Sound.

Okay! So lets get the cliché out of the way:

Like many other people, this scene marked a major point in my gaming life. The tears flowed, not as Sephiroth speared her, but when the materia hit the floor. As soon as her music began to chime, I instantly felt like my mother had died.

The original "One Winged Angel" by Nobuo Uematsu still makes my spine tingle with anticipation when heard on my mp3. The adaptation for Advent Children was rather awesome too. The fight scenes in this film are so cooool!

Please excuse the cringe worthy American dub. But you may now breathe a sigh of relief as that finalises my FF VII appreciation.

The absence of music in games can also make a resounding impression. Ico created an atmosphere by using hardly any music at all. Often you are only accompanied by the murmur of a distant ocean, or the howling wind. This accompanied with the large baron levels greatly amplifies the feeling of isolation.

Amazingly, this is the only video I could find that hasn’t been tampered with. I don’t know why Yootoobers find it necessary to splat ill-fitting pop music over videos that that have absolutely no relevance to the topic. *shakes fist*

WARNING: Here is where I depart from the subject….

I recently discovered that the European and American versions of Final Fantasy XIII will have the original Japanese theme tune switched out for a song off of a Leona Lewis album. This irks me for a couple of reasons…

The song sucks.

Why could they not just translate the original Japanese version into English? FF XII had the English version of “Kiss Me Good-Bye” and it fit the game pretty well. Traditionally the themes are written for the game, but this song has just been borrowed off of her album. Come on, at least write a new one!

When producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Motomu Toriyama were asked why they chose the theme they said that it “would bring the game closer to the player and depart from the idea that Final Fantasy is a game that comes from overseas.” lol, wtf.

If they are that bothered about westernising the game, why keep the dudes with crazy hair and disproportionate weapons? Maybe try making the irritating American voiceovers more relatable. Or just accept that it’s a Japanese game and give us a subtitled version… please?