Customer Reviews

The Best of Final Fantasy 1994-1999

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

As an avid fan of game music, I was looking forward to listening to this CD. That was my first problem. Although the CD says "hollywood symphony orchestra", 99% of it is performed by the "Electronic Sounds Ensemble." The first track wasn't that bad, and the second is listenable. The third just plain sucked. After that, the CD goes downhill with a horrible Prelude and a hollow rendition Main Theme of FFVII. Then comes Cosmo Canyon, which isn't all that bad. After that, its Shinra Wages a Full Scale Attack, with brass that sounds better on my MIDI synth. Then comes the worst part of the CD: Liberi Fatali. It starts out with a horrible soprano who doesn't even sing the right words. That soprano is replaced by a synth shortly afterwards. God help us. After that, its a lifeless version of My Mind, an OK version of The Spy, and an flat, boring version of Mods de Chocobo. Bottom line, do yourself a favor and avoid this CD.

I picked up that new "Final Fantasy" CD that came out today!

That was my first mistake...

The first track seems promising, aside from the fact that it's a synth. Then, after the little "bells" thing, I realized this:

I just wasted my money.

The beginning of the "scary part" sounds like it's gonna be sweet, but then the "bass" rushes and these HORRIBLE synth horns come in. Hold on. I think I'm gonna cry.

Okay, sorry. Overall, the original sound versions of ALL of these songs, are much MUCH better than what we have here, folks. What really gets me is that the CD says: "Performed by: The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra & Chorus." But where are they? 98% of this CD is performed by "The Electric Sound Ensemble." Who are they?!? What I don't understand is why they bothered to even put "Liberi Fatali" on this CD. They're not even singing the correct words (if Square says 'no' why bother), and the music is SOOO below par of the song they are trying to recreate it makes me want to crawl into a hole and die. Now, I gotta admit, "The Spy" sounds cool, but come on. It sounds the SAME as the original. Can we PLEASE get a better muted trumpet sound here? I'm not even gonna bring up "Mods De Chocobo." I don't have any more tears left. So. There you have it. I'm glad I signed on the "Project Majestic Mix" bandwagon. VP Candidate Lieberman and Martin Sheen are right:

"Most of the stuff that comes out of HOLLYWOOD is sleaze."

Despite the title and rating of the review and the others reviews, I would say that this is *NOT* a bad CD. Except for two tracks, Liberi Fatali and Mods de Chocobo, it's actually pretty decent. Unfortunatly, it's more that the CD itself is pointless, and not worth owning. It's simply a cash cow that mooches off the Final Fantasy name and popularity.

This CD is 'performed' by the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra, but don;t be fooled by the name, it's really one guy with a synthesizer.

I'm not quite sure how he got access to the original music, but the pieces aren't arrangements. Except for Final Fantasy 7's Main Theme, and the chorus part of Liberi Fatali, the tracks are basically the originals run through his synth. The instruments are all basically the same, and there's no changing of the material whatsoever. The sound quality isn't that advanced, but it's not really bad. It has a 'soft' sort of sound to it, so it's not offensive to the ears.

It's also interesting to note that the tracks he chose happen to be the first track of each CD from the three original soundtracks, furthur commenting on how it's merly a cash cow.

So don't buy this CD. Get the originals, get the arranged CDs, wait for the upcoming Project Magestic Mix, or even go without. It's not worth buying, even for the hardcore.

I pray that nobody experiences Final Fantasy for the first time on this CD, for they would be given the completely wrong impression. Nobuo Uematsu's beautiful songs have been packaged up in some garbage MIDI format, and no doubt sold to capitalize on FF's rising popularity. I have downloaded better MIDIs for free, which I would much rather listen to than this CD again. The choice of tracks is very average--hardly "The Best" that Final Fantasy has brought us. I suppose it's a blessing in disguise, for when I listened to how it has butchered "Liberi Fatali," I was glad it left more of my favorite songs alone. Don't let the cheap price fool you. This CD is poor.

I am sick. I just got this soundtrack today, being a big fan of the series. The CD is advertised as preformed by the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra. PLEASE DO NOT LET THAT FOOL YOU! The whole entire CD is preformed by keyboards, and not instruments! The only part that is actually real is the percussion section. This sounds not to different from the actual sountrack, besides a few things:

*Liberi Fatali has been murdered. There is only one actual singer, the rest is generated by a computer and it sounds terrible. They don't even say the right words. The one on the game disk is a lot better.

*Mods de Chocobo sounds like a few guys got together and recorded it in a tiny room. It really sounds awful.

Please, DO NOT FALL FOR WHAT I FELL FOR. This CD in no way makes the series look good. This CD isn't even worth the name Final Fantasy. I don't think I am ever going to listen to it again.

If you wondered why it was priced so low, it is because 98% of the music was played by a computer. They only hired the percussion section of the REAL Orchestra.

IF YOU VALUE THE FINAL FANTASY LEGEND--DO NOT BUY THIS CD. It is a big mistake.

Video game music has actually progressed since the days of Super Mario Brothers. Many games now have very realistic sounding synth instruments and some, using the CD format, are capable of pre-recorded real music. The RPG genre is known for having great music. Anyone who has played the Final Fantasy series can attest to this.

I think this CD sets the American localization of game music back several years. Game music has long had a bad reputation for being tinny and computerized, and this CD only tends to support that stereotype. When I first heard about this CD, I thought someone had seen the light. We've had cheesy video game CDs in the past (Banjo-Kazooie comes to mind), but maybe someone finally realized that Final Fantasy might just catch on. Perhaps someone else thought the import prices for the "real thing" were atrocious.

Unfortunately, this thought was never realized. All you get here is a scheme to cash in on the current popularity of Final Fantasy using sub-par materials. At the very least, a game music CD ought to match its source material, if not do it one better (by arranging or orchestrating the tracks). But this CD manages to fall below its source material. Was it so much to ask? The original game music was excellent as it was - why was there this urge for this group to put their own interpretation on it? It's a blasphemy.

I was truly excited when my best friend sent me the link for this CD. Long have I waited for orchestrated Final Fantasy music to be performed and released in the United States. Video games are an art form. Story, graphics, characters, plot, music...it takes all of these to make good games. And while some Final Fantasy games have been better than others, there's one thing that has never disappointed a fan: the music. Nobuo Uematsu is a musical genius, and this CD insults that composer's genius.

While this CD is claimed to be performed by "The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra", you will find no orchestrated music on this CD. In reality, this CD is performed (and it says on the back) by "The Electric Sound Ensemble", which means all we get is a bunch of synth to ruin some of our favorite themes.

Tina's theme is probably the only decent track here, but all the in-game music is far superior to this disgrace to all things Final Fantasy. Please, fellow fans, heed my warning. Do not buy this CD. Find some place that holds import music, and buy the Orchestral Game Concert CDs, which ARE played by an actual orchestra.

This CD, for the most part, is a bad attempt to cash in on the Final Fantasy name. The 11 tracks that are on the CD...first of all, are short. I think the total play time is only about 35 minutes (I didn't look at the CD information, so I don't know exactly.) The First 3 tracks (FFVI) are passable at best...out of the FFVII tracks (4-7) only #7, Shinra Wages A Full-Scale Attack, is worth a listen. And as for FFVIII...oh man, did they butcher it. Liberi Fatali (track 8) sounds what it would be like if you got your high school glee club drunk one night and they decided to try and sing. I don't even know what words they were saying!

All in all, for an arrangement, it stays too true to the original versions of these fine pieces, but with worse synthesis and poorer instrumentation. For a true arrangement, look for the imports of FFVI Grand Finale, FFVII Reunion Tracks, or FFVIII Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec. Like the plague, this one should be avoided at all costs.

I listened to this CD one time, and after flipping through the tracks to see if there was something good, I painfully turned my cd player off and never listened to it again. This CD does no justice to the wonderful music composed by nobou umaetsu for the final fantasy series. You're better off listening to MIDIs of the music from the games than buying this CD. The vocals seemed to be very off, the instruments didn't sound real, and it sounded like someone made this cd in a couple of hours. I don't reccomend this CD to anyone unless you need a new frisbee!

Hmm... now where can i start? Oh I know... THIS CD SUCKS! Now i don't mean to sound critical... but when it said "Best of Final Fantasy 1994 -1999" visions of the marvelous "Final Fantasy 1987-1993" (I think those years are right) popped into my head. I mean that CD included great music, we're talking everything from full orchestra to vocal to even a little Celtic style.. To say the least i was excited... Well i awaited it anxiously and plugged it in... and my ears basically threw up. I mean who on earth allowed this to be published? I could download better sounding MIDI's! Its all synthesized crap... it wasn't so bad until i got to Liberi Fatali. A song in the OSV that sounded awesome! Remember that great choir? Well so long choir... hello to cheesy (read: ULTA-SUPER-MEGA-THOUSAND-TIMES-TO-THE-INFINITE-POWER-CHEESY) synthesized choir. I could have done just as well... there is nothing good at all about this CD... BUYER BEWARE! If you want FF music don't buy this CD of MIDI's!