MZero posted...
It's not that prominent in the most popular games in the series. A lot of people probably don't even know it
totally disagree. people know it, they just don't know that they know it because it's had so many variations over the years and is often inserted to finish another song. most common version of this is in the staff roll. once people hear it then it becomes "oh yeah, that one," without realizing that it's been in all but 3 mainline FF games, a couple spinoffs, and Advent Children.
Uematsu himself has said "I think it's the most important song in terms of everything I've ever done" and the series' constant usage of it and rearrangements of it has proven that. really comes down to a case of it's familiar and memorable but the connection's not made there directly.