It mostly consists of a single theme, but Hamauzu changes the instrumentation so ingeniously that it feels like the piece is constantly evolving. Of the two main characters’ themes, I’m particularly enamored by “Reynn’s Melody”, an austere piece yet full of determination. To avoid the risk of turning this review into an overblown track-by-track analysis, I’ll discuss some of Hamauzu’s more noteworthy pieces.

He reprises the theme in tracks like the tender piano and violin duet “Moonlight Melody” and “Mad Dash Melody” with its tense variation on strings. An early synthesized version was heard in the first trailer, and in the months since, Hamauzu thankfully used live instruments to, well, liven up this rousing piece. After that we’ve got Hamauzu’s actual main theme, “World of Beauty”. The violin’s entrance in the middle is especially gorgeous. It’s classic Hamauzu goodness, a gentle, undulating piece for piano and strings that does everything in its harmonic power to stop you from pressing the ‘any button’. First up is Hamauzu’s title screen theme, “World of Grymoire”. It’s become something of an expected pleasure, having these talented individuals really bring Hamauzu’s music to life. The rest of disc 1 and 2 is all Hamauzu and those of us who’ve been keeping a close eye on his career for the past years will recognize many performers in the credits: Benyamin Nuss on piano, Hijiri Kuwano on violin, Toru Tabei on guitar, Ippiqui Takemoto for all manner of percussion and more recent additions like cellist Takahiro Yuki. And, unlike so many theme songs (especially when they’re outsourced), Yamazaki throws in a rousing reference to Hamauzu’s main theme toward the end. Mizuki’s performance and crystal-clear voice are spotless. I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I heard a song open with Irish Uilleann Pipes. His theme song for WoFF is very attractive and unique in certain ways. For those of you unfamiliar with that name, he’s a longtime Square synthesizer operator turned composer who’s worked on many Hamauzu soundtracks. The score opens with “Innocent²”, Ryo Yamazaki’s theme song. For the task of rearranging the classics, composers from developer TOSE were brought along for the ride. Spread across these discs is a mix of original music and rearrangements of countless classics. Masashi Hamauzu led the production and composition of the score. The game’s soundtrack spans four discs, which impressive for a spin-off game. Whether or not a cutesy homage to Final Fantasy, chibi designs and all, is something that gets your heart all aflutter, Square Enix’s World of Final Fantasy got pretty positive reviews upon release. World of Final Fantasy Original Soundtrack

Download world of final fantasy ost