FINAL FANTASY VI Grand Finale (Original Soundtrack)

Really nicely orchestrated rendition of the FF6 (or 3) game. I remember first listening to this on a disc I purchased in NYC (Chinatown) over a decade ago...

From the daunting march of the Gestahl soldiers, screeching wheels of the Ghost Train to the mischievous steps of Cefca, Grand Finale immerses you in the world of Final Fantasy VI like never before. Stimulating your every sense Nobuo Uematsu rushes you into the heart of his universe and vividly delivers the beautiful and majestic sounds in which he is so very well renowned. There are just a few imperfections that take away from this soundtrack's shot perfection. The first is the overall lack of variety in the album. The songs that exist are incredible but with Final Fantasy VI's vast amount of music it’s a shame Uematsu didn't aim higher and create an entirely re-orchestrated score of the original soundtrack. Also, the songs "Relm" and "Aria Di Mezzo Carattere" were not orchestrated in an appealing fashion and may have been better off untouched in their original state. Altogether, Final Fantasy VI-Grand Finale gives the title some well-deserved enhancements to old favorites and rekindles that fire in all of us that seeks a grand adventure.

I'm going to begin this review by saying that I'm a fan of this album... who has never actually played FFVI. I'm going to give you a minute or two for your entire world to come crashing down around you. Okay, done with that? Good, 'cause I am. Now, not to brag or anything, but I'm a huge fan of two composers in the video game industry: Yasunori Mitsuda, who is responsible for the epic slice of sunshiney perfection that is the Chrono Cross score (unfortunately not available on iTunes as of this review) and Nobuo Uematsu. While I actually prefer Mitsuda's scores in general and think that Chrono Cross has overall the best score in video gaming history, Final Fantasy VI's music is actually the closest score in the gaming world to equaling it. While these songs are arranged slightly differently than they are in the original game (and yes, Relm's bagpipe player needs to be shot on sight), none of the pieces have really lost all that much from it and they're very listenable. This album is a definite must-buy for FFVI fans, Uematsu lovers, and pretty much anyone who likes video games that have well-done scores. And to Silk Roadie: for the record, looking for "One-Winged Angel"- a single from Final Fantasy VII- on a Final Fantasy VI album wasn't exactly the smartest move. You want the orchestral arrangement on the FFVII Reunion Tour album- one search down.

I had a hard time traking down the CD's in stores back in the 90's. The ones I found would cost me from $50 just for a Single Nobuo Uematsu CD or $90 for a CD set and I was willing to pay it, as foolish as that may seem. Today my CD's are in disrepair due to some unkown thing that has eaten tiny holes in the CD Lable and thus the Data stored below it. So here I am on iTunes rebuilding my lost collection of Memories. This is great music from a great composer and it's definately worth every penny.

Nobuo Uematsu is the greatest composer ever this cd shows him at his best nothing beats the songs from Final Fantasy VI!

you know this is the only way to tell my feelings towards this albem Nobuo watch out i am finding you and giving you A BIG HUG

I'm already a major fan of the FFVI OST and having some of the classics orchestrated is a dream come true! I was always in love with Celes' Theme/Aria di Mezzo Carattere, and the opera version of her theme is to die for! It's so very melodic and beautiful that I can simply close my eyes and imagine myself seated in the front row watching the Draco/Maria opera scene performed live! I also recommend Blackjack, Tina, and the Mystic Forest, but I also wish that some other great FFVI songs made the album as well i.e. Setzer, Forever Rachel, Epitaph, and The Serpent Trench. Overall it's worth the time and money if you're a true FFVI fan.

Very good. Its always a pleasure to hear new (in this case old) stuff from Uematsu but for a FFVII Album, I found one track notably absent. Probably Uematsu's most famous work is his piece "One Winged Angel". That song has been redone many, many times, but I never tire of hearing it reinvented. I particularly enjoyed the Advent Children Version but this album just seems incomplete with out it.

Among the Final Fantasy series' many highlights has always been the wonderful underscoring of Nobuo Uematsu. It's very rare for a video game to have anything one could classify as an actual "score" (a through-composed musical backdrop against which the drama unfolds), and the presence of one in a game as rich in character and emotion as Final Fantasy VI (nee III) makes for a truly memorable play experience. From the haunting opening titles to the heroic main theme to the famous opera house sequence, Uematsu's score for Final Fantasy VI draws us in and emotionally invests us in the lives of the game's many finely drawn characters. In many ways this recording is the FF6 fan's dream come true - live orchestral performances of several of the score's highlights. For the most part, the album delivers. It presses the nostalgia button and excites us by playing the music the way we always secretly heard it in our heads. Unfortunately, the recording is not without flaws. Due to either poor equipment or poor recording engineers, many of the auxiliary instruments (i.e. pan flute, bagpipe, soprano, etc.) have slight balance and tuning issues with the rest of the orchestra. This is so subtle in most cases that the average listener won't be able to tell the difference, but the bagpipes in Relm's theme are rather glaringly bad. Differing opinions exist with regard to the slight reworking of some of the themes - I personally enjoy them. In the end, this is really worth having. It's worth the ten dollars based on sheer novelty alone - the fact that there's actually some really good-quality music and orchestration can only recommend it further.

Being a nerd and growing up on the Final Fantasy Series, and playing FFVI (FFIII to us Americans) probably the most out of any of them, I was excited to see this in non-midi form. Most of this album is beautiful, just as most of the Final Fantasy music is. The only thing that loses that fifth star for me is the song Relm. That song is by far my most favorite Final Fantasy song ever. I used to go down into that art-house thingie and just close my eyes and sit down there just to hear that song (nerd, remember). But, to be completely fair, the bagpipe player on that song is horrible. That person should either never touch a bagpipe again, or should have practiced longer. One of those things would have made this a five star album. Bagpipes, when played right sound like a beautiful string instrument. They fade in and out. The bagpipes on here sound like a fifth grader picking up the french horn for the first time. BLAH! Oh well. The rest of the music is beautiful nontheless.