Customer Reviews

Final Fantasy X-2 - Piano Collection

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have the piano collection for FFVIII, FFX and just added FFX-2 to my collections. This is a different piano collection from what I owned. Most of the tracks focus on the parts raterh than melody so it's bit hard to recognize the soundtracks. However, the arrangement and the performance is excellent, full of emotions. These are masterpieces of FF music industry.

There are 12 tracks of which there are 2 version of eternity which are fabulous. Never know that this sond can be arranged in these ways.

The musician involved are Noriko Matsueda, Takahito Eguchi, Hiroko Kokubu, Masahiro Sayama and Febian Reza Pane.

Tracklist:
01 - Seal of the Wind ~The Three Trails~
02 - Yuna's Ballad
03 - Paine's Theme
04 - Creature Creation
05 - The Calm Lands
06 - Zanarkand Ruins
07 - Akagi Team
08 - Nightmare in the Den
09 - Demise
10 - 1000 Words
11 - Epilogue ~Reunion~
12 - Eternity ~Memories of Lightwaves~

This collection is different and you would expect surprises. :)

This album is remarkable not only in performance, but also in the quality of arrangement from such a risqué game album. At the first wind of this recording, most of the gaming community was stunned. The soundtrack from which this collection derives is so unpleasing that it might take several aspirin to finish it. The tracks from the Original Soundtrack were so non-musical, that we were left in disbelief that piano arrangements could be made. However, we were proved wrong upon hearing this masterpiece of piano arrangement.

These arrangements vary from calm and flowing music to music so loud that piano strings are forced to break. On the seventh piece, "Party", the end climax is really amplified by the breaking of an A string in the piano.

This album has some jazz improvisation and some fully structured piano arrangement. These styles complement each other beautifully in this surprisingly listenable album.

I wasn't sure how this album would fair after the departure of Nobuo Uematsu (with such great work as the iconic "One Winged Angel" or the underrated "Dancing Mad"), however, after thoroughly listening to this album I can't say I have missed him one bit. "Final Fantasy X-2: PIano Collection" is without a doubt my favourite in the series and with a combination of great performances, great arrangements and great compositions it almost reaches perfection.

"Windcrest~The Three Trails~" (the opening track) is my favourite of the album and is perfect; in a ternary form the piece begins in a reflective mood with a constant stream of quavers and harmony that changes from the right to left hand. The quavers continue in section B in the left hand while the right hand plays triplets; the duple/compound rhythms flow together so well and build to a very expressive chordal climax which breaks into half of section A again to end. What I also love about this track is it is performed so expressively and flawlessly it seems easy. Of course I was surprised when I picked up the sheet music and discovered that it was in A Flat Minor. It took a bit of practice to get the polyrhythms in the middle section right.

Some of my other favourite tracks include the Jazz arrangements; "Paine's Theme" is this sort of contemporary/Jazz fusion and "Creature Creation" - wow; the 'spider-like' (at least that's the feeling I get when I listen/play it) leaps by the left hand is impressive and the whole piece sounds improvised (in a good way). I don't want to spoil this track, it's a lot of fun! "Party" is another track which I guess could best be described as 'Theme and variation' and is my second favourite track.

"Nightmare at a Cave" is a short but a dissonant and virtuosic piece. "1000 Words" is a beautiful arrangement of the hit song; "Epilogue ~Reunion~" although slightly cliché at times peaks in its polyrhythms which work just as well as Windcrest, if not better.

Eternity ~Memory of Lightwaves~ is 6 and a half minutes of emotional brilliance.

The only disappointing thing about the album is the lack of a grandiose, powerful battle theme. "Demise" is underwhelming to say the least and just falls to the likes of the "Final Fantasy VII Battle Theme", "One Winged Angel" and the "Final Fantasy IX Battle theme".

It's still a must buy for any FF fan, or anyone who loves piano arrangements in general really, to be honest I've never played a FF game in my life; but adore the music!

I'm not not making a review to bash the music at all. I just wanted to let buyers beware of many bootleg cds that can be sold here on Amazon especially video game/anime soundtrack cds. For Final Fantasy music cds or any other Square Enix music cds it will always have SquareEnix/Squaresoft as the copyright label. Anything other than this label and it's most likely a fake especially if the name might happen to say MICA as the label. As far as I know the MICA label which is from MIYA records is one of many major bootleg cd companies located in Taiwan. Laws are not that strict when it comes to bootleg cds in certain countries. When bootleg cds like this get distrubuted in the West it can be a a bit confusing as to which is real and which is not. Always ask the buyer whats the copyright label of the cd or just don't buy if you are not sure.

I have accidentally bought a few bootleg cds here on Amazon over the past few years and hopefully I can help others learn from my mistake of not accidentally purchasing bootleg cds from sellers that may have purposely or accidentally sold them here. Feel free to ask me any questions or if you have concerns about this issue with bootleg cds.

I have come across final fantasy piano soundtracks just a few years ago and I enjoy them very much. As a piano player, I only used to practice classical music but since I have bought these I have expanded my repertoire. They are very lovely to hear and enjoyable to practice. Each time I play them I develop more and more attachments towards the characters and appreciate the people who made them possible.