Hello and welcome to my One Winged Angel ranking and review, where i will be reviewing and ranking the Square Enix-published versions of One Winged Angel over the years. One day that was last week when I wrote this script, but now is actually closer to 9 months ago, I was listening to One Winged Angel and thought to myself “hmm I could do a ranking of this” and so I have decided to an ordered ranking of One Winged Angel with some little reviews next to the ranking of One Winged Angel in ordered ranking.
24. One-Winged Angel (GUITAR SOLO Best of Final Fantasy)
It’s a worse version of the other acoustic guitar rendition they already had.
23. One Winged Angel (Final Fantasy VII (2012 Steam ver.))
Bleh soundfont.
22. One-Winged Angel -from Final Fantasy VII- (Kingdom Hearts 2)
The vocals feel clunky, and many of the digital instruments used lack impact.
21. One Winged Angel -from Final Fantasy VII- (Kingdom Hearts)
Same as last entry.
20. One Winged Angel (Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Remix)
Same as last entry.
19. One-Winged Angel (SQUARE ENIX JAZZ FINAL FANTASY VII at Billboard Live TOKYO)
They tried.
18. One-Winged Angel (Final Fantasy Solo Guitar Collection)
Same idea as the piano version except it doesn’t sound as interesting.
17. One-Winged Angel orchestra version from FINAL FANTASY VII (Dissidia: Final Fantasy)
It’s just the Reunion version in lower bitrate and idk why I haven’t deleted this entry yet tbh.
16. One Winged Angel -Orchestra Version- (Final Fantasy VII Reunion Tracks)
I think this was one of the first orchestra performances of OWA so it must have been a novelty at the time, but at this point feels subpar when weighed against every other instance.
15. Acoustic: One Winged Angel – Rebirth (Final Fantasy VII Remake Acoustic Arrangements)
Neat.
14. One Winged Angel -Karaoke Version- (Final Fantasy VII Reunion Tracks)
This one at least has the novelty of being instrumental. Not to say there aren’t other instrumentals, but this is the only one for the Advent Children-esque full orchestral arrangement.
13. One Winged Angel (20020220 music from FINAL FANTASY)
Trumpets.
12. Final Fantasy VII: One-Winged Angel (Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy JIRITSU)
I still haven’t quite figured out what this Jiritsu concert even is or why it exists, since it only has alternate recordings of tracks featured on other Distant Worlds CDs. Either way, for the most part I feel the tracks on Jiritsu are ones that the other CDs simply did better. This performance feels rushed at times.
11. One Winged Angel (A New World: Intimate Music from Final Fantasy)
Similar to the way I feel about the one above. I’ve swapped their spots around a lot while writing this.
10. One Winged Angel (BRABRA Final Fantasy VII Brass de Bravo)
Interesting instrumentation that gives it a fresh sound.
9. One Winged Angel (Piano Collections)
It’s an incredibly fascinating experience to hear a track that’s always been played with such bombastic grandeur instead dissected into a relaxed piano piece.
8. Advent: One Winged Angel -from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children- (Octave Theory)
Sounds a little laidback compared to most versions of the song, but that’s surprisingly not a bad thing. Combined with the focus on a single female singer this ends up sounding more unique than one would expect. I suppose that sums up the way I feel about this version in general, it’s a song that somehow feels like it shouldn’t sound as good as it does.
7. One Winged Angel (Distant Worlds Final Fantasy I)
It’s Distant Worlds so this unsurprisingly ends up being the definitive one out of all the various orchestra versions over the years.
6. One-Winged Angel (Final Fantasy VII)
I do like it, and to a certain extent have come around to it, but at the same time I’ve always held reservations about the original One Winged Angel. At this point in time OWA is the song you hear before you know anything else about FFVII, but when you actually play the game you realise OWA does not sound like FFVII at all. I understand that this is the point, as the high fantasy aesthetic of the final battle is deliberately in opposition to the grungy steampunk that came in everything beforehand!<, but it sticks out like a sore thumb in the context of the original soundtrack. It doesn’t quite fit the rest of the music, and I usually consider Birth of a God as more indicative of a Final Fantasy VII final boss. But at the end of the day it is still One Winged Angel, and when divorced from the gameplay experience it is a boss theme worthy of all its accolades.
5. Advent: One-Winged Angel (Advent Children)
After the first time he heard OWA played with an electric guitar accompaniment at a concert Uematsu remarked that he finally felt the piece had become complete, having been reaffirmed that OWA was indeed a rock song after all. That sentiment rings true here. The electric guitar makes it much more intense than it originally had been, saturating the soundscape and giving it much more bite than ever before. Additionally I greatly appreciate the AC versions having different lyrics than the original. Despite not understanding latin, it’s a small touch that changes the experience in big ways.
4. Advent: One-Winged Angel [ACC long version] (Advent Children: Complete)
Not as heavy as the original AC performance (particularly noticeable in the opening), but mixed with much more life in the countermelodies that dance throughout the piece.
3. Final Fantasy VII -Symphony in Three Movements-: I. Nibelheim Incident @ 9:02 (Final Symphony)
Cheating, but shh. The first movement of Final Symphony’s VII suite is such an ambitious and subtly terrifying arrangement, and so it comes as no surprise that once it reaches One Winged Angel it ends up as one of its most impressive performances yet.
2. The World’s Enemy (Crisis Core)
Okay this one is also kinda cheating since it’s such a dynamic rearrangement that it’s instead considered its own song, but shh. I love how jovial it is. Much like Crisis Core being just about the only time to ever hear [a rendition of Aerith’s theme not totally draped in melancholy (no I do not count [this random song from Final Fantasy VIII) The World’s Enemy is a rare glimpse into Sephiroth before his fall. Not yet suspended between the border of monster and god, but simply the overpowered hero of the Wutai War – with an ego to match. Sephiroth at the point where he would lightly chuckle and taunt his friends as they tried to overpower him 2 on 1 in combat drills. Crisis Core is a game of questionable quality, and a narrative that is often severely tone-deaf to the story it’s a prequel of, but the parts in which it expands upon characters from the original are stellar. The idea that Sephiroth was the legendary SOLDIER, the face of Shinra so beloved he was a household name, is central to his character, and to actually bear witness to that era in Crisis Core was incredible. This theme interpreted as a nonverbal narrative when weighed against all its other incarnations, is the crystallisation of everything his Crisis Core portrayal represents.
1. One Winged Angel – Rebirth (Final Fantasy VII Remake)
As I’ll later mention I’ve long been hesitant on the original version of the theme, but listening to this utter madness makes me wonder if this is how it felt for those first encountering the theme back in 1997, with each shifting measure bringing an increasing bewilderment. VII:R’s soundtrack was a musical marvel chock full of unbelievable rearrangements, and yet One Winged Angel – Rebirth fittingly manages to be its crowning jewel. It’s ferocious, it’s intimidating, and it’s powerful beyond belief. I am in shock that 23 years after the debut of one of the most iconic tracks in all of gaming someone was able to compose a version that, in my opinion, redefines One Winged Angel. 3:50 might be the key moment of this track to me, or at least the one that embodies it the best. It enters into the flute section, which is usually a brief respite in all derivatives of the original composition. But here the momentary peace is quickly shattered with a sudden, forceful repetition that betrays familiarity and creates a sense of urgency. If it hadn’t somehow achieved it yet, that moment in particular is where the danger truly becomes real, and tells the listener that there is no rescue from this overwhelming pressure, from this unrelenting insanity. And said insanity continues to compound upon itself throughout the progression of the piece. Once we saw Sephiroth being an in-game boss it was obvious that OWA would be used for his battle theme, and the player is therefore braced for it. But the new music in the first act of OWA Rebirth scrambles that confidence, to the point that when the original composition starts playing around 5:22 in we are no longer going “okay got it there’s Sephiroth” but “oh no there’s Sephiroth”. What an incredibly genius piece of music.
And honourable mention to Battle on the Big Bridge ~ Dancing Mad ~ One Winged Angel which I can’t rank here despite being a super cool mashup. Nor can I include the segment in Encore: Final Boss Suite in which One Winged Angel is interspersed with pieces of Kefka’s theme and Dancing Mad (phase 2) in place of its usual countermelodies. This was supposed to be a joke post because of every title being One Winged Angel, but then it actually became sorta real so whoops. I still have to at least mention Mountaintop Tussle from DKC Tropical Freeze which was supposed to be the punchline.
skapbadoa 
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