In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Cloud and his motley crew travel to so many regions that it becomes, frankly, unbearable. I started rolling my eyes every time we’d buckle up into some kind of vehicle and head off toward a pin past the fog of war boundaries of the known map. Do some random quests here, run around with this new Chocobo there, think about how I would do anything for Tifa over here, etc. etc. By the time I got to Gongaga, I sighed—an obligatory forest level, here we go, I thought.
And then, I heard the music.
Did you hear that?! Click it! Oh my god. Incredible! What do I even say about this?
I can talk about how the fiddles come in, reminiscent of traditional Irish music. Listen to how the strings soar, reaching upward, just as you, the player, traverse the forest levels, jumping up and down on giant mushrooms, seeking the truth among the trees.
Then there’s the children chanting, which brings to the ears the sounds of neighborhoods and villages across the world, even a sort of Gregorian-chanting energy. As you uncover more knowledge about the region, you start to hear more and more of the chanting, illustrating your understanding and relationships with the community of Gongaga. What’s so interesting is that there really are no discernable words in any language (Redditors believe it’s a generic audio sample); it’s just that feeling of people singing en masse.
The Gongaga music made me pay more attention to all of the tracks in the region. There’s an absolutely delightful banger when you follow a dog on a quest. When you follow a different dog in Gongaga, the theme is revisited with slight differentiations another time, and then again later in the game when you’re following a cat. Each time, there’s new nuances added to it, including when you run into battle scenarios. (Protect that good dog AT ALL COSTS.)
On the official original soundtrack (OST), there’s 175 tracks—out of what must be hundreds more, I assume, in this massive, great game. If you buy the physical soundtrack, it comes on seven discs. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth as a title demonstrates a high commitment to music, including a beautiful piano mini-game that I absolutely suck at. The composers, Mitsuto Suzuki and Masashi Hamauzu, were given room to run, and wow, they flew. I am not a great auditory learner in general, but the care put into this score made me focus and listen to the changes.
I desperately wanted to find an interview with the composers or an analysis or something from someone who knows music better than me to explain what the heck is going on in my brain to make this so freaking good. Despite my passionate Googling, I couldn’t find answers—but I did find some heartwarming comments from other people on the internet who felt the same way I did about the Gongaga soundtrack:
Even though Gongaga wasn’t my favorite region to play through in the game, its music has continued to inspire me. Months after finishing the game, I was writing a part of my lil’ baby novel and hit a section where I needed to bring a sense of wonder. How could I inspire myself to capture that feeling? And then, I heard the Gongaga theme in the back of my head, and went searching for the fan-made perfect infinite loop you see at the top of this post.
I am a total newb at music, but even I can tell that the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth soundtrack is an absolute masterclass. I have never heard a game so perfectly or thoroughly scored. It should absolutely win Best Original Score at the Game Awards next week. If it doesn’t, I’ll be very mad, until I put on the Gongaga infinite loop and feel at peace again.
