〜These songs certainly mirrored our villain〜 Bravely Default Original Soundtrack
Apologies in advance
Hi, my name is Nishiki_881, I am Japanese. I have attempted to create different language version on my own but I am not very good at English. If you feel like it pretty weird, I would be happy for you to read while poking fun at me, haha
What is 「Bravely Default」 ?
「Bravely Default Flying Fairy」, that video game created by SQUARE-ENIX, came out in 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS.
It is exactly the role-playing game, and almost based on some of Systems from Final Fantasy（one of them like the Job System, you can combine various abilities between some of different jobs）
Especially what I want to talk about is the iconic Battle-System in this video game. That's just Turn-Based System, but surprisingly we can borrow in advance a few movements that each heroes owned. This one called 「Brave」. Sometimes also they take a defensive posture to store points which indicates the number of holdings. Yeah this instruction called 「Default」. When they are fighting, we can kind of alternate between「Brave」and 「Default」, and develop strategies to our advantage. That's so cool.
Bravely Default Original Soundtrack, this is one of the most striking piece for me, second only to Final Fantasy 6, but also this work taught me the joy of analyzing video game music. Because a lot of melodies, chord progression and things that are shared throughout, and which also excited me.
So this time, I want to talk about how this soundtrack implied the inner life of Airy.
Who is Airy ?
Before we get into that, here is a brief description of four heroes and an overview of their stories.
Tiz Arrior
He is a young shepherd. In the opening, his hometown, Norende is destroyed by giant hole that suddenly appears. Sadly his only brother dies because of it, and then he meet Agnes.
Agnes Oblige
She serves the Wind Crystal. In front of a big hole, she meets Airy, who calls herself the Crystal Fairy. and begins a journey to ward off darkness from the four Crystals in the Luxendarc.
Ringabel
For some reason he has lost most of his memory. Also he always has D's Journal in his hand, it kind of describes a lot of events that will happen in near future. and then he accompanies them on their journeys, this is because there are two names in this Journal, Tiz and Agnes.
Edea Lee
She is only daughter of the Marshal of the Principality of Eternia. She can't accept the forced tactics to catch Agnes used by her father. That's why she rebel and take Agnes side.
right, Airy is a guide and leads Agnes and her friends.
Beginning with the great hole, The darkness floods the Crystal, the wind stops, the sea rots, volcanoes erupt and tectonic movements occur. That states of emergency all over the place.
According to Airy, so they begin a journey to clear such darkness and reset up the world to normalcy.
In summary, outline of the story is to save the world by releasing four Crystals that enshrined in each temple.
Be warned, there are spoilers
Really…？
Suddenly but we want to get to sensitive parts of this. I've described how until this video game almost sets up such universal tale.
Somehow they are never rewarded for their work. Even more unfortunately, it was being pushed towards a cruel tragedy…
When they completed their works, and then the vortex of the holy light appears at sea.
In according with Airy, who says they can do. So Agnes and three clash into it, and surprisingly they return the Inn as first point of their journey. Moreover the world couldn't be saved.
They repeatedly release the crystal and clash into the light, but no matter how many times they try, the world doesn't seem to change. Eventually they get closer to the truth through kind of repeating world.
The vortex of holy light called the Holy Pillar, is the cause of the big hole that creates into a "parallel world" . ah Yes, this is reason why his village of Norende was destroyed in the opening…
and then so Airy wants the Satan to descend by doing.
OMG Airy, she kind of wasn't Crystal Fairy or whatever.
Oh She has been lying to Agnes the whole time. Releasing of each Crystals is so to speak, a destruction of the world…
It seems that they have discovered the truth. and finally we'll be faced with two choices.
「Ah I see. Let's keep pressing a button and break our Crystal because she would be in trouble if I did」
「Hmm, in this case what would happen if I followed her and kept doing it until I went nuts?」
We probably called them the Normal Ending and the Epic Ending. Yes, the story is split into two halves.
The Decisive Battle, 「Wicked ~ 」series of this soundtrack
Finally she entirely exposes her true feelings and tries to kill us. Yes, it's the Decisive Battle. 「Wicked Thing」「Wicked Fight」and「Wicked Flight」 , this soundtrack has some of themes which mirrored her. They shared an iconic motif.
I definitely often called it 「the motif of Airy」when I've analyzed the whole thing of what this soundtrack is going on.
（I'll talk about what is based on the epic Ending）
Wicked Fight [Disc2-14]
Okay, we'll face this unexpected monster.
（For some reason in the Normal Ending, these songs and her figures don't completely match well.）
Here the motif lies in two places.
Firstly listen to that higher melodies around the varse of this song. It might be too hard for us to hear, but sounds like Electric Piano, and it speaks the motif of Airy plainly
Secondly another is very clearly placed. and then land on 7-4 time signature.
mixed with a Hammond Organ, it sounds very creepy. like they're fucking with us.
One of the most greatest piece played by the Electric Bass and Electric Guitar. they perform a crazy dance on the stage, and a little complicated time-signature be smoothly inserted. and I wouldn't deny that I’ve fallen in love to this.
Wicked Fight [Disc2-16]
She seems to be a chrysails…
I think this feels like more just battle music than「Wicked Thing」from such rhythm and the vibe of a few sections.
The phrase inserted at the end of the intro and between kind of an A section. It is sung in a rhythmic Electric Guitar groove.
The motif appears again in the later, more exciting section. before it was played in the 2 bar and like syncopated. but now it's in the 1 bar and different notes placement. So I think this couldn't be surprisingly noticed.
Wicked Flight [Disc2-17]
Caterpillars, Chrysails, and finally of course she'll be the Butterfly.
No more such screaming sounds. and then we can get in gorgeous arpeggios or brilliant melodies. That absolutely sounds like the final battle against a light-footed. So interesting.
Running with an overwhelming sense of speed that has never been before, and the motif was played by Strings that deserves to be mirrored her image.
A similar phrase is also provided at the end. and then seamlessly connected, music closes off the loop.
As an aside, here is some of trivia about the relationship between these two songs.
・the same figure of intro placed triplet
・Intro→A→B→A'→B→C→A→B→C→D→Intro'
Sections arrangement may be similar
and AB→ABC→ABCD, little by little more paragraphs
wow, 「Fight」versus「Flight」
Shadow of the Crystal [Disc2-2]
So far, I've introduced the motif of Airy through「Wicked ~」series.
but also I absolutely have to mention is this tune,「Shadow of the Crystal」.
Seemingly it is a plain in the soundtrack. （To complete the story perfectly, you would have to listen to this endlessly…）In fact, here her intention are announced by music even though they haven't yet figured out about it.
At the old time, I had missed it. So I was convinced by unconsciously associating this darker vibe with the Boss of the level.
When we listening to each 「Wicked~」songs, can notice that the motif is introduced again more straightly. oh These motif that were「Shadow of the Crystal」runs confidently now.
Hmm, definitely she is there
The conclusion
Well, eventually there is a lot clues that can decipher outlines of the story. and you must surely think that「Oh man this Airy smells fishy, maybe she is like a traitor」
but then the motif that reprised through some of tunes, clearly tell you that「Hello, innocent you, she actually has a nasty smile on her inside…」
If we see the story through to the end or listen to the soundtrack entirely, we can find what the hidden meaning of that song. This is insanely interesting. and there lies some of the coolest pieces in the world.
For literally no reason, I love such battle themes but also I would love「Shadow of the Crystal」that supports them behind.
the composer was Revo, who gave that song one of the most important assignment in this video game.
That's all. It's no more than one of the most interesting thing I've analyzed about this soundtrack.
Thank you for reading to the end !
References
「BRAVELY DEFAULT For the Sequel」
「BRAVELY DEFAULT Original Soundtrack」
「BRAVELY DEFAULT Design Works THE ART OF BRAVELY 2010-2013」
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