*This is a piano mix of Koori-Kun's Battle Theme II, found here: http://www.newgrounds.com /audio/listen/317003

I do not know what particularly possessed me to compose something tonight, other than the fact that this is the first truly free time I've had for most of the summer, the rest being taken up by other projects and such. Still, there are a lot of other things I could have done.

Perhaps it can be credited to the fact that yesterday I put together a demo reel of games for the Game Creation Club at my university. For First Fantasy's segment of the video, I used the scene where this song first played in the game. A year afterward, I still think the combination of Koori-Kun's Battle Theme II and the context it was played in made for one of the best parts in the game, if not THE best part of the game.

So for whatever reason, the allure of messing around with FL Studio for the first time in a while won out over the tons of other things I could have been doing instead, and I tried composing this piece using pure piano.

The Way That Was Forced is my title for the song, and it comes from the way it's used in FF: once while a certain character meets you and thinks you have turned against him (which is more or less a misunderstanding, but you don't know him at all at that time, having no memory of him), and either once or twice again at the ending, depending on which story route you take: you have reason to suspect that one of two people in your party are traitors, and the song plays when you fight either one, but the circumstances are just as complicated - there are misunderstandings and hidden motives involved there as well.

And then there's simply the great tune. I've said to Koori-Kun that most of his battle themes sound more like boss themes, even outside a 'watered-down' RPG like First Fantasy. I really think that this is for the most emotional boss battles.

Anyway, enough rambling. Enjoy. And give Koori-Kun's stuff a listen, too.