The Final Fantasy series has been renowned for excellent soundtracks since back in the 8-bit era. So it’s really no surprise that Square Enix would release a game like Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy. Despite hitting the streets in Japan back in February, it has only recently been announced for Western release.
There are five songs from each Final Fantasy available right from the start — as well as an additional 12 unlockable songs. Moreover, even though it’s a 3DS game, Theatrhythm has been steadily gaining new songs via paid DLC since its Japanese release in February. Currently 16 of a proposed 50 DLC songs have been released. Even though they’ve done an excellent job of grabbing most of the best Final Fantasy tracks, there are still many songs that have yet to appear. So here are five songs that absolutely deserve to be released as part of the remaining DLC.
Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy was released in Japan on February 16, 2012 and is scheduled for release in NA and PAL territories this summer. Check out the five songs that need to be on the remaining DLC in the gallery above.
Liberi Fatali
By far the most obvious song yet to appear in Theatrhythm is “Liberi Fatali” from Final Fantasy VIII. Played during the introduction CG movie, this song is only second to “One Winged Angel” in popularity. Moreover, the song serves as the underlying theme to several other songs in the game’s soundtrack. Something tells me that they are saving this as the kicker and it will be released as the final DLC song. I can’t believe it might be forgotten.
1000 Words
Now before you react with “Hey! That’s from X-2 and only I to XIII are in Theatrhythm!” know that the DLC already includes songs from Type-0 and XIII-2. And if those songs are fair game, so is this. While X-2 has two vocal tracks (“real Emotion” being the other one), this is the far more poignant one. It’s a song that is both performed well and has a message that actually applies to the characters and story of Final Fantasy X-2. And besides, it already comes equipped with its own pre-made background animation.
Why
“Why” is the ending theme from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. It is the song played over the most emotionally charged moment of the game and will forever be linked with the images of those closing moments. A slow, powerful ballad, “Why” embodies the bittersweet hope of Crisis Core‘s ending. Even now, years after last playing Crisis Core, this song still brings a tear or two to my eye.
Longing
“Longing,” an insert song from Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, is played leading up to the final boss battle and is interesting in a couple of ways. First, Japanese rock star Gackt Camui, the Japanese voice and character model template for Genesis, is both its composer and singer. Second, it and DoC‘s other Gackt song, “Redemption”, are certainly the only two visual kei rock songs in the Final Fantasy series. So this would be the perfect choice for those who want a bit of hard rock in their Theatrhythm.
Opera “Maria and Draco”
Within Final Fantasy VI exists one of the most well-known scenes of the 16-bit era. It merged game storytelling and music together in a way never seen before: a 15-minute opera. It’s known by many names, “The Dream Oath Opera”, “Maria and Draco”, and sometimes just “The Opera”. But whatever you call it, it remains a pivotal moment for gaming where music went from the background to the foreground and left us all stunned. It’s no wonder this scene established Nobu Uematsu as one of gaming’s greatest composers.
Part of the song, namely the portion of it that is Celes’ theme, is already present in Theatrhythm. But with a 12-minute vocal version of the Opera being performed regularly at Final Fantasy concerts worldwide, how can it not be in Theatrhythm in all its uncut glory. Without the Opera, Theatrhythm would seem half finished.
But if the fully orchestrated version is a no-go, I’ll happily take the Black Mages rock-opera version instead.
Leave a Reply