1749: Distant Worlds

Tonight Andie and I (along with her sister Michelle and Michelle’s boyfriend Rob) took a trip up to London for the Distant Worlds concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

For the uninitiated, Distant Worlds is a series of concerts that has been running for the last seven years or so on the international circuit, celebrating the music of the Final Fantasy series through a multimedia presentation of live orchestral arrangements of iconic tracks from the various games accompanied by relevant game and cutscene footage. It’s a similar sort of affair to the Video Games Live series which I had the pleasure of seeing live a few years back: it combines the formality of an orchestral concert in a world-renowned venue with the energy, enthusiasm and passion of an event that is very much “for the fans”.

And for Final Fantasy fans, most of whom feel a strong connection with the series’ music — although the games have long been regarded as some of the most visually impressive titles in their respective generations, it’s the music that has arguably proven the most enduring, enjoyable element of each installment — it was a dream come true, taking in music from a pleasantly wide selection of games including Final Fantasy VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XIII and XIV.

I was particularly pleased to hear Answers, the wonderfully sweeping main theme from Final Fantasy XIV. The performance of it was very strong, with the live voice choir, orchestra and soloist (whose name escapes me at present) all doing a spectacular job at belting out what is already a very powerful piece of music.

One thing struck me as I watched, listened and let the experience wash over me: ultimately none of the perpetual drama of the games industry, with its fragile egos, professional victims and merciless trolls, matters in the slightest. What does matter is that there are talented groups putting out wonderful works of art that bring people together — in this case, enough people to fill the rather large Albert Hall to capacity and then some.

The cheers that went up as favourite games and songs were mentioned; the standing ovation at the end; the possibly slightly inebriated Northern gentleman who bellowed “I LOVE YOU!” at a delighted-looking Nobuo Uematsu who had just taken the stage — all of these things combined to make a wonderfully memorable experience that made me happy to be a gamer; happy to be a Final Fantasy fan; happy to be part of something bigger than me; happy to be far, far away from the rest of the Internet in my very own Distant World.

A great night all round then, capped off nicely by the fact that Andie and I had the welcome opportunity to quickly meet up with one of our FFXIV guildies beforehand; unfortunately we didn’t get a lot of time together and he wasn’t able to get a last-minute ticket to the concert, but I got my promised bro-hug at least. Thanks for not being a chainsaw-wielding psychopath, Cyra.

Anyway, it’s ridiculously late and I need to sleep. Comic strip will be back tomorrow; for now, naps beckon.