Final Fantasy games are usually renowned for the stellar music accompanying gamers on their epic journey through these finely crafted worlds. Final Fantasy VII Remake has the advantage of rearranging already classic tunes for the return trip to Midgar. Composer of the original game, Nobuo Uematsu, contributed music to the new game along with Mitsuto Suzuki and Masashi Hamauzu.
The massive score covers a wide range of tunes from the 1997 PlayStation classic, but a few notable jams are missing. While it makes sense for most of the ten tracks below to sit this remake out, here’s hoping they receive new renditions in the sequels. These tunes are not only missing from the soundtrack, but they are not available on the juke box or during side quests. Their melodies are not referenced in other parts of the soundtrack, either.
10 Yuffie’s Theme
Should the sequel follow a similar path as the original game, Yuffie will be the next character the party encounters. This will probably be when gamers hear a new version of the thief’s playful theme. Maybe it seems odd for a ninja’s music to be a laid back jam consisting of a guitar and what sounds like a glockenspiel, but it fits in with her mischievous personality.
9 Cid’s Theme
The scientist with space aspirations who, for some reason, has the combat skills of a dragoon, does not come into play until some time after the party leaves Midgar. Space does not even factor into the plot until he comes along, so his cosmic-sounding theme would have felt out of place in the dirty Midgar slums. Once the theme does occur in a sequel, it will be a real treat to feel its grandiosity conveyed by an orchestra.
8 Rufus Welcoming Ceremony
Rufus Shinra only comes into play during the game’s final hours, and it is during one of the more dramatic moments. As such, this military-style march, which normally plays in Junon, would have felt incongruous.
Fans will have their chance to hear it once the party reaches Junon in the remake’s future installments. The city is so massive, it will be interesting to see how it looks on new hardware.
7 Fort Condor
Players regularly return to Fort Condor to help the workers and residents defend a nesting bird from the Shinra Corporation. Will the remake offer a similar tower defense minigame or will it find another way of telling this town’s story? Whatever the case, players will probably do something while a new rendition of this tune rings out.
6 The North Cave
This theme plays while approaching the Northern Cave in the original game, which is the final dungeon players traverse before the final encounters. Because it happens so late in the game, one would not expect to find it in the remake if the party spends all the time in Midgar. Even with the PS1’s sound chip, the dreary tones evoke a huge sense of dread. With the updated technology and live musicians, the feeling will probably be doubled.
5 Mining Town
While Barret is a huge part of the game from the beginning, players know little about his background during Final Fantasy VII Remake. He doesn’t even mention his hometown of Corel, which is where this subdued tragic tune plays.
After learning about the events which brought him to Midgar, one better understands why the second party member has such an undying hatred for Shinra.
4 The Nightmare Begins
This tune also doubles as Vincent’s theme, since it plays in the basement of the Shinra Mansion where he is recruited and during flashbacks of him and Lucrecia. The character had a hard life and bears a sorrow not even saving the planet will heal, and the melodramatic nature of the piece conveys this perfectly. One wonders if the remake will keep a similar arrangement or if more instruments will be added to flesh it out for an orchestra.
3 Attack Of The Weapons
The original game was one of the most ambitious projects undertaken in gaming at the time, and that still shows today. The massive set pieces involving Weapons, giant monsters birthed from the planet, demonstrate the impressive scale of the adventure. This piece of music, which normally accompanies a Weapon’s appearance, is nowhere in sight in Midgar.
2 Birth Of A God
A few tracks are special because they only play once during the entire campaign. “Birth of a God” is overshadowed by “One-Winged Angel,” but it is a solid accompaniment to the penultimate boss fight.
It is difficult to say if the final installment of the remakes will play out similarly, so it is up in the air whether or not players will receive a new arrangement of this exciting boss music.
1 Final Fantasy Theme/End Credits
The original game’s end credits roll over a tune which includes the original Final Fantasy theme composed by Nobuo Uematsu for the first game back in 1987. This melody is completely absent from the remake. Perhaps it states the remake’s ambition of not being apart of the Final Fantasy franchise, but instead being a whole new series of its own. After all, this remake might consist of anywhere between three and six games.
