Nobuo Uematsu is a god. He is single-handedly responsible for some of the most beloved music in videogaming. He’s the composer of the soundtracks for the first ten Final Fantasy games, Square Enix’s flagship series, and the work that he is best known for. His songs are so universal and influential that even when the duty of writing the soundtracks were given to other composers, they still retain and base their music around his themes.

Part of the appeal of Uematsu’s sound is that it is extraordinarily robust. While one character theme may be a simple piano ballad, the next town’s song could be a poppy jazz song before launching into a beat-heavy battle anthem to accompany the action in the game. What’s amazing is that although most of his music was written digitally for the gaming systems of the time (Super Nintendo, Playstation 1), they translate to any medium perfectly. Uematsu’s own metal band The Black Mages shred these songs as though they were meant for the most hardcore. However, the most popular presentation of his music is through a live orchestra.

Distant Worlds is the world touring concert of live orchestras, focusing on the music of Final Fantasy directed by Arnie Roth, while Nobuo Uematsu sits humbly just off stage. The most recent concert, a celebration of the 20^th anniversary of Final Fantasy VI played to a full house of awkward fans unaccustomed to attending the Chicago Symphony Hall, dressed in an array from fancy dress clothes, to shorts and a t-shirt, to cosplaying as their favorite character from the FF universe.

Seeing the music of Final Fantasy played live is much more than just hearing video game music; it’s the physical embodiment of reliving the wonderment that made people fall in love with the games in the first place. In an era before voice acting was the standard for the industry, the soundtrack was the only sound to accompany games. This is part of the reason why people will always remember the theme song to Super Mario. Final Fantasy X, which came out in 2000 for the Playstation 2, was the first game in the series to introduce voice acting, leaving an army of loyal fans to the franchise with over a decade and nearly a dozen games’ worth of music they had grown up on.

The setting at the Chicago Symphony Hall is quaint; a beautifully ornate hall with steep lined theater seats looking down on the stage, decked with the chairs and instruments of the Chicago orchestra, each member decorated with crisp, black dress clothes. Behind them is a massive screen, on which videos of the various Final Fantasy games plays in time with the songs so that the audience can relive the grandest moments while the instruments shake the theater.

The evening started off with the booming tenor vocals for FFX’s “Hymn of the Fayth”, backed by the otherworldly sound of a full choir against the most minimal parts of the orchestra the evening would see. The slow buildup of the song, a single voice singing operatic lines gave way immediately to the fan favorite song (and almost always an encore exclusive), “One Winged Angel” the theme song to one of the most infamous villains in all of gaming, FFVII’s Sephiroth.

The first half of the show ran the gamut of songs across the series: “Opening – Bombing Mission” (FFVII), “Chocobo Medley”, “Crimson Blitz” (Lightning Returns: FFXIII) and a stunning rendition of “Eyes on Me” (FFVIII) with vocals sung by Susan Calloway. Calloway was decked out in an amazing dress, sexily cut to either be A-List level stylish or quite possibly interpreted as a rendition of cosplay for one of the female heroines of the more recent Final Fantasy titles. She also sang “Answers” (FFXIV), the game’s theme song of which she sang for the actual soundtrack.

The real highlight of the night for many was the second half of the concert, the celebration of Final Fantasy VI’s 20^th anniversary. While “Terra’s Theme”, also known as the theme for the game’s overworld, was already a well known part of the Distant Worlds concerts, one of the highlights was a new character theme medley which included parts of “Celes’ Theme” and “Locke’s Theme”, played against a video of the various characters during some of the more memorable scenes.

However, the single most powerful songs from the night came in two different songs: “The Opera” and “Dancing Mad” the ten minute final battle against Kefka, the main villain to VI. “The Opera” is a famous enough song in its own right, as the scene in the game isn’t just one of the most famous in Final Fantasy history, but gaming history in general. The version for this concert included a full choir, a narrator to outline the story, and three amazing opera singers whose voices commanded the stage. When the song had finally ended, the theater erupted in a roar of applause and a standing ovation. “Dancing Mad” included the addition of an organist playing an absolutely massive pipe organ that rattled the very theater itself during its solo. The video accompanied with the song showed a battle between Kefka and Terra Bradford from the Playstation Portable game Final Fantasy Dissidia.

Distant Worlds is one of the most emotional concerts I have ever seen. The array of songs aren’t just background music or something to sing along to as much as they are the very essence of storytelling without words. The few appearances Nobuo Uematsu made on stage (such as to play the sound of the wind during “Dark World”) was met to thunderous applause from fans who hail him as one of the heroes of gaming itself. The songs mean more than just themes or as a beloved soundtrack. Each song performed was the adventure the audience had traveled before, louder and more vivid than ever. And sitting quietly offstage is one of the world’s most beloved composers humbly watching the show along with the very fans he inspired in the first place.

by Kyle Schultz

Kyle Schultz is the Senior Editor at It’s All Dead and has worked as a gaming journalist at Structure Gaming. He lives in Chicago religiously plays Final Fantasy.