RPGamers Network > Reviews > Game Music Reviews > Final Fantasy: The Black Mages
Reviewed by: Ersatz Sobriquet
Nothing but Boss music? Yeah, that's a good thing.
One of the many sought out pieces that I have always wished would be remixed or redone in some way, shape or form was always, always, and I say this to you vehemently, The Decisive Battle, the boss theme music from Final Fantasy VI. From the very first day that I played that game and chanced upon a boss, invoking that theme music, I knew it to be a classic, with so much anger and energy behind it, coming from both sides of the battle.
Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across this album, and SAW that The Decisive Battle was among the selected tracks. I had absolutely no idea what kind of album this was at all. I knew it to be Square, and I knew them to be in the classical domain, so that's what my thoughts were on how this album would turn out to sound. Not so. Wanting to hear how they did my favorite theme, I started to listen to that song first and was PLEASANTLY surprised by the results.
It starts out with some nice soft synth, a clean electric playing over it for about ten seconds. Real jazzy feel. Then, out of NOWHERE a huge, fat distorted riff is blared across the speakers, ripping you out your peaceful reverie! So unexpected that was that it caught my attention to the very end. Beautiful intro into the main melody of the original theme. Excellent two solos, one on the keyboards and the other with the electric guitar. This song is probably one of my faves from the whole album.
The track afterwards is up there with my approval. The Battle Theme from Final Fantasy VI starts out with a distorted, flanger little piece which again becomes ripped to shreds with a powerful electric guitar. The solo here is also nice, with much shredding and wailing of the guitar by time it's all over.
There's a lot of synth work in each track, and I wondered why for a bit, until I saw that Kenichiro Fukui was also part of this dynamic trio, the man responsible for one of the world's most EXCELLENT techno video game albums, Einhänder. Of course, Nobuo Uematsu is also behind this album, and he also asked Tsuyoshi Sekito to help with the production. As you can already tell by my very high approval with the two Final Fantasy VI representatives, even if the rest of the album were utter crap, I'd still love it cause they did my songs right. Thankfully, they continue that quality with the rest of the songs.
A song that receives a lot of flack would have to, hands down, be track #4, Battle, Scene II, from Final Fantasy II, and we ain't talking about the Final Fantasy II for SNES. This is the original, 1988 NES game. I heard the original, and let me tell ya, these guys did that song so much justice. Many people ask why they would pick that song over other noteworthy songs that were released in the past. My simple answer is, that was still in Nobuo's early history, and he probably enjoyed it, thus wanting to do it justice now. I personally like it. It has a free moving, Jazzy feel too it, with nice synth sounding violins, smooth solos and passionate guitars, deep and big and abrasive.
Those Who Fight Further from Final Fantasy VII is really just played the way the song should have sounded from the beginning, just with more solos, again the way the song should have been. PS-One's limitations quickly made it into what we know it as, though.
I could see why there are some people out there who have gripes with the insanely long Final Fantasy VI final representative, Dancing Mad, based off the final, FINAL boss theme from the same game. 12+ minutes long is a bit mad, especially in the non-conformist way that it's handled here, for this album style. You have the original theme that is played for a good three minutes, then it breaks into a little break beat, goes back into the ORGINAL styling of organs, humms, and gong bangs and then, for three minutes, three people, a organ solo. THREE. The cool thing about the solo, is that other recognizable Final Fantasy VI themes are being played throughout, another organ in the left or right speaker, in a low tone. After that organ solo, it goes BACK into the main theme, then breaks off and sorta heavy guitar work is displayed. After about two minutes of that, it goes back into the theme, making sure you don't ever forget what you’re listening to, then shuffles back to the heavy guitars, this time with a Pink Floyd-esque style of soft slow wails. It even stops for a moment and plays the original Kefka (or Cefca) theme with the bassline. After three minutes of that, it goes back into the original organ but guitar devoid instrumental, this time with more gongs for your buck.
It's a very long and odd song for this type of album, in my opinion. If this were on ANY other normally styled Final Fantasy album, it would be great. But since every single song was so heavily relied on guitars from the beginning to end, not lasting much longer than six minutes, something this slow, and long to build up could discourage some.
I enjoyed Fight With Seymour from Final Fantasy X. I especially like the portion at the 2:20 mark when the guitars, keyboards and bass follow each other, and how each one is joined together along with the drums is a real head bopper.
Little fault could be found with this album at all. Dancing Mad is out of place, but still, in itself is a good, majestic song. I do wish that the drums were a bit more, freer, more moving. After listening to F-Zero X Guitar, you become spoiled. Powerful guitars and effects galore make this a keeper for a long time coming, though. ANY Final Fantasy fan should at least check this out. Even if you're into classical music, as much of the Final Fantasy stylings are based off of, you would still appreciate the delicate touches and fine, tight musicianship shown here.
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| Album Information | Reviewer Rank |
|---|---|
|
Final Fantasy: The Black Mages Published by: DigiCube Release Date: February 19th 2003 Composed by: Nobuo Uematsu Arranged by: Tsuyoshi Sekito, Kenichiro Fukui 1 Disc, 10 Tracks Catalog: SSCX-10080 |
94 |
Reviewed by: Ersatz Sobriquet
Nothing but Boss music? Yeah, that's a good thing.
One of the many sought out pieces that I have always wished would be remixed or redone in some way, shape or form was always, always, and I say this to you vehemently, The Decisive Battle, the boss theme music from Final Fantasy VI. From the very first day that I played that game and chanced upon a boss, invoking that theme music, I knew it to be a classic, with so much anger and energy behind it, coming from both sides of the battle.
Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across this album, and SAW that The Decisive Battle was among the selected tracks. I had absolutely no idea what kind of album this was at all. I knew it to be Square, and I knew them to be in the classical domain, so that's what my thoughts were on how this album would turn out to sound. Not so. Wanting to hear how they did my favorite theme, I started to listen to that song first and was PLEASANTLY surprised by the results.
It starts out with some nice soft synth, a clean electric playing over it for about ten seconds. Real jazzy feel. Then, out of NOWHERE a huge, fat distorted riff is blared across the speakers, ripping you out your peaceful reverie! So unexpected that was that it caught my attention to the very end. Beautiful intro into the main melody of the original theme. Excellent two solos, one on the keyboards and the other with the electric guitar. This song is probably one of my faves from the whole album.
The track afterwards is up there with my approval. The Battle Theme from Final Fantasy VI starts out with a distorted, flanger little piece which again becomes ripped to shreds with a powerful electric guitar. The solo here is also nice, with much shredding and wailing of the guitar by time it's all over.
There's a lot of synth work in each track, and I wondered why for a bit, until I saw that Kenichiro Fukui was also part of this dynamic trio, the man responsible for one of the world's most EXCELLENT techno video game albums, Einhänder. Of course, Nobuo Uematsu is also behind this album, and he also asked Tsuyoshi Sekito to help with the production. As you can already tell by my very high approval with the two Final Fantasy VI representatives, even if the rest of the album were utter crap, I'd still love it cause they did my songs right. Thankfully, they continue that quality with the rest of the songs.
A song that receives a lot of flack would have to, hands down, be track #4, Battle, Scene II, from Final Fantasy II, and we ain't talking about the Final Fantasy II for SNES. This is the original, 1988 NES game. I heard the original, and let me tell ya, these guys did that song so much justice. Many people ask why they would pick that song over other noteworthy songs that were released in the past. My simple answer is, that was still in Nobuo's early history, and he probably enjoyed it, thus wanting to do it justice now. I personally like it. It has a free moving, Jazzy feel too it, with nice synth sounding violins, smooth solos and passionate guitars, deep and big and abrasive.
Those Who Fight Further from Final Fantasy VII is really just played the way the song should have sounded from the beginning, just with more solos, again the way the song should have been. PS-One's limitations quickly made it into what we know it as, though.
I could see why there are some people out there who have gripes with the insanely long Final Fantasy VI final representative, Dancing Mad, based off the final, FINAL boss theme from the same game. 12+ minutes long is a bit mad, especially in the non-conformist way that it's handled here, for this album style. You have the original theme that is played for a good three minutes, then it breaks into a little break beat, goes back into the ORGINAL styling of organs, humms, and gong bangs and then, for three minutes, three people, a organ solo. THREE. The cool thing about the solo, is that other recognizable Final Fantasy VI themes are being played throughout, another organ in the left or right speaker, in a low tone. After that organ solo, it goes BACK into the main theme, then breaks off and sorta heavy guitar work is displayed. After about two minutes of that, it goes back into the theme, making sure you don't ever forget what you’re listening to, then shuffles back to the heavy guitars, this time with a Pink Floyd-esque style of soft slow wails. It even stops for a moment and plays the original Kefka (or Cefca) theme with the bassline. After three minutes of that, it goes back into the original organ but guitar devoid instrumental, this time with more gongs for your buck.
It's a very long and odd song for this type of album, in my opinion. If this were on ANY other normally styled Final Fantasy album, it would be great. But since every single song was so heavily relied on guitars from the beginning to end, not lasting much longer than six minutes, something this slow, and long to build up could discourage some.
I enjoyed Fight With Seymour from Final Fantasy X. I especially like the portion at the 2:20 mark when the guitars, keyboards and bass follow each other, and how each one is joined together along with the drums is a real head bopper.
Little fault could be found with this album at all. Dancing Mad is out of place, but still, in itself is a good, majestic song. I do wish that the drums were a bit more, freer, more moving. After listening to F-Zero X Guitar, you become spoiled. Powerful guitars and effects galore make this a keeper for a long time coming, though. ANY Final Fantasy fan should at least check this out. Even if you're into classical music, as much of the Final Fantasy stylings are based off of, you would still appreciate the delicate touches and fine, tight musicianship shown here.
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