[Featured Coverage] Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy

[Featured Coverage] Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy

Photo Credits: Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra)

20th August 2014, Kuala Lumpur- Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy was held in Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra over the last weekend from 15th August 2014-17th August 2014. Our team from wljack.com was given an opportunity to do a coverage on the event. It was indeed a pleasant afternoon with a wonderful musical experience.

Just in case you are non-gamer or you do not know about Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy is a renowned RPG game franchise which is well-loved by the gamers for its memorable stories, amazing graphics and last but not least its beautiful musical pieces. Distant Worlds is a concert that brings all of these elements especially the great music LIVE to the fans!

Truly Amazing Symphony Concert With Great Casts Of Musicians!
The show was conducted by Arnie Roth, a Grammy-winning artist who has been working closely with Nobuo Uematsu (the legendary composer for various Final Fantasy games) and Square Enix as the music director and conductor of concerts related to the franchise. He and the orchestra have delivered an outstanding performance on stage.

Besides the orchestra itself, the concert was also complemented by the choir, Dithyrambic Singers which nonetheless have put up an astounding performance for the audience.

Not forget to mention, there was also a song which has featured three soloist Ho Chi Mei (soprano), Chie Hoe Mak (bass baritone) and James Long Cai Hunt (tenor) to stage an opera scene which is very prominent in FF games series.

A Treat For Final Fantasy Fans and Music Lovers! Compiled Scenes From Games Brought Back Memories!
All of the songs from Final Fantasy series are already good when they are listened through album or during the games itself. The songs are even much better when being orchestrated by the impressive group of musicians. All of the audiences either the fans of the franchise or the non-fans music lovers were mesmerized by the impressive performance played by the orchestra.

Apart from the great music, the concert is a fun joy ride down the memory lane. Different video compilations from various Final Fantasy titles were shown on the screen above the orchestra during each song. The videos consist of images and footage from in-games such as the beautiful CGI graphics that appeared in FF series since Playstation 1 era, the improved and more enhanced ones from later Final Fantasy series such as FF XIV and FFXIII: Lightning Returns as well as the nostalgic 8-bits scenes from the earlier Final Fantasy games! These videos play a great role in story-telling as the songs from each different Final Fantasy game was played. All of these have brought back the memories that could warm the fans from inside!

I personally love the videos compilation during the Chocobo Medley. It was fun too as Arnie Roth actually asked the fans to sing along with the words “C-H-O-C-O-B-O” listed on the video as the song is played.

Photo Credits: Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra)
Memorable Opera Scene From Final Fantasy VI Came To Live!
As it is the 20th year anniversary for Final Fantasy VI, the orchestra has featured more songs and exclusives from FFVI into the Distant Worlds concert this time.

One of the most memorable moments from Final Fantasy VI is the opera scene. The concert this time has made the opera scene came to LIVE! Instead of just being a musical piece, they have blended in choir singing, soloist performance and also narrative for the song “FFVI: Opera ‘Maria & Draco”!

Without further ado, Roth invited the soloist to stage and also introduced a narrator for the scene. The narration has provided an additional story-telling element for the audience. Without a doubt, the performance from the soloists was spectacular!

Various Moods Delivered Through The Concert!
All of the songs gave a different feeling to the audiences as they were played. Some songs such as “FFX: Zanarkand” have made the fans teared up while some songs such as “FF Series: Chocobo Medley” and “FF Series: Battle & Victory Theme Medley” has cheered the fans up! All of the audiences could experience different emotions throughout the concert but would definitely agree that the song which totally matched the feeling by the end of the show was “FF Series: Victory Theme”! It was really a great concert!

Distant Worlds Never Let The Fans Down! Triumphant Encore Song – “One-Winged Angel”!
Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy was really a brilliant concert and never failed to amaze the fans! However, due to the limited time for the show, not all pieces from the games were able to be played on stage. At the moment when Roth announced that it was the end of the show and started playing “FF Series: Main Theme”, we couldn’t deny that some fans have a sad look on their face because the song they wanted to hear the most was not listed on the programme list.

But Roth never let the fans down as he came back on stage after the finale of “FF: Main Theme” and played the most EPIC boss song ever in Final Fantasy Series, “One-Winged Angel”! All of the fans cheered in joy! Roth even asked the audiences to sing-along as the breathtaking song was played. He stated that it’s okay for the audiences to not know most of the lyrics as they only need to know one word… “Sephiroth!”.

Thus, the concert reached an end and all of the audiences have stood up and gave a thunderous applause to the marvelous performers!

Me (WLJack) and my girlfriend Josephine reviewed Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy 2014 in Malaysia

We personally enjoyed the concert very much! Million thanks to Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) for giving us this opportunity to attend the show!



Photo credits: Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO)



Published by WLJack.

WL Jack

Dr Jack Chan Wah Loong is the Head Of Medical Department and Internal Medicine Specialist in his current Hospital. Apart from medical related works, he is also a blogger, journalist and photographer since the year of 2008. He is also the chief editor for wljack.com, a website with a dedicated team of journalists that write coverage on Malaysia events and happenings since 2013.

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