Final Fantasy prog gems

I know there must be other gamers out there, and I realize many of them are probably indifferent to the Final Fantasy brand.  It's just that Nobuo Uematsu's music was my first exposure to progressive rock, and I expect it's a similar story for other gamers.  He himself names ELP as one of his influences.  Here are some of his compositions that have a strong resemblance to prog (they are much more dramatic and fun to listen to when playing through the games, of course, but I think they have enough substance to stand on their own feet):

"Dancing Mad".  The final battle music from Final Fantasy VI.  It has three movements, like a typical symphonic prog epic, the third being the most notably prog-ish.  For those of you who haven't played the game, the imagery during the final battle is stunningly gothic and really gels with the music.

"Still More Fighting".  The oddly titled battle theme from Final Fantasy VII.  A really good listen, especially with the nostalgia factor.  Uematsu's band, the Black Mages, did an awesome blues/hard-rock cover of this piece.

"Decisive Battle".  Final Fantasy V.  Very representative of Uematsu's earlier battle theme style.

"Hunters Chance".  Final Fantasy IX.  The synth and piano combination in this song is strongly reminiscent of ELP's Trilogy.  Incidentally one of the only good tracks from the game.

I hope I'm not suffering from some strange form of apophenia, because these all sound like prog to me.  I likes me my video game music all the same.

 

Id wrote: It's just that Nobuo Uematsu's music was my first exposure to progressive rock, and I expect it's a similar story for other gamers.  He himself names ELP as one of his influences.

You MUST delve into the works of one Motoi Sakuraba. He's equal parts prog-rock keyboardist (the "Japanese Wakeman") and anime & game soundtrack composer. His 80s band Deja Vu released one CD, Baroque Of The Future  before they split up and he recorded his solo debut called Gikyo Kuonsou (an excellent keyboards-bass-drums instrumental album). From then on, he's done many, many soundtracks, and damn me if the majority of them don't double as symphonic prog, with flesh-and-blood rhythm sections. Among the best ones are Force Of Light, Beyond The Beyond, Valkyrie Profile  (one of my favorites) and the many albums in the Star Ocean series of games and films. Start with Valkyrie Profile or Star Ocean: The Second Story 'Arrange Album'. Star Ocean: Blue Sphere  is another winner. 

In the last couple of years, Motoi's staged several live performances with a drummer and Gerard's bassist. The trio blasts through a set of Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile pieces rearranged for trio (there's also a DVD ; Motoi pulls a total Wakeman and surrounds himself with the a gigantic keyboard rig).

http://www.cocoebiz.com/sakuraba/interviews/

http://www.ms-motion.com/

 

dropForge wrote: You MUST delve into the works of one Motoi Sakuraba.

dropForge wrote: He's equal parts prog-rock keyboardist (the "Japanese Wakeman") and anime & game soundtrack composer. His 80s band Deja Vu released one CD, Baroque Of The Future  before they split up and he recorded his solo debut called Gikyo Kuonsou (an excellent keyboards-bass-drums instrumental album).

dropForge wrote: From then on, he's done many, many soundtracks, and damn me if the majority of them don't double as symphonic prog, with flesh-and-blood rhythm sections. Among the best ones are Force Of Light, Beyond The Beyond, Valkyrie Profile  (one of my favorites) and the many albums in the Star Ocean series of games and films. Start with Valkyrie Profile or Star Ocean: The Second Story 'Arrange Album'. Star Ocean: Blue Sphere  is another winner.

Valkyrie Profile is also my favorite. And Star Ocean Arrange is almost as good. I also have Gikyokuonsou.

dropForge wrote: In the last couple of years, Motoi's staged several live performances with a drummer and Gerard's bassist. The trio blasts through a set of Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile pieces rearranged for trio (there's also a DVD ; Motoi pulls a total Wakeman and surrounds himself with the a gigantic keyboard rig).

Motoi Sakura used to do lots of free lance work for Enix. Now that Enix is Square-Enix, I think it is possible for them to do a Final Fantasy with Motoi Sakuraba as the main composer. One can only hope...

Another FF track that is very ELP-esque is a certain FFV track that plays when you go to the montain of the dragons...

The Final Fantasy games, along with the music, is absolutely pure gold. Uematsu is a genius at composing and setting the mood for the game. Check out the Chrono Trigger OST as well with his collaboration along with the rest of the 'Dream Team'.

On the topic of Japan, the Castlevania games have AMAZING music. In particular CVA III and Symphony of the Night are equally fantastic and sound truly symphonic, especially III, in spite of the limitations of the NES sound synthesizer.

Yes, infamous Konami soundchip (VRC6) was an amazing piece of work especially on the track 'Clockwork'. Good on the NES version, masterful on the Famicom.

I was lucky enough to find the soundtracks to most of the games, I-IV, Bloodlines, and Circle of Blood. Good luck finding most of them now! Truly some great talent comes out of Japan especially for writing compositions of western influences considering how isolated they seem to be from other cultures.

...they contributed music to Final Fantasy games?  Are you *sure*?

My favorite Castlevania song is the Night theme from Castlevania II for NES...  

I'm a huge fan of Nobuo Uematsu and the Final Fantasy series aswell. One of the most proggy moments he has is in my opinion the Opening Theme from FFVI and Dark Messenger from FFIX.

Lyzarrd wrote: Being a shmup fan as well I can agree on Gradius having some really good music, though I think the Star Soldier Series, particularly Super Star Soldier on the PC Engine, having some of the best for a shooter I have ever heard. I know its not Konami, but still some really good stuff.

Yes, I forgot about Super Star Soldier (which I still have the hu-card somewhere). It is the probably the best shmup for PC-Engine and has some fantastic tunes and the classic "power up" music from Star Soldier (MSX). I also remember quite well the music from the time mode of the game being very good too.

Gradius series have more games to choose, so it is easier to remember and some are real classics in the video game scene (Gradius I,II,III). But I would certainly have to include honorable mentions like Rez (it is not exactly a shmup, but I like the concept a lot), Ikaruga, Thunder Force series, R-Type series (specially R-Type III for SNES), Darius, Aleste (Musha), etc.

Lyzarrd wrote: Still, Nobuo Uematsu can be considered the John Williams of video games. His work is, without a doubt, a large reason to bringing game music into more of a true art form than it was so long ago. He managed to do everything from simple synth work, to orchestrated compositions, and he did them better than most everyone else. This can truly show how music, whether it is from a different culture, different country, and different people, can transcend all barriers. Hats off.

I like mostly early stuff from Nobuo Uematsu, specially from FF4 to FF7 (but the opening and some battle themes from FF8 were great). I think he is an incredibly versatile musician and very capable of doing impressive things with the little power those console systems offered him (it is actually his strongest quality). But when console power stopped being a problem, I think he lost some of the inspiration that he had earlier IMO.

I also like a lot Yasunori Mitsuda, specially Xenogears and Chrono Trigger/Cross.

oh yea and if anyone ever played the pokemon games on gameboys...man if that music isnt prog i dont no wat is. tis good shat.