If you happen to like the music from the Final Fantasy series, then please check out this video on YouTube. It is a performance of One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII by The Black Mages and a philharmonic orchestra. In it, Nobuo Uematsu, composer of the Final Fantasy soundtracks, has managed to combine the peanut buttery tastiness of a symphony with the chocolaty goodness of electric guitar solos. Awesome.
And if you liked that, then may I suggest a few CDs for you to purchase.
20020220 Music from Final Fantasy is a two disc recording of a symphony orchestra performing music of every title in the series from the original Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy X. (Although it is not of the performance in the YouTube video.) It is simply incredible from start to finish. It is quite moving to hear songs that you came to know and love only as MIDI recordings, now fully realized with actual instrumentalization and a chorus.
The aforementioned The Black Mages is an instrumental rock band put together by (and including) Nobuo himself. They play, not surprisingly, the music from Final Fantasy series reformed into good 'ol rock and roll. They have released three albums so far, a self-titled debut, The Black Mages, followed by The Skies Above, and finally Darkness and Starlight.
I own the first two albums, which are both fantastic, and just found out about the third one (which was released only last month) while compiling links and pictures for this post. I'll be ordering that third release very soon!
I recently received some more Japanese imports. I scanned the box covers, posted them in the Collection Missing Games Thread, and Dracula68 was kind enough to add them to the site. Thank you, Drac!
Click on an image to jump to the GameSpot summary page.
The Developer for a Day 5 contest finalists were just announced by Adam_B.
I entered, but did not qualify as a finalist. I'm disappointed, but certainly not surprised, to be honest. Although I think I had a decent entry, "decent" certainly didn't cut it this year. According to Adam's blog the competition was thick; as was the stack of entries Adam had to read through to choose finalists.
Ultimately I blame my own procrastination, but who knows, even if I finished my design document to my satisfaction, I probably would not have made finalist anyway. There undoubtedly were many superb entries to contend with.
I hope the contest returns next year - I would really like another shot at it. I even have another idea in mind already. Unfortunately, it seems that the contest has outgrown what one person can handle. And I don't blame Adam for wanting to back away from it.
One thing's for sure: I can't wait to read the finalists' documents!
And a BIG thank you to Adam himself for running the contest.
