Which do you prefer?
You know, just listening to the music on YouTube videos, I'm far more impressed with the music than I was in the game. I think it just goes to show that voice acting / constant sound effects really do take away from the musical experience.
Lightning's Theme: I find it fairly average, personally. Not bad, not great. I suppose that fits in with Lightning for me.It picks up halfway (around 1:20 onwards) but then, a good song should be good from the get-go. Doesn't really reflect Lightning much for me, either.
Snow's Theme: I love it! It suits him, and it's the one track that immediately stood out to me every time I heard it (well, aside from the chocobo ones, obviously). Thought it was great from the first time I heard it.
Vanille's Theme: Its nice, good to have a piano theme, but it just seems a little too simplistic for me. The constant ding-dong-ding-dong-ding-dong going through the whole thing ruins it a bit for me. Near the start, that very rhythm... I just swear I'm about to hear the words "Why do stars suddenly appear..."
Fang's Theme: Very world-theme-y to me, in a good way. It would have been my ideal choice for a world map theme if there was a traversable world map. Especially if it was a theme for when you're flying an airship.
Hope's Theme: Possibly the most unique of the the themes and I really, really like it. It just makes me wish so much that the voice acting could be disabled and I could have little popup text boxes instead, because it just seems like the kind of music you would hope to have going on in Cosmo Canyon (FFVII) when you're all around the campfire, contemplating and sharing a few words with each other. Very heartfelt. Possibly my favourite.
Sazh's Theme: Very, very jazz. I noticed there were a lot of jazzy tracks in this game, which isn't really my thing if I'm honest. It's not bad, but just not my cup of tea. And I don't even like tea.
Serah's Theme: One with lyrics. It's okay. Nothing special for me.
So basically, Hope/Fang/Snow have awesome tracks and I really appreciate how wonderful they are now that I've heard them on their own rather than in the game. They're just so much better that way. Hard, though, as I also like a lot of the voice acting in this game... shame you can't switch around, I'd possibly play the whole game again if you could do it with one and then the other!