Final Fantasy VIII

How Musical Leitmotifs Enhance Narration and Evoke Emotion

This paper argues that musical leitmotifs, which have received little sustained attention in English-language game studies, deserve a contemporary definition suited to digital games and accessible to non-musicians.

• Leitmotifs are musical ideas tied to a specific character, location, sentiment, or story element, and the paper argues they deserve a contemporary definition suited to digital games and accessible to non-musicians.
• The paper distinguishes leitmotifs from broader thematic material (which evokes a work as a whole) and from motifs (which lack specific representational reference).
• The paper identifies nine intratextual functions of leitmotifs, including defining characters and locations, seeding and substantiating emotion, foreshadowing, and constituting an emotional climax.