Screenshot of the Japanese version of FF4, wherein Cecil and Kain face off against the Mist Dragon, without knowing its true, tragic identity.
The king has assigned us a new task: bring this package to Mist with no questions asked, and also to rank these six songs. A very reasonable request, I think. Let's hope we don't have to murder anyone's mother on the way there...
FINAL FANTASY IV Original Soundtrack:
The Ranking
Battle 1
When people talk about the iconic bass riff from Final Fantasy, nine times out of ten they are thinking of this song. One of the truly classic battle themes, Uematsu uses the jump to 16-bit to add some real percussion to his battle themes and also one of the slickest bass lines. Honestly, just try to isolate the bass part and listen to that, it's such a clean slap-bass sound and it's playing all over the relevant chords, the variance is fantastic, and at the end of the loop when the rest of the instruments hit their crescendo, the bass is just a straight drone to add some stability as the song blows up. Just perfect.
OK, so that's one instrument, what about the rest of them? The suite of blaring horns really stand out to make this a much more triumphant-sounding battle theme, which I actually like. Now that we always have a boss theme, it's nice for the regular battle theme to be less dangerous and intense—we already know Cecil and co. are going to wipe the floor with these goblins, after all. And still, we have the classic break down at the end of the loop that does resolve some of that battle theme tension, so he was really hitting on cylinders here.
Just a fantastic battle song from start to finish, I still prefer "This Is The Last Battle" but only just, we're starting off this game's battle themes on a high note (not literally).
Ranking: 8/95
Fanfare
It's our classic victory song again, but this time it has a hot new name! That's right, from now on this is our fanfare, not to be confused with the previous games' fanfare which played when you found a key item. Anyway, with more audio channels, we get a nice added flourish with the horns and a galloping drum rhythm, but it's still basically the same song as in FF3 but with more instrumentation.
Ranking: 25/96
Enter Fat Chocobo!
I always forget that there's a chocobo forest right outside of Baron for some reason. Anyway, welcome back to our Fat Chocobo theme from FF3. The extra instrumentation means that now we get a bass trombone sound in case we didn't get that it's funny that the chocobo is fat. Look I'm not going to harp on too long about this, it was 1991, but you don't need to become inspired by A&W commercials.
Anyway, it's the same as before, basically, a silly little interlude with a nicer arrangement.
Ranking: 64/97
Chocobo Chocobo
Our new arrangment of the chocobo theme remains very similar to the FF3 version, though there's a nice jazzy rhythm to it this time and the addition of a dedicated bass track really makes the whole song pop. All that said, it's still just a new version of the song that was in FF3, and I am really looking forward to the different styles that Uematsu will experiment with in the future.
Ranking: 27/98
Into the Darkness
Our first dungeon theme in FF4 is a mysterious waltz through (primiarily) dark caves, see-sawing strings lead us into the main melody. Appropriately, it first plays in the Mist Cavern, and the main melody twists and swirls like the mists surrounding the party. Not as dark or dramatic as many previous dungeon themes, I appreciate the tone of delving into a mysterious, unknown cavern. Great mood setting, which also creates an incredible contrast when we arrive at our next track...
Ranking: 23/99
Battle 2
The platonic ideal of a Final Fantasy boss theme—there's a reason they chose this song to insert into Super Mario RPG—this is one of the series' best boss themes. Remember when I said that "Battle 1" was successful because it was more about triumph over the speed bump enemies? Well this one is the exact opposite: it's successful because this theme makes the battle sound urgent and deadly right from start.
We still open with the FF battle bassline at a slightly higher tempo, but it's followed immediately by a swell of strings playing a high-pitched minor key passage while staccato horns bop in support. The strings give a sense of something otherworldly approaching, and then we have a slow descent into nothing; a measure or two of just bass and drums before the strings take up the same melody again for a second verse, as though the enemy you face is unrelenting.
Luckily, the next section gives us a reprieve as the strings take a backseat and the horns take the lead, symbolizing our party fighting back against their foe. The bass goes crazy here as everything explodes into a triumphant crescendo and we restart the whole thing again.
I love this song because it's intense, it's such a fun mix of rhythm, instrumentation, and dynamics. But mostly I love it because it tells a great story, of facing a truly deadly foe, standing toe-to-toe with it, and eventually finding a way to triumph over it. Unfortunatley for us, in this specific case, we are beating the crap out of Rydia's mom. Oops...
Ranking: 4/100