Nobuo Uematsu Sells Out San Francisco

@nikkor: ah, lucky you. i'd love to go to another one of his concerts - i saw the "dear friends" concert as well back in '05 (atlanta) and it was fantastic. it was only about $40 for 4th row seats, and surprisingly, there weren't that many people in the audience. mostly seemed to be people from out of town - i figured it was because georgians didn't (and still don't) have too much interest in gaming, let alone anything final fantasy related.

still though, you would think people would appreciate uematsu for his composing skills alone :/

also, i think it was the ONE time during the entire tour that uematsu didn't make a physical appearance.

I'm going! My sister bought me a ticket for my birthday so three of us are gonna go see it. I think we actually got the LAST THREE. Very lucky. Hopefully see some of you there!

Ugh, that's gay. I wanted to go.

@Neko_Tech: There are not many games I'd play just for the music, except for the ones with Yasunori Mitsuda's works. I'm not a big CD buyer, but had no problem spending 50$ to import the Chrono Cross OST.

I find it amazing how much respect is earned and deserved by these two men especially - guys who write video game music, of all things. Putting on a sold-out concert overseas is an event many artists only dream of doing.

mfokp

@nikkor: Baggy clothes. Also I hate you (not really). I was crushed that I didn't get to go to Dear Friends and again I can't go experience such an event. Have fun for me 2 kbye.

lilaliendog

Dammit. I'm going out there in 3 weeks, if I had known about this sooner I'd have totally tried to get in on it. :(

Wish I were there. :(
I'm a sucker for good game soundtracks.

Grind_Axis

I recently fell in love with the music of Neverwinter Nights 2 and Mask of the Betrayer.

I wonder if there is an equivalent concert or a place to buy a soundtrack for Western RPGs. If so, I would also add the Baldur's Gate series (fight that dragon!)and the unusual Planescape: Torment.

Anyone got any other suggestions for Western RPGs?

mcderek3000

I'm going. I bought front row tickets the day they went on sale. Been waiting since 2004 when I went to the Dear Friends concert when I had a seat all the way in the back (albeit on the ground floor). Great show back then, really looking forward to this Saturday.

On a side note looking at the small pic, did Uematsu put on some weight, or are those clothes baggy?

Heading down to San Francisco tomorrow from Eugene! Bought my ticket off Bay Area Craigslist, and I couldn't be more excited to go!

I cant believe there's freakin losers coming in here to spam and hate on the biggest composer in video game history, just cause there ignorant...Unplug your internet right now and save others the pain of reading your garbage...

A bunch of us are taking over one of the boxes at the concert, bought the tix the day they went available.

Listen to his "Piano Collections" quite often, and I'm in Silicon Valley for the summer, so I was excited about going to this. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything to go with me, and I'm not about to make the trip alone at night.

I guess it makes me feel a little better that tickets sold out so fast; I might not have been able to go anyway.

I'll just listen to the album when it comes out. Oh, and the FF XI piano collections soundtrack just came out. There are some real gems there.

AlexDitto

Nobuo Uematsu is the only constant of quality in all Final Fantasy games. He is the only element who NEVER disappointed in every FF title he worked on.
This guy is a legend. I wish he would come to Florida at least once.

lars18th

This is going to be the most epic night ever in video game music! And with the world class SF Symphony! How can you possibly beat this?

wonderboy13

Testing, why are my comments not showing up?

That would be fantastic to go see, but someone actually singing ff6 opera theme is wierd, been so used to the old "voices"

@(Zombie) Goldwings: Aww, eat some superior Canadian beef to cheer yourself up...wait...do zombies eat beef?

@(Zombie) Goldwings: Edit: Doh, sorry for double post

Of all the video rpg music that I fell in love even to this day (I even bought the cd @ amazon for little over $30 brand new) is Xenogears soundtrack which was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda.

Sure Nobuo Uematsu is a great composer but none of his music in that featured in ONE GAME got me so moved like Yasunori Mitsuda has. Don't get me wrong I do like Nobuo's work but only a few composition in FF game in general made me feel anything moving, engaging.

To me it's like listening to a music band you like and bought the cd to find out you only like a few song from their album, that's what it's like for me with Final Fantasy series and other Nobuo's work.

Yasunori Mitsuda however I haven't heard his work since Xenosaga Ep1 and IMO it wasn't as great as Xenogears music that I fell in love with. So I do give Nobuo props for staying with the industry long as he has though.

Neko_Tech

@Icemael:

Fair enough. Though you could probably find some of the music Nobuo has done online somewhere. It is really good.

@octalass:

Well, he does have the Black Mages... though they mostly seem to do remixes of Final Fantasy music.

I was there at the last Saturday show in Seattle. It was one of the most amazing shows I have ever seen.

Only criticism was there was a bit too much FFVIII (not my favorite, but I must give props to the score).

The Sephiroth theme 'encore' was icing on the cake, the place went nuts!

I saw him when he came to the Rosemont in Illinois. He didn't conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra that played the music, but he did attend and sat 4 rows behind me. It was sick as hell.

@MuffinMan0: Surely a Black Mage as yourself could cook up a teleportation spell.

PuppyGuarder

Whats with staying on the West coast? I'm not flying all the way out there...

MuffinMan0

@AncientUnknown1: I played the demo for Eternal Sonata, but the gameplay was horrible so I never bought it. Sakuraba's work on the Tales and Valkyrie Profile series is great though.

Icemael

@zanzibarlegend: No, I wouldn't. I hate Final Fantasy, so I'm not really familiar with his music -- I don't really feel like paying to go to a concert when I don't even know if I'll enjoy the music.

Icemael

I still catch myself listening to a little Vamo Alla Flamenco every now and then. I consider it his best work.

AncientUnknown1

@Dope Boy Hero: it's just you; or my super-highend computer is working nicely. :P
Just type stuff in Notepad, and paste here. This editbox is so nasty that it'll delete your replies on a click outside anyway. Thus you have 2 reasons to use Notepad.

I'd love to see him one day. Nobuo Uematsu's music is large part of why most of my favorite music has come from video games, music that I could see becoming much more visible in the public eye after non-gamers notice that video game music doesn't just mean 8-bit midis... though even his 8-bit midis are amazing.

PuppyGuarder

why the hell hasn't SQEX released DVDs of these damn shows


they're almost as bad as Konami sometimes.

Mistake post. Disregard.

AncientUnknown1

@Icemael: Motoi Sakuraba's work in Trusty Bell was amazing. It almost made me forget how bad the story was. Almost.

AncientUnknown1

I saw the Play Symphony in Phila at the Mann Theatre, it's an outside theater and there was thunder and lightning and all sorts of shit....one of the coolest experiences ever!

nico1606

@Icemael: Nobuo is the fucking man. you mean to tell me you wouldn't see him if he was in ur town?


"readies pimp hand" :P

Eh, I'm glad I'm not a huge Final Fantasy nut. I'm in San Francisco and would rather have the money to spend than see the performance. Additionally, buying tickets to an after party is...well, it's not something someone should be proud of, unless the money is going to a charity.

I always wondered what it would be like to move to Japan. At much as I enjoy FF, I really think there would be other things for me to do rather than stalk Nobuo Uematsu. Still would love to have tickets to this.

puresewas1de

Come to Canada.
AUGH is it just me or is it really laggy when I type?

@octalass: He's done a few movies as well, and likely some other things. I know he did the soundtrack to the Ah! My Goddess movie.

Nobuyuki

He came to Canada once, but Kotaku wasn't there to tell me about it at the time, so who knows when he's coming here again :[

Wake me up when Michiru Yamane or Motoi Sakuraba has a concert.

In Sweden.

In Stockholm.

When I have time to go.

...man, this is gonna be a long, long nap.

Icemael

I'm surprised he hasn't done anything other than video games.

@skaven: I was there too... I was disappointed that OWA wasn't on there... then BAM! happy surprise.... and the build up to "Those who fight further" was lots of fun :) *bark* *bark*

The cd is on their website, ~$12-$15

I have it and it is quite good, link to follow

http://www.ffdistantworlds.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48&Itemid=56

ZanipoloNerva

@mfokp: That is true and also what surprises me is that there is still a market that would prompt a concert like this. Usually it's all about the latest popular music and even then only the few groups would do a concert over seas.

Neko_Tech

Missing these concerts is probably something I'll regret for a long time. I'm sure they would have been worth the cost of a flight and hotel, the planets just weren't aligned for me.

CMay