Some miscellaneous Distant Worlds thoughts and highlights!
I spent the entire concert either crying, grinning, getting goosebumps, or all three. 12/10
The Rebel Army Theme from FFII during the I-III 2002 Medley BANGS SEVERELY with a live orchestra, holy shit.
The screen was playing scenes from the games and for FFI it was literally either overworld walking or random battles lmao.
The "Spoony Bard" moment from FFIV and Sabin suplexing a train in FFVI both appeared and that makes me happy. Glad to see that memes endure.
The Chocobo Theme part of the I-III medley is distilled joy. It was SO bouncy and fun!
Arnie Roth (the conductor) is really fun I love him. He just gave me good vibes.
The first half of the concert concluded with a brand new battle medley for FFI-VI and it BANGS. The arrangement for the FFIV battle theme is super chill and I'm in love. And then the FFVI part hits and it hits HARD.
They showed FFVIICC Reunion, FFXVI, and Stranger of Paradise trailers during the intermission, but nothing really new.
The second half of the concert opened with FFVIII's Liberi Fatali. I'd realised it was coming because the choir was suddenly there and I'd spotted it in the booklet, but not everyone knew, so the whole hall was like "Ooohh" when the choir started singing. A lot of people also forgot that the song doesn't end on the big note but has a bit of a resolution after and so they started clapping early haha.
While the first half of the concert was either chronological or did medleys, the second half had Roth introduce every segment like "And now, a fan-favourite song from FFVII-X. But first, a DIFFERENT song from another game!"
"Okay, now we're gonna play a classic, Aerith's theme! [cheers] Yeah yeah I know, we're all excited for Remake part 2. Where is it, Square? Anyway, Aerith's theme. But first, Ragnarok, from FFXI!" Tease.
The scenes for Aerith's theme played like a tribute to her and included so many Clerith scenes too, on top of her death scene. Tears.
Rikki, the original vocalist for FFX, sang Suteki Da Ne and I think I've unlocked something spiritually.
Yoko Shimomura was there, and I'd known this in advance, but I hadn't expected to get so emotional about it. Obviously she was there as the composer of FFXV, but she's had such a huge role in my childhood as the composer of Kingdom Hearts that every time I remembered she was actually there, like, in the same room as me and I could see her from my seat, I teared up something awful. Thank you, Ms Shimomura, thank you so much.
They did a fake-out after the Main Theme of Final Fantasy. It was the last *named* song on the programme and they showed the credits, but there were two more songs marked with question marks in the tour booklet, so I knew it wasn't over. Roth left the stage for ten seconds and came back for To Zanarkand.
Obviously, live orchestra To Zanarkand is a religious experience.
After that, the choir stood up and I was chanting "One-Winged Angel One-Winged Angel One-Winged Angel" under my breath. And then it WAS and all the lights went red on the first note literally iconic 15/10 this is what One-Winged Angel deserves.
I *bawled* during the entirety of Not Alone and To Zanarkand, and had to try very hard not to make a sound.
During To Zanarkand, the screen showed a scene of Tidus crying and I was like yeah buddy me too.
As it turned out, I was sliiiightly overdressed in a nice dress and heels in a sea of people wearing merch t-shirts and hoodies. They were correct though, I am INTENSELY jealous of every single piece of merch I saw. But there WAS someone else dressed to the nines, as I spotted a full Remake Wall Market Red Dress Aerith. I also saw one Remake Wall Market Sporty Tifa and two closet cosplay Aeriths, as well as someone wearing Cloud's AC outfit and someone in a Zack wig. There were also a lot of people in what I assume were FFXIV cosplays, but I wouldn't know better haha.
Again, just the experience of being there, together with so many people who have something in common with you, was overwhelming. I guess it's something similar to being at a normal concert, or a big sports event, but the big difference here is that we weren't there *just* for the music for its own sake. We're all fans of the *stories* that the music helps to tell, and that's really special if you ask me.
I bought the FFVIIR Orchestral Arrangement CD (a stupid purchase, as I don't own a CD player, but it gave me so much serotonin), the concert t-shirt, and the tour booklet with interviews and insights. A minute of silence for the Tonberry, Cactuar, Chocobo, and Moogle plushies that I had to leave behind because they wouldn't fit inside my luggage.
While I was in Victoria Coach Station, four whole hours early for my bus (rough day and night), I poured through the tour booklet and I was moved to tears again. These people all put so much love and care into the songs and the concert, and I couldn't be more thankful for all of them.
Also, Distant Worlds Coral is a pun. 35 (as in, 35th anniversary) in Japanese is read "san, go," and "sango" means "coral." Also a play on "choral" music. Everyone here is a dweeb oh my god.
Before the concert, a friend of mine asked me which songs I was expecting to make me cry. While I was wrong in that *every song* made me cry, the only songs on my list that didn't happen were Terra's Theme and the Main Theme of FFVII. Aerith's Theme, Not Alone, To Zanarkand, Main Theme of Final Fantasy, Prelude? All accounted for.
The second I landed in Stansted I found out that Distant Worlds is going to be in Rome in February and YOU KNOW WHAT.
I think that's all? 17/10 amazing spectacular showstopping I'm gonna be thinking about it for the rest of my life have a good day.
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