: 21/39
The Princess's Seduction
At one point, the princess of Fynn is revealed to be a fake and attempts to seduce Firion before they eventually defeat her. For some reason, the song for this scene is an 8-bit rendition of "Scène – Swan Theme" from Tchaikovsky'sSwan Lake (this is almost assuredly the song you know from that ballet). It's pretty enough, given the limitations, and it marks the first time Uematsu takes a classical composition and puts it into an FF game, a trait that will continue for the next few games at least. I do like how they used the two audio channels to add some depth to the melody but there's not a ton here.
Ranking: 36/40
Those are our ten songs for the week, join us next time when we wrap up the rest of the FF2 OST (just two very short tracks) and kick off FINAL FANTASY III.