The Final Fantasy VII music bug that plagued overworld transitions is no more, but it’s just the start.
When the final Final Fantasy VII re-release launched on PS4 in December 2015, it launched with a bug. Specifically, a musical bug. (That’s a bug in the music, not, erm, an insect that plays the trombone.)
When you walk around on the overworld map, after escaping Midgar, you’ll frequently find yourself in random battles. When you finish a random battle, the overworld theme should pick up where it left off. With the bug in play, it starts again. Every time. It’s a six-and-a-half minute piece of music that loops beautifully, but with the overworld music bug and combat that’s fairly frequent, you might end up hearing the same 30 seconds over and over again.
In the grand scheme of things, it’s hardly game-breaking, but it is quite irritating once you’ve noticed it.
When Final Fantasy IX followed on PS4 n 2017, it featured the same overworld music bug as Final Fantasy VII. (And a slew of other issues, chief among them a hideous font.)
Then, earlier this year when the re-release train really got rolling, we all wondered if these bugs might be squashed. And they weren’t. The overworld music bug was in evidence on the versions of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IX released on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.
Now, in something of a nothing announcement on Twitter, the official Final Fantasy account has revealed the Final Fantasy VII music bug has been fixed. (Along with “other minor bugs” which, we’ll be honest, we’re not entirely sure what’s been fixed.)
Today we've released patch 1.01 for #FinalFantasy VII on both #NintendoSwitch & #Xbox One.
This fixes an issue that caused background music to restart after the end of each battle, and other minor bugs. pic.twitter.com/WkkDNnNhk0
— FINAL FANTASY (@FinalFantasy) May 17, 2019
One interesting thing to note is that version 1.0.1 of Final Fantasy VII is only for the newer re-releases on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. The PS4 version of Final Fantasy VII still has the audio bug, at the time of writing.
We also don’t have any indication of whether a fix for the Final Fantasy IX audio bug is in the works. You’d like to think so, but based on the evidence to date? We wouldn’t bet the chocobo farm on it.
Header image: Lap Pun Cheung on Artstation
