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Distant Worlds isn’t so distant

At the beginning of the week, Square Enix announced that they would be conducting a new world tour in honor of the 20th anniversary of the original Final Fantasy release. The new tour, “Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY” will feature music from all the numbered games up to XI (excluding X-2). To keep from writing it all again, here is the news post I made on Square Haven:

The first performance will be held in Stockholm, Sweden on December 4th 2007 and performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Choir. During the performance, large screens will display videos and art stills to help enhance the experience.

The tour will then make its American debut in Chicago on March 1st 2008. Both concerts will be conducted by award-winning music director and conductor Arnie Roth.

“I am excited to be conducting Nobuo Uematsu’s captivating music once again and to collaborate with him in this exciting new production.” Roth said when asked about the experience. Roth has worked with the Final Fantasy catalog before during the Dear Friends tour.

Prices for the Chicago performance range from $35 to $150. However, the $150 ticket also includes a meet and greet with Nobuo Uematsu himself, a copy of the “Distant Worlds” album, and a special tour program book.

No other dates have been announced as of this article

Concert Program Not in concert order, subject to change:

• FINAL FANTASY series: Main Theme, Swing de Chocobo
• FINAL FANTASY I-III: Medley
• FINAL FANTASY III DS: Opening
• FINAL FANTASY IV: Theme of Love
• FINAL FANTASY V: Dear Friends
• FINAL FANTASY VI: Opera “Maria and Draco”
• FINAL FANTASY VII: One-Winged Angel, Opening - Bombing Mission, Aerith’s Theme
• FINAL FANTASY VIII: Liberi Fatali, Fisherman’s Horizon, Love Grows, Don’t be Afraid
• FINAL FANTASY IX: Vamo’ alla Flamenco
• FINAL FANTASY X: To Zanarkand
• FINAL FANTASY XI: Memoro de la Stono - Distant Worlds

Along with the concert premiere in Stockholm, a new album bearing the same name as the tour will be released. The music was performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Choir and will feature much to the music from the two hour concert. There is no word yet on how much the CD will retail for.

Track Listing Run time 75min:

1. Opening - Bombing Mission (FINAL FANTASY VII)
2. Medley (FINAL FANTASY I-III)
3. Theme of Love (FINAL FANTASY IV)
4. Liberi Fatali (FINAL FANTASY VIII)
5. Aerith’s Theme (FINAL FANTASY VII)
6. Swing de Chocobo (FINAL FANTASY series)
7. Memoro de la Stono - Distant Worlds (FINAL FANTASY XI)
8. Opera “Maria and Draco” (FINAL FANTASY VI)
9. Love Grows (FINAL FANTASY VIII)
10. Don’t be Afraid (FINAL FANTASY VIII)
11. Fisherman’s Horizon (FINAL FANTASY VIII)
12. Vamo’ alla Flamenco (FINAL FANTASY IX)
13. One-Winged Angel (FINAL FANTASY VII)

I am extremely excited about this. I was never able to attend the Dear Friends or More Friends concerts, so having a new tour gives me another opportunity. I’d love to attend the Chicago one if possible and do the full Meet & Greet. Uematsu has been one of my heroes for a very long time, and even though I probably wouldn’t stand out in his mind, it would be a wonderful memory for me. If I do get an opportunity to attend, I will do a full write-up for VGMe about the experience as I know there are thousands of people out there who would love to attend but simply can’t.

The concert has brought up something that I may make into a post series in the future about my beliefs on what makes a good soundtrack. For every exceptional soundtrack I have heard, there are three or four that are mediocre or simply terrible. There are a lot of things that can make the soundtrack good or bad and so I’ll probably explore them in further detail in upcoming posts. For now though, I’ll leave you with concert-versions of Final Fantasy music to commemorate the news.

MUSIC

J is for Just Released

There are few game characters that amass a huge cult following without having to do anything. The most recent, and one of my favorite (non)characters is simply a box. More specifically, it’s a Weighted Companion Cube. For fans of the game Portal –released as one of the many titles included in Valve’s recent Orange Box– the Weighted Companion Cube is more than just another ordinary cube. It is something to love and cherish. Aside from my beloved, though, there are many things that have happened since my last post.

The biggest news for the site is the new look. I decided to take the site away from a template and build a new look for it. I’m still working out a lot of the bugs for it, so bear with it for a while longer. Also, in site news, I’m looking for writers who are willing to contribute weekly to VGMe. If you are interested, drop me a line at dastafarin@gmail.com using the subject “Writing for VGMe” so that I can find it amongst all the spam.

Now, on a completely random note, I want to bring up something that I was talking about today and that is the complete impatience I find in other players online. Recently I’ve been playing a lot of Gunbound again, after having been away from it since the original version entitled “Thor’s Hammer.” After going back, I’ve found a lot of people on the game are anywhere between somewhat impatient to extremely impatient. It’s disturbing and extremely annoying. As soon as I log into a room, it’s almost guaranteed that at least one person will spam my username about 50 times and tell me to ready up within the first 10 seconds. Now this game is a lot worse than many other online games in those regards, but the same still holds up in some capacity for many online titles. Sometimes telling a person to “Ready up” is warranted and necessary, but 99% of the time it’s simply irritating. I know to get ready, I’ve played the game before. I don’t need someone “yelling” at me to hurry things up and forgo any preparations I may wish to make before entering into a match.

MUSIC

I is for Inching closer to release

Tuesday is the launch of the game every Halo fan has been waiting for since they threw their controllers in disgust at the ending of Halo 2; Halo 3. As much as I don’t want to be excited about it, I am. There is something about the Halo series that has a hold of me no matter how much I try to fight it.

The Halo series is a huge part of the current gaming culture. While you may find gamers who haven’t touched it, you would be hard-pressed to find one who hadn’t even heard of it. As the game that single-handedly established Microsoft in the gaming world, Halo was very important in directing current trends and exposing tactics of certain companies. Halo’s past is riddled with cheap (though unsurprising) tactics, disappointment and endless delays. It also harbors monsterous release numbers and one of the strongest fan-followings of any game.

When the first Halo title was announced back in the summer of ‘99, the game was set for release for both Windows and Mac OS. The game was an immediate hit amongst journalists who had had a chance to preview game earlier in the year at E3. Halo was seen as the title to bring gaming to the Mac in a way that it had not seen previously. It was only a year later, though, that the hopes of this killer Mac title were destroyed when Microsoft announced that it had purchased Bungie Studios (developers of the Halo series) and would make the game a Microsoft exclusive. As if this wasn’t enough of a blow, the game would no longer be initially released on PC, but on Microsoft’s new game console, the Xbox. This transfer of platform severly changed the development of Halo and when Bungie rewrote the engine, it changed from a 3rd Person title to a First Person Shooter. While the end product was considered inferior to the game displayed that first year, it still found success and aclaim as a console title. The control scheme and many of the methods of gameplay used in the Xbox version of Halo became mainstay parts of console FPS titles for years to come.

I give the history of the original title for a reason. Halo has one of the more interesting pasts for a game series and it shows in the games themselves. While original title felt almost incomplete on Xbox and the second felt stunted, both titles, for as flawed as they were, hold a special place in many gamers hearts. That place could be one of absolute love or utter hate, but no matter what it is, Halo is known to everyone. It is with this and on the back of the biggest game release in history (Halo 2) that Halo 3 will make its appearance.

MUSIC

H is for Holy Crap, more Kingdom Hearts!

Today was the first day of the Tokyo Game Show and Square Enix came out swinging with the announcement of not one, but three new Kingdom Hearts titles. All the games are hand-held, covering the range of major platforms (DS, PSP, Mobile) and the time-line as well. The DS title, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (read as 358 over 2 days) takes place during Kingdom Hearts II. It features Roxas and Axel, two major fangirl fodder from the second game and will have a co-op mode similar to Crystal Chronicles (according to Kotaku). It will also be a lot darker in terms of the atmosphere created by the game. That in itself makes me want to play it.

The second title, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (what the fuck is with these titles?) is going to appear on the PSP. Birth of Sleep will be a prequel to the series, occurring before the events of Kingdom Hearts and will center around earlier Keyblade masters; namely Xehanort. Fans of the series will know Xehanort as the fake Ansem who was the main villain (at least his alternate forms were) in both PS2 games.

The third and final game, Kingdom Hearts: Coded is going to be on the mobile platform. There’s not as much info about this title as there are the first two, but from what is known it seems to take place parallel to the PS2 games. It will feature Sora as the main character and be a basic dungeon crawler.

While I’m a fan of the Kingdom Hearts series, I’m not really too excited two more hand-held titles for the series (don’t expect Coded to ever be released here). Though I’m interested in playing 358/2 Days, I really want to find out the history of Xehanort, but of course it’s on the hand-held I don’t have. The chances of me picking up a PSP in the future, even with some titles I want to play, is very slim. If they did something like the Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix + release with the two titles included in Kingdom Hearts III, that would make me very happy. Of course, there’s no guarentee that the game would come out in America should they do that.

MUSIC

G is for Games and Gears.

One of my favorite parts of some of the games I own is the nostalgic feel I get from them. Most of the games I own that are over 5 years old are still in my collection for sentimental value. Whether it’s the first Final Fantasy I ever played or a Super Nintendo game I have played so many times I’ve lost count, it’s these old titles that keep me coming back for more. I’m sure most people have a game like this; one that they can’t get rid of. Having grown up through the reign of Nintendo and Sega, though, I’m curious to see what games lend themselves to such an honorable position in the next ten to twenty years. When the preteens and younger of today grow up to become adult gamers, will they look back fondly on games like Ratchet & Clank or will their games be the more mature titles like GTA? Where I’m playing old games like Super Mario World, maybe that game will be replaced by God of War.

No matter what they are playing now, I do know that they should also be playing the games I grew up on. I know most parents want to give their kids the best, and right now that includes a 360, a Wii, maybe a PS2 or a PS3, but they should also (or instead) give them a Super Nintendo or a Sega Genesis. There are a few reasons I say this. One is obviously that young kids really don’t care about technical superiority. Sure, given the option, many kids will more than likely go for a 360 over a SNES, but a lot of that has to do with their own perception of what makes them look cool. Saying you have a 360 at school makes you a lot cooler than saying you have an SNES (unless you are in the right crowd). However, when they are at home, there is no one there to make fun of them for not playing the latest and the greatest, so why not let them enjoy games that make up for their lack of technical prowess with solid, enjoyable gameplay.

My second point is if you are a gamer parent yourself, you probably understand the importance of “knowing your roots.” Having a good background in classic games helps to develop a gamer’s taste and style. By playing many older titles and seeing how games were developed and executed in the early days allows for a better progression in ability and understanding. It also allows for more enjoyment of modern titles when you know the evolution of the game itself. For instance, having played the original Metroid titles, I get a huge amount of enjoyment out of the Prime series because I can see the evolution with my own eyes and understand parts of the game that would be lost to those who aren’t already versed in the Metroid series.

My last point is a simple one but probably a major one for parents. It gives you and your kid something with which to connect. Sure, you play a lot of the current titles with him but wouldn’t it also be fun for him to see what you grew up playing? For every Sly Cooper or Tak they have, you have a Bubble Bobble or a Rock ‘n’ Roll Racing. Whether they end up liking the games or not isn’t the point; it builds a connection. How many people remember doing something with a parent because they used to “do it all the time” when they were a kid? The enjoyment of the task never really came from the activity itself but the feeling of a connection with the parent.

With the Wii’s Virtual Console, I can see the need for one of the older systems sitting on the entertainment center dropping (though maybe every kid needs the experience of blowing until they’re dizzy into an NES console). Many of the classics from yester-year are becoming available to the younger audience through the VC and even the handheld market. I do feel, though, that whether the games are played on an original system or on a DS doesn’t matter as long as they are being played.

MUSIC

F is for Final Fantasy?

Before we get on to the music, I want to say something in regards to the current generation of consoles. I’ve been playing video games for a long time. I remember when I received my first NES when I was a little kid and playing games like Super Mario, Rygar, Paperboy, and other classics. With this history in the subject, I’d like to say that the current battle over the superiority of one system is stupid. Sure, I love the Wii. Sure, I enjoy playing 360. That doesn’t mean I think the PS3 is a piece of shit, though. My own personal misgivings over what I see as a lack of titles for the PS3 at the moment doesn’t make the system itself any better or worse, because in the end a system is only as good as its games. That’s the reason I still play my SNES all the time. In the end, it’s the games that make or break a system, not the specs. No one cares if a system has the latest and greatest hardware or not. They just want to have fun. They don’t care how “revolutionary” motion-sensing controls are if it’s not fun.

While we’re on the subject of the current gen, however, I would like to say that the Red Ring of Death is by far the most gut-wrenching thing I’ve experienced in a long time. Much like the Blue Screen of Death (go Microsoft and your colored indicators of death!), it makes my stomach churn. However, unlike the BSOD, seeing that RROD brings along with it the knowledge that it will be a few weeks before I can enjoy another 360 game. I’m glad that Microsoft has increased their warranties on all the systems, but it’s still annoying to only be able to use your system for a few months before death is imminent. I guess that’s the price you pay for enjoying anything by Microsoft, though.

Today is the letter F. Obviously, Final Fantasy would be included in this list but it seems almost a bit unfair to post music from a series that is already so widely known and block out some other, just as deserving titles. So for the sake of fairness to my collection and your interests, there will be no Final Fantasy posted.

MUSIC

Because remixes are always better, right?

Today the guys at OC Remix released their epic four disc remix album dedicated to the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack, Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream. Featuring remixes of 45 of the original 86 tracks (lasting a total of 3:26), OCR’s ninth album is not one to be missed. The quality of the remixes by the contributers at OC has gotten better over the years, and this album shows just how polished and creative they are. All my favorites are covered, including some remixes of songs that I wasn’t to partial to originally.

The best part of this whole release though is the price; $0.00. That’s right, it’s free. The album is available on their website in both MP3 and WAV format. The mp3s are 192kbps CBR, so they sound great without being huge in file size. However, if you’re a foobar2000 user like myself, you may want to fiddle with the ID3 tags to get it displaying just right.

Overall I’m extremely impressed by the quality of the album. The tracks are all well done, with some of the songs being taken in directions I had never imagined before (like the track “Heart of Anxiety” including vocals). I recommend that everyone download the album via bittorrent if they can, or at least sample a few of the tracks. I’ve included 3 tracks from the first disc of the album, “Crisis.” Enjoy.

pixietricks & zircon - Deliverance of the Heart (Heart of Anxiety)

BigGiant Circles - Every Story Begins with a Name (Opening - Bombing Mission)

norg & SnappleMan - Full Frontal Assault (Let the Battles Begin!)

Download the full album

E is for Egotistical.

One thing I want to make perfectly clear is my dislike of “Ego Gamers.” These are people who only play games they are good at, and only play to boost their own ego. You may have run into these types before. Whenever you’re at a party or a friend’s house and people are playing games, they will often loiter around the area, but don’t ever seem to want to play. However, once “their game” is chosen to be played, they are ready to show everyone in the area just how good they are/how much time they’ve wasted on this game. They are usually pretty good at the game, and can beat the average gamer. That’s where the problem starts. Up until now, they haven’t touched the controller, but once they are on a game they are good at, they make sure you know just how amazing they are and how much you suck. Sure, they may suck at every other game out there, but you’d never know. They never give you the chance to because they are too busy avoiding those games. No, instead of playing games whether they suck at them or not, to them games are about winning and showing up your opponent.

Now that I have gotten that off my chest, I can move on to other things. Like stories. More importantly, video game stories.

I’ve always been a big fan of a good storyline. I feel most games can benefit from a well-thought-out storyline (barring certain genres like sports that don’t really require it). It seems, though, that the tales the current games weave are becoming increasingly unoriginal. Sure, they may use different names or settings, but you can only tell the same story so many times before it becomes old.

One series that has been my beacon for good storytelling has been Final Fantasy. Since I started playing the series many years ago, I had always been enthralled with the complex tales that seemed to go on forever. Unfortunately, even Final Fantasy has been slipping in this regard. With the release of X-2 and XII, the story department has been lacking. Whether it be a completely ridiculous sequel or simply the lack of any real overlying plot, Final Fantasy has been losing ground. Instead, it has been the Indie titles that have impressed me. Games like Pyschonauts and Indigo Prophecy show that original and interesting storytelling is still available, you just have to find them. There are more mainstream titles that feature some quality storytelling, such as Bioshock, but those are becoming rare. I’m just hoping that Final Fantasy XIII will be better.

MUSIC

Kenichiro Fukui - Warning Einhänder Original Soundtrack

Norihiko Hibino - hope and courage Elvandia Story Original Soundtrack

Silicon Knights - Black Rose Eternal Darkness ~ Sanity’s Requiem Sound Track

D is for Dead? I don’t think so!

As it’s been a while since my last post and there are many things that have happened, I’m just going to start fresh.

I am a fan of System Shock 2. A very big fan. Since I am a fan, I was more than excited when Bioshock was announced. I waited, almost patiently, for the release of what could be the greatest FPS RPG title released since SS2. Upon release, however, as impressed as I was by the game, I couldn’t help but feel as though I was just playing SS2 with a new theme. It was almost as if they had re-skinned the original game, slapped a new prefix to “Shock” and dumbed down the difficulty. I could go on about it but I feel that Zero Punctuation said it perfectly in the following video:

On another note, I want to talk about RPGs. More specifically, Japanese RPGs. Yes, I know, it’s a touchy subject. JRPGs is like the Euro Metal of the gaming world. Everyone had probably played one or two, but only the nerdiest of the nerdy (myself included) really enjoy them on higher level. So if you are not a fan of them, I would say skip on down the post. Anyway, my issue is with the evolving battle systems in the games. More and more are JRPGs going to a real-time battle system and straying from the turn-based style that it was birthed with. I don’t necessarily dislike this trend, it’s simply that the transition has been very rocky. More often than not, I have found myself playing a real-time system that has been not only exceedingly dull, but also very contrived and not even very well executed. Only a few titles have really stood out as having excellent real-time systems or variations thereof (Star Ocean, Tales of Symphonia, Final Fantasy XII). There has also been a growing pressure on classic turn-based franchises to shed their ways and go to the new style. Series like Dragon Quest, games that have built their popularity on the solid turn-based gameplay, are feeling the pressure from other series who have jumped ship and embraced the new system. This I am not happy with.

I grew up playing turn-based games, and I would rather not see series I have loved change something that drew me into it in the first place. A Dragon Quest title that is not turn-based seems almost blasphemous. I do understand that turn-based systems can be overwhelming or sometimes needlessly convoluted. Games like Magna Carta that featured hybrid systems that were so overly complex that playing the game was no longer fun ruins the image of turn-based titles.

Another nail in the turn-based coffin is the random encounter. So often are old titles associated with this bastardized version of exploration that it becomes synonymous with tedium. Games have been starting to stray from that concept, but it still rears its ugly head every now and then (Rogue Galaxy).

In the end, I feel that Final Fantasy XII has done the best job so far of combining both schools of thought into one extremely coherent and entirely enjoyable game.

MUSIC

As the title implies, today is the day of the D. No, I am not talking about Tenacious D, I am talking about tracks from games who’s name begins with that lovely letter D. Below you will find music from Dragon Quest, Devil May Cry, and Dead Rising. Enjoy.

Koichi Sugiyama - Overture Dragon Quest VIII Sorato Umito Daichito Norowareshi Himegimi Symphonic Suite

Shawn McPherson - Cerberus Battle Devil May Cry 3 Original Soundtrack

Hostile Groove - On a Mission Dead Rising Original Soundtrack

C is for Carpal Tunnel.

I’ve decided to make my next post on the very next day, since I need to make up for all that time I lost. Aside from that, I’ve added something new to the blog which I think will be a nice, welcomed addition. Now, below the mp3 link, will be a flash media player which will allow you to “sample” the track before downloading it. The tracks will play in their entirety, so there is no need to worry about getting only a 30 second teaser. You will hear the full thing. However, due to the nature of the player, there is a chance it may not work with some of the files, as most (if not all the files) I post are VBR. If you have any troubles with the audio playback, please let me know and I’ll see what I can do. The developer of the media player, Jeroen Wijering, warned that VBR would cause issues in playback, but from my testing, I have yet to encounter it, so hopefully everything works as it should. Anyway, on to today’s list.

Update: Since you can now hear the song live, there is no real need to put the genre.

Guido - Outskirts of Time Chrono Trigger The Brink of Time

Satoshi Ise - Theme of GOUKI remix Capcom vs. SNK 2 Millionaire Fighting 2001 Original Soundtrack

Michiru Yamane - Prologue Castlevania Original Soundtrack

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