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YEEHAW I LOVE FF! When the guitar comes into the orchestra, it’s crazily powerful, I feel like the music is expanding in tendrils writhing through the air, and then when the full chorus comes in . . . oh man this song is like all the meaning in the word “power” expressed musically. I love the form, it doesn’t dwell on one thing too long, and I’m never bored with it even though I know the whole thing nearly by heart. The rhythm changes often, sometimes adopting a speed-metal feel reminiscent of Uematsu’s band “The Black Mages”.
The panning is great, especially in the second half of the song. The drums are in front, though the tom runs seem to move, the strings and secondary guitar/s to the sides, as are the choir. At times it’s basses and tenors to the right, altos and sopranos to the left. That’s an interesting way of separating it, and it works really well, especially in the call-and-response section. The guitar can be a bit invasive at times, although when it solos it adds new depth to the song. I love the occasional modulation between rock-band and orchestra instrumentation; it’s smooth and seamless and totally works, and sometimes they even complement each other. The choir works SO well with the rock instruments.
I haven’t studied the lyrics much yet, but from what I can see they apply very well to Sephiroth, perhaps even better than the original. I’m glad he changed the lyrics (does Uematsu write the lyrics?)
Damn, one of my weird fantasies is to become Uematsu’s apprentice and learn how he does what he does and how he does it so goddamn well. I wish I could’ve followed him in the process of writing this song. Did he have everyone play and sing at once or did he overdub? Did he write out the solos or were they improv? Did he have instructions for the song? Did he play the game before writing the original? Does he have little slave-composers who help with his writing like I’ve heard John Williams does? Does he do it all alone? Does he do it electronically or with real instruments? Does he mix or just compose? Gah I wanna know!
Dude there’s a pretty awesome-seeming guy here in my Studio Techniques class who actually MET NOBUO UEMATSU! AH! Coolness! His facebook picture is of him and Uematsu (it’s funny since he’s mad tall and NU’s mad short). Uematsu, I want your job!!! I can’t really tell, being me and all, but I’d suspect that this man has had a HUGE impact on my writing style. People at ACS often told me my songs sounded like video-game music, or ‘music that tells a story’. The latter being what I go for generally, this is probably a good thing. I’m not surprised if his music has influenced mine (it was all I played for a couple years), but I now have a lot more bluesiness in my style than he does. Then again, how can you describe the style of a guy like Uematsu whose work is so diverse? And I’m not even sure I have a style yet, and if I do it changes every year or so.
Anyway, NU, you’re my hero, right there next to Yoko Kanno. Rock on.
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Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. I just don’t know what to say. There is no word I can think of that means beautiful times amazing to the power of wow. The renders. The backgrounds. The animation. The cinematography. The FIGHT SCENES, for Jenova’s sake! (Haha, pun unintended.) HOLY HELL IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MOVIE YET YOU ARE DEPRIVING YOURSELF OF NINETY MINUTES OF HEAVEN.
It wasn’t perfect. There were things I would have done differently. For example, I think that the original score could have been used more to have a very powerful effect. But I am nearly as hardcore a Final Fantasy VII fan as you can get, so of course it is my favorite movie ever, and at this point I’d give it a 9.8/10. It even made me cry, at the very end, when Cloud looks to the church door to see Aeris and Zach smiling at him, and then they turn and walk away into the light. AH! If Uematsu had busted out with the full power of the Aeris theme right then I would have been bawling like a baby.
One problem with it (and perhaps the reason it wasn’t released on big screen) is that anyone who hasn’t played the game would be missing 3/4s of the happiness derived from viewing this. Perhaps more importantly, they would be quite lost, wondering why the hell they should care about these people, no matter what sweet moves they pull. Even for the VII-savvy, the story could have been better. It could have involved more of the characters more intimately than their cameo fight-scene appearances (which were still brilliant). Also, the idea of Reunion, while a great one, is less great the second time it’s used. I think they could have focused on something new, such as reconstructing society after the disaster. Somehow, the movie felt removed from the game. It lacked a lot of the complexity and depth.
One thing I loved was Rufus. He went from a spoiled brat who had everything in the world he could ever want, to being a crippled man who has lost everything. He acknowledges his responsibility for screwing up the world, and takes it upon himself to start rebuilding, and helping the planet. A weaker man would have blamed others, and sat around feeling sorry for himself, but Rufus does a complete 180, starts working to make the world right, even though he’s dying of Geostigma. I also found it touching how the Turks remained loyal to him, even though he no longer had any money or power. That shows how inspiring he is.
You could see how he was affected when Kadaj joked about calling another summon to attack the city. Then Rufus jumped off the building in order to shoot and destroy Jenova’s head. I suspect he thought he would die then, because Tseng and Elena came out of absolutely nowhere to save him. When he stood up out of the wheelchair it was a really powerful moment. Rufus was one of the best things about Advent Children.
Many of the characters showed a lot of subtle personal strength. Vincent, for example. Most people thought he would return to Nibelheim to finish “atoning for his sin”, but instead he decided to live his life and explore the world. And man, those moves were sick! Why didn’t he do that cape thing in the game??
The idea that Sephiroth divided into three “spirits” when Cloud whipped his ass is a little farfetched, and the way Sephiroth suddenly appeared out of nowhere when Kadaj came in contact with Jenova’s head was a bit dumb. Also, I was disappointed by the way Sephiroth had stayed the same. According to some theories (ones I personally subscribe to), Sephiroth was the puppet/slave of Jenova, and was controlled by her. Once Cloud defeated him, Jenova fled his body, abandoning her puppet, and leaving him like a discarded shell, but his own true self. Courtney and I had been hoping to see a different Sephiroth from the standard evil maniac we’re used too, perhaps something closer to his ‘real’ personality. Unfortunately, though Seph was awesome and kickass as ever, he was also the same character in all ways, and hadn’t changed at all.
I am so AMAZINGLY happy that FFVII is finally being revisited in all these ways. Dude, three words: Dirge of Cerberus. Starring Vincent Valentine. Oh yeah, baby, it’s gonna be hot. That said, what the HELL is up with Before Crisis. When I heard of a game where you play as the Turks I was nearly as ecstatic as when I heard of AC and DoC. But it’s for CELL PHONE? And only Japanese cell phones? What the hell kind of people release the kind of game that could make them as much money as a FFVII derivative for CELL PHONE? I can only hope they’ll someday have the sense to release it for GBA in America. There’s also going to be a PS2 game called Crisis Core, supposedly about Zach and Cloud and Sephiroth before the Nibelheim incident. That should be awesome.
And DAMN, did you guys see the PS3 demo of the revamped FFVII game intro? That was SWEET. C’mon, you KNOW Square will eventually answer our prayers and bless the world with a remake.
So apparently there’re all these super-rare FFVII items floating around. I saw one on ebay, an Aeris-theme music box, limited edition, for $700.00. Too bad I’m not a rich obsessive fan.
Well as you can see, my FFVII obsession has been reignited. If I wasn’t in school, I’d be living on the internet reading all the fanfiction and doujinshi I could find. I saw someone playing a PSP today, which’ll be the system Crisis Core will be released on. It’s pretty smart to be releasing the games for different platforms, since it forces people who are behind in platform-buying (like me) to buy all this crap to be able to play. But it’ll be worth it. Oh yeah, man, it’ll be worth it.
