- December 10 -


Music!
A sampling of our favorite videogame & anime tunes
that just sound like holiday music


Part Two : Sad


Standard mp3 disclaimer: These songs are provided for your sampling entertainment only; please delete after twenty-four hours if you do not intend to buy the respective albums. We'll take down the links after the month of December is over. And please-- enjoy!


* Hakkai Flashback. [from Gensomaden Saiyuki Original Soundtrack.] December isn't all tinsel and gingerbread; it's a time of shortening days and huddling close together to keep the wolves of winter at bay... but there is a loveliness in that simplicity and sadness, just the same. This tune is deliciously sad, music-box delicate, like the first shimmering fall of snow.

* Undercity. [from Vagrant Story Original Soundtrack.] There's also something creepy about the dead of winter: whistling winds, bare tree branches like skeletal fingers against the sky, and hours and hours of darkness. Of course, sitting inside and playing creepy videogames probably doesn't help. Shiver.

* Ghostly Theatre. [from Castlevania Lament of Innocence Original Soundtrack.] I think all of my favorite ghost stories are set at Christmas time, something about the rich history of the season just bringing the past that much closer to the present. The whole soundtrack to this game is really quite pretty, but I picked this one for its softness, thoughtful and melancholy.

* Lowtown. [from Final Fantasy XII Original Soundtrack.] Not quite as macabre as the undercity of Lea Monde, but you can sure tell that both games are set in Ivalice. I'm sure Ashley Riot would have preferred the welcome of shopkeepers and orphans below Rabanastre, as opposed to the ghoulish greetings of undead Crimson Knights... but then again, he was probably used to that kind of crap.

* Flame. [from Witch Hunter Robin Original Soundtrack.] Witch Hunter Robin embodies the sort of leafless-tree, ravens-in-the-clouds, stark and perpetual December that I'm talking about here. Any piece of music from the show would probably have done the trick, but I picked this one for its fight and its fire. Do not go gently into that good night, and that sort of thing.

* Searching for a Hero of Long Ago. [from Suikoden III Original Soundtrack.] This particular track got words in one of the Suikoden Vocal CDs, but unfortunately the Engrish is pretty awful, so here's the original version. The sentiment is just right, though: seeking, and longing, and remembering. (Scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long long ago.)

* Interrupted by Fireworks. [from Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack.] Nostalgia, at its core, is something sad: remembering what's gone. ("What you pursue will be yours, but you will lose something dear.") But it's also beautiful, and the remembering won't always be so painful.

* I Can Fly. [from Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack.] FFX is a heartbreaking story; we can't replay it without bleeding. (We replay it anyway.) But it's necessary, and right: in its sadness, there is always hope. I believe.

* A Place to Call Home. [from Final Fantasy IX Original Soundtrack.] Not everyone has a simple answer to the question, "where is home?" I love Final Fantasy IX for the way you watch Zidane make his home, and make it himself, with the people he calls friends. ♥




Odessa Castle