Square Enix releases an EDM album of Final Fantasy music

So, Square Enix want Final Fantasy in the clubs, and Vivi Ornitier is riding in on his disco horse.

Square Enix Music have released a concept Final Fantasy album, titled Electronica Tunes -Final Fantasy Series-, which features remixes of songs from the Final Fantasy franchise from popular vocaloid producers.

This is a really weird and unexpected collaboration, but weird and unexpected sums up some of the things we see with Final Fantasy these days. It’s gone from this being this really niche series about good, evil and magic, with all of the usual tropes and character types you would associate with these things; to white mages singing Kumi Koda songs in a mini skirt, Leona Lewis ballads, Nissin Cup Noodle ad placements, and a moody sword wielding soldier popping his pussy at a burlesque club.

Final Fantasy is whatever the fuck now. What defines a Final Fantasy game is the appearance of a moogle, a chocobo and a character named Cid.

But there’s long been a link between popular music and video game soundtracks, even when you take out licensed songs and pop songs recorded specifically for video games. And ever since gaming entered the CD era, technology got better, and there were less restrictions on audio in games, Final Fantasy as a franchise has slowly moved out of having soundtracks based around orchestral pieces akin to classic film scores, and branching out into all sorts of music styles. Final Fantasy VII Remake took the upmost liberties with this, fashioning Nobuo Uematsu’s classic battle theme from Final Fantasy VII into some future bass sounding-ass shit you’d expect from Zedd or 2011 Nakata and having new ska influenced bangers that you would never have expected to hear in a Final Fantasy game. So an album of electronica remixes of Final Fantasy songs is par the course for how the music of the franchise has evolved and the space it occupies within pop culture now.

Remixing classic Final Fantasy songs isn’t an easy task. But I do feel the talent involved in this project probably feel a whole lot less pressure because of just how many times some of these pieces of music have been remixed and re-done over the years, both in an official and unofficial capacity.

All of the renditions are good, but “Dust to Dust” and “Blinded by Light” are easily the weakest of the bunch, and they both happen to be pieces of music from Final Fantasy XIII. For how terrible that game was, the soundtrack was amazing, and “Dust to Dust” and “Blinded by Light” are two of my favourites from it. No remix of “Blinded by Light” is ever going to touch the original. Period. And “Dust to Dust” is so smooth and vibey, that I don’t understand why anybody would try and remix it, because there’s only so much you can do with it. And it doesn’t have a really obvious melody to help distinguish it. But the remix still sounds nice.

Final Fantasy Electronica isn’t available on streaming at present. But I’m sure after a few months, that it will be. This seems to be the streaming release pattern with Square Enix Music releases. Kinda like the theatrical release to streaming window for films. But Square Enix Music do have a handy website which lists everything which is available on music streaming platforms, although this list is based on what is available in Japan, so availability may vary depending on the country.

Alternatively, you could also just follow Square Enix Music on your streaming platform of choice. But something to be aware of is that not every Square Enix Music release falls under Square Enix Music. And I’m not sure if it is because Square Enix Music is a defined brand which only accounts for releases under that name, or if it just a case of metadata management, as to why all of Square Enix’s soundtrack releases are not just grouped under Square Enix Music, which they absolutely should be. Some of the earlier Final Fantasy soundtracks for instance, are listed under Nobuo Uematsu, when they probably should be listed under Square Enix Music, with Nobuo Uemtasu as the artist of each track. And the  Kingdom Hearts compilation album is listed under Various Artists, and probably can’t be sat under Square Enix Music, because it was released through Disney. It’s all a fucking mess.

---

🔊 Square Enix Music on streaming: 🟢 Spotify | 🟣 Apple Music | 🔴 YouTube Music
🎧 ?J Video Game Music Playlists: Video Game Music | VGM: Easy Listening