For some video games, music is almost an afterthought. For others, it is as much a focus as graphics and story. Here are three songs from video games as covered by fans showcasing the latter.
According to gamer lore, Squaresoft thought this fantasy RPG was their last hurrah as a company, but its success led to a series of mostly-unrelated games sharing an increasingly absurd number at the end of something called Final Fantasy.
The game was first published for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System, but I first played this on the Playstation port which upgraded the graphics and music to match Super Nintendo 16-bit sprite quality, but left the core game largely unchanged. This is the music from the first dungeon the player's party visits, and even from the beginning, the music shows how much they cared about crafting a soundscape for the story thanks to composer Nobuo Uematsu.
Do you prefer the piano version or the guitar? You can learn more about the track and hear a clip from the Playstation rendition here.
Sometimes referred to as the windmill hut theme from where it is heard in game, this is a song Link can learn to change the weather in the game as a play mechanic as well. This might be the most frequently played song from the entire game series. I played this on the original Nintendo 64, but it is available to download to modern Nintendo consoles, and a remake is also in the works.
Composed by Koji Kondo, these videos have been arranged for banjo and organ, respectively.
It has been almost 15 years since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released on 11/11/11, and rumors of a new game have been swirling for years. The title track for that game and its predecessor Oblivion were essentially remixes of the title theme from the third entry in the series, Morrowind. The composer is Jeremy Soule, and the original track is entitled Call of Magic. You can read more about the music of Morrowind here. I have selected renditions on classical guitar and an orchestral arrangement to share.
Should I post about music from other genres besides role-playing games next week? Do you prefer covers which change the genre, or stay closer to the original music? Did you have a favorite from my selections, or prefer a different version of any of these songs? Join the conversation!
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