Final Fantasy characters keep on bursting into song — and it works
polygon.comFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth may have caught flak for toying too much with its multiverse and inflating its runtime, sure, but it nailed a great fixture in the Final Fantasy tradition: the diegetic song.
Diegetic songs, i.e., songs other characters can hear within a fictional universe, have been a fixture in musical theater, cinema, and animation nearly since those industries began — think of Snow White instructing the clueless animals to “whistle while [they] work,” or Maria teaching the Von Trapp kids “Do Re Mi” in The Sound of Music.
Final Fantasy first dabbled with them in Final Fantasy 6, when former Empire knight Celes sings “Aria di Mezzo Carattere.” Both players and in-game characters hear the song, and it’s all part of a ruse to get Setzer and his airship to join the party. If the player is unable to make Celes sing the right lyrics, they fail in their mission and have to start again. In the original 1994 version of the game, composer Nobuo Uematsu simulated a vocal track, but it resulted in an unintelligible synthesized “voice” that harmonizes with the instrumental melody due to the technical limitations of the time. In the latest remaster, he managed to get a proper vocal track with lyrics.
Most Final Fantasy titles from 6 to 10-2 feature diegetic songs. In 8, the power ballad “Eyes on Me” starts as Julia Heartilly’s piano bar melody, becoming a waltz and radio hit: Julia is the mother of 8’s heroine, Rinoa, and Julia had written the song for Laguna, who became the father of the male protagonist, Squall. In 9, “Melodies of Life” starts as a hummed tune by the female protagonist Garnet, later becoming pivotal in the plot — and it’s played in full during the credits.
In Rebirth, just as the player is about to start the final dungeon, their party is treated to one last night of delight at the Gold Saucer — basically the in-universe version of Las Vegas. For most, the highlight of that last episode of levity is the romantic (or bromantic) date on the Saucer’s
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