First: Merry Christmas! 🎄🎅❄️
The Final Fantasy series turned 30 last week, and earlier this month I flew to Toronto to attend the Distant Worlds concert! I was originally supposed to go to the Chicago show in the fall, but I spent too much money in New York this summer and had to cancel. Fortunately my friend and I were still able to find tickets to this show.
There are a lot of games in this series that I haven’t played (basically anything that isn’t IV, X, XII, or XV lol…), and since I’m sipping the Final Fantasy Kool-Aid again, I really want to play those classics. Luckily for me, Steam has all of them on sale for 50% off! I’ll keep y’all posted on how that goes, lmao.
I went in knowing nothing about the setlist or what songs would be performed; I knew we would probably end up hearing To Zanarkand (FFX) or One-Winged Angel (FFVII), but not much else. I ended up being pleasantly surprised by what we did get to hear, like a small portion of Hymn of the Fayth (FFX), and Fang’s Theme (FFXIII). I think there were at least two tracks from the online games, too. I was also incredibly moved by Opera “Maria and Draco” (FFVI), which is something I absolutely 100% suggest hearing live if the Distant Worlds orchestra ever comes to your city/country. About 3 minutes in I was like, “okay where is this going…” because it included a narration, vocals, and was very VERY long, but by the end I was completely invested.
After the show my friend and I both picked up the same merch — a program/artbook, which I think was over $20CAD, and the 4-disc Final Fantasy X soundtrack, which was $45CAD. Any purchase came with a free CD with composer selected tracks, and anything over a certain amount came with a tote! I personally thought the merch prices were OTT, but I tried not to feel so salty about it since the dollar is so strong and I saved a little bit of change. I decided not to buy any of the Distant Worlds albums because they’re all on Spotify… which I pay for, lol. (Will update post with merch photos later! Currently in the middle of a move.)
Other highlights: Arnie Roth (conductor) violin solo for Somnus (Final Fantasy XV), Nobuo Uematsu “joining” the choir for One-Winged Angel, a guy proposing to his girlfriend before Theme of Love (FFIV).
Overall, it was an amazing experience and I will definitely go again and try to splurge on meet and greet tickets!