“Listen to my story. This may be our last chance.”
The words that open Final Fantasy X are legendary, haunting every player who has ever stepped into Spira. But throughout the journey, you know how the story ends. You know where Tidus, Yuna, and the rest will end up. The game repeatedly tells you and makes no bones about it.
Fate cannot be changed, only understood better by those doomed to witness it. Granted, there are twists, and you may not understand who will experience what part of the story, but this is a tragedy.
So when the day finally comes that you enter that final area, marching onwards and hoping that you’re wrong, the music is the first assurance that this is, in fact, The End.
A Fleeting Dream is unique among the tracks in Final Fantasy X in that it plays uninterrupted. Looping infinitely, it follows you from screen to screen, overworld to battles and back again, replacing all the other songs you’ve grown accustomed to. There’s no upbeat battle theme here, no jaunty tune to say “come on, there’s monsters to fight, let’s go!”
You are marching forward towards fate. A long, slow journey that cannot be stopped, just like the music. You choose to keep going, despite everything that’s happened and that you know this will not be a happy ending. You keep going.
But, like many FFX songs, there are multiple versions. When the HD Remaster came around, the entire OST was reworked, and while many of the songs are the same, many are not. Players remain divided on which soundtrack they prefer, with no clear winner among the two. For myself, I have grown fond of the Remaster instrumentation, the clearer, more dramatic crescendos.
Do you have a preference? Have you made the long journey to see Yuna’s story to its end? Let us know in the comments!
