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:
- Opening - Bombing Mission (FINAL FANTASY VII)
- Medley (FINAL FANTASY I-III)
- Theme of Love (FINAL FANTASY IV)
- Liberi Fatali (FINAL FANTASY VIII)
- Aerith’s Theme (FINAL FANTASY VII)
- Swing de Chocobo (FINAL FANTASY series)
- Memoro de la Stono - Distant Worlds (FINAL FANTASY XI)
- Opera “Maria and Draco” (FINAL FANTASY VI)
- Love Grows (FINAL FANTASY VIII)
- Don’t be Afraid (FINAL FANTASY VIII)
- Fisherman’s Horizon (FINAL FANTASY VIII)
- Vamo’ alla Flamenco (FINAL FANTASY IX)
- 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
As the name would imply, 20020220 is a live recording of a Final Fantasy performed on February 20th 2002. This was the first live recording of its type for the Final Fantasy franchise and was wildly popular among fans. It features music up to Final Fantasy X, and many of the tracks used in the program have found their way into subsequent concerts such as "Liberi Fatali" and "One-Winged Angel."
Being the fan of Final Fantasy VIII that I am, I love this track and especially this live rendition. The choir is powerful and spot-on. Every piece of this song falls into place nicely and the natural draw of a live performance only enhances the emotion behind the composition. Hamaguchi's orchestral arrangement does what it needs to keep true to the original song while enhancing it through a full orchestra. It's an impressive start to a wonderful album.
Nobuo Uematsu - Scene I Final Fantasy Symphonic Suite
The Final Fantasy Symphonic Suite is the grand-daddy of orchestral Final Fantasy albums. Originally released in 1989, Symphonic Suite features the music of the first two Final Fantasy titles arranged for orchestra by Katsuhisa Hattori and his son Takayuki. The tracks were performed by the Tokyo Symphonic Orchestra and conducted by Katsuhisa Hattori as well. An interesting thing about the album is the naming scheme used for the tracks. None of them feature the names given to the originals for the soundtrack and instead follow a numbered sequence prefixed by the word "Scene."
Scene I is the main theme of Final Fantasy II, and a wonderful version at that. For being the original, Hattori did a splendid job of transcribing the 8-bit composition to a fully-fledged orchestral masterpiece. There is not much to say other than every time I hear it, I have to stop for a moment to fully enjoy it.
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!)
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