Ranking Every Final Fantasy Composer

Works: XII, Tactics, Tactics Advance, Tactics A2

Though none of them are directly connected, the odd reference here and there aside, more Final Fantasy games have been set in the world of Ivalice than any other. Beginning with Tactics in 1997 and culminating with Tactics A2 and XII: Revenant Wings in 2007, each title, including Vagrant Story, was scored almost entirely by Hitoshi Sakimoto.

Tactics and XII are two of the greatest games in the series gameplay and story wise, but their soundtracks are amongst their weaker elements. With XII, almost all of the one hundred tracks are background music, with few pieces reserved for epic battles (‘Battle With An Esper’ being the best by far), characters or emotional story moments.

Tactics, by contrast, is mostly battle and event themes. Some of these are excellent, chief amongst them ‘Trisection’ and ‘Shock!’, though music is not one of the first things that comes to mind when recalling the game’s countless amount of memorable scenes.

Tactics Advance was limited by the Game Boy Advance’s sound capabilities, though an orchestrated release of the score was perfectly serviceable. Tactics A2 had less originality, repurposing many tracks from its predecessor and from XII, whilst Revenant Wings featured no new pieces whatsoever.

All in all, Sakimoto’s contributions to the franchise are certainly numerous, though few of his tracks would appear in any ‘best of’ list. He has more than played his part in bringing Ivalice to life, however.