Final Fantasy VIII / Nobuo Uematsu (2000)

The year 2000 changed my life as it related to music.  It also changed my life with one other thing: my father managing to cop a PC version of Final Fantasy VIII during one of his business trips abroad... and he also brought a small Lego set, because he had felt bad that this game had been the only thing I had asked for.

As I played along, one thing started to become clearer - the music.  The boss fight theme, Laguna's battle theme, the subtleties it overlaid scripted scenes, the militaristic SeeD march... but the one that got me the most was the song that played during the Dollet mission early on.  Titled The Landing, this song was the first instance where I began listening to a single song for hours.  I'd find an opening, pause the game, and let it run while that delicious, magnificent song played on.

Of course, the soundtrack was decidedly out of reach.  Impossible to find in Turkey, especially when you were me, who only knew then where to get games, not music... and even if I did, I couldn't afford CD's, and I doubted this'd be on tape.

Luckily, the internet was limping along, and I had gotten word from one of my cool-kid acquaintances that there was a website where you could download songs.  Of course, I say that, I mean, "wait for an hour or more for a 3mb mp3 to finally be yours by right." Enthusiastic, I checked it out.

No dice.  I was heartbroken.

Being allowed only an hour of 'net time per day (after finishing with whatever responsibility I had), I didn't want to waste it on some background theme song... but The Landing may have been the one I was looking for, I thought, as the mission began with amphibious transports landing on Dollet beach.  I lucked out, and now, I listened to the song even when not playing the game.

Years later, my first girlfiend would do me the courtesy of getting two albums for me while she was in the US.  One was the Final Fantasy VIII soundtrack that I spun with pleasure.  I don't think I thanked her properly, which I wish I had.

On the whole, Final Fantasy VIII has an excellent soundtrack.  If I had to list my favourite titles, it'd make for a long list and probably be more than half the tracks available.  But the significance of this particular collection of songs was that it was the first thing I began listening to that wasn't Metallica, or metal.  The quirky, classical-influenced arrangements of Nobuo Uematsu make the game.

From the pumping action of The Man with the Machine Gun and The Extreme to the delicate touch of Love Grows and Where I Belong; from the eerie tunes of Succession of Witches and Truth to the diabolical tunes of The Castle, Fithos Lusec Vecos Winosec; from the militaristic undertones of SeeD and The Oath to the marvelous, continious suite of the final boss battle consisting of The Legendary Beast and Maybe I'm a Lion, the music itself, even without the game as a context, is utterly beautiful.  Able to punctuate not just scenes but entire contexts, chock-full of great melodies, this album was, and still is, one of the very few instrumental albums/song compilations I enjoy.

Because there was something about what Final Fantasy VIII was supposed to be, about how the epic came together that came alive with Nobuo Uematsu's songs.  Oddly enough, however, I haven't enjoyed his marrying of his work to rock with The Black Mages just as much, mostly because rock and its variants, I can't stomach when they're instrumental.

The year 2000 would come with more developments after this one, and in some way, I'm bound to get stuck on that year and its very near vicinity for a good few entries.