Distant Worlds : Music of Final Fantasy - March 31st 2012, Toronto

For a long time video games have had a great array of great tunes that are as catchy as the gameplay itself, with some of them being as beautiful as the gameplay itself. It was only a matter of time before the great tunes of video games made themselves to concert form where everyone could enjoy orchestral or other variations of their favourite tunes. I myself, got the pleasure of experiencing a concert dedicated to one of the most beloved RPG franchises out there, with some amazing music from one of my favourite video game music composers. This concert is...

Distant Worlds : Music of Final Fantasy

Starting in 2007, Arnie Roth has been conducting all the iterations of Distant Worlds, which features music from most of the Final Fantasy franchise, many of the most memorable and well known songs by composer Nobuo Uematsu. On March 28th 2012, they came to Toronto for the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy. Arnie Roth was once again conducting and we got the pleasure of having Nobuo Uematsu present as well, which made the concert even more exciting.

Everyone wants to buy some Distant Worlds merchandise

The event was held at the Sony Centre and was jam packed with people. There were also many people dressed up as characters from Final Fantasy. I always enjoy seeing others cosplaying as it shows their passion for the game and source material, not to mention it looks/is a whole lot of fun. If I had a Final Fantasy costume I would have certainly brought one myself.

Two passionate fans dress up as Hope (left) and Lighting (right) from Final Fantasy XIII

Tickets were pretty much sold out but I managed to get a early set of tickets all the way back in December. There was even a chance to meet with Nobuo Uematsu but we didn't book early enough sadly. In the Sony Centre, there was unfortunately no program to go with the concert, mostly because they wanted to make the song selection a surprise for the fans. I think that worked a lot better because I wasn't expecting certain songs to come up and when they did there was usually great applause.

My brother and my view from our seats to the orchestra

The concert started with the prelude theme of Final Fantasy. I have to admit the starting notes gave me chills. In fact I pretty much had chills throughout the entire song, it mixed a beautiful orchestra and an amazing chorus. It was the perfect opening to the concert, and I am pretty sure I had a really stupid grin on my face as I was listening, but it just sounded too wonderful. They were able to mix nostalgia and beauty right into that opening piece perfectly.

Distant Worlds II : Prelude of Final Fantasy

They then went to another well known song from Final Fantasy 8, Liberi Fatali. Like the prelude, this song was played in such an excellent manner and fit with the style of the original song. I am just going to say right now so I don't have to repeat myself that every single song they played stayed true to the original song and made it sound wonderful with orchestra and some choir music. There are orchestral versions of the songs and Distant World soundtracks already released, but hearing it up close and live is a completely different experience.

FF8 : Liberi Fatali

Before continuing on, they gave us the Battle Victory theme, much to the applause of the entire audience. It was easy to see Arnie Roth was very passionate about conducting Final Fantasy Music, he repeatly talked about how much he was digging through the all the songs for new music to add to the roster of ever growing arrangements.

FF 10 : To Zanarkand

Afterwards, they gave us many other songs, including from Final Fantasy 9, "you're not alone", Final Fantasy 4 "Love theme", FF 8 "Fisherman's Horizon, FF 10's "To Zanarkand", FF 11's "Ronfaure", FF 13's "Blinded by Light", and before the intermission the "Chocobo Theme".

Distant Worlds : Swing de Chocobo

I want to highlight another great aspect of the concert. Behind the orchestra, you can see a screen which displays footage that matches nearly perfectly with the Orchestra. Based on the song, they show footage from the game that the song originated from, and matching with the music in a very engrossing manner. I was engaged by the visuals and the music, because seeing the visuals go with the music allowed you to see how the beautiful music truly resonated and fit with the games. Not only that but it brought back nostalgic memories, not to mention the footage used was also handled very well. Most notably in the "Chocobo Theme", they used it very well, gaining tons of laughs from the crowd due to how they were able to integrate the cheery music and the footage from all the games in the series. It definitely helped make the experience what it was, without the visual aid the concert wouldn't be the same.

FF7 : Opening ~ Bombing Mission

The intermission followed, and soon after we were ready to go at it again. Usually Arnie Roth would annouce what music is being played next but didn't even do so and simply started with the music right away. People immediately recognized it as the "Bombing Mission/Opening Theme" of Final Fantasy 7 and people immediately cheered for it. It reinforced again how dedicated and passionate these fans are about the music. Being in a crowd like this for a concert is so much more invigorating because you know everyone in the concert loves these games and their music, the composer and conductor love them as well. There is passion for this series all around the room.

FF6 : Terra's Theme

Most of the 2nd half was dedicated more so to Final Fantasy 6 and 7, as the next song was "Aerith's Theme" from Final Fantasy 7, followed by FF 8's "Man with the Machine Gun", FF 5's "Battle on the Bridge", FF 6's Dark World (Which featured Nobuo Uematsu on the keyboard, playing piano and using atmospheric sounds), FF 6 had another song title "Maria and Draco" which was essentially a play in the game which featured 3 great soloist singers that all had very strong, "opera" qualities. The song all by itself tells a story without need for visuals which made it quite a bit different than all the other songs. FF 6 went one more time to finish with "Terra's Theme / Main Theme" of Final Fantasy 6.

Nobuo Uematsu & Arnie Roth on stage, so brightly lit that my camera can't handle it so they are glowing like crazy

Thankfully though it wasn't really the end and Arnie Roth teased us with one more song with the promise that we had to sing along. He had someone play the tune of the lyrics and everyone immediately recognized it was FF 7's "One Winged Angel". He even had Nobuo Uematsu say the lyrics of "Se - Phi - Roth", much to his embarrassment and the audience's laughter. Nobuo Uematsu joined the rest of the chorus at the back as Arnie Roth had the orchestra do their encore for the audience. A great conclusion to the concert it was, featuring the most intense orchestral and visual performance of the concert. The video fit perfectly with everything the orchestra was doing and was edited in such a good fashion while the orchestra was putting their hearts into making the song sound as amazing as possible. I have heard "One Winged Angel" on discs but hearing it up close, live, is just way better. Same goes for every song played.

FF7 : One Winged Angel

Unfortunately we couldn't rouse them to get a second encore, as the audience was cheering for minutes on end, getting several bows from both Arnie Roth and Nobuo Uematsu. Overall though, the experience was just incredible. It's a way different atmosphere than other concerts I have gone to. That's possibly due to the nature of the audience and the age. The average age of this concert was quite low, maybe high teens or low twenties? But you could tell there was so much passion for the game and music throughout the audience and you could tell both composer and conductor were just as passionate. It made it way more fun than any other concert I have been too.


I don't know when or if they are ever going to come back to Toronto, but I know if I ever spot them coming again, I will be trying to get the first tickets possible. Not only that but I wish to meet any of the Final Fantasy composers if I have the chance. I would rather not miss the chance again. I am dying to see some other video game concerts as well. I know the atmosphere will be just as positive as this one. There is just something about a gaming concert that brings people together, there is just this great energy in the air.


Anyways I am tired, it was fun and hope people who read this get some incentive to see a video game concert. It's amazing.

Tunes of the Week 10 & 11 : Kid Icarus Uprising & Castlevania Symphony of the Night

I forgot to post tunes of the week last week so I will just put two entries into one and include to OSTs!


Let's start with the first!


Kid Icarus Uprising (3DS)

I only recently caught eye of the OST for the latest entry into the Kid Icarus series, (consisting of only one other game, Kid Icarus) . Kid Icarus Uprising is a on-rail and third person shooter/action game on the Nintendo 3DS, it recently came out in February 2012. I have seen various reviews and footage of the game and a lot of it points to what looks like a really great game. In one of the reviews I could hear the background music as well and when I went to listen to the OST I was pleasantly surprised how well done it is. 


This is actually from the same person who did Xenoblade Chronicles, which I showcased in a previous tunes of the week. Not only that but this game had a total of 5 composers working on it! Now that's dedication to making a great soundtrack! Though the uploaded OST songs so far are few and don't represent the entire game, they are all quite well done and catchy. Even the practice room song is very well done, it's not just generic and boring, it actually sounds legitimately great. I hate when games put no effort into their training/practice room songs and people always end up hating the music for that level.


Composers: Motoi Sakuraba, Yuzo Koshiro, Masafumi Takada, Noriyuki Iwadare, Yasunori Mitsuda

Main Theme

Practice Room Theme!

Reaper's Theme

Magnus Theme

Castlevania Symphony of the Night (PS)

Released back in 1997 on the Playstation, Castlevania Symphony of the Night is one of playstation's classic games. It helped kick start the whole "metroidvania" style of games in popularity and remains one of the best Castlevania games to this date. Not only did it excel in gameplay, but it had excellent with a wide variety of different styles incorporated into it. Not only that but the music all sound great in quality as well, it wasn't nearly as limited as other playstation games. Others used really low quality midi but Castlevania had much higher quality music and in the soundtrack of the game you can hear the quality the composer, Michiru Yamane strived for.


It's definetely one of my favourite soundtracks just because of it's sheer variety and ability to set a great mood in the world of Castlevania.


Composer(s); Michuru Yamane

Prologue Theme

Tunes of the Week 9 - Super Street Fighter IV

Street Fighter is a long running franchise and many of it's characters have classic themes associated with them. Staple character Ryu always has the same theme, varied in many ways as well as many other characters out there. Super Street Fighter IV takes existing character themes, revamping and remixing them to fit with the new game, or making entirely new themes that stay true to the character they represent. Street Fighter has been known for giving it's characters their own themes all the time so it's no wonder they don't try to make entirely new themes for the characters because not all fans would agree with that sort of choice. Creating all new variations on the themes is the way to satisfy the fans and keep with the characters.


Every single character in the game has their own theme, not a single one left out in this version of Street Fighter IV. Many incorporating different styles and instruments to try and fit with the style of character, even culture of that character. Each of these remixes are all very good, though favouring them over the original versions is up to the taste of the user of course. Overall all of them are solid and great to listen to during the fights in the game. The character themes are more enjoyable to listen to then the normal background music that plays during the stages, but they themselves aren't bad, just completely overshadowed by the character themes.

Opening Theme of Street Fighter IV

Ryu's remixed theme

Dudley's theme

Vega's theme

Cammy's theme

Seth's (Final Boss) theme

Tunes of the Week 8 : Xenoblade Chronicles

I will admit, I have not yet played this game or any in this series in fact. Xenoblade Chronicles is part of a gaming series, the Xeno series. This game, Xenoblade Chronicles takes place in a different universe than the rest of the series but like all of them it is an RPG. The game itself is a action rpg though, taking place in real time. So far it's been released on the Wii to critical acclaim all around the world, except for North America. Luckily for us we are getting this game in a few months. The announcement of the game got me interested in what the game's soundtrack might be like and I was surprised.


The soundtrack is quite phenomenal in my opinion, without even the context of the game to go along with the background music, it still sounds very good. Most games when we play then and hear the music, we then associate our memories linking the music and the event happening in game. This game's music doesn't need to link to those experiences because it already sounds so good. Hearing the music gets me anticipated to get my hands on the game because it's quite a pleasure to listen to. I won't ramble on any more about it since I still don't know all that much about the game but trust me when I say the game's soundtrack is strong enough by itself.

Tunes of the Week 7 - Final Fantasy Type-0

One of the three games part of the Final Fantasy Fabula Nova Crystallis series (Other games including Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII Versus), this game was formerly known as Final Fantasy XIII Agito until being changed to the title Final Fantasy Type-0. The game has so far only been released in Japan for the PSP but is rumored to have localization in other countries, only time will tell.

The music for this particular game is Takeharu Ishimoto, the same composer behind Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core's music. Both that game and this game's music has a similar style and both equally great and varied.  For Final Fantasy Type-0, much of the music uses a combination of full orchestra, choir, guitar, and synthesized sounds. The music of the game is quite varied in terms of theme, to represent all of the different environments of the game. The quality of all the music is great, everything piece of music being rather strong though of course I prefer some songs over others. Overall the entire collection is quite great, I even prefer it over his work in Final Fantasy VII : Crisis core.

Peaceful Fighting  - One of my favourite battle themes in the game

Theme of Rem, one of the protagonists of the game

Theme of Machina, one of the protagonists of the game

The Main theme of Final Fantasy Type-0

Choose a Way to Die - One of the other main themes

Ending Theme - Including fully orchestrated versions of many of the main themes

Tunes of the Week 6 : Heroes of Might and Magic II

Last week I featured Heroes of Might and Magic III as my tunes of the week, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to feature it's predecessor's music as well. Heroes of Might and Magic II is a fair bit older in many ways than Heroes III. Whereas Heroes of Might and Magic III uses 3D models rendered as sprites, Heroes II uses hand-drawn sprites.


The game IS old school and so it's its music, using much simpler midi music in all the themes. Like Heroes III, every faction in the game has their own theme but all these themes are really good as well. Where the game doesn't decide to go with midi it actually uses opera singing. Opera singing in a game this old!? It's pretty impressive in my opinion, not to mention that the singing actually makes the music really enjoyable and even more "epic" than it would be without. The game combines the midi sounds, singing and some real instruments as well in it's songs.


Though the confusing part is, the music got changed around in different versions of the game, so I am not FULLY sure which are the original versions of the songs.


Here is a few of my favourite themes

Sorceress Town Theme

Warlock Town Theme

Necromancer Town Theme

Barbarian Town theme

Tunes of the Week 5 - Heroes of Might and Magic III

One of my favourtie turn based strategies games, Heroes of Might and Magic III was the pinnacle of the Heroes of Might and Magic series in my eyes. The art style, battles, factions to play as were among my favourites and I've played it for many years. What made the game so endearing was the music that was present during the game as well. Every theme that represented each of the factions was great and I liked every one of them, though of course I had some favorites.


Though the series has continued to have sequels, Heroes of Might and Magic III still hasn't been topped, to me this game has become an ageless classic and so has it's music.

The Inferno - faction theme

Fortress - Faction theme

The Tower - Faction Theme

Tunes of the Week 4 - Soul Calibur II

Considered the pinnacle of the Soul Calibur Series, Soul Calibur II also had some of the best music in the series. Many of it's themes represent very inspiring and engaging the music that really helped make the game oh so great. Without the extremely well done pieces composed for the title, the entire experience of Soul Calibur II would have been nearly as exciting without the great music to go with the great gameplay. The song's composed back then are still great and some of them I still prefer over the newer song's in Soul Calibur IV and V.

Also I realized all of the Tunes of the Week games featured have all been Japanese games. That goes to show the strength of their composers. Be sure to check out the rest of the soundtrack.

Character select theme

"Confrontation" one of my favorite songs

"If there were any other way" a very good piece to build up tension

"Quest for Glory" one of the very good menu theme songs

"Hellfire" the final boss theme

Tunes of the Week 3 - Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney

Over the course of three games, Capcom's Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney has been a rather successful series, garnering a number of dedicated fans. The main character, Phoenix right's popularity was such that he earned a spot in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. 


Phoenix Wright's takes place in either investigation or court room gameplay. The best music takes place during the court room sequences and each game has different music for these sequences, each of them memorable. The music itself was so popular it has two orchestrated CDs as well.

Phoenix Wright "Objection Themes" from all the games up till 2011

Phoenix Wright Cross Examination Themes (All 4 games)

PW: Trials and Tribulations Court Suite

Apollo Justice Objection Theme Orchestrated

Tunes of the Week 2 - Blazblue

Alright time for week 2 of my tunes of the week. One of the soundtracks I've had the pleasure of listening to over the past few years is not too old a game. The game in question is Blazblue, a 2D, high resolution sprite based fighting game with a fairly diverse soundtrack, though using a lot of guitar throughout.


It was composed by Daisuke Ishiwatari, who composed the Guilty Gear soundtrack as well. The Guilty Gear has had a very "metal" soundtrack all throughout and Blazblue stays true to this feeling and style that he uses, while mixing in variations to give each track it's own flavor. Every character has a different theme, with different instruments and different beats to represent the characters each individually and maintaining some catch, memorable tunes. All while sounding rather "badass" I have to say. Here are a few of my favorites but be sure to check out all the songs!

Theme of Noel Vermillion

Theme of Tsubaki Yayoi

Awakening the Chaos - Final Boss theme

Tunes of the Week 1 – Final Fantasy XIII & Masashi Hamauzu

Another course I am taking in Game Development is Sound and Audio. Though we aren’t required a blog, I thought it would be nice if I somehow incorporated the course into my blog as well. So I have decided to post some video game music that I have been listening to or that has caught my attention recently. I don’t normally listen to popular music on the charts, mostly sticking to listening to video game soundtracks. I think that sometimes these songs don’t get enough attention as there are many out there that are quite enjoyable to listen to, and really set the mood for a game. I often listen to old songs from games that remind me of my past memorable experiences with those games. Now then, for this week’s music.

Main Theme of Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2

Masashi Hamauzu is a composer in the gaming industry, his most notable works being composing Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII-2 and contributions to Final Fantasy X. Today I’d like to share the main theme of Final Fantasy XIII-2, which I find to be a rather beautiful piece. The main themes of Final Fantasy have rarely failed to impress me and this one is no exception. I even prefer this theme over Final Fantasy XIII’s original theme though they are both great in my opinion. However, overall I prefer Final Fantasy XIII’s soundtrack over Final Fantasy XIII-2’s.

Main Theme of Final Fantasy XIII

A Beautiful Piano Arrangement of the Main Theme of Final Fantasy XIII

Main theme of Final Fantasy XIII-2