Distant Worlds, or wacky adventures in NYC

[slimequest]

krile, her brother, my brother, and myself all attended the Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds concert last night in NYC. And as it goes with trips to NYC, wacky and unexpected things ensued.



I've been to an FF concert before, so a lot of it was not new to me. Still, it's always an amazing experience, made moreso by the fact that Nobuo Uematsu himself was there!

The lineup was excellent, and they played a lot more than they have listed for April 2nd. The musicians and vocalists were all incredible, and I can't recommend attending one of these things enough. Whatever you expect it to be like, it always ends up being better. Especially with NOBUO "THE 'STACHE" UEMATSU IN THE FLESH, did I mention this? He looked up at me, I swear~

One of the reasons I like these concerts so much is that it's very inclusive, playing songs from both old and new games and don't try to pander TOO much to the FFVII-and-up crowd... it tries to be this event where it doesn't matter if you didn't like the story/gameplay/design of one FF game compared to another, or even if you've played all the games or not, because we're all FF fans tonight. We're here to celebrate the music, anyway, and what can generally be agreed upon is that every game in the series has some really incredible pieces that sound even better coming from a full orchestra.

But, see... whenever they're playing a song, a big projector displays clips (usually FMVs) from the game the song represents. Nothing but silence when something from FFVIII would play, for example, but laughter when they'd show oldschool stuff like FFI battles or whatever. The PS1 remakes with more modernized graphics, mind you.

MINI-RANT SINCE I HAVEN'T DONE SO IN A WHILE: I think anyone who is seriously interested in a series of videogames and calls themselves a fan of it should at least become familiar with the series as a whole, especially if you started seven or so damned games into it. And be honest, you probably don't have anything more important to do than play the other ones in your spare time if you're such a fan. Guess what? You'll be able to appreciate your special little snowflake of a game more if you're actually able to get the little references and throwbacks they put in there from previous games, not to mention understand the history of this thing you supposedly love so much. And I guarantee you that if you laugh at 8- or 16-bit graphics you're missing out on some of the best gaming experiences out there.

Oh, and if you're fond of that Dissidia game especially, maybe you should check out the games those characters come from. Yes, Kefka actually is that fucking crazy, and Bartz IS like that. It's not polite to stare. But seriously, it'll make it all the better when 3/4 of the cast isn't unknown to you or something.

NOW TO BE FAIR~ watching someone navigate menus and run around like an idiot (seriously, who was playing when they recorded this footage?) is not especially exciting, and combined with the huge contrast between some sweeping cinematic played just before is kind of an amusing thing. They actually did a really good job with both kinds of footage during the Chocobo song which had a spastic Chocobo from FFII running back and forth contrasted with more "normal" clips. And when they had the orchestra from FFVI playing up on the screen while the real orchestra down below played the exact music being played at that part of the game... perfect.

I actually laughed at the part where some epic FFVII music was playing while footage of someone EQUIPPING MATERIA was shown, though, to be fair. Seriously? There's nothing else you could've thought of? Also if you're gonna laugh at graphics I should hear unprecedented levels of it whenever Cloud's lumbering polygons show up onscreen.

/RANT OVER (although people laughed at the Japanese text they had in in-game footage, too. I guess it's kind of funny when it's unexpected the first time, but really? One guess as to which language this composer guy you're lauding over reads. I guess it is kind of lazy on their part, though.)

The highlight of the performance was probably the opera from FFVI. As stated above, they used FFVI footage perfectly. At the beginning, they showed the part from the game of the orchestra playing and Locke & co. sitting down... to listen to them? IS THIS REAL LIFE?

The opera singers were really good, as well. There's a Distant Worlds soundtrack that includes it, but in case you haven't heard, it's basically a full version of the opera, as if Ultros hadn't interrupted it. So you actually get to hear the end of it and all that. Good stuff.

I gotta say, though, I was a bit disappointed they didn't try lowering some Ultros piñata down onto the stage or something, only to be thwarted by Nobuo Uematsu himself. Maybe next time.

There's also a fairly obvious "spoiler" song they play at the end of each of these concerts. Let me just say that in involves a sing-along to a very well-known piece and Uematsu himself was prancing around on stage making sure we were doing it right. The best thing ever.

Otherwise... I enjoyed the FFV stuff immensely as I rightfully should, and the stuff from FFXIV actually sounded nice. Hopefully they manage to fix that game up so I can try it out.

Hopefully I didn't sound too BITTER OLDSCHOOL GAMER back there because I actually did enjoy myself a lot, it's just those couple little annoyances I could've done without! Speaking of annoyances...





Kind of a bizarrely long story short, our car broke down on the way back, with over an hour and a half left to go until home, actually. In the middle of a line for the toll booth. We got a tow (eventually) to a McDonald's where we figured things out from there. While I did discover McD's rather delicious frappe mochas as a result, the guys high on... something passing out napkins to everyone at 3AM was something I could've done without. Eventually, via various means, we made it home around 5AM. It was a long day. Fun, most of the time, but long and with one of those drawn-out conclusions that you could've done without. There's some game I could probably compare this to, but my brain's half-dead still.



I'll let krile tell you about ~shopping~ with likely accompanying pictures. We didn't get much since we had to lug it around with us most of the time, but it's still some nice swag. I wish we could've just taken all of Kinokuniya with us (as usual), but considering all the other unexpected expenses we had that day, I think it's for the best.

Oh, I did get to try White Castle for the first time too, actually. Pretty damn good. The fact that they list calorie content up on the menus on the wall is kind of disheartening, but I think with all the walking we did things evened out /denial

Comments

[ansemaru.livejournal.com]

Hnnnng, that sounds so great. Wish I'd known about it, because dammit I'm in Vermont and I could have gone.... /alas.

It's good that the concerts are inclusive of both the old and new FF games. Good music is good music, whenever it is from. From 1 to 14 and everything in-between, Final Fantasy has had so many great pieces. Good ol' Uematsu... ffffs, the 'stache, too. True video game composers have great moustaches!

But, hrng. I understand that it stings to see series newbies laughing at the older games, but that's the way the world goes. Hopefully someday they'll be less superficial about the factors they judge a game based on, but you have to remember age is a big part of this. I didn't play any FF games until I was 13, because that's when I got my first game console, a PS1. This was in 2004. Previously, all I knew of the games were FFX and Kingdom Hearts! Final Fantasy VII may have graphically been a step down, but I still enjoyed it, and ultimately preferred it to X and KH. And from then on I had to gradually work through the games that came out when I was too young to play them or even know about them- and the games that came out before I was born. Many of these people would have been in the same boat, or even younger. Sure, them laughing was rude, but someday they're going to grow out of it. They might not see FFVI as the epitome of amazing JRPGs, but they'll at least stop judging it because it's got pixellated graphics. Just give it time.

Aaaaanyway, sorry about that. Kind of went out of control there. The point is that the concert sounded awesome. Sucks to hear about your car, though...

[slimequest.livejournal.com]

I'm understanding about younger gamers! Okay, probably. I guess I can sympathize with games that came out before you were born because, goddamn. Since likely you played a whole 'nother kind of RPG first since they were contemporary (like you said), having to get into the mindset of older, perhaps more archaic and unforgiving games ON TOP OF the graphical "downgrade" is a lot to stomach. I think only the open-minded types could really manage that without much trouble.

This is part of the reason I do not mind remakes at all (within reason) - slapping on a coat of fresh paint and tweaking things can open these excellent games up to a whole new generation. At least it gives them a fighting chance!

To relate, I have a hard time playing Atari games (before my time in the literal sense), but I honestly do think that the concept behind those kind of games is significantly different than the resulting NES after it. The level of complexity is just incomparable. That being said, I have given those games (and some arcade games that aren't too different in concept) a shot and I've managed to enjoy some of them.

As I sort of said in my post, the laughter wasn't necessarily intentionally rude, it just could've come across that way. Annoying either way. I can be forgiving, though! You've shown me that there's at least some hope.

... if I ever have kids, though, I'm going to train them from FFI and go up from there.

[ansemaru.livejournal.com]

People laughing at things that aren't even funny is just lame, of course. Someday! Someday! I keep telling myself this.

Remakes are a great thing. I'd probably have never given FFIII, FFIV, or Chrono Trigger a second glance if they didn't get DS versions, and FFV and VI only because of the PS1 rerelease (flawed as it was.) They do good things for younger gamers.

I like your plan. Build them up to the high points! Cut them off before they play FFXIII, that'll only end in pain, though.

[slimequest.livejournal.com]

I adore the remake of III, I think it's one of the best examples of how to turn an old game into something fresh and new while retaining all the important parts. Instead of four nameless random things you get actual characters! And seriously... that opening FMV is incredible.

I'd recommend the GBA remakes of V and VI, they're much improved from their PS1 counterparts. Then again, I'm hoping for 3DS remakes at this point...

Muahaha, you do have a valid point about FFXIII. Actually, as a surprise for the concert, they did play a couple songs from it. I was able to enjoy the songs without screaming something about linearity into the crowd, yay for politeness!

[ansemaru.livejournal.com]

It is such a delicious opening. I love the music in it, too...

I'll have to look for those! I know that the GBA version of V is a million kinds of better than the version I have, so that's a big incentive. A remake would be even better, though- if Ocarina of Time can have one, so can FFV and FFVI. I'd love to see the cast of VI in that format.

ahahaha, I had a feeling you'd see eye-to-eye. Congrats on the politeness!