Final Fantasy VII vs. Camouflage

You have a good ear!

This is fascinating. The similarities are certainly there. While I won't accuse Nobuo of plagiarism, it is clear that all people involved in the game took inspiration from a variety of sources (be it visual, textual or audible).

If this was intentional, the synth-pop era is a relevant source for the themes of FFVII.
If a coincidence only, that's still eerily close.
 
Thanks for your interest. It is not the last Final Fantasy related article, there are more:





I actively search the web for pop music that sounds like game music released later. Unfortunately, I have difficulties reaching zhed audience, so I hoped to find some interested people here.

There will be more FF related entries in the future.
 
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I really like this. It's fresh and fascinating. :D

I really like some of the songs you are finding similarities in. For example, I've loved Kraftwerk for years but now I'll definitely be listening to it in a very different way.

Also your addendum to the piece about Shadow's theme is particularly interesting to me. I recently wrote an article for this website's digital magazine describing the Wild West associations within Final Fantasy (including Shadow and other characters - see page 20 for Shadow though). I haven't seen any episodes of that particular Western TV show, but the similarity its theme shares with Nobuo's composition is very appropriate.

I haven't got your ear for picking up on this stuff regularly, but one thing I have noticed is how FFVI's Fierce Battle (the Atma Weapon boss theme) sounds a lot like the main theme for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera (which, in turn sounds a lot like Pink Floyd's Echoes).
 
Hello,

thanks, positive feedback is always refreshing. For some reason I have difficulties gathering an audience for my output, so I hoped to finde some interested people here.

The only other song in the soundtrack that reminds me of western influence at the moment would be the Rag, but who knows what the future will bear.

Regarding Fierce Battle, it is true that at the beginning there is something floating in the background that sounds like that section from Pink Floyd/Phantom of the Opera. If you found this yourself, congratulations. About the foreground part, the next best thing I can think of is the beginning of the Violoncelli part of Mussorgskys "A Night on Bald Mountain".

I currently cannot update my blog at the moment because the Destructoid captchas are broken for me for some reason.
 
The only other song in the soundtrack that reminds me of western influence at the moment would be the Rag, but who knows what the future will bear.

Regarding Fierce Battle, it is true that at the beginning there is something floating in the background that sounds like that section from Pink Floyd/Phantom of the Opera. If you found this yourself, congratulations. About the foreground part, the next best thing I can think of is the beginning of the Violoncelli part of Mussorgskys "A Night on Bald Mountain".

I currently cannot update my blog at the moment because the Destructoid captchas are broken for me for some reason.

Yeah, I love Spinach Rag. Perfect playful ragtime-style music which could belong in a saloon. Used in an opera house and auction house in the case of FFVI.

On a more depressing note, FFVII's Sandy Badlands seems appropriately (albeit maybe more loosely) Western influenced in a more haunting way.

I did notice Fierce Battle's similarity to Phantom of the Opera myself, and also Phantom's similarity to Pink Floyd (which I noticed on a separate occasion as I idly listened to Echoes one evening). But I googled and discovered that other people have noticed Phantom's similarity to Echoes too. In fact upon doing that I encountered some compilation videos with people comparing the tunes of Andrew Lloyd Webber with earlier compositions (some even going so far as to brand him a plagiarist).
But after you've pointed it out the other aspect of that part of the track does resemble Night on Bald Mountain.

I look forward to seeing what else you notice!
 
Wow, this is amazing. I def hear the similarities a lot. It's worth noting that Nojima is a HUGE music fan, namely classic rock and metal, but Nobuo also is a huge rock fan and admitted to listening to lots of music while composing the FF7 soundtrack, so I'm sure they did the same for the other games. I've come across songs, at times, where I hear FF songs, next time I come across one, I'll give you a heads up to see if it'd interest you.
 
Wow, this is amazing. I def hear the similarities a lot. It's worth noting that Nojima is a HUGE music fan, namely classic rock and metal, but Nobuo also is a huge rock fan and admitted to listening to lots of music while composing the FF7 soundtrack, so I'm sure they did the same for the other games. I've come across songs, at times, where I hear FF songs, next time I come across one, I'll give you a heads up to see if it'd interest you.

Thanks for the offer. Of course you will be credited if I decide to turn it into a phinding.
 
This one is prolly already known or maybe it's just something I think sounds similar, but Pink Floyd's "One of These Days" (click for the specific part of the song) sounds like the "Bombing Mission" only sped up. It even has the same fading out "ping-pong" sound before it enters the next movement. Like I said, FF7's version is sped up though.
 
This one is prolly already known or maybe it's just something I think sounds similar, but Pink Floyd's "One of These Days" (click for the specific part of the song) sounds like the "Bombing Mission" only sped up. It even has the same fading out "ping-pong" sound before it enters the next movement. Like I said, FF7's version is sped up though.

It has some of the twists that the song has. Traditionally as far as I know the song is compared to the tunnel chase in Terminator:
 
Then new thread or all here?

I’ll leave that up to you.

I think if you’d like a more detailed discussion on particular song comparisons then you can go ahead and create a new thread for each. Make it a series if you like so that people can keep track of the various threads.

Otherwise, here is also good to keep them all together. Though if we keep them all in this thread then we could probably change the thread title so that it encompasses the variety of tracks.
 
Due to demand, I made another FF/ entry:


Yeah the opening to 'The Discovery' does resemble the Turks theme.

I thought about another one for you, but I'm not sure. I'm not good at describing music at all.
The variants of Kuja's theme in FFIX which have the rhythmic beat in the background ('Immoral Memory' and 'Dark Messenger' are the two I know about for certain) to me resembles two classic rock songs.

The most obvious one would be Queen's 'We Will Rock You' with its distinctive stomp and clap rhythm. The other, less obvious would be Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water'. To explain the latter, if you pretend the guitar riff in the first five seconds of 'Smoke on the Water' is instead performed like the body percussion of 'We Will Rock You' then it might sound a bit like the beat behind Kuja's theme. Queen's beat, to me, sounds like the same three beats (stomp stomp clap) whereas Kuja's beat has a slightly different/added follow-up beat before repeating (like 'Smoke on the Water' if converted).

It's possibly not intentional where Deep Purple is concerned, and maybe it is just something my mind is hearing and nobody else hears it. But I know for a fact that Nobuo is a Deep Purple fan as he actually played that exact riff on keyboard while performing live with his band The Black Mages.



As for the main melody of Kuja's theme itself, it sounds very much like other Nobuo compositions such as 'Intention of the Earth' (FFV) and 'Living Forest' (FFIII). Nobuo seems to really like this melody.
 
Yeah the opening to 'The Discovery' does resemble the Turks theme.

I thought about another one for you, but I'm not sure. I'm not good at describing music at all.
The variants of Kuja's theme in FFIX which have the rhythmic beat in the background ('Immoral Memory' and 'Dark Messenger' are the two I know about for certain) to me resembles two classic rock songs.

The most obvious one would be Queen's 'We Will Rock You' with its distinctive stomp and clap rhythm. The other, less obvious would be Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water'. To explain the latter, if you pretend the guitar riff in the first five seconds of 'Smoke on the Water' is instead performed like the body percussion of 'We Will Rock You' then it might sound a bit like the beat behind Kuja's theme. Queen's beat, to me, sounds like the same three beats (stomp stomp clap) whereas Kuja's beat has a slightly different/added follow-up beat before repeating (like 'Smoke on the Water' if converted).

It's possibly not intentional where Deep Purple is concerned, and maybe it is just something my mind is hearing and nobody else hears it. But I know for a fact that Nobuo is a Deep Purple fan as he actually played that exact riff on keyboard while performing live with his band The Black Mages.



As for the main melody of Kuja's theme itself, it sounds very much like other Nobuo compositions such as 'Intention of the Earth' (FFV) and 'Living Forest' (FFIII). Nobuo seems to really like this melody.

The oomph-oomph-cha oomph-oomph cha beat is a pretty standard drum beat.

It's #4 for example in this video:

Regarding that Kuja etc. the Gamma theme from Mega Man 3 also has a similar vibe to it:
And it coincidentally was also released in 1990. Unfortunately, I haven't found a reference for that yet.

Oh, and when it comes to Smoke on the Water, Nobuo might have plausible deniability:
 
Hello,

I plan another Final Fantasy entry for tomorrow, but it will be announced in the FF8 forum due to it being an entry from that game.
 
The speed and feeling of the intro for 'Thanks for the Materia' certainly suits the early 20th pop/ ragtime examples.

It also reminds me of the sort of music you would hear in old cartoons to represent sneaking around, sometimes sneaking around in time with the music (incidentally, the cartoons I am picturing are old and not too far removed - a couple of decades or so - from the age of some of the tracks you select which are closer to it, and may trace their own origins to the same style you've highlighted). I don’t have any examples to hand, but I’m certain I’ve heard something very similar there.

Whereas the melody itself also resembles aspects of what can be heard in the marching and classical music, slowed down.
 
The speed and feeling of the intro for 'Thanks for the Materia' certainly suits the early 20th pop/ ragtime examples.

It also reminds me of the sort of music you would hear in old cartoons to represent sneaking around, sometimes sneaking around in time with the music (incidentally, the cartoons I am picturing are old and not too far removed - a couple of decades or so - from the age of some of the tracks you select which are closer to it, and may trace their own origins to the same style you've highlighted). I don’t have any examples to hand, but I’m certain I’ve heard something very similar there.

Whereas the melody itself also resembles aspects of what can be heard in the marching and classical music, slowed down.

I reccommend youtubing for Mysterioso pizzicato.
 
I reccommend youtubing for Mysterioso pizzicato.
Definitely!
Yeah, that music is frequently used freely in cartoons and other media in scenes like the one I described. And other short pieces of a similar style to it, but probably this exact piece more regularly.

It's the 'Wilhelm scream' of music, perhaps! :argor:
 
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