#ff1hd

Final Fantasy 1 (NES) Orchestrated - Epilogue This piece is like the pirate captain animatronic at Disneyland's POTC. I do all my testing on this piece, so it keeps getting updated with all my latest techniques. I finally notated the music (available for download here) and with that updated many of the ideas from past versions. This includes changing the key and changing a bit of the structure of the opening. So yes, this is a v3 of this orchestration, which was the main reason to re-repost it.

Another track for my FF1HD project! This is the theme of The Ship, which you get when you defeat Bikke and his Pirates in Provoka, near the start of the game. Pretty cute! How do I have the time to make these??

Here’s an arranged version of the Castle Theme from FF1. Small chamber group of strings, pretty straightforward. Happy Easter or whatever you’re up to.

I don’t think I’ve really posted these audios on Tumblr before. I never aimed to personally re-orchestrate all of Final Fantasy 1, but rather to make a fully orchestrated soundtrack with whatever works. This track is an example of using a previous recording and: adding an intro, speeding it up (which is tough to do well), looping it, and compressing/limiting it to fit better into the reduced dynamic range of a gaming environment. Mostly I hate sampled orchestras, that’s why. I only use sampled instruments myself because I have no other choice. So I jump at the chance to use a recording of a real orchestra wherever possible.

Final Fantasy (the first one) is my favorite game, and this is my favorite song from my favorite game. I’ve orchestrated it, almost entirely based on the NES track and my own imagination. Tried to make it sound fast, but lighter-than-air, with a pinch of the Flying Theme from E.T. As a child I used to jam out to this by cranking the volume on my TV to the max and just dancing. Dancing for days.

I had originally thought that I'd have a LUTE playing in the back of "ToF (Past)," but then realized the LUTE represents hope and purity in the game [spoiler]and literally destroys part of the Temple[/spoiler] and wouldn't make a lot of sense in the Temple's theme. So instead I've got a Theorbo in there, which I've decided is an "evil" LUTE; a NEGA-LUTE, if you will.

If you’ve played any other Final Fantasy games, this should sound familiar. So okay it’s been arranged in 1 million+ games by this point. But I’ve made my own arrangement anyway, because it’s 1987 and I’m too busy doing jumping jacks to celebrate the termination of these monsters to care.

Following up from my previous post, here's a video mock-up of the epilogue to Final Fantasy (the original), as it might appear in my fan remake of the game. I was grossly dissatisfied with the ending to the official remakes. They left out the part where the words "The End" get spelled out all fancy, like on the NES version! And the music doesn't end -- it anti-climactically loops and fades out! So I fixed this. This ending is a more climactic, satisfying ending. The Warrior who broke the Time-Loop is a true LIGHT WARRIOR. That warrior is YOU!!