Final Fantasy VII: Music Redesign for Evolved Expectations Across Console Generations

Video games are a constantly evolving medium, and, consequently, the expectations of players are ever increasing. Players are continuously exposed to games with increased graphical and audio fidelity, making them more familiar with technology. This in turn allows players to develop more critical opinions of video games, and, subsequently, game music. One such criticism is that over repetition of audio leads to annoyance and reduced immersion for players. This phenomenon originates in psychology research, where Daniel Berlyne defines listener fatigue as the relationship between diminishing appreciation and enjoyment of audio stimuli as exposure increases. While the repetition of musical assets in older games may lead to listener fatigue, I propose that this problem has become more apparent in recent years due to the evolving expectations of players. As a result, contemporary games combat this issue by using more dynamic approaches to music design to reduce repetition, increase in-
game musical responsiveness to events, and provide a musical experience closer to what the player expects. Players’ increased expectations become more evident in the advent of an increasing number of remakes of older games, especially where the new musical experience is vastly different from the original.
In this paper, I propose that differences in music design between two versions of the same game (i.e., an original and a remake) across multiple console generations can offer a unique perspective for viewing phenomena such as listener fatigue. In this article, I compare the music design of Final Fantasy VII (Square, 1997) and Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix, 2020) to (1) explore how players’ expectations have evolved between titles, (2) outline how game developers historically have understood and managed musical repetition, and (3) offer insights for composers on how to better adapt older, existing soundtracks for modern expectations.