The "tour's" logo. Word to that.
The setup a few minutes before it began, from where I was sitting. It
was pretty much exactly like this during the intermission.
Nobou. Huzzah.
This guy's
noggin is my only complaint about my seat and the view from it during the show.
This guy was also taking notes about the show.
Arine and Co. play without visual backdrop.
Ooh. An airship.
(FFI-III Medley, I think)
Arnie really liked to chew the fat.
Don Flamenco in the front-center-right. I liked him better in Punch-Out!!
Wizes of red and white.
They would not leave
the Square-Enix suits alone. Nor was my camera nimble enough to evade
the the spheroid in the bottom right corner.
That's the opera vocalist during the "Distant Worlds" (FFXI) tune. Here she is just standing there, which she did for most of the song.
Thou hast done well in catching the Chocobo, FFII PSP style.
Operaing it up for the old opera tune.
During "Terra's Theme", those responsible for the visuals showed their rudimentary level rom hacking prowess by using a text editor to change FFVI's
credits that show up during the game's introduction to those for the show.
Umetsau
and Arnie in a hilariously awkward embrace before "One Winged Angel."
"OWA." Note the glorious
choir, the atmospheric lighting, intense musicians... and irritating Advent Children
video footage.
This is how it ended. The logos are flaming, which segued nicely from the "OWA" video, which ended with one of those Sephiroth/fire sequences.
1) "Liberi Fatali" (FF8) - And I immediately stopped and had forgotten all of it. From the opening "Fithos Lusec", I was instantly impressed with the sound quality, technical proficiency, the song as a piece of art... and pretty much how well the entire thing translated live. This was that song I immediately forgotten when I saw surly Squall licking his wounds on a hospital bed? Man, they were on to something. Even the video kicked an unexpectedly high amount of ass: the quality was crystalline and matched up well with the song (the climax of the song, which is I'm pretty sure the phrase "liberi fatali", was the exact moment Squall got his face cut). The choir was amazing; really if you only wheeled them out for this song alone, it would have been worth it. I will never knock the artistic possibilities of game music again.
- Song's Rating: 7/7
2) "To Zanarkand" (FF10) - That choir split and would not return for a very long time, but that's fine since they're not really needed until then. This minimalist piano tune, made less minimal with a large presence of chamber strings, was replicated perfectly, more or less. It was quite effective, but not as effective was "Liberi". Its effectiveness could have been increased, though, if the video backdrop was the Animal Crossing tragedy on loop instead of the more somber of the FFX FMV sequences.
It was actually only here that I realized that Yuna was walking on water in that one sending scene. I don't know what's more noteworthy, the fact these guys made a scene that would piss off the Bible Belt more than any other Final Fantasy game since FFI inclusion of Stars of David and the realization FADE was supposed to be HOLY or the fact I just now recognized this.
- Song's Rating: 6/7
3) "Don't Be Afraid" (FF8) - The battle music from game the eighth, a very good move if I say so myself, although I believe a better one would be to make the battle theme for several of the games into a medley. This is because people will want to hear the themes because of the memories they bring, but not one for too long since they'll remember they hate them. But if you were to play through all the Final Fantasies, this battle theme will likely be the one you hate the least.
It, like the previous two songs was done very well, although the video was pretty awkward: it began with what I thought was like a cell phone version of FFVIII, it was that part near the beginning when Zell is screaming at that dog (I didn't remember it either) - with Japanese text. This inspired a short, but annoying and undeserved burst of laughter from the audience, the first such burst of the show. The video then went on to show some battle sequences, which was at times pretty neat - it showed Rinoa summoning Leviathan against a single military man. While the camera was on Leviathan for the 10 hours its animation takes place, water was actually thrown at some Bahamut-like beast. I guess you had to be there.
- Song's Rating: 6/7
4) "Aeris' Theme" (FF7) - Arnie said that a man proposed "to this next song," to which one of the female concert patrons anxiously replied, "Aeris' Theme" like it was her only purpose. That couple is either going to make the nerdiest kids ever or all that time spent playing J-RPGs, surfing the game blogs and posting at Gamefaqs with their CRT monitors and their radiation rendered them sterile.
While I suppose this song gets the job done, I always thought it was trying a bit too hard to convey both feelings of love and sadness. Instead the song ends up being repetitive and lugubrious. It's like, yeah, how can you not feel something with that piano melody? Well, by the time you heard that same scaling pattern umpteen times within a few minutes, it kind of loses it effect.
In the performance, these guys laid it on even thicker: the piano was louder than I think it should've been and the strings had this odd "wall of sound" effect which sometimes worked, but usually didn't. The chimes on the piano, though, were a pretty nice touch, although they would've been better used later.
- Song's Rating: 5/7
Alternative suggestion: One of the older songs suggested in the next song, or perhaps the one of the Jenova tunes. I know full well they would never replace such a popular song - it would make the fanboys and girls (mostly girls in this case) explode with nerdy rage. Actually this strikes me as quite a good reason to withhold this song.
5) FF1-3 Medley - This consisted of the FF Prelude, The FFI overworld, FFII town music, FFIII's "Elia the Water Maiden", Chocobo music from I believe FFIII, and the FFII rebel theme. And I'm not sure about the water maiden (note: I am the only person in that room who recognized this one - count on it). The video consisted of game footage from the most recent releases of their respective games as those songs were playing, more or less.
Yeah, the Medley. You know these: usually bands that have gotten more popular with recent material do these to appease their fans who were there since the beginning or included to give those newer fans who then bought the band's older stuff something to think they were cool to. I personally consider them more of an f-you to those who prefer this stuff. "We don't think enough of them to perform them in their entirety, so here they are, chopped up and lumped together to near-unrecognizable status! Now you can't say we didn't play them! You're welcome!" Assholes.
Well at least they acknowledged these songs and the games from which they come, so that's a plus. They could've just extended that piece of crap opera song the length of this medley, and made the time by purging this one and have called it a day.
But I digress. The audio aspect here has the same pluses and minuses the as the audio aspects of most medleys: they allow the listener to experience several songs in the time it takes to perform one or two, but the segues are natural enough and the songs sound enough alike so their transitions are less recognizable, and they're short enough so that by the time they recognize one song and begin appreciating it, it ends and another begins.
The video could've been better as well. Sure, it didn't at all have the on-again-off-again problems mentioned in this review's introduction, but video footage from the FFI and FFII sequences was from the PSP remakes. That's okay, I suppose, but if you want to make the memories fly before eyes across the room, you will need to dig a little deeper than facelifts so thin even big fans of those early titles were hesitant to buy them. FFIII's footage was from the Famicom version indeed, and the footage used from that game was simply a Chocobo riding around and and airship flying about - very pedestrian stuff - although the Chocobo running around the continent in FFIII is actually an Easter Egg, so something useful might have emerged from this after all.
When they ran out of FFIII transportation footage, they switched to the FMV at the beginning of FFIII DS. Even when the songs (I think) were taken from that game were over and they switched to the (fantastic) FFII Rebel Theme, the four Onion Kiddies were still running amok.
- Song's Rating: 5/7
Alternative suggestion: I'm not asking for four songs from each game to be featured. I know the fanboy machines are likely to provide more memories for more people than the songs from my favorite games of the series (the first five). That's okay. I would prefer it if they did not minimize the trio of games that transformed the Square company from Glass Joe to Mr. Sandman; certainly these three titles combined deserve at least much symphonic recognition as FFXI, a game considered a sideshow from the rest of the series accord to most FF fans (the medley was at most 10 minutes, probably more like 8, whereas "Distant Worlds" lasted just over 10).
I can think of several songs from FFI that deserve to be featured (the music from the Temple of Chaos, the Underwater Shrine and Ending). The Rebel Theme inspires more fist-pumping (such songs were decidedly lacking in this show) than anything else performed, and the Pandemonium Castle theme would've given chills to all who have played it (which is admittedly only like a half dozen people there). From FFIII, the themes from the Overworld, The Forbidden Land Eureka and the Final Boss would've been dandy (I believe the Cloud of Darkness tune is among the Black Mages' most famous). One full song (it doesn't have to be super-extended Phish fest, just a four-minute deal would suffice) from these three sets could've improve things quite a bit.
6) "Dear Friends" (FF5) - I had high hopes for this one, I really did. A big-shot flamenco guitarist, whose real name eludes me, so I will call him Don Flamenco, was shuffled out and put front and center for this one, and this only raised my hopes even more since this is ostensibly the instrument emulated in the OST. Not only is the song choice one of quality - arguably the best FF ending theme, one that expresses what it ought to without going over the top, FF ending songs tend to have trouble with the latter - it almost single-handedly saves the FFV soundtrack from total disaster.
This was the worst song of the concert. The whole thing was unrecognizable - had they not introduced the song by name, I doubt I would've recognized it - and I really like this song. In concert, it moved around like a barfly who overestimates his alcoholic tolerance and his level of sex appeal. In the game, it stayed still like an obstinate beefeater. I don't know who was off, the symphony, Don Flamenco, the conductor or all the above, but somebody deserves a pay cut for this one. Remember by promise never to question the artistic possibilities of game soundtracks? Consider it retracted.
Even the video was terrible, consisting almost exclusively of panning across still images of Yamato art from the game.
- Song's Rating: 2/7
Alternative suggestion: "My Home Sweet Home." This would be the other song that saves the soundtrack. Granted, it's not all terrible, in fact most of it is okay, but this and "Dear Friends" are all I would want to remember beyond this game (and possibly the overworld tunes as well as does the Gilgamesh tune, but they're quite borderline). The song as it was in the game was one of the few video game songs to actually affect me beyond the game. Power in song form, but oh so simple. So... sad, melancholy, even, yet the point in the game isn't real sad at all. The link (starts at :35) is to a very minimal, but very effective vocalized version of the song, which remains the only good vocalized version of a previously mute game song in the history of song. Plus, this guy even made a video of game footage, one that trumps the one found in the show.
7) "Vamo Alla Flamenco" (FF9) - Don Flamenco and Company redeem themselves quite well with this opus. It sounded pretty much just how I remembered it, which it should, since not only is this the essence of the classically-trained musician, but the song has the word of the featured instrument in its title. And they don't disappoint with this one. Now, to be fair, I only scantly remember the song and don't remember where in the game it's found, in fact I remember nothing about the game except the bone-stoopid ending, the whole thing is literally one big blur to me. But if they were to use a song from FFIX, I'm glad it was the one of few I sort of remember.
- Song's Rating: 5/7
8) "Final Fantasy Theme" - I will forever know this as the bridge crossing music, and because the video aide provided no images to this effect, this cannot be a complete and utter non-failure. But this doesn't mean this tune can't be an almost complete and utter non-failure, which it most certainly is. It wasn't a perfect performance as there were times when half the orchestra sounded like they were exactly two measures behind the rest of the orchestra, although the song probably sounds like that in at least one of the games. It was pretty neat how the instruments slipped in and out at times, though. All in all, a kickass song and I'm sure as hell glad they didn't forget about it.
The video was also pretty good, although it could have been better. The first thirty seconds of the video were neat: tiny little screens of gameplay footage from the Final fantasy games all sliding toward the center where a shining crystal lay. It was entertaining to try to see how much of the happenings on those screens you recognize. Next came 10-20 seconds of game footage from all twelve Final Fantasy games in order, even the twelfth, one without a unique musical number in the show. The gameplay footage was pretty dull with little of importance happening most of the time, though, and too much of it was recycled from videos from other songs. Get some fresh, more climactic video clips, guys.
- Song's Rating: 6/7
Then came in Intermission when I stepped out and got a whiskey sour - could've and should've been stronger, especially after taking a gander at the merchandise table and seeing the posters were sold out. At this point I was a tad concerned that the Symphony played all their high cards too early (even though I knew set list), and in a way, they did. I went to the bathroom and noticed a line to the ATM nearly as long as my penis. Far too many concert goers took it for granted that they would be taking credit cards (they weren't).