10 Times Music Made A Video Game INCREDIBLE
7. Final Fantasy VII - Aerith’s Theme
Final Fantasy has long been heralded as having some of the best soundtracks in gaming, even going so far as to hold orchestral concerts to let fans revisit their favourites. That said, it’s also so well known for these dramatic flourishes that the music often overshadows the moments on screen themselves.
This isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but it does sometimes feel like the score is asking a little too much for the action to live up to. With Aerith’s Theme, they go in the opposite direction, and the light approach is genius.
Despite Aerith’s death being one of the most jaw dropping moments in Final Fantasy ever, the soundtrack doesn’t demand sadness from you. It would have been easy for the game to overplay its hand here and push too hard for sorrow. Instead, the gentle melody is bittersweet.
It’s a funeral song, played in major and minor, inviting warm memories of Aerith as much as it mourns her passing. This approach only makes the moment more devastating, and has helped it earn its place as one of the pinnacle sequences in all of gaming.