Wooo! It's been quite some time since I last did a side post, but I can blame most of that on a very simple thing...I had NO idea what to make a side post about. However, I was listening to some stuff today, and I finally got an idea! I've posted about the Final Fantasy music before, but I think I mostly just talked about it. So, for today's side post, I have decided to post up some great remix albums about the Final of Fantasies.
Without further ado....
Recurring Fantasy Presents...
SIDE POST! - Remixing the Fantasies~
You see...there are a lot of Final Fantasy fans out there (I realize this is a DUUUH moment but please continue), and many of those fans are musically talented! (Not me) As I said in the previous post, Final Fantasy is probably one of the top video games as far as music goes. They all contain what could easily be the most memorable music you could ever think of. In one way or another, it really moves you and gets to you. Hell, if nothing else, a lot of it is catchy and addictive. The victory theme they all have...I have to hold back from not doing it constantly in what I deem "appropriate" situations. Anyways, let's...try to take it from here.
Basically, my idea here is to hopefully share some easy to get albums (if not free) that are Final Fantasy remixes in one way or another! I'm not fully explored on all the different options out there, so I'll mostly be posting the ones I have heard before. I'll try to round up a few extras for ones I have heard of/seen as well. First thing I'd like to link though is the following site: http://ocremix.org/
I believe I have linked it before, but if i have not...there you go! OCRemix (OverClocked Remix) is a fantastic site for awesome video game remixes spanning all game consoles! It's mostly older stuff like NES or SNES, but they have plenty of love to go around. Anyways, the site has a plethora of generally good music, and best of all...it is FREE!!! Everything is free to download (although they recommend you torrent any of the albums if you can). It's got a pretty strong base of great musical talent that (I'm assuming) love to remix the musics. Plenty of stuff to browse through there. Feel free to browse there a while before coming back to finish the post. No worries! I'll wait...
... ... ...
Are you back? I'm going to assume you left for good, but I'm typing this post up regardless of YOU! (Take THAT loyal fanbase that possibly exists! Although if you do, I probably just lost you. Damn it!) There is a lot of great stuff to get there, so I'd highly recommend checking it out. What you might have noticed while browsing is that they have quite a selection of Final Fantasy remixes mixed up in all that! I'll link a search of it here for ease, or if you didn't check the previous link:
You should check it out. There is quite a bit to select from there, and on top of those, you might also have/have not stumbled upon a group of Final Fantasy remix ALBUMS. That's right. They have entire remix albums over several Final Fantasies. As best I can, I'll be linking each and every one below. I have not quite listened to all of them, but I'll at least go over the couple of ones I have! Starting with...well, we might as well start with Final Fantasy 1.
This album was just recently released on OCRemix, and it's lots of great metal-esque versions of Final Fantasy 1 classics. So...first and foremost -> http://encounter.ocremix.org/
It's called "Random Encounter", and according to the site, it is the first in a trilogy of albums planned for Final Fantasy 1, 2, and 3. Random Encounter is a pretty awesome album for covering a NES title though. A majority of the album is great metal covers of the classic songs (Really love Secrets Abound - Matoya's Cave). Honestly, the songs were pretty good on the original game as well. It's surprising how well those people were able to program on those little systems with basically no power to work with. Would definitely suggest this album if you like the metals!
If you enjoy that, you should also check out the Black Mages. It was a band with the highly well known composer Nobuo Uematsu playing Final Fantasy songs in a rock-like way. Lots of great redone songs, and they have at least one song from each game! I've got their Last.fm page linked on the side, but I'll go ahead and put it in the post. (Yes, I know I have mentioned them before in a previous post, but they are good!)
The Black Mages Last.fm - You should give them a listen. I have no idea how you'll get the albums easily though. That's on you buddy. Next up is a continuing list of other OCRemix albums! Following that will be anything else I can scrounge up for this side post.
As to keep in numerical order, we'll go with the next album at....
I'll be honest. I didn't know this one existed until I started looking up all the different albums on there. This means I can't really describe it, but I'm linking it regardless! FF4 had some really great music in it, and I can imagine it'd be a really great listen. Interested to hear the remix of the FF4 Love Theme. It's a fairly touching song every time they play it. I realize it's kinda shitty to link and recommend something without giving it a listen myself, but hey!...listen? I got nothing. I'll be downloading it soon myself, and I can imagine it'll be very much worth the effort! Next up is...
This project is sadly unfinished, but I would like to see it finished! Basically (if you didn't read the page), the plan is to have FIVE different albums for the game with each album being a "Crystal" with the songs being about the jobs and characters. The only problem is they haven't finished any of it really, and this project was "started" like two years ago. The only album they have up is the first one, I.Wind. And yet again, I'm linking this up without any form of listening to it. In my defense (last I checked), the torrent for this particular album was dead, and I can't easily do any direct downloading here. However, I might go ahead and give it a shot so that I can obtain what is most likely a really good album. As far as the site goes, they've done nearly every Final Fantasy up to 7, and I could see them eventually doing FF8 and FF9! (I would be excited about both.) Let's move right along to...
Final Fantasy 6!...or I most definitely would. However, they are actually working on this album RIGHT NOW! They even started a Kickstarter for this album. I'd gladly link it up, but every time I try to look it up, it keeps saying that it isn't there now. This is kinda worrisome. Regardless, they'll be doing the album, and when it releases, it will be free! I'll make a post when they finish it so everybody can enjoy! I felt I might as well list this fact since you might want to know, and also possibly didn't know about it. Again, I don't know if you have clicked any of the links and/or read them yet. So I assume nothing! Let's go ahead and move onward to...
Of course! They had to do the Final Fantasy Fan Favorite! Like many of their albums, this one goes all over on the genre list. To briefly quote the OCRemix page - "From jazz to techno to rock to classical". That's a pretty big jump around! But like I said, a lot of their albums tend to do this exact genre jumbling about. This isn't a bad thing either, since many of the songs tend to work on different levels and need the difference in remix. Unlike the others, I've actually listened to this one! My favorites are somewhere between Serenity (Main theme remix), Lunatic Moon (Red XIII's theme), and Black Wing Metamorphasis (One-Winged Angel). The last one is all chiptune-y and cool. Damn you One-Winged Angel! It's one of the better songs of the game, and it's probably one of the most memorable tunes too. It's a big download, but I think it is well worth it...namely if you like the FF7 soundtrack. There isn't a whole lot left for the list, but I got at least two more albums that I can think of.
Now this album is pretty different from the rest of the OCRemix stuff. This is just one song done in 8 different ways. Apparently it was some sort of challenge made by random people. They like questioned OCRemix's ability, and thus they made this album. That's one way to go about it I guess. The only problem I have with this is...I haven't played FFX in forever, so I'm not really sure what song they are talking about. I'll still download the album and listen it up, especially once I find out what song it is. Considering the snarky remarks made, it's bound to be pretty good. Now for the last featured album...
Now, this is a pretty cool album. The concept alone is kinda interesting. It is a rap album (let me finish) about Final Fantasy 7. It covers a majority of the songs while raping about the story. Normally, I'm really not much for rap, but I did greatly enjoy this album. If nothing else, you can get just get the instrumentals of it....for cheaper! (I'll just place this link right here -> HERE!) Anyways, it's pretty well done and lots of fun to listen to. My favorite is by far AVALANCHE. The only warning to give here would be that the songs spoil a large portion of the plot if you are paying attention to the lyrics...like you should (since that is like half the point of rapping and all). It's a fun and enjoyable listen even with the rapping! (I'm sorry! I generally dislike rapping completely and all together, but this album was different for me I guess.) If nothing else, give it a listen on his page. It's free to listen, so it isn't like you are losing anything!
And that covers all I've got. I would have posted more, but I can honestly say I don't have anything else. Hell, half of what I shared are albums I haven't listened to. (I apologize. I do feel kinda silly doing that XO) This is just a small handful of the greatness that is Final Fantasy music. It's fun, addictive, and generally very touching. Gotta love that battle theme! That's all I have for this post so...
/END POST (Thanks for reading as usual!)
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
My playthrough of the mainline Final Fantasy series. Also home to a lot of related and unrelated Side Posts about Final Fantasy, RPGs, gaming, and more!
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