Game music of the day: The opening to Final Fantasy VI

Welcome to GamesRadar's daily blast of all things pertaining to the ever-growing field of game music. Each post will introduce new sounds, games, composers and fan-made remixes of gaming's greatest aural achievements.

June 1, 2010

Game: Final Fantasy VI (or III, depending on your age)

Song: Opening Theme

Composer: Nobuo Uematsu

Above: "Opening Theme" from Final Fantasy VI

Choosing a Final Fantasy song for Game Music of the Day? Pretty obvious. Choosing the opening theme from one of Final Fantasy's most famous and beloved entries? Painfully obvious. But the more I tried rummaging through my brain, searching for some obscure snippet of forgotten music to enlighten you with, the louder and clearer this track beckoned to me.

Final Fantasy VI's opening theme – so hugely epic and yet filled with such soft and somber melancholy – was the first piece of videogame music that, to me, didn't sound like videogame music at all. It was the first piece that I imagined being recorded by a symphony orchestra and not a geeky dude with a synthesizer. It was the first piece that made me wonder if they sold soundtracks to games like they did with movies. It was the first piece that didn't just get stuck in my head, but actually moved me. And it was one of the first MP3s I ever downloaded.

So how can I not include this classic track in Game Music of the Day? If Final Fantasy VI's theme is new to even a single reader / listener, then stating the so-called obvious was well worth the effort. Enjoy!

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