Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy

Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy returned to Atlanta on June 7 and 8, 2013. Distant Worlds is the name of the international Final Fantasy symphonic concert tour. It started in 2007 and has been touring the world since. Distant Worlds first stopped in Atlanta on May 6 and 7, 2011. You can read my review of the 2011 concert here:
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2011’s Distant Worlds is not the first time a Final Fantasy concert stopped in Atlanta. The first time was 2005’s Dear Friends concert. Renowned Final Fantasy conductor Arnie Roth conducted each time. Legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu attended in 2011 and even joined the choir to sing Sephiroth (FFVII). Since Nobuo-​san did not attend in 2005, a special video message was played to the audience. There was no such video message this year. Boo.
I’ve attended the Final Fantasy concerts in each of the three years it’s been to Atlanta and all three were magnificent shows. The differences between the shows from year to year has been minor. The music from the video games is orchestrated and there is not a lot of variation from the game melody to the arranged orchestrated melody. The songs are very true, if not exact, to the original game soundtrack. This contrasts to a video game concert like the Zelda series, where the producers can introduce slight variations to their symphonic arrangements of the music.
This year, I attended the June 8 concert. Two songs were exclusive to the June 7 concert and two songs were exclusive to the June 8 concert. They were:
June 7 exclusives:
Final Fantasy IX — Melodies of Life
Final Fantasy XII — Kiss My Goodbye
June 8 exclusives:
Final Fantasy VIII — Eyes On Me
Final Fantasy XI — Distant Worlds
Final Fantasy V — Main Theme
I purchased tickets to the concert shortly after they went on sale in January. The date-​exclusive songs weren’t announced at that time.
The vocalist for the concert was Susan Calloway. She was picked by Nobuo-​san to sing the theme song for FFXIV. I would have preferred some of the songs, such as Suteki Da Né (FFX) to be sung in their original language (Japanese). It was weird hearing an English version of that song. Regardless, Calloway did a masterful job and had a beautiful voice (and dress).
New material this year included a Chocobo Medley, which debuted in 2012. This, surprisingly, was my favorite piece. It was lots of fun. Also new was a Battle and Victory Theme Medley, also introduced on tour in 2012. I video recorded many pieces from the concert including the two aforementioned medleys. You can view them on my YouTube channel here:
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In all, 18 pieces plus one encore were performed. There was an intermission halfway through. At least one song was performed from every main Final Fantasy game (e.g. no spin-​offs like Tactics, X-​2, XIII-​2, etc.). Popular songs included the main theme to FFV, the FFVIII battle theme, the FFXIII battle theme, FFVI’s Phantom Forest, Aerith’s Theme (FFVII), and Terra’s Theme (FFVI).
The music was accompanied with excellent visuals on a big screen. I like how each song started off with the logo of the Final Fantasy game the song came from. The videos were designed to appropriately fit the music. They contained a combination of original gameplay video, from the original 8-​bit NES graphics to the current 1080p HD graphics, and montages showing Yoshitaka Amano’s mesmerizing artwork. The beautiful paintings of Sabin, Cyan, and Shadow interspersed with the 16-​bit Super NES Phantom Train scene in FFVI stuck with me the most.
One nitpicky complaint I have with the visuals is many of the videos had Japanese text. I can understand they want to keep the original Japanese text, especially since this is an international tour. However, they go to enough North American cities to where I think they can produce a separate set of English-​text videos. The Zelda tour, which is strictly a North American tour, uses English text in its videos. The story telling is much more captivating, emotional, and dramatic that way. It connects with the audience that much more.
The encore, Sephiroth, was sung without a choir. Therefore, Arnie and the orchestra had to rely on the audience to sing the lyrics. I thought this was awkward. In 2011, there was a full choir and it sounded great. This year, I had to listen to the two dorks behind me sing it awkwardly.
Unlike all the video game concerts in Atlanta up to this point, Distant Worlds 2013 did not sell out. I love video games and I think it’s a real treat to be able to attend a video game concert, so I hope Atlantans and surrounding neighbors keep supporting it so they return again and again.

So far, I went to the Final Fantasy Distant Worlds concert twice. I went to the first concert on May of 2011 and thought it as mediocre.
Granted, the 2011 concert seemed bigger. They brought in Nobuo Uematsu. They also played some great pieces like «Maria and Draco» from Final Fantasy 6 and the Sephiroth theme from Final Fantasy 7. Nobuo Uematsu even join in with the choir to sing with them.
However, it had some flaws. One of the singers was out of tune. And the concert just seemed lackluster. It felt like the ASO didn’t really care about the concert. Unlike the Zelda concerts, where the producer had genuine enthusiasm, the Final Fantasy concert didn’t have the same Oomph as the Zelda ones.
When they came back in 2013, I felt skeptical about going, but I decided to give them another chance. I liked this concert a lot better. I’m not sure if it’s because I had low expectations going in, but the quality seemed to have improved.
There were less people there, but they still seemed obnoxious. Speaking of which, a lot of socially-​challenged people come out of the woodworks for this concert. Some of them show no concert etiquette. Call me old fashioned, but I expect people going to classical concerts like these to act a certain way. I hate it when people smoke, leave and enter when they please, shout stupid stuff during the concerts, etc. Sure it’s a video game concert, and it’s fun when people get excited, but some people turn into nerdy douchebags.
Anyway the 2013 concert had some great music. The production seemed better for some reason. They played my favorites like the Bombing Mission from Final Fantasy 7, Zanarkand and Suteki da Né from Final Fantasy 10, some great chocobo and battle theme medleys, and Eyes On Me from Final Fantasy 8.
Speaking of Eyes on Me, I got excited when the conductor announced he was bringing out a singer from the Final Fantasy series to sing it. I almost thought they got Faye Wong to come sing it. That would’ve been awesome. I’m a huge Faye Wong fan. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Faye Wong. It was only Susan Calloway. It didn’t matter, she sang awesomely. She was 1000 times better than that amateur singer from 2011 concert.
Also as an encore, they played the Sephiroth theme again. Since they didn’t have a choir, they got the audience to sing the parts. I thought that was cool since it made it more interactive. I was surprised how many people knew how to sing it.
So I had a great time at the 2013 concert. It rivaled the Zelda concert with the performance and choice of music. The 2011 concert was okay. Also, the people who went to the concert distracted the greatness of it. So I give it about 4 stars.