We arrive in Kozus only to find everyone has been cursed by the evil Jinn and they are all just 2D outlines. Please be assured: while I'm playing the Pixel Remaster, I am listening to the NES OST.
This week's music is a land of contrasts. We have some pretty poor showings in here, but we also have some really high highs. A new Worst Song is proclaimed! Chaos Shrine has finally fallen out of the Top 3! But what song was great enough to usurp it? Well, you probably won't be surprised, actually.
Also, a minor note, but I've also updated The Ranking to show the full ranking in a table formant now, including the original game that the song appeared in, to reduce confusion when a song title appears in multiple games. Shoutout to Chi for the recommendation!
For this game, I listened to the FINAL FANTASY III (Original Soundtrack), here are the relevant links:
FINAL FANTASY III (Original Soundtrack):
The Ranking
Jinn, the Fire
Arriving at the next town you realize quickly somethint odd is happening here. Partly because everyone seems to be a 2D outline of a human walking around, but also thanks to this song. Some bass beeps and boops and the odd staccato pluck set to an off-putting rhythm set the tone, and a tight little riff plays into the next loop. Sets the tone well, but not the most interesting for a “weird” song.
Ranking: 35/51
The Dungeon
The 80s console RPG scene — especially in Japan — is synonymous with Dragon Quest, its influence looms so large. Final Fantasy was an attempt to join in on the console RPG boom but with a different flavour of high-fantasy. Uematsu was mostly up to the challenge, striking a very different sound for the series most of the time.
But I can’t listen to this song without thinking that it is interchangeable with a DQ dungeon theme (especially the DQIII dungeon track). It is suitably eerie and tense, but not in the FF way of having a bit more variety and tempo. To some degree I think the FF2 dungeon theme also suffered from this, but not quite as much. Luckily, many of the dungeons in this game have their own tracks and don’t lean on this one too much.
Ranking: 41/52
Return of the Warrior
This upbeat triumphant march greets you upon returning to Sasune castle, victorious. This is the first of this kind of song in the series, which overwrites the town theme with a celebratory tune, and it’s a bop! You can almost hear the horns that the NES soundchip is trying to evoke, the channels are layered together so well. I’m actually surprised this hasn’t been re-used in FF14 given how much FF3 music shows up there.
Ranking: 15/53
The Way to the Top
Criminally underused song. It really feels as though you’re rising to the challenge, attempting to do something impossible, and it’s mainly just used as the song when you’re standing on an airship, and also for Dragon’s Peak, which is a one-room “dungeon.” That’s not the song’s fault, though, and I love the rhythmic bassline accompanying the bright melody. It also sounds like it could just belong in a Pokémon game without much changing?
Ranking: 20/54
Cute Little Tozas
Another adorable song, in a game that actually features a lot of these. The cuteness of the Final Fantasy series is in full force here. This one plays when you visit Tozus, the village of dwarves. The instrumentation doesn’t do this song any favours, we’re really straining against that NES sound chip here. But the main melody is silly and airy in the best way, and the song achieves what it means to (be very weird in a very weird town).
Ranking: 26/55
Shrine of Nept
This is a weird one because the song is mostly fine; I think the bass is a bit too high-pitched and it sounds a little off, but otherwise, it’s a tense dungeon crawling song. The issue is that it doesn’t match the game? Like this is a dungeon where you have to shrink down to squeeze into a statue’s eye and fight a giant rat. Kind of a nothing boss but the song is so serious, it just doesn’t fit.
Ranking: 34/56
Sailing Enterprise
This is very reminiscent of the FFI sailing theme, even if melodically it’s completely different. The opening notes hit, and I love the way the bass is playing all over the scale, but the melody doesn’t hit. Good at what it does but not great.
Ranking: 30/57
Living Forest
Oh god this song is so boring. Such a waste of this game’s waltz (yes, it sounds 6/8 to me, but that can still be a waltz). I would have cursed the elder tree as well if I had to listen to the same three notes over and over with a key change halfway through. Luckily, there’s very little in-game reason to hang around here.
Ranking: 58/58
Time Remains
Now we get a very good town song. Played when you meet the various wise men of the continent (the Gulgans and the Ancients), you get to learn all about the game’s lore to this music, and it fits right in. I love the dual melodies here, they complement each other so well. I could imagine this song playing during a text crawl lore drop, so it’s fittingly used here. It brings a sense of calm as a good town song does, but also contains an air of mystery, of a bygone age. Perfect fit and great tune.
Ranking: 9/59
Chocobos!
Ahhhhhh, finally. After suffering through the pain of half a chocobo song in Final Fantasy II, we arrive at the song fully formed, the beautiful melody we all know and love. It is crazy how much adding a little bridge just completely overhauls the song’s texture, it feels complete where the previous version was just a sketch. It’s fun, it’s delightful, and it has a lot of expressiveness in its final phrase. Every version of this song will burrow its way into your brain and you’ll be humming it for hours, but this was ground zero.
Ranking: 3/60
That's all for today, join us next time as we tackle some fun, liquid-based compositions, including our first ever "regular" boss battle theme in the series!