VIII is a weird game. Everything about it is weird. The plot is weird, the gameplay is weird, the world is weird, the characters are weird, and of course, the sounds are weird. They’re unique! Like VII, VIII has a very distinct sound, and I love it. I love VIII for all of its strangeness. I think out of the 3 PS1 games, it’s not my Favorite soundtrack, but it’s fucking Final Fantasy. There’s literally not a bad soundtrack in this entire goddamn series. This shit is B tier AT WORST. Let me tell you about my favorite songs, as I love to do, and you can judge me silently in your transparent gray textboxes if you so wish.
5. Silence and Motion
This is a silly song; I love how silly it is. It’s perfect for a silly future city ruled by a very silly man. This starts by feeling very strange and cautious, probably like how you would feel if you entered a random futuristic city in the middle of an icy wasteland - and then the circus music starts? and it makes you feel like, oh actually this place is good? Then it speeds up. You feel a sense of rush. A silly sense of rush, but a sense of rush regardless. And Boom, the fuckin super speedy xylophone kicks in, and this song sounds like a busy city, with people running around, it SOUNDS like what a busy news station would sound like. That’s my favorite part right there.
4. Blue Fields
bum bum BUM BUM bum bum bum bum BUM BUM. Going from a silly song into a fun song. Fun, yet also calming. Blue Fields is the perfect name for this song, because to me, the main instrument in the melody reminds me of water? This might be an insane person take but like it sounds like a pool looks to me. But not like a community pool I mean like a classic backyard pool with the good blue siding. I’m rambling worse than I usually do. I do not get sick of listening to this song while walking across the overworld, and it is very important for an overworld song to be something you are not going to get sick of, cause you’re going to be ALWAYS listening to it.
3. Balamb GARDEN
This song sounds like a school. This is a song of LEARNING. And like sure it’s a school where you’re learning to be a child soldier but like who cares this is an AMAZING song for where it plays. It feels like school, but it also feels like home (it is home!). I love the strange piano sound it has (again, FFVIII has a very unique sound and I love it for that) and then you get the odd flute/wind instruments as well. As I was starting this list, I was expecting me to put a lot more battle themes, but it turns out I love the overworld themes a lot more than I thought??? Anyways, let’s immediately throw that thought away and go into:
2. The Extreme
Here’s the battle music. The final battle music even. This song starts out so cool, giving you the same FITHOS LUSEC WECOS VINOSEC “motif” that has been spread through a few points throughout the game, and a somber piano opening before going full into the actual meat of the song, which is INCREDIBLY COOL SOUNDING. It’s all like, awesome fuckin synth instruments and a high energy melody and backing that pumps you up as a final boss theme should. I love the part where the synth goes ham up and down the scale towards the middle of the song, and then of course there’s the part where it slows down and brings in the choir reminding you of almost like, the core of what this encounter is, against a magic wielding sorceress (who I swear the translation should have been witch but whatever!!!). Banger song.
1. Force Your Way
Honest to god contender for best normal boss theme in the whole series (VI might have it beaten out by a slight margin). I LOVE the intro so much; the organ and the heavy string hits building up the atmosphere with the little bwoodooloodooloodoo in the back going into the sickest synth melody you’ve ever heard in your goddamn life. Throw in a little heavy MIDI guitar and you’ve got the hypest moment of your life. I can imagine Uematsu had a LOT of fun crafting this one for the game, this is easily the pinnacle of how unique FFVIII’s sound is and I hope I’ve beaten you over the head with this fact that I’ve made enough. This song should make you feel like you should pick up that Yamaha keyboard your family has sitting in the basement and you should fiddle with it for At Least Like 2 Hours.
Honorable mentions this time go to The Man With The Machine Gun, Maybe I’m a Lion, Fisherman’s Horizon, The Castle, and water and water and water water (Don’t Be Afraid)
