Video from Youtube user: Merhawk102
“Kingdom Hearts” is one of my favorite series of all time, with the ingenious blend of Disney, “Final Fantasy”, and original elements, not to mention the fact that these games are some of the most beautiful and emotional games I’ve ever played. And so it stands to reason that, when I was recently playing the first game of the series over again, I managed to find several songs that would make perfect Resonance posts because of the emotions they manage to convey. The one I will be discussing today is “Night of Fate”.
The most notable instance this song is played is early on in the game when Sora’s world of Destiny Islands is under attack by the Heartless. It is quite an unexpected thing when he wakes up one night to find a storm over the islands, the sky enshrouded in dark clouds. When he rushes off to ensure that the raft he and his friends had built is safe from the storm, he finds the islands to be overrun by small, black creatures he’s never seen before. Shortly after arriving, he receives the Keyblade, the only thing capable of defeating the creatures, but no matter how many he kills, they will never stop coming.
Sora’s world will inevitably fall to the darkness, and this music is the perfect backdrop to Sora’s fruitless fight to defend his home. This song is a fast one, with quick drumbeats in the background that keep you fighting, even while the repeated tune that plays throughout is a reminder that the endless swarms of Heartless will never stop coming no matter how many you defeat. This song fills me with a desperation to keep trying even when I have no hope of winning. Just listening to it, I feel compelled to kill off as many Heartless as I can, at least for a short while, even when I know full well it won’t make one bit of difference. The Heartless will prevail, and this world will cease to exist, and even though I know this is simply just another part of the story, that can’t possibly be prevented, this music still helps me to feel a little of what Sora must feel to see his home so hopelessly invaded and makes me wish I could stop it. This song makes me feel like I’m really there, in this world that’s about to be destroyed, and I feel hopeless knowing I can’t prevent its fate. It’s silly when this is just an event in a video game, and that’s what makes this song great, that it can make the game feel so much more real to me.
How does this song make you feel, whether it be right now or, if you’ve played the game, when you first played through this area? And are there any other songs you can think of that convey the same desperation this one does?
Night of Ducks
I made the mistake of playing the song as I was reading your article. Much like yourself KH is one of my favorite gaming series and when I hear this song I go into an instant sort of fight or flight mode, which in turn made me double the speed of which I was reading the article.
And the most recent example of this that I can think of is the Dark Souls/Demon’s Souls music whenever you enter a boss battle. I know they’re all different scores, but they all feel like the same song as soon as it starts, just dreadful “Oh, no, I’m screwed!”. At which point I panic.
I went on Youtube and listened to some boss music from the games you mentioned, and I see what you mean. Just listening to the songs, without even needing to play the games, I felt like something terrifying was going to happen. It’s weird what music can do. And I think video game music often has that power even more than regular music does.
This music is so perfectly tense! Too bad it’s only used twice in the entire game….
Indeed. It seems like a lot of times the good songs are only used a small amount in games. I guess it keeps us from getting bored of it, I suppose….