MIDI Week Singles: Opening Theme - Final Fantasy (NES)

Welcome to MIDI Week Singles!

My plan is that the post today will turn into a weekly thing, somewhat similar to the Game Scores posts where I highlight a video game soundtrack that I really love or have a high regard for, but on a singular scale where I only talk about one song from an entire album.

Some of the tracks that I plan to highlight might be well known songs such as the opening theme from Mega Man II/2 or more obscure titles like "Stage 1 & 4" from the 1988 NES game Jackal.  The whole point will be, "Hey, I like this song from this game."  That will be all there is to it.  There might be an analysis of some (or none) of the songs or an in depth look at a particular usage of a single track over the years (main theme from The Legend of Zelda), but as of now, it will be a bare bones outlet for sharing something that I like, which also is one of the reasons why Dr. Potts and I continue to write for you, our wonderful reader(s).

And there might be some self-deprecation thrown in for good measure; as if that'll do any good.

So on this, the inaugural MIDI Week Singles, I would like to share the song that first sparked my interest into video game music.  

"Opening Theme" Final Fantasy.  Nintendo Entertainment System - 1987

All Sounds of Final Fantasy I - II. Track #3.

Record Label: DataM/Polystar; NTT Publishing

Music composed by Nobuo Uematsu.

This song, right here.  Sure it is a little cliched to not only list a song from a Final Fantasy game and music composed by Nobuo Uematsu, but damn it, this is how I knew that I loved video game music.  Sure I had already listened to the "Above Ground BGM" from Super Mario Bros. and the "Overworld" theme from The Legend of Zelda by the time I heard this song, but something about the simplicity of the melody made an impression with me.

I know what you might be thinking.  Yes this is what most people think of as the "Main Theme" from Final Fantasy, but when the game was released back in 1987, no precedent had been set, being the first and only game (at the time), where as the "Main Theme" for this, the first Final Fantasy game, would be more commonly known as the overworld theme.  You get the idea though.

Thank you for sharing with me this, the first in hopefully a long line of MIDI Week Singles and I hope you look forward to next weeks posting.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental

P.S.  I also wanted to say that just because "MIDI" is in the title doesn't mean that I will be sticking to video game soundtracks that were recorded using MIDI.  I will also be using scores that have used live orchestras and I will probably even branch out and talk about arranged video game music.

And a big "Thank You" goes to Conklederp who was beyond patient with me while writing this article and was the one who came up with the title for these future posts.

Concert Review: Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy

I was fortunate enough to take Conklederp out to the symphony last Saturday night, and it was not just any symphony, but music from the Final Fantasy series of video games performed by the Oregon Symphony conducted by longtime conductor of video game symphonies, Arnie Roth.

This is the third Final Fantasy concert that I've been to over the years, the first being from the "Dear Friends" concert series back in 2004, then Conklederp and I saw the Distant Worlds tour in San Francisco in 2010.  Along with the Play! video game concert series, listening to symphonic video game music has been a dream of mine since I first heard about and listened to the Final Fantasy: Symphonic Suite when I was in high school.  The fact that these concert series are a continuing affair makes me very happy.

What makes me even happier is that, for the most part, is that the music is taken seriously.  I say, "for the most part" because there were some rather "fun" things that seem to naturally go along with a concert of video game music.  The first is that people showed up in cosplay.  We saw a number of people dressed up as characters from Final Fantasy VIII and there was even a father and daughter who were dressed up as White Mages.  It's very rare that you go to the symphony to see people dressed up as characters of the subject matter.  Thankfully there were not any buster swords, or at least any that I was witness to.  The other "fun" thing was an attempt at audience participation during two of the songs.  I say "attempt" because during the 2010 concert, the audience did sing during parts of the songs that they were cued to sing by the conductor.  At this concert however, there was practically no noticeable participation.  I cannot say if that was just because it was Portland, or because I didn't feel the conductor did a good job of including the audience in the parts that I could tell would have been the audience participation sections.

The last non-traditional aspect of the concert was that there was a video screen above the orchestra that would show scenes from the game that the selected piece was from.  The strangest thing for me, at least, was that the game footage did not contain the American localization, but the Japanese one instead.  Granted most of the footage was of cinematics and did not contain text, but from FF IV - X, any text on the screen was in Japanese.  I wonder why this decision was made, if maybe it had to do with copyright or some other legal issue.

What I felt to be the highlight of the evening was the performing of the Opera from Final Fantasy VI.  I say "Opera" because the entire in-game opera was performed, vocals and all.  The performance was very well executed as it included a narrator off to the side of the orchestra giving context for those unfamiliar with the game and the story of Draco, Maria and Prince Ralse.  There was even a narrated ending to what would have happened had not Locke and company planted Celes as Maria with Setzer stealing her during the wedding scene; and I guess Ultro crashing the party too.  The story finishes, in typical Final Fantasy VI  style with Draco, being mortally wounded during the duel, stabbing Prince Ralse through the heart and crying out as Maria escapes that he loves her.  God damn you Nobuo Uematsu and Square, damn you for wretching my heartstrings over and over again.

If you look at the lyrics for the 20 minutes of operatic music, there really is not a lot of singing and once you realize this, I began to feel for the three singers on stage who were not doing anything during the periods of non-singing.  It reminded me of how I feel when showing someone a youtube video or having them listen to a song and within a minute, I start to feel that they are probably bored and why did I pick this song for them to listen to and second guessing all my life decisions and why I didn't go to bathroom before eating that bag of bran muffins.  You get the idea.  That aside, my only critique of the performance actually had to do with the sound production and not the performers.  Confirmed by Conklederp and Salty Liver (who also attended with her fiance), that it was hard to hear the singers when the orchestra was playing in full force.  Ultimately that was my only gripe the whole evening.

Lastly, I would like to applaud Arnie Roth on the selection of songs for the concert.  While most of the songs were from the later Final Fantasy games (VII and on), there was a selection from the NES era of games, but only going back as far as Final Fantasy IV.  I am sure that there could have been a number of songs from the earlier Final Fantasy games had not the Opera from Final Fantasy VI been included, but that is a concession that I was more than happy to make as, again, hearing the opera in person was simply amazing.

In closing, I wanted to give a set list of the songs that were performed for the concert.

Final Fantasy Series: Prelude
VIII: Liberi Fatali
FF Victory Theme (Intro)
VII: Opening - Bombing Mission
IV: Theme of Love
V: Main Theme
VIII: Love Grows
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII: Light Eternal
VI: Phantom Forest
IX: Not Alone
FF Series: Chocobo Medley 2012

Intermission

FF Series: Battle & Victory Theme Medley
XI: Fighter of the Crystal
VII: Aerith's Theme
XII: The Dalmasca Estersand
X: Zanarkand
VIII: Don't Be Afraid
VI: Opera 'Maria & Draco'
FF Series: Main Theme

Encore
VII: One-Winged Angel


~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental

In Defense of Buying Final Fantasy VII (Again)

D'Octopotts will probably be one of the first persons to tell you that I am part of the camp that finds Final Fantasy VII to be one of the most overrated games in video game history.  So, why is it then, that I bought the game when it first came out on PC back in 1998 and again less than a week ago?  Why did I also buy Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII on the PSP?  Why have I started to wait for the price to drop over at Amazon?  I will tell you why.  Because despite having played FF VII three times, I have yet to beat it, the world intrigues me and I really like the music (no shock there).  My last play through (2006) I was, at what I think was right before the final battle with Sephiroth.

Let's start where all stories that end up being either way too long or too vague start, at the beginning.

Coming off of the high that was Final Fantasy III (III in the U.S., VI in Japan as we all now know), I was exceedingly excited about Final Fantasy VII, although sad that it was only coming out on the new fangled Playstation and not on the N64.  I remember sitting in D'Octopott's room as he started the game (I don't know if it was the first time he booted up the game, but it was the first time I saw it).  I'm sure most people reading this would remember the opening.  The breathtaking visuals.  Uematsu's score.  It was all there.  I never saw D'O complete the game, which is what lead me to buying my own copy for the PC when I bought my own laptop post high school in the fall of 1998.

I don't remember how far I got during that first play through.  I do remember becoming lost shortly after acquiring your first airship from Cid, the Tiny Bronco.  There was something about finding a sword, or a guy who could make a sword. . . I don't remember.  I found myself going back to Cosmo Canyon because I didn't know what else to do or where to go and I really liked the theme for the area.  So I wandered around, fought enemies and listened to music.  I eventually made it to just after the snowboarding scene, then something happened, possibly life-wise, I don't remember, but I stopped playing as I'd lost interest.  And, I was irritated that Cloud and Co. had tried to stop a legitimate attempt to destroy Sephiroth's asteroid and save the planet, all because said company wanted to save the materia (history/memories of the Ancients) instead.

In 2004 I watched Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and even though I hadn't finished the game, I felt I knew enough of the main story and the characters to know what was going on in the movie.  I watched it twice.  Once with D'O and his roommates and once in a Japanese language class I was taking at the time.

Jump ahead to 2006, four years later and I found the FF VII discs and loaded them onto my computer.  Playing commenced.  This time I made it through the game up until fighting Sephiroth at the end.  I was stalling because I didn't feel that I was at a high enough level.  That, or I just wanted to get above a certain level although I don't remember what level that was.  Then I moved from Sacramento back to Davis and have since lost one of the discs and I no longer have the computer/hard drive that my save files were on.

In 2008, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was released on the PSP.  At first I wasn't too interested, possibly because of the lackluster reviews for Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and because I had no way of playing the cellphone release of the other prequel Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII.  Then the reviews started pouring in that Crisis Core was actually a good game that helped expand the lore of the FF VII universe.  So I bought Crisis Core and loved it.  I loved playing out events that were hinted at or briefly mentioned.

For a couple of months now I've had Final Fantasy VII sitting in my cart in my Steam account (along with 24 other games) periodically (daily) checking to see if there was a price drop.  Last week, there was a 50% off drop on FF VII and knowing that Conklederp would dig some nostalgia and me wanting to finish the game (finally), I decided that $5.50 was an okay price to pay for a game that I enjoyed on a certain level (certain story elements, music) and genuinely wanted to finish.  So everything that you have just read went through my head in a manner of seconds before I clicked the "purchase" button.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Ghosts That Linger

P.S.  I'll come out with a First Impression of the game later although it will probably be more about the transition from PS1 to it's current iteration on the PC.  I may even talk about why I feel that FF VII is one of the more overrated games, but that topic may be over done at this point, so perhaps I won't afterall.  

Video Game Music Composers: Results and Analysis

First off, sorry this post is two days late.  That's what happens when you, meaning "I," work in the social services industry and stay up late playing video games or general internet putzing, only to wake up around noon and have to leave for work before 2pm.  It's called poor time management.

So now on with the results and analysis and not make it sound like a college freshman's term paper.

As I stated in the previous post, I was a little surprised that people generally didn't know the composers of some of the more famous video games, albeit, older video games, but maybe that was a problem with the questions that I posted: were the games too old?  Or is it that people are not as interested in the composers of video game music.  

For the survey questions, I had to be game and not series specific, as in "Do you know who wrote the music to Final Fantasy IV (Final Fantasy II in the US) (1991)?"  I couldn't say "... who wrote the music for the Final Fantasy series" because there've been a number of composers besides Nobuo Uematsu, over the years who've helped from about Final Fantasy X on.

Results:

21 People took the quiz

21 People answered the first question

20 People answered the first two questions

19 People answered questions 1 - 9

17 People answered questions 1 - 10

With just this information, you could say that some people became frustrated with the questions and quit.  With the two extra "skipped questions" on question 10, I think that people gave their answer but may not have pressed the final "submit" button.  Maybe.  That's just my guess.

Now the questions portion.  For this, I will just list the game, the system and years they were released, rather than type out the question in its entirety.

1)  Super Mario Bros. NES (1985):  14.3% knew that it was Koji Kondo.

2)  Mega Man 2  NES (1988):  5% (or one person) knew that Takeshi Tateishi & Manami Matsumae.

3)  Dragon Warrior/Quest  NES (1986):  0% knew that it was Koichi Sugiyama

4)  Zelda II: The Adventure of Link  NES (1987):  0% knew that it was Akito Nakatsuka

5)  Final Fantasy IV / II  SNES  (1991):  26.3% knew that it was Nobuo Uematsu

6)  Castlevania: Symphony of the Night  PS1  (1997):  0% knew that it was Michiru Yamane

7)  Donkey Kong  Arcade Game  (1981):  0% knew that it was Hirokazu Tanaka

8)  Killer Instinct  Arcade/SNES  (1994):  0% knew that it was Robin Beanland

9)  Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness  PC  (1995):  0% knew that it was Glenn Stafford

10)  Metroid  NES  (1986):  0% knew that it was Hirokazu Tanaka.  (5% or 1 person guessed that it was Koji Kondo).

Looking at this list, you can easily see that I grew up playing on Nintendo consoles.  I didn't realize I didn't have any Sega games on there until just now.  However, I feel that even if I were to have put Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) or Golden Axe (1989), that I still would have similar results.  And the answers would have been Masato Nakamura and Tohru Nakabayashi respectively.

With the games/music that I chose, I felt that they are very representative of popular music from video games.  Music from these games are frequently covered by video game cover bands (Nintendocore is a thing).  And whenever "the best Castlevania" game comes up, Symphony of the Night is right up there in being one of the most popular in the series.  It would be like asking someone, "Who wrote the music to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back?" and getting the response, "Oh yeah, I love that movie.  The best one in the series.  Oh um, yeah, I don't know who wrote the music.  John Williams?  Yeah, I think I've heard of him."

This leads me to four possible conclusions.  

1)  That some/most people who play video games do not pay attention during the credit sequence to who wrote the music for the game.  This could stem from these same people either not finishing the game to get to the credit sequence, or just being the type of people who do not sit through film/TV credits.

2)  In a number of games released (I'll just say on the NES since that's where most of my early gaming background is rooted), game composers' names were misspelled/mistranslated, a pseudonym was used, they were lumped in with "Programmers" or their names were not included at all.  In the case of Castlevania, Satoe Terashima was listed as "James Banana."  To find out real names and identities takes a bit of detective work, which could just be too much work.

3)  Video game soundtracks before the internet became standard in every house/phone/car/bathroom, were fairly difficult to obtain if you lived outside of Japan.  I first saw them at Star Trek conventions lumped in with the anime soundtracks, and even then, their prices would be astronomical.  Well, $70 for 45 minutes of music is astronomical to a 13 year old.

4)  The majority of the video games that I've listed are by Japanese composers and a lot of the times I have trouble either remembering their names or how to spell them.  I am sure there is a "thing" in our brains that makes it difficult to recognize and remember names and words that we do no recognize, especially if they are not in our native language.  If this is an actual thing, then I am sure that it would apply to not remembering/recognizing the above names as well.

One possible explanation though for why people knew Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu is that they are more known in the United States market than possibly any other Japanese video game composer.  Nobuo Uematsu has toured the United States on multiple occasions with Final Fantasy: Dear Friends.  Koji Kondo has also been states-side with Play!

The question basically comes down to: "Why don't people know x?"  For that, I have no definitive answer.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

The Truth Is Out There

Introduction to a Theory about Video Game Music Composers

"This is the first entry in what I hope to be a series of posts about composers/programmers of music in video games.  And not just any composers, but composers that we either don't know much about or have miss-attributed soundtracks to.  What do I mean by "miss-attribute?"  Okay, when you think of the music from the Legend of Zelda series, who comes to mind?  Right, Koji Kondo.  Except that he didn't write the music for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.  That soundtrack was composed by Akito Nakatsuka.  Who is that you ask?  In short, he also wrote some of the music for Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!"

The above was my going into what was originally planned as a series of about nine to ten posts, focusing on individual composers and why some soundtracks are miss-attributed to them.  As an avid collector of soundtracks, I had thought that knowledge of video game composers would be about as prevalent as knowledge of film music composers.  Granted I only know of a couple by name, and those're some of the big guns: Nobuo Uematsu, Koji Kondo, Koichi Sugiyama, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Yasunori Mitsuda, Robin Beanland and David Wise.  

As it turned out, this happened to be one of those instances where when you grow up with a particular thing, like a dad who collects and chops/cuts and stacks firewood, that you think that all dads do that.  Turns out a lot of dads do not drive out on county roads looking for felled trees or asking people who have had trees cut  down if they would mind if their wood was taken out of their gutter.  Who knew that wasn't normal?  Turns out knowledge of who the composers of video game music are and what games they've composed for is not common knowledge.

I found this out when I put up a survey seeing if 1)  If people knew who wrote the music to a particular video game and 2)  If they knew, then they were to put down their answer by name.  My theory was for example, that if someone would think that because Koji Kondo wrote the music to Super Mario Bros. that they might think he wrote the music to Dr. Mario.  Or, as in the first mentioned example of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!. 

In the following post I will give the results and my initial analysis of the data that I collected from the survey (which when I last checked was only 20 people).  So with this in mind, I will now leave you with a couple youtube-ified tracks from various video games soundtracks that I absolutely love:

Tooth & Claw by Robin Beanland : Killer Instinct

Overworld by Koichi Sugiyama : Dragon Warrior

Sacrifices by Yuzo Koshiro : ActRaiser

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
I Can Just Hear It Now

P.S.  If you would like to take the aforementioned survey, here is the link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XSYPF3N  And please do not look up any information before taking the survey as I am/was trying to find out people's existing knowledge.  Thank you.

First Impressions: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (3DS)

I recently bought this game courtesy of a gift card from doing online surveys and Gamestop deciding to take $10 off of a lot of their Square Enix games.  I didn't look too much into it, but it might have something to do with it being the 25th anniversary of the first Final Fantasy game.  Yes, we all know that each game is not the "final" game, it's just a title that was chosen for the first game and upon it's success, ran with it.  Anyway!

In short, TFF is a rhythm game using the music from Final Fantasy through Final Fantasy XIII.  This does not include however any of the games in the Tactics, Crystals or sequel (FF X-2 or FF XIII-2) series.  The headline to the Penny-Arcade Report article pretty much sums up the game in that it's a "love letter to the fans of Final Fantasy music..."

That's me.  I love (most of) the music in the Final Fantasy series.  I previously stated that it was the music in the first Final Fantasy game that got me into video game music and series composer Nobuo Uematsu was the first game composer whose name I learned and recognized.  Of the first four video game music related CD's I owned, three were Final Fantasy related (Kefka's Domain: The Complete Soundtrack to Final Fantasy III, Symphonic Suite - Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Celtic Moon.  The forth CD was DK Jamz: Donkey Kong Country Soundtrack).  You could probably put me in the "fanboy" category, or at least you "could have."  I never played VIII, X, X-2, XI, XIII or XIII-2 although I do have a "best of" compilation for FF X.  

Onto the game.  The concept is pretty simple.  You tap, slide or hold notes/triggers as they come by on the screen in one of four different modes.  All the while, there's stuff going on in the background that I'm only able to view in my periphery as I'm trying to focus on what trigger I have to do along with which one is coming up right behind it.  In two of the modes, the text from the prologue and epilogue scroll by in the background, but there's a giant crystal inhabiting the middle of the screen and notes flying all over the place so I can't really focus on what the game wants me to read.  It's similar with the other three modes where I want to watch what's going on in the background, but the mechanics of the game keep getting in the way.  You can however, unlock the movies for each of the games by completing certain aspects of the game and watch them without triggers getting in the way.

One thing in the game that I thought was a bit random and felt kind of "off."  After the end of each stage, you're awarded points called "Rhythmia" and these go into your overall total for the entire game.  The number of Rhythmia you earn are based on your performance of the stage, if you're using the character that's a part of the game that the song is taken from (ex: using Cecil for "Theme of Love" from Final Fantasy IV), things like that.  Then, there's one where you're awarded 10 Rhythmia for have "All Males."  !?!?!  Now you have four members in your party when you chose a song and when you start the game, you only have two females, unless Shantotto from Final Fantasy XI is a female, in which case you then have only three women.  Not enough to possibly receive an "All Females" bonus.  Now I know that you can unlock characters and I know that Rydia from FF IV is one of them (although I don't know how many unlockable characters and who they are and I'd like to figure that out for myself) so if Shantotto's a female, then you have to wait until another female is unlocked before said hypothetical bonus is acquired.  So you're getting bonus points for segregating your party.  Not cool.

Another thing I'm kind of iffy about is that you're able to equip party members with abilities and spells.  It almost seems unnecessary for a rhythm game, but it's easily forgivable considering that it's Final Fantasy.  I don't know what's going on that the characters are doing half the time, as long as I don't die and am able to complete the stage.

And I guess I should say something about the 3D effect considering that it's on the 3DS.  At the moment, I'm not overly impressed.  I mean the graphics are damn pretty (especially the FMV's from the later PS2 and PS3 Final Fantasy games), but I don't feel anything is lost when I switch back to 2D, which I haven't really done much because I mean, I might as well use the 3D effect if I have the option.

But don't get me wrong though, I've had the game for maybe two days and I've managed to put in 5 1/2 hours while I'm not either sleeping or at work.  I take that to mean that I like it.  I like it a lot.  It's a rhythm game saturating in pure nostalgia, which is the reason that I purchased said game.  If you're not a fan of rhythm games, it may not be for you.  God knows I'll play Rock Band or Donkey Konga if someone has it out, but I've never made an effort to go out and buy a set.  But, if you're not a fan of the Final Fantasy series and/or their music, you probably won't want to buy/play the game.  On the other hand, the game would be a great way to introduce someone to the existence of Final Fantasy who has not had previous experience.  Your choice really.

I know there's a lot that I haven't covered here, but that's because it's just a first impression and not an entire review.  The entire review will happen when I feel like I've completed enough of the game for me to feel like I've seen everything.  And if this follows the plan as previous Final Fantasy games, it'll take me another 120 hours to figure it all out.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

From Here, It All Goes Down.