FFIX Hilda Garde vs. Neverending Story Bastian’s flight theme

The year 1984, a long time ago in a galaxy far away, when a baby T-rex used to guard my backyard (RIP Dino), I had thought there was no way for anyone to come close to the theme song in the legendary film, the Neverending Story. What… you space monkeys are too young to have seen it? Preposterous!! Fast forward to the year 2000, Squaresoft released Final Fantasy IX. (Which is still today in the top 20 RPGs of all time.) Ok, History lesson is over.

You guys might think I’m only crazy about K-pop. Tis not, space monkeys! Actually, I’ve always adored orchestrated music from Classical to the Baroque period and chamber music far before Kpop. I especially love stuff from James Horner and many other soundtrack composers.

In the small world of video games, Nobuo Uematsu already made a name for himself and was up to the task of continuously reinventing his Airship theme. (An Airship is a vehicle that is used for flight across the globe and can also sail in rough waters, lightning storms, you name it.) The Hilda Garde Airship theme from the 9th Final Fantasy is probably the closest to the mood of ‘epic adventure’ to another epic film of all time, The Neverending Story. I remember in past interviews that Nobuo is influenced by many American and European works. I feel he wished to challenge this great track. Btw, do you see a commonality here? Final and never ending? Final Fantasy has 14 installments so far, thus never ending.

Doesn’t the Flight theme in Neverending Story make u want to dream, and fly too?
(Legendary soundtrack by the Godly Klaus Doldinger and Giorgio Moroder!)

Here is the Hilda Garde Flight theme from Final Fantasy IX. It has the same legendary feel as the first.

Final Fantasy VII’s Cid Theme - It is so HEROIC sounding!

What do I think is better? Ha, I tell you what. What if I said its a 3 way tie? Would you hate me? I seriously would say these are the top 3 soundtracks of my life and will never leave my top list of all time. As you can tell, I have a soft spot for the items mentioned in this blog.

Neverending Story out on Blu-ray remastered on March 2010! I’m soo getting it!