REVIEW - DISTANT WORLDS: FINAL FANTASY

Returning once more to the Royal Albert Hall, the producers of Distant Worlds are proud to present a new concert experience: Final Fantasy 35th Anniversary Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy Coral. In conjunction with the 15th year anniversary for Distant Worlds, this is a very special year of celebration for this franchise.

This special curation by Nobuo Uematsu started with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra being conducted by grammy award winner Arnie Roth alongside high-definition projections of game footage directly from creators at Square Enix. The first six Final Fantasy medleys were performed whilst original game play appeared, which gave a retro and nostalgic feel. Although I felt that game play could have been more of a story, the music transported us to a magical world.

By Act II we were joined by the the Maida Vale Singers, who took us through classics from FF 7 – 15, where the evolution became more apparent. The audience was subsequently responsive to the familiarity of the music. With higher-quality story telling came more emotive images. The music evolution also became louder, which gave a more cinematic feeling.

Lastly, towards the end of the concert, we were introduced to a special guest: the original soloist to the tenth edition of the series, Rickie. They sang a beautiful number in a traditional Japanese outfit, which was stunning in both visual and auditory senses.

It was exciting to hear a generational difference within the music; it gave an overview of the world of the game and insight into the story. A whole timeline of 35 years was compacted into around 2.5 hours, which exceeded the thought time. In addition, there were not one, not two, but three encore songs that were highly received.

Although I feel this concert is niche to the loyal fans of this game, this will no doubt be an unforgettable evening. I feel the timeline could have been clearer as there was a lot of jumping back and forth. Even if you haven’t played the games, the quality of accompaniments are still mesmerising.

{🎟 AD – PR invite – Tickets were gifted in exchange for an honest review}

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