Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds Orchestra Concert

ffconcertOne of the many things the Final Fantasy series of role playing video games is known for is its sweeping and memorable music scores-perfect for an orchestral setting. In fact, on tour right now in the US is an orchestra concert featuring the music of Final Fantasy with videos and scenes from each of the games. I attended the concert in Dallas last weekend at the Meyerson Symphony Center. Here’s how it all went down:

 

Since the Final Fantasy concert in Dallas fell on Sunday evening, which was Father’s Day, I bought tickets for me, my dad, and a handful of my little brothers to go to it. While my dad doesn’t know hardly anything about Final Fantasy games or the music, I think he just enjoyed being able just to sit and relax for a couple of hours. The four brothers I brought along have always wanted to go to a video game concert and said this one was ‘awesome.’ Since they don’t know much about Final Fantasy games either, they were really thankful for the videos of the games that played on a projection screen along with the music. I told my little brothers that if they saw a video of a FF game that was all old looking and in 2-D, it was probably a game that I liked. If it was newer looking and in 3-D, it was probably from a FF game I didn’t like (except FF9, I did enjoy that one). I just can’t get into the newer FF games like I could the older ones. Anyway, here are the songs they played at the concert:

FINAL FANTASY VIII: Liberi Fatali
This song was a good way to start the concert, and featured a full choir as well. After that, the conductor introduced himself and the orchestra, and they played a quick snippet of the FF victory fanfare just for fun. Wish they would’ve played the whole thing, though. Oh well. They then showed a preview video of the next online Final Fantasy game: Final Fantasy XIV. FF13 hasn’t even come out yet and they’re already showing another one? This is one reason why I don’t get into the newer FF games: I can’t keep up with them all!

FINAL FANTASY X: To Zanarkand
Since I never really got into FFX, I can’t say too much about the song.

FINAL FANTASY VIII: Don’t be Afraid
This is the battle theme from FF8. And the only reason why I knew that was because the song is also on the FF8 Circuit race track from Chocobo Racing. Chocobo Racing was a Mario Kart rip-off with cute versions of FF mainstay characters. And I think I’m the only person in the world who actually LIKED it. But anyway, the fun part of this song at the concert was before the battle started on screen, they showed the FF8 characters running around on the video. And the orchestra made footstep noises that sounded like the game! It was pretty funny.

FINAL FANTASY VII: Aerith’s Theme
You know, I never really liked Aerith/Areis from FF7. I thought she was really annoying and I actually cheered when she died. Whoops, I spoiled the game for everyone. I imagine I’m going to have every FF7 fan down my throat, now! Really, the only FF7 characters I liked were Cait Sith, Red XIII, and Tifa.

FINAL FANTASY I-III: Medley 2002
Yay! Time for some old school! This medley included the ‘prelude’ theme (which is just a chromatic scale played in different keys), but it was neat hearing and seeing it being played with a real life harp. The orchestra went on to play bits of the overworld theme and Matoya’s cave theme from FF1, the water spirit theme from FF3, and the rebellion theme from FF2.

FINAL FANTASY V: Dear Friends
The next two songs featured a guitar soloist. The acoustics were good enough at the Meyerson that you could really hear the guitar and piano melodies. And FF5’s Dear Friends song is perfect for the guitar. Even though it’s an old game, I didn’t get into FF5 as much, though.

FINAL FANTASY IX: Vamo’ alla Flamenco
This next song also featured the same guitar soloist. This is from FF9, one of my favorite games in the series. They play this song in the game at the mock sword fight at the beginning (they even showed it on the video), but mostly you hear it in the Chocobo Hot and Cold side quest mini-game. I loved Chocobo Hot and Cold, it was like a treasure hunt! And the song is also one of my favorites in FF9, so I’m glad they played it again here.

FINAL FANTASY XI: Ronfaure
This is from the online FF game. The only online game I ever really got into was Animal Crossing, so I don’t have much to say about this one either.

FINAL FANTASY series: Main Theme
They wrapped up the first part of the concert with the main theme from the FF series, which you mostly either hear at the beginning or end of the games. The accompanying video showed scenes from all the FF games, so it was neat to see how the series has progressed over the years (for better or worse).

FINAL FANTASY VII: Opening – Bombing Mission
After the intermission, they played this and then showed a video of Nobuo Uematsu, the composer of most of the songs in the FF series. The conductor said Uematsu had a special message for Dallas. But all he did in the video was ask if we liked the concert and then asked if we liked Ping Pong. And that’s it. Sorry Uematsu, but that was pretty dumb. And to answer your questions, yes, I did like the concert, but no, I do not like Ping Pong. I’m not coordinated enough to play it! Why do you think I play video games instead?

FINAL FANTASY VIII: Fisherman’s Horizon
Even though it started with FF7, it was really FF8 that turned me off of Final Fantasy (with the exception of FF9). While I appreciated the differences in FF7, I ultimately didn’t like the game that much and have no desire to replay it. Unfortunately, it was the differences that I did not care much for that they focused on in FF8. Of course, other aspects were at play as well, such as college and other life commitments that kept me from enjoying long, drawn out RPGs anymore. But FF8 was definitely a turning point for me.

FINAL FANTASY XI: Memoro de la Stono – Distant Worlds
This was another song form the online game. It did feature a pretty good lady vocalist solo, though.

FINAL FANTASY VIII: Man With A Machine Gun
This was one of my little brother’s favorite songs from the concert. You know, even though I don’t have much interest in FF8 gameplay-wise, I do have to admit the music was pretty good here and there.

FINAL FANTASY series: Swing de Chocobo
One thing that nearly all FF games have in common is the Chocobo. Usually used as transportation like horses, the yellow flightless bird even has its own catchy theme song in the games. The orchestra remix was great, and I’m glad it’s on the (slightly overpriced) CD I bought at the concert. This would be a great song to have in one of the games, too. The video showed the Chocobos in all the FF games, and two of my little brothers said this was their favorite song at the show.

FINAL FANTASY VIII: Love Grows
The conductor said this was also known as “Eyes On Me” which I hear is kind of the main theme from FF8. I tell you what, if you’re a big fan of FF8, you would’ve loved this concert!

FINAL FANTASY VI: Opera Maria and Draco
Before I go any further I should say that FF6 is my all time top favorite FF game. In fact, I’d have to say that FF6 ranks among my top favorite games period, alongside Pac-Man, Animal Crossing, SNES Mario Kart, and the PSOne Namco Museums. I don’t think young gamers today can really imagine how memorable the opera scene was in FF6. This came at a time when cinematics in video games was next to nothing, and they successfully blended cinematics with gameplay at the same time moving the plot along. And while the digitized voice sounded pretty cheesy even back then, it was still surprising.

OK, FF6 fans, don’t deny it. When you first saw the opera scene, I bet you wished you could see that in real life, right? It really was fantastic to listen to the whole scene orchestrated, and they had two guys and a lady sing the opera parts. I nearly wanted to check the rafters and see if there was a purple octopus monster up there! Needless to say, the opera scene was my favorite part of the concert. I’d like to go see a real opera someday. I know they’re typecast as being boring and girly, but I still want to see one anyway. Just to see what they’re like. But I would have to see a cool opera. Anyone know of any cool operas?

FINAL FANTASY VII: One Winged Angel
Oh good grief! The final boss fight song in FF7 is fine the first time you fight Sephiroth, but beyond that, it’s the most overrated, overplayed song ever. I’ve been to four video game orchestra music concerts, and EVERY single one uses One Winged Angel as their encore piece. Adding insult to injury, the program said the final piece would be Terra’s theme from FF6. I figured that One Winged Angel would be played as the encore anyway, and it just wasn’t printed so as to be a ‘surprise.’ But the conductor said the audience had a choice between Terra’s theme and One Winged Angel as the last song. Of course I knew which song everyone would pick, but even the CONDUCTOR said he would’ve liked to have played Terra’s theme. You’d think my favorite FF character would be something silly, like a moogle or Chocobo. But nope, my favorite character is Terra, believe it or not. She has green hair in the game and turns into a pink cotton candy monster, so I guess that’s kind of silly. And her theme song is neat, too. And it’s easy to play. Heck, even I can play it, it’s just a bunch of arpeggios anyway. So I was a little disappointed that they replaced the theme song of my favorite FF character with the theme song form my least favorite FF villain. And why couldn’t they play both songs? It’s not like it would make the concert THAT much longer. I guess I’m just expecting too much and I shouldn’t complain. And I know the program can change after they print it. But I did pay money for those tickets and I think it would’ve been nice if they played ALL the songs. But oh well.

I will say that I can’t wait for the FF fighting game: Final Fantasy: Dissidia on the PSP. I’m looking forward to playing as my favorite FF character (Terra), and my favorite FF villain (Kefka). Both from FF6, I might add.

And that was the concert! I was a little surprised they didn’t perform any songs from FF4. That’s also one of my favorite FF games, and it’s been remade and re-released more than any other FF title. And now there’s even a sequel to FF4, The After Years, on WiiWare. Also, no music from FF12. I’ve never played FF12, but I’m mildly curious about it. A question for all you who have played it: do you think I should give FF12 a try or just stick to my old fogey FF games? I probably won’t have time to play it, but I’m curious about it just the same. The only thing I know about FF12 is there’s a bunny lady in it, and she looks like she could be a silly character.

I’m really glad I took my dad and brothers to the Final Fantasy concert, and I think an orchestra concert would be a good outing for any family, provided the kids are old enough to be able to sit still and quiet for more than two hours (which is why my youngest brother didn’t go to this one). Going to an orchestra concert is a good way to introduce kids to different kinds of live music. And that’s all I’ve got for now! Later! –Cary

One Response to “Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds Orchestra Concert”

  1. Man, I wish they’d bring the concert to NYC….
    But anyhow, maybe they didn’t include FFXII because Uematsu didn’t compose the music, I don’t know 😛
    And yes, I think you should try XII. The battle system has gotten a complete overhaul (it’s more real time and you don’t go into a separate battle screen when you fight, but there are still turn based elements; after some initial resistance, this new system really grew on me actually!) But since you don’t seem to like the more anime-style games, you might like the more “realistic” look this game went back to. But it is a rather long game!
    By the way, the “bunny lady” is a creature called a viera and her name’s Fran. She isn’t really very silly, but she is a good character and her sky pirating partner Balthier is one of the games funnier and more well-written characters XD

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