Thursday, January 14, 2021

MIDI Week Singles: "Streets of Rabanastre (Zodiac Age Version)" - Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age


"Streets of Rabanastre (Zodiac Age Version)" from Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age on the PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch (2017, 2018, & 2019)
Composer: Hitoshi Sakimoto
Album: FINAL FANTASY XII THE ZODIAC AGE Original Soundtrack
Label: Square Enix Music
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix


It has been close to 14 years since I last played Final Fantasy XII, but I do remember a fair amount of the music Hitoshi Sakimoto wrote, and "Streets of Rabanastre" is one of the more memorable ones for me.  Possibly because Rabanastre is the starting city or because I seem to recall you return to the city frequently throughout the game, but this song is burned in my memory and brings back feelings of exploring a massive city populated with what felt like thousands of citizens.  And with tracks like "The Clan Hall" being of similar feel and melody, and then recall events and time spent in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 1 & 2, and then recall the music from the original Final Fantasy Tactics and everything sounds cohesive in this world.  Ivalice feels like a world with its own musical center (whatever that means).  

"Streets of Rabanastre" is just an all-around good city theme.  There's the excitement of exploring a new city, the optimism of Vaan wanting to be a Sky Pirate, the apparent care-free nature of living in a city occupied by an aggressive country.  There really is not anything that jumps out to me that Rabanastre is an occupied city, but I could go on for a while about the story in the game, but I will just hold off on that until after I replay this, which I can now do with gracious thanks to Dr. Potts.   And then that little something that adds a little extra to this song is that it was re-recorded with a live orchestra for THE ZODIAC AGE release of the game back in 2017.  The essence is still there in the original 2006 release but this version feels like there is more depth, which is to be expected.

Well, enjoy.



~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Tragedy

No comments:

Post a Comment