Customer Reviews

Final Fantasy VII

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Where should I start, Well it was 1997 when my older cousin said let me show you a game. It was of course FFVII, I was BLOWN AWAY by the game. At the time I was 7 years old. I immediatly bought the game and played it straight through.

I always loved the music, it was one of the many fine elements of the game. Nobuo Uematsu did an amazing job with the music he is truly an amazing person, If I saw him walking down the street I would bow before him and kiss his shoes (I bet I'm not the only one who would do that).

Here I am now 15 years old just listened through all 4 (YES FOUR!!!) CD's (which I put on my iPOD. I was blown away, with each song I remember exactly what took place in the game and where I was and what I was doing.

Any fan of FF would love this but even people who never played the series would appreciate it, but if you have played the game straight through you can get the full effect of it.

The price you say may be high but lets do a little math here. All four CD's cost $29.18 now there are 85 songs. Divide and each song will cost about 34 cents, yes 34 cents. You buy songs on iTUNES for 99 cents. It's a great deal, I would pay $100 for this.

If you played FFVII BUY IT!!!!!!!!!If you havn't played FFVII buy the game, it's the best game ever screw Halo 2.

Rating: A+
The Final Fantasy series has always had the highest production values of any game series on the market, and part 7 does not stumble in the least bit, as overall this truly is one of the most memorable and classic soundtracks in the history of videogames. From the theme to Cosmo Canyon, to Sephiroth's theme each track is infused with well done melodies that compliment the overall aura of the game and bring you right back to the moment when you originally played this classic game. Nobuo Uematsu is a master musician and composer and has such a huge trackrecord of games that he has worked on that it was no wonder that he was the head of this project; what is amazing is that each track has such a different flavor to it and perfectly fits the mood of each scene in the game. For example, how can anyone of us forget the first time we saw Aeris die (sorry to spoil the plot, but come on now this game is like almost 10 years old), and how much of an impact that scene had on our life, and how it is burned in our memories to this day. Overall this is such a classic album spanning across four discs that no true hardcore FF fan should be without. This soundtrack will always be remembered as the first FF on PS1, that ushered in the cinematic era of videogames, and brought new meaning and emotions into the characters of the game.

I'm pretty sure that if you're reading this you haven't played FF7, because if you have you already know how incredible the music is. That said, for those who are unfamiliar with this game, Nobuo Uematsu's achievement as the composer of this music is no less than staggering. Far from being "kiddie tunes" to accompany a video game, Uematsu brings one of the most deep, rich video games ever made to life with a vastly epic soundtrack that borders on the symphonic. I was blown away in 1997, and continue to be today, both by the wealth of themes contained in Final Fantasy 7 and by their subtle yet undeniable interrelatedness. The soundtrack plays less like a collection of video-game music and more like an 85-movement suite, where each piece adds its own unique musical idea and flavor to the whole, "the whole" being a grand, immensely symphonic idea that staggers me with its complexity. In short, this soundtrack is a grand picture broken into 85 unique parts, and without it FF7, no matter how good the gameplay, would be collecting dust on store shelves worldwide. More than any other video game soundtrack, this collection elevated video game music from being something ten-year olds hummed to being a valid musical genre in its own right. For the Final Fantasy fans, I can say I feel this soundtrack tops the music from all the other Final Fantasy games out there; for the not-fans (or not-yet fans), I can say this soundtrack tops a lot of music out there, period. I would give this collection twenty stars if I could. Absolutely miraculous.

First thing, let me say that this is not the sort of music I would normally listen to, I mainly listen to Hip-Hop so this is a bit of a departure from that. I was familiar with the music because I am a massive fan of all the Final Fantasy games, in particular VII, which I view as the best game of all time. I had fond memories of all the music from the game particularly Jenova and Sephiroth's themes and the Weapon music, it was an amazing atmospheric soundtrack.

Fast forward to 2005 and while browsing the net, I find a fairly cheap copy of the soundtrack, decided to pick it up and didn't regret it at all. I instantly remembered nearly every song on here, and it brought back memories of certain events in the game, so much that I decided to play through the game again. Anyone who owns or owned Final Fantasy VII, and has great memories of the music should buy this, fantastic soundtrack to the greatest game.

The FF7 soundtrack is, hands down, the best game soundtrack out there. You might be worried about the ...price. You shouldn't; this masterpiece has 4 CDs with 85 songs. "One-Winged Angel" on disc 4 became an instant classic when it came out, and I haven't heard a song in a video game that can top it. I can't believe that anyone would not like this music, it's better than any movie soundtrack, it's got slow epic ballads and fast-paced, action-packed songs. I listened to the Final Fantasy VIII soundtrack, and I almost laughed, thinking that anyone would consider that even close to what's in FFVII. This is THE must-buy video game soundtrack, whether you like Uematsu's music or not (or even heard of the guy), whether you're a gamer or not. The first time I played Final Fantasy VII, I immediately realized how good the music was, and I'm sure you did too if you've ever played the game. This soundtrack is priceless to me, and ... is as good as price as any. I'd pay $100 for this, no kidding.

Wow, what a kick this soundtrack had. You had your pumping fast paced music in the Battle Themes. Of course you had the sad themes as well, such as Sephiroth's theme, Jenova and One Winged Angel, that almost brought a tear to your eye. What is amazing to me is the fact that this guy comes up with like 80+ tracks of stupendous music for every single Final Fantasy game. If I ever saw Mr. Uematsu walking down the street, I'd have to shake his hand. The music in Final Fantasy 7 crushed rivals when it came out, and still thrills me every time I hear the Jenova theme, and chills go down my spine when I hear One Winged Angel. The music itself is rivaled only by the game in which it is, play the game or listen to the music. Heh heh, we've come a long way from the simple blips and beeps of Space Invaders.

Final Fantasy VII (7) is, for those who do not know, a revolutionary game in that it was among the first to drop MIDI music in favor of "real" music, which was impossible on cartridge-based games. Harnessing the power of Sony's Playstation, the people at Sqaresoft had created a masterpiece, an interactive story in 3D rendered graphics, full cinema cutscenes, and an outstanding symphonic production.

All of the music is exactly as it's heard in the game, and as far as I can tell, it's in order of appearance (probably assuming the most direct way to complete the game while including all of the "hidden" areas such as getting the characters Yuffie and Vincent in your party (as their themes are included)). The music is a cross between classical, jazz, and techno music. The music is extremely diverse yet follows the mood of the game (interactive experience is a better way of putting it), and makes for excellent background music at a party with a medium-light to medium-fast environment. Also, if you have a computer and some kind of program that makes psychedelic enhancements based on the audio, it can be very interesting. Or if you just want to kick back, relax, and listen to some good music, you may enjoy it...

...but you're really only going to fully appreciate this album for what it is if you first play the game. The game came out in 1996 (I think) and you can get it for [a reasonble amount} on Playstation or Playstation2, and about the same price for PC. The game took me 2 months to get through as it is a very long game. However it is not difficult if you build up the characters and play it in character. And if you follow the story line, and you got the meaning from the ending, you're never going to think the same way about video games. If you've played the game, and you liked the atmosphere of the game, the soundtrack reflects it beautifully.

Oh, and one other thing. Another person said that he got stickers. Well, I got the CD and I didn't get stickers, so if you get stickers, great. I just got a standard double case (clear, nice) in a paper sheath with a booklet with color illustrations of the nine heroes from the game (no Sephiroth). The track list is in Japanese, but if you're reading this, you should see the track list above in English. Plus, if you drop it in your computer and you have CDDB, the tracks will be identified in English. What I want to know is what the Japanese paragraph says, which is opposite the in-game shot of the Mako cannon (the one they fire at Weapon towards the end in that awesome cutscene), or the text under the picture of Barrett holding Marlene in the church (a scene that also appears in the game manual, but Barrett never sees the church and to our knowledge, neither does Marlene (the little girl). Another thing that it does have is the rare introductory theme, which you can't even get on Peer-to-peer mp3 communities, so if you can download music, you can get some of the music here, and even some of the best, but never all of it.

If however you don't know what the story is about, if I wanted to, I couldn't tell you. It's like a movie like Dark City, where if you tell people what it's really about, you've given away the ending. More so than any other story I have read, seen, experienced, or whatever, FFVII is a story of life, death, love, hatred, revenge with so many things going on it is more the intertwining stories of ten people than a huge story with a lot of subplots. Final Fantasy VII is truly one of the great advancements of the past decade not only in technological achievement, but in the way stories are told and in the realm of "video game music." If you played the game and didn't like it, you probably didn't get it.

Bottom line: If you've played the game and liked the music, get this. If you've never played the game, go get the game and come back here when you've completed the game.

I have played every FF from FFIV to FFX and even other FFs, like the Legends (Saga) II and III, and Tactics. None of them come close to the musical score come close to VII, other than VI and VIII. FFVII stands above these two. There is everything here. There are moments of action, deep emotion, and just plain brilliant compositions.

Disc 1 starts of with the best version of the Prelude. It has three great chracter themes, the opening: bombing mission, Shinra Company, Still More Fighting, Anxious heart and other wonderful songs.

Disc 2 is also very good. The Main theme is the greatest world map theme ever. "Chasing the black caped man" is really nice, along with the awesome fast paced "J-E-N-O-V-A." Rufus' Welcoming ceremony is really cool (it has the drumroll from the 20th century fox fanfare in the middle). Though not as good as the first CD.

Disc 3 is outstanding. It starts out with Cosmo Canyon- one of the best songs Uematsu ever made. "Those Chosen by the Planet" is an ingenious villian theme. Cid's and Aeris' theme are the best Character themes ever (along with Terra's theme)."You Can hear the Cry of the Planet" is beautiful and mysterious. Excellent CD.

Disc 4 is the best. "Shinra wages full scale attack" is a great miltaristic theme (like the ones in FF8). "Highwind" theme is very grand. "Sending a Dream into the universe" is a another great song. "Judgment day" is one of the best "final stage" themes ever. The big three boss battle songs are some of the best: "Jenova absolute" is incredibly well orchestrated, "Birth of God" is cool and mostly techno, and "one winged Angel" is the best final boss theme ever (These three are like a divided equivalent of "Dancing mad"). Finally "World Crisis" is "Staff Roll" (like "Ending theme" from FFVI) are a magnificent finish to a magnificent soundtrack and game.

FFVII has the best score. Right under it, I put FFVI and FFVIII. FFVI is a an all time favorite as well as its soundtrack, but I prefered this one. Now, FFVII is the greatest. It's a classic too.

All of the Final Fantasy games have good music, but it wasn't until FFIV or FFVI that people started to take notice. With FFVII, Nobuo Uematsu continues his tradition of brilliant RPG-music.

The soundtrack consists of 4 discs and a total of 85 tracks. However, the booklet that comes with the soundtrack does not have any of the track titles translated, which means you're going to have to listen to all of them before you find the one you're looking for. But on the bright side, the tracks are presented in the order in which they appeared in the game. So if you're looking for "One-Winged Angel" (where you fight Sephiroth for the last time), that will be on Disc 4, towards the end. Likewise, if you're looking for "Crazy Motorcycle" (when Cloud and Co. are up in the Shinra building), that will be on Disc 1, towards the end. Let me give one final tip: Take a black pen and put a little dot or mark near the tracks that you like, that way you don't have to listen to the whole disc to get to the song you like.

Disc 1 has a lot of good music on it, and although most of it is repetitive, it does a good job of setting the mood--and it brings back memories.

Disc 2 doesn't have quite as many good tracks, but it is still worth listening to. One of my favorite tracks on Disc 2 is "J-E-N-O-V-A". The way Jenova looked in the game reminded me of some of H.P. Lovecraft's writings, as he often wrote about strangely twisted creatures from space. The music works well both ways, whether you're playing FFVII or reading Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror".

Disc 3 is also like disc 2--not a whole lot worth listening to. However, I will say this: While listening to this soundtrack, I often come across songs that I don't remember being in the game--or I remember them differently. There are several such songs on this disc and this soundtrack.

Disc 4 has some of my favorite songs, such as the Airship theme, Ending theme, and, of course, "One-Winged Angel". At first it might seem that the people in the background are singing some nonsense words, but if you do some research, you'll find the Latin lyrics to the song. Knowing the lyrics by heart really adds to one's enjoyment of it.

This soundtrack may not be as good overall as FFVI, but it is still most certainly something every serious FF-gamer should have in their RPG-music library.

For those of you who don't know what the big deal with Final Fantasy is- go out and buy FFVII. Play it once alll the way through, and you will understand not only why so many people are fans of the game series, but also why so many people went out and bought the soundtrack. From "Prelude" on disc one all the way to "Staff Roll" on disc four, this soundtrack is just awesome. I myself prefer "Those Chosen By The Planet" on disc three- which is most associated with Sephiroth, the main villian of the game. However, the only downside to the set is that it does not have an orchestrated version of "A One-Winged Angel", from the second fight with Sephiroth on the last disc. That having been said, on a whole I have to say that if you are a fan of Final Fantasy VII and love the music, buy the soundtrack. You won't regret it