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As the title says, I've been working on custom soundtrack for the Steam version of Final Fantasy VIII [8]. The original, not the remastered.

First, I'll provide a quick and dirty how-to guide.

The Roses and Wine (RaW) mod helps grant accesses to the needed music files to replace. It's primarily advertises a remastered soundtrack, but what I'm most interested in is how it makes available the music files in the game. If I'm understanding correctly how it's operating, it appears to create an additional directory which reroutes where the game accesses its music. The important thing is, it adds the ability to customize all music in the game! Link to site hosting the program.

Bittorrent was, unfortuantely, required to access the Roses and Wine mod as the file itself ( a .bittorrent file) includes copyrighted music, so is perhaps legally dubious to download. Venture at your own risk. It may be best for me not to provide a direct link. I would highly recommend having both anti-virus protection software and a VPN. When installing, be very careful what boxes are checked before proceeding with installation.

If all that is installed correctly, the music should now be accessible here:

Steam-> steamapps > common > FINAL FANTASY VIII > RaW > GLOBAL > Music

I then used VLC media player to play & convert all desired mp3s into ogg files. It's a free and safe software. Create a backup with all the original music from the above directory. Then, once you know which music you want to replace, simply rename the audio file you want to match the game's music, and move/replace it into the directory.

FixLoop is also a very important software, albeit a bit tedious and not technically required. It allows you to manually set when songs begin and end link two points within a track to form a looped audio, so that when a track inevitably ends, you're not left with an unimmersive silence. It's fairly self-explanatory.

I've been working on this on and off for some years, paying attention to the music I come across, trying to imagine how appropriate it might be for certain scenes and events.

For funsies, I'm going to use this thread to share my soundtrack choices, but I'm open to answering any questions or receiving feedback.

013 Force Your Way

The game's boss battle theme. I'm actually split between two tracks, so I'll post both.

I like DnB, sue me!

058 Under Her Control

This track plays in Deling City.

Still sticking with the theme of DnB/electronica, this track I feel has a nice nighttime district vibe to it.

090 The Legendary Beast

One of a few tracks that only plays once, this battle theme plays as Ultimecia summons the Lion beast GF Griever. He's both angelic and beastial in appearance, and I immediately thought of this battle when I heard this track. The land has been stripped away and the party is essentially fighting against being raptured into non-existance.

It's very harsh-sounding with some angelic tones here and there.

No youtube video available, so the bandcamp link is at the bottom.

It is Track 17 Half Light from the Together with Ukraine album.

093 The Extreme

This is the final track of the game, Ultimecia's true form.

Breaking from the DnB theme here, this is what feels to be an ambient metal track.

This battle was a tricky one to find fitting music to, as it is a very long duel. Therefore, I've chosen a very long track so as for the track not to grow weary after several loops. It picks up around the 4 minute mark.

I saw a video of the fight taking 12 minutes, and that was with some pretty efficient strategy.