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I’m not ashamed to admit the fact that I was there with Final Fantasy from the very beginning. I don’t think that anyone, including Square, expected that one little title to make such a huge impact on the gaming world at large. Obviously, I had known for quite a few months about the release of Final Fantasy VI, or III as it was known in the United States, way back when. As fate would have, with six months left until the release, I happened to be in a Japanese import shop. I wasn’t even prepared for what was in store for me. I had no idea that in Japan, games actually had soundtracks released for them. I had always liked the music for Final Fantasy, and always wanted to be able to hear it outside the game itself. Thankfully, this shop was stocked with amazing CD’s that I had never even dreamt of. It was a tough decision, but after a lengthy debate, I finally walked out with Grand Finale, knowing that the game was on the distant horizon. My thought was that it would at least give me some kind of idea about what was in store. Aside from not knowing about the Japanese soundtrack market, I also had no idea at that time that things went far beyond just original game music. Things like vocal collections, piano collections, and symphonic versions were quite common place. Had Grand Finale been anything other than a symphonic version, I may not have found the respect and appreciation that I have for Nobuo Uematsu today. Grand Finale has some of the finest pieces of music to ever grace the Final Fantasy series. Being an arranged version, don’t expect some MIDI sounding music like you may have ran across on previous FF OST’s. Often, FF VI has been regarded as being Uematsu’s finest piece of work, and this soundtrack definitely shows why. The opening track simply titled ‘Opening Theme’, gives testament to what makes this soundtrack so amazing. Beautiful strings, combined with flutes, breathe some much more life into this track than what the game would allow for. It’s easy to see why this particular piece was chosen as the games over-world theme. It has such as great flow to it and is incredibly memorable. I’m sure many long time FF players, have on occasion, caught themselves whistling or humming the melody line from this track. Of course, the pinnacle of this disc definitely has to be Aria Di Mezzo Carattere which fans will immediately recognize from the Opera House scene. However, don’t expect it to sound like what you heard. Even the non-opera fan can appreciate this track and it comes complete with actual vocals, which cause instant recollection of not only the song, but also the entire scene itself. Honestly, there really isn’t a bad track on this entire CD, and it’s an excellent example of the pallet of work the Uematsu has done. There have been some people that make comments about how wonderful and amazing this soundtrack is without even knowing of its true nature. Imagine the look of surprise and shock when they discover that in truth, this is the soundtrack from a game. If you’re a Final Fantasy fan, someone who appreciates good music or just want something in your CD collection that has a more classical feel, than this is definitely one of the CD’s to pick up. Guaranteed this will be the one that turns your interest of game music into something of an obsession. -mike-
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