WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Final Fantasy VII

It’s high time I wrote about one of the most iconic pieces of music ever made – not just for Final Fantasy VII, but for videogames in general. Even if you’ve never so much as looked at FFVII, you’ve undoubtedly heard this piece somewhere before. I’m honestly not sure if there’s anything new I can really mention about it because, well, what else is there to say that hasn’t most likely already been said?

One listen and you already understand why it’s so popular, and I don’t think it’s just because it belongs to the equally popular Sephiroth, the main villain of Final Fantasy VII. I personally find him to be a tad overrated myself but I can’t deny how epic his theme music is.

It’s instrumentation and Latin choir are a perfect fit for his final form, where he resembles a giant angel. But despite his heavenly appearance, other aspects of his design and the music tell you that he is much more like a devil. And if you translate the Latin, it perfectly describes how insane he is, with these two phrases repeated throughout:

“Burning inside with violent anger” and “Fate – monstrous and empty”.

Do I even need to break this down? This is a song that strikes fear in you from the get-go and it doesn’t let up. That feeling only gets stronger as the song progresses, growing ever more intense. It doesn’t matter how many times it’s remixed; it always manage to retain that emotion, making it deserving of being one of the most popular final boss themes ever made. Even if mishearing the lyrics makes it unintentionally hilarious.

“Bells, frogs, big cherries, Peter Pan, magic cheese, SEPHIROTH!”