Here's the original. It's a very soothing and gentle piece of music that instantly relaxes and calms the listener. This version of it is very simplistic and basic with just two instruments playing throughout. A phrase I seem to keep calling back to in this series is that the music reflects the personality of the character it belongs to, and once again it's relevant for this song.
Rydia remains an innocent and pure character with a very sweet nature. This makes her perhaps something more of a stereotypical RPG heroine than the likes of Hilda and Beatrix mentioned previously, but that shouldn't be mistaken for poor writing, as she is an engaging and likeable character.
As with all classic FF character themes, Rydia's has been remixed and rearranged also. I think it is even softer and calmer than the original, although I think it does lose some of the simplicity that the original had. What it does particularly well is capture a little bit of mystery and magic to it.
This makes for a good reflection of another side of Rydia's character. As a brief reminder, she originally joins the party as a child but is swept overboard a ship and is presumed to have been eaten by Leviathan. Leviathan actually took her to the Feymarch, Land of the Eidolons, where she honed her summoning and black magic skills and then returned to the party as a young woman. There is a real sense of incredulity and wonder for the player when that little girl they used to let tag along returns as an adult with an almighty arsenal of magical firepower at her disposal, and I get a feeling of that while listening to the updated theme.
As always, I'll leave you with my favourite YouTube remix, and this one is by Rebecca Tripp. Give it a listen, I'm sure you'll enjoy it!
So, what do you think? Did I pick the right FFIV theme? I was considering Kain's theme as an alternative but I ultimately went with Rydia. We're halfway there, so here's a recap:
10. Bartz
9. Snow
8. Beatrix
7. Hilda
6. Rydia
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