Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy

As I mentioned previously, on Saturday Sarah and I headed to the city for multiple events. one would be the Japanese Foundation's small expo called "Kingdom of Characters", which had information about characters that Japan had created, along with historical context (a lot of them were done in reaction to events occurring at the time). More on that another time, perhaps.

 It is an Opera House. In Sydney. I am taller than it

Later that evening, we headed to the Sydney Opera House for the main event - Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy. This is a show where a bunch of songs from various Final Fantasy games is played by a symphony orchestra.

The orchestra was conducted by Arnie Roth, who was in Sydney a few years ago for Play: A Videogame Symphony, which I also attended, so I knew that this show was going to be well done. Play was insanely awesome (though a little jarring when it began with the original Super Mario theme, which I'm used to hearing in chiptune form).

Distant Worlds followed form, and was, as far as I'm concerned, better than Play was. Admittedly, a large part of this can be attributed to the music itself, as well as the role that the Final Fantasy games have played in my existence. Final Fantasy VII was the very first RPG that I ever finished (I had played copious amounts of Baldur's Gate before this, but never finished it, and hadn't understood anything about it at that point). Final Fantasy VIII remains my favourite Final Fantasy title to date, and one of my favourite games overall still. I am currently playing through Dissidia Duodecim, Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy XIII, having recently completed I, II and Tactics. Beginning to get the idea here?

Nobuo Uematsu - the composer behind the vast majority of the Final Fantasy music was in attendance at the show. Naturally, I assumed this meant he was going to be there, and possibly doing a signing event afterwards (which was correct), but would be in his own private box for the show itself.

I have never been more wrong in my life. I have also never been so happy that I have been wrong.

After the first song (Prelude, which appears in almost all of the FF series), Nobuo was introduced. He took a bow, accepted the applause, and then sat down. In the crowd. About 8 rows behind me. The people he sat next to were just fans, who had paid to come to the show like everyone else. He just had a regular seat like everyone else!
Naturally, the people who he sat near freaked out. Hell, I would have freaked out too!

The show continued brilliantly - they played all their Final Fantasy VIII songs quite early on though, and later on, it got a little weaker near the end though, by playing songs from Final Fantasy XIV Online (which I don't think many people would have recognised - I played the beta of said game, and didn't purchase it afterwards because I didn't enjoy it), and then the 15 minute opera scene from Final Fantasy VI. While it was performed well, I didn't know the scene, having not played through much of FFVI, and as such it made it difficult. This was remedied with the encore though, being a song everyone knew. This particular encore surprised noone. It was still brilliant though.

The encore, in action

After the show, we linked up with a couple of friends who were up from Melbourne for the show, and lined up for the post-show signing event. There were only 100 tickets sold for this (apparently), and we were lucky enough to get some. We even managed to get fairly close to the front of the line, only waiting about 15 minutes or so to meet Nobuo, Arnie and Kanon (Kanon being a performer they brought in from Japan to sing two of the songs - Suteki da Ne and Memora de la Stono ~ Distant Worlds).
Nobuo had a good laugh at the item I brought for him to sign - a cartridge of the original Final Fantasy game for NES. Or Famicom, since it was actually an original Japanese edition.

Front: Arnie Roth, Nobuo Uematsu

Back: Me, Spritza

So, I met Nobuo, he's awesome. Arnie is also really nice. Unfortunately, I had to move on so others in the line could get their time, so I only got to say thanks to Kanon as she handed me a poster with the trio or autographs on it - although I'm sure she's really cool too. In fact, I plan on buying her new CD when it gets released. Admittedly, a big part of the reason for that is that she has sung 4 Final Fantasy songs on it :P

Beep beep bloop

One thing that strikes me as odd is how people can have such wildly differing tastes in music. It is a strange phenomeon, don't you think?

This guy is amazing

For example, when I take a look around my office, I see a few people who's music tastes I have literally no idea of. Then I see the guy who has an eclectic mix of psychedelic trance, general electronica, old school one hit wonders, basically every song ever. He has a song which is 7 minutes of printer sound effects, which does a great job of hurting my head.

I see the guy who listens to mostly rock. Many forms of it, I suppose, though there was nothing that was really screamy when he's the one in control of the music. Mainly because 99% of screamy songs are inappropriate for the office, so he plays things like Greenday, Audioslave, occasionally Tool (which have a lot of inappropriate stuff, so I suppose he's either gone for the least offensive stuff, or just doesn't care at some points).

I see the girl who plays Indie rock, mostly bands of which I have never heard of. Occasionally a band I have heard of (Kaiser Chiefs - and even then I only know the song because I have a trance remix of it somewhere).

And then there's me. I listen to a combination of rock, dance, and some random stuff (soundtrack and so on). Mostly, when in the office and in control of the music, I play trance. Partially because its different from the rest of the office's music, partially because its great music to code to (particularly since I have a lot of more progressive trance, so it builds up and breaks down a lot - great for a long day spent coding), but mostly because I like it, and don't listen to it enough.

I have never really understood gangsta rap, or pop. Nor will I ever, I can rarely bear either of these genres. That made working at MacDonald's very difficult when I was there for eight and a half years, the majority of the other crew were 14-16 year old kids with no taste in ANYTHING, or intellectual capability. And hated trance because it wasn't their music.

No, I'm not bitter. Not at all.

Lately, though, I've been listening to more and more chiptunes. Chiptune is a style of music reminiscent of old video games. Ever play Super Mario on the SNES? Not the newer ones, the actual SNES one? Yeah, that's a chiptune.

Her Laser Light Eyes by Nullsleep - awesome

I think I'm addicted.

What strange styles/bands of music are you into? I mean strange by, not mainstream. Dragonforce perhaps?

Also, any mention of Rebecca Black will be punished by death. Using kittens with lasers. They will eat you with their... laser eyes. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Video Game Music

I have a long history of listening to video game music. Probably because I have a long history of playing video games - and listening to its music simply goes along with it. Sure, you could mute it and play something else (or not), but what's the point of that? It seems detrimental to the experience.

On occasion I'll play a game without sound or music, but this is usually in a situation where the game I am playing is one I can safely play without sound (either its some kind of puzzle game, or an RPG where the soundscape hasn't really grabbed me, or a game with no music at all - although a game without music is a sad thing indeed), but more often than not, I need my game musics.

What pops into your head the moment you hear this? Yes, the guy in that video is playing TWO guitars, but that's not the point. The point is, the game is instantly recognisable from the song. Well, to people from the generation who would have played the older games anyway (do the new ones even have that song? It would hurt my soul if they didn't!)

Of course, there are lesser known song and game combinations that are just as awesome, for other reasons. One of the boss battle themes in Ys 7 sticks in my head every time I hear it. It just fits the tone of the game so perfectly that it just works. I can't really explain it any better than that.

I went to see a show a few years ago, in the Sydney Opera House, titled "Play: A Videogame Symphony". It's pretty much exactly as it sounds like - the orchestra played a bunch of videogame songs, spanning multiple generations. They opened with Mario, played through a variety of songs from games including Halo, Silent Hill (they had Akira Yamaoka there to play the guitar section of the Silent Hill 2 Theme!), Blue Dragon (which convinced me to buy the game, although that turned out to be a horrible purchase), and, of course, Final Fantasy.

This man is better at making music than you ever will be at anything

Nobuo Uematsu (for those who don't know, the composer of almost all the music, for almost the entire Final Fantasy series) is a god among videogame music composers. Hell, simply put, his music makes me happy. Very, very happy. Lately, his tunes have been sticking in my head more so than usual, likely due to a whole bunch of them being remixed and put into Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy - a mashup game where many of the heroes and villains of the Final Fantasy series come together to bash each other. Kind of like Smash Bros, except with an overblown plot, and a more... well... "proper" fighting engine is the best way I can think to put it.

Face it, Smash Bros isn't a real fighting game. Its a game where you kick each other off cliffs. Possibly while shouting "This is SPARTA!"

Your average Super Smash Bros. player

Fortunately for geeks like me, who recognise the true awesomeness of Nobuo's efforts, there is a worldwide touring show, titled "Distant Worlds: Final Fantasy", which features a symphony orchestra playing a selection of Final Fantasy music for the enjoyment of all. Well, the enjoyment of all who turn up to the event, having purchased tickets anyway. Of course I'll be there, are you insane?

And even better, Nobuo is in attendance, and holding a "Meet n Greet" event afterwards. To which I have purchased tickets for.

I will be meeting Nobuo-sama.

So, so happy :)