Okay, folks. Confession time. I feel like I need to come clean about something that might colour your perception of me. I’m am a great champion of JRPGs. I started playing them when I was seven years old and my step-dad would let me play the sprite in Secret of Mana and have played almost every major release in the genre ever since. From the SNES days before Square Enix was a thing through the PS1 and PS2 eras when the cut scenes were pre-rendered and everything from hair to sleeves had a sharp edge all the way to today’s releases (and rereleases in a lot of cases). I have been more effeminate teenage boys than a police internet sting operation. I have saved more fictional worlds than Green Lantern. I love the weird and wonderful genre, but there is a dark secret I harbour.

In all my years of playing and loving JRPGs, I have never finished a Final Fantasy game. In fact, I’ve only rarely event attempted them. They’ve never been my favourite series (I’ve always had difficulty figuring out how they can continue to make more if they are all “final”). I would start them and play them for a while, enjoying the game for a good ten to fifteen hours and then another game would come out and I’d lose interest. By the time I told myself to go back and give it another shot, I’d have forgotten the controls and found myself needing to start completely over in order to understand the plot and who has time for that?

But there is one thing that I have always admired about the series, and that is the music. Nobou Uematsu might not be the first name you think of when you think of classical music and he might not have household name status like John Williams or Hans Zimmer, but in the world of video game music the man casts a shadow as long and as wide as Beethoven or Mozart. From the age of the midi theme right through to the modern era, he has helped define the music of not just a genre but of an entire industry.

Which is why, even as someone who isn’t a massive fan of Final Fantasy, this past weekend proved to be an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. You see, Friday night in London, A New World performed at the St. John’s Smith Square, providing a chance to listen to the music of the Final Fantasy series (the vast majority of which comes from the mind of Mr. Uematsu) as played by a small, ten piece orchestral group, and I couldn’t think of any better way to spend my Halloween.

The venue was lovely, with its thick pillars and its tall, vaulted ceiling. The audience consisted of some of the more die-hard fans of the series, who had serious emotional and nostalgic connections to the music being played. It was an intimate, emotional night hosted by Arnie Roth and with a special guest appearance by Nobou himself on keyboard for a tune from Final Fantasy VI. As I listened to the orchestra playing music ranging from the very first game all the way through the most recent MMO offering, Final Fantasy XIV, I was filled with something I’ve never felt before; a desire to go back and give pretty much every game in the series another chance.

The concert showed exactly how diverse the music of the series is, opening with perhaps the most famous song from the best received game in One Winged Angel from FF VII. There were no videos of cut scenes. No choir to sing the ominous Latin music. It was a stripped down and intimate performance, letting the music do everything. It was a brave thing to do, but it worked spectacularly. Arnie Roth, conductor and host for the evening, performed both roles with practiced perfection, providing just enough information between songs before flowing immediately into the next song. The only slip up in his effortless banter came as he asked the crowd if there were any FF XIII fans present. The result was a resounding “meh”.

Many of the most famous songs from the series found their way into the first half of the performance, with a particular highlight for me being hearing To Zanarkand performed in such a stripped back, haunting way followed by the decidedly silly and cheerful Chocobo Melody. It sent the audience on an emotional rollercoaster even for a FF nooblet like me.

The evening was less a celebration of video games or even Final Fantasy. It was a celebration of the work of Nobou Uematsu, a showcase to the breadth of his talent and the range of his work without feeling like merely an exercise in stroking his ego.

A New World is a spinoff performance to Distant Worlds (more on that show later this week) and only plays now and then across the world, so catching them might not always be an option. However, whether you’re a fan of Final Fantasy, video game music in general, or just looking for a night of classical music, this is a show worth keeping an eye out for. I’m certain that you’ll leave singing at least one song from the line-up and it is probably going to be chocobo related.

Stay tuned all this week for the run down of my “three concerts in three days” weekend in London! And check out the moderately related video below!

 

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