Well, this is the Final Fantasy OSV. It is NOT the Final Fantasy I OSV, because the first game was Final Fantasy, NOT Final Fantasy I. Anyway, this OSV-review really took me a lot of patience to review because the sound quality on the NES is at best deplorable. Yet the genius Nobuo Uematsu works well with it, creating nice fore/back ground music scores.

This review takes a look at all the songs. The rating is its stand- alone value, which is probably lower than it should be. A high stand- alone value means it can define and sustain a mood, or really enjoyable to listen to.

1 - Prelude (0:52) 7/10
Ahh, this is how it all began. Such a simple melody played on such a simple sound system. THE arpeggios. THE crystal. Nice, eh?

2 - Opening Theme (1:24) 10/10
Ahh, this is how it all began. THE prelude. THE overture. Wait, I said the same about the Prelude. Hmm... well, these 2 are both classic trademarks of the Final Fantasy series. How can ya hate them? This one is better, because it is a good 'opening', sorta gives a 'more to come' mood to the game. I don't know a big word to describe it, though.

3 - Cornelia Castle (0:46) 7/10
A nice, lilting, castle theme. Peaceful, relaxed, which is quite unbecoming of a castle. All these melodies are nice so far.

4 - Main Theme (1:00) 7/10
A rather upbeat, frontier-like song. A little bass line, though you can't really say it IS bass, keeps the rather slow melody moving along at a nice pace, until you get in a battle.

5 - Chaos' Temple (0:59) 5/10
Garland's abode. I can't really tell whether this is supposed to be happy or creepy. It shifts between upbeat major and lenghtened minor quite quickly.

6 - Matoya's Cave (1:12) 10/10
Yeah! This song rocks! The accompaniment, there we go, that's the right word, the accompaniment really juices up this song, but it's not really necessary, because the melody is just so carefree and... great!! Ah, the wonders of the NES sound system.

7 - City Theme (0:51) 4/10
Grrr!! The city theme of this game was annoying. The.. damn, I can't even name instruments 'cause there are none! Well, whatever it is, it's too drawn-out.

8 - Shop Theme (0:59) 2/10
AAAHHH!!! All the memories of having to purchase 99 HEALs one at a time haunt me once more. That, and this has pretty much the nauseous traits of the City Theme.

9 - Sailing Ship (0:47) 8/10
Phew, back out into the open and the better songs. This is a nice, simple melody that would go in a movie with a ship sailing across the calm, open sea. The long notes, separated by short sequences, give a nice back-and-forth motion.

10 - Underwater Palace (1:26) 8/10
Ah, a more mysterious, explorative piece. Uematsu does well with the melody, adding nice trills here and there and some dissonance (or is that the NES?) to enhance the 'spook' here.

11 - Dungeon (0:56) 9/10
Fast paced and exciting. Uematsu at his best Run! music here. He starts out with a quick melody and a punctuated accompaniment, then with trills in a minor key, draws out some notes, then back to quick melody, then back long again. Good, but back-seat music.

12 - Menu Screen (0:40) 6/10
Menu screen music? Now that was a new one. It's really simplistic with repeating arpeggios for the accompaniment, and some waltz melody for the, uh, melody.

13 - Airship (0:49) 9/10
Yeah!! The airship theme always rocks!! It starts out almost like the opening theme, but swiftly changes into its own upbeat, fast-paced song.

14 - Gurgu Volcano (1:12) 10/10
Yeah!! Another classic! It just is cool to hear a deviant from the usual dungeon/cave theme. It starts out rather staccato, but goes into a smooth melody, then back. The accompaniment really complements this well, and that's probably why it gets a good score.

15 - The Floating Castle (1:13) 3/10
Well... gotta have a crappy piece in there somewhere. It does create a mildly suspenseful mood, but quickly destroys the mood as well as the rest of the song with the melody being rather anti-climactic at times.

16 - Battle Scene (1:35) 9/10
The battle theme legend! Uematsu throws his melody back and slow, and really pushes the accompaniment. The accompaniment is the melody, but it's the melody that brands itself in your brain.

17 - Victory Fanfare (0:38) 7/10
Another staple! This simplistic melody gets its justice with the simplistic NES.

18 - Ending Theme (1:49) 10/10
And of course, another trademark has been the quality of the ending theme. This is actually a re-rendering (I don't want to say remix) of all the other songs. Starts out like the City, then the Cave, and back. It also is a good closing piece. Creates a very nice 'the end' feeling.

19 - Dead Music (0:52) 8/10
Aaahh!! Actually, this isn't bad game over music. Stays in the minor chord progression. Almost sounds like Greensleeves at times. Greensleeves is supposed to be sad, folks.

20 - Save Music (0:07) 1/10
What the hell? Oh, it's gone. How was I supposed to review that?

END!
--Copyright 2001 Neel Shah