First off, I wanted to mention that there are two versions of this song on the soundtrack, the first is the music that was used using the Game Boy Advance sound chip and the second was the uncompressed song. Sometimes I will use the straight out of the game music, but this time I wanted to use the uncompressed track instead. Partly because it was longer, but as is expected, it just sounds crisper, cleaner. The game version of the song though is not bad at all and does sound great for music from the Game Boy Advance, but today, I wanted to use the uncompressed track. Just wanted to mention that.
There are three things that immediately stand out about this song. The first is that it was composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, he just has a particular sound to his scores from Final Fantasy Tactics, to Vagrant Story, to Ogre Battle: Let Us Cling Together, to Final Fantasy XII, they all sound very similar. Second, and connected to the first, is that this sounds like it belongs in a tactics game, be it Final Fantasy, Vagrant Story, or Ogre Battle, just something about the flow of the music. Lastly, within the first 10 seconds, the instrumentation helps to place the setting in a wintry setting. The shake of whatever that MIDI percussion instrument is along with the MIDI strings and then the chime coming in a few beats later followed by the whistle, to me all help to convey that this scene takes place somewhere it is cold. Not the desolate cold of a frozen wasteland, but a nostalgic setting from youth when playing in the snow was the highlight of the day followed by hot chocolate/cider next to a warm fire and footy-pajamas; honestly, it is still the highlight of my day if I already do not have to think about work.
All I really remembered from FFTA regarding this music was that there was a snowball fight that introduced tactics-genre fighting mechanics and functioned as the tutorial stage. Then some kid threw a snowball with a rock inside effectively ending the tutorial. It turns out that this track only plays during the lead-up to the battle, then battle music plays, then another track plays after the snowball fight moves from active to the passive story and that is when Mewt is hit with the snow-covered rock. I think I just enjoy the playfulness of the song coupled with the snowy tone along with the combined nostalgia of wintry youth and the 120+ hours I spent playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental
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