Loveless (theme)

VR simulation of Jessie in a leading role of Loveless.

When the end of days is come,
The Goddess alights from heav'ns above
'Pon those Her blessing She doth bestow
True happiness but they shall know

Opening of Loveless

"Loveless" (stylized as "LOVELESS" in Japanese) is a theme in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. It is a symphonic and operatic suite composed and arranged by Masashi Hamauzu. It is the incidental music for the eponymous play, Loveless, a story within a story.

Structure

"Loveless" consists of eleven movements:

1. "Loveless - Gift of the Goddess" (LOVELESS 歌曲『女神の贈り物』, LOVELESS Kakyoku "Megami no Okurimono"?, lit. LOVELESS Lied "Gift of the Goddess"): The introduction of the theme, featuring a high baritone soloist.
2. "Loveless - The City of Guardia" (LOVELESS -機械都市ガルディア-, LOVELESS -Kikai Toshi Garudia-?, lit. LOVELESS -Machine City Guardia-)
3. "Loveless - Victim of Conquest" (LOVELESS -囚われの牢獄-, LOVELESS -Toraware no Rōgoku-?, lit. LOVELESS -Prison of Captivity-)
4. "Loveless - Broken Shackles" (LOVELESS -断ち切られた鎖-, LOVELESS -Tachikirareta Kusari-?, lit. LOVELESS -Broken Chains-)
5. "Loveless - The Dragon King Varvados" (LOVELESS -悪竜王ヴァルヴァドス-, LOVELESS -Akuryūō Varuvadosu-?, lit. LOVELESS -Evil Dragon King Varvados)
6. "Loveless - The Humble Fool" (LOVELESS -道化師の語らい-, LOVELESS -Dōkeshi no Katarai-?, lit. LOVELESS -Jester's Talk-)
7. "Loveless - The Hellhound Garm" (LOVELESS -地獄の番犬ガルム-, LOVELESS -Jigoku no Banken Garumu-?, lit. LOVELESS -Hell's Watchdog Garm-)
8. "Loveless - Sealed with a Kiss" (LOVELESS -運命の口づけを-, LOVELESS -Unmei no Kuchizuke o-?, lit. LOVELESS -Kiss of Fate-)
9. "Loveless - Truest Love" (LOVELESS -真実の愛-, LOVELESS -Shinjitsu no Ai-?, lit. LOVELESS -True Love-)
10. "Loveless - Let My Blade Strike True!" (LOVELESS -我が剣に女神の祝福を-, LOVELESS -Waga Ken ni Megami no Shukufuku o-?, lit. LOVELESS -May the Goddess Bless My Blade-)
11. "Loveless - Grand Finale" (LOVELESS -グランドフィナーレ-, LOVELESS -Gurando Fināre-?)

Game appearances

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

The whole "Loveless" suite plays during the Loveless at the Golden Theatre of the Event Square at the Gold Saucer in Chapter 12, "A Golden Key". It is then followed by "No Promises to Keep - Loveless Ver.", performed by Aerith Gainsborough.

The suite is tracks 1 to 11 of disc 6 on the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Original Soundtrack.

Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis

"Loveless" also plays during the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth crossover event LOVELESS - Behind the Scenes.

Arrangement album appearances

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Orchestral Arrangement Album

"Loveless Symphonic Suite - Gift of the Goddess" (LOVELESS 組曲 -女神の贈り物-, LOVELESS Kumikyoku -Megami no Okurimono-?, lit. LOVELESS Suite -Gift of the Goddess-) is an orchestral symphonic suite orchestrated by Sachiko Miyano appears as track 8 on the album, conducted by Hirofumi Kurita and performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Barzz.

It is not the complete suite as it is noticeably short of "Loveless - Gift of the Goddess", "Loveless - The Humble Fool", and "Loveless - The Hellhound Garm". All of the movements are also shortened.

Live performances

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Orchestra World Tour Live 2024.09.08

The orchestration of "Loveless Symphonic Suite - Gift of the Goddess" by Sachiko Miyano is performed in the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth orchestra word tour. The concert held on September 8, 2024 at PACIFICO Yokohama National Convention Hall in Kanagawa was recorded live and released on the album, conducted by Arnie Roth and performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Barzz.

"Loveless Symphonic Suite - Gift of the Goddess" is track 3 of disc 2 on the album.

Behind the scenes

When Motomu Toriyama told Masashi Hamauzu the outline of Loveless, Hamauzu prepared himself for "this is going to be a lot of work". He said that it is necessary to create a play itself like an opera rather than background music and that it is the world of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giuseppe Verdi. He was surprised because he never thought that such a level of work would be required in the work of creating game music. However, as Toriyama shared his rough image with Hamauzu, he realized that unlike the main game, he just needed to express the performing arts in an easy-to-understand way. For example, the dialogue is contrived and the story development is easy to understand. So when he started working, it was easy to come up with the sound.

The fact that the development changes rapidly meant that there was no need to drag on, so it was easier to create the music. For example, if Hamauzu were creating music for a scene where the characters fight for 10 or 20 minutes, he would have to make some effort to keep them from getting bored. In the case of Loveless, the scene and music change as the dialogue progresses, so he did not need to have that many ideas for the next piece of music. So Hamauzu did not have any trouble with the composition or length of the music. What was quite difficult was that the rhythm and feel of the game changed subtly depending on the player's operation, so he had to be careful not to change it too much. For example, if one scene continued for 10 seconds longer due to the player's operation, it was difficult to figure out what to do with the transitions between the tracks, or prepare multiple pieces of data to play in combination so that the music did not feel like it was stretched out, so he almost got a little distraught. The soundtrack contains one beautiful pattern, but to implement it in the actual game, he had to manage a lot of other detailed data, so it was quite a difficult task.

Hamauzu studied at the Department of Vocal Music, Faculty of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts, so he had the opportunity to study opera, and that experience was actually useful in the music production of Loveless. He went on to study vocal music, but he soon found that composing was more fun, so he slacked off on his vocal studies and just wrote music. Up until then, he had mostly done background music for plays, so his knowledge of vocal music and studying singing had not been of much use directly, but this time, it was directly useful in creating music that was close to a real opera. He had images like "that image of Mozart" and "this part sounds like Leoncavallo", so it helped him in the production. When it came to selecting the singer and directing the recording, it was easy to specifically convey, "Imagine the first song of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci", so it was the first time that his vocal studies were useful in his work. Also, when it came to selecting the singer, he was also helped by Sachiko Miyano, who is also a senior at university. When she listened to his concerns, "I really want a high baritone to sing it, but I don't think there is anyone in Japan who can sing this kind of music, so I'm thinking of looking for a tenor singer", they agreed that "because singing in a way that exudes intelligence is the privilege of the baritone, it would be better to find a high baritone singer in the world for this piece of music", and if Miyano thought so too, he was sure that this piece of music would be perfect for a high baritone. If he had not consulted Miyano, he might have ended up with a lighter piece of music.