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I’ve been thinking. We asked Square Enix’s Izumi Tsukushi and Akio Shiraishi last year [2] about the possibility of a Piano Collections Final Fantasy I-III and Piano Collections Final Fantasy XII album, and followed up again this year [3]. We were told to “expect some good news” regarding a possible I-III album (2012 is the franchise’s 25th anniversary, so what better time for this CD?), but were also told flat out told that there were no plans for a Piano Collections Final Fantasy XII CD. I say why not?
Maybe the Final Fantasy XII soundtrack isn’t the most popular among the franchise, but it certainly does have an audience. In fact, it’s one of the most owned CDs [4] in collections on VGMdb. Furthermore, reflecting on the recent Valkyria Chronicles Piano Pieces [5] album that Basiscape had pianist Casey Ormond arrange and record, I thought it would be an easy enough undertaking to have Ormond do the same for Final Fantasy XII and have Square Enix publish it. I doubt it’ll happen, but here’s my vote for getting a piano arrangement of “Eruyt Village.”
Am I crazy, or does this make a whole lot of sense? Chime in and let us know what you think.
Comments Disabled To "Question: Should Piano Collections Final Fantasy XII Be Made?"
#1 Comment By Julianne On August 18, 2011 @ 12:22 pm
A lot can change in arranging for piano, and even non-memorable tracks from 12 (there are a lot) could be well done in piano form. I do love the Rabanastre tracks.
#2 Comment By Pierre-Olivier On August 18, 2011 @ 7:08 pm
I need it, and I need it now. I know it’s impossible, but imagine Hamauzu going debussy( as he does on all of his piano arrangements) on Sakimoto tracks? Best of both worlds.
Is the Valkyria piano pieces really good? I haven’t been keeping up with the world as of late!
#3 Comment By Cheezeman3000 On August 18, 2011 @ 7:20 pm
Omg… you just reminded me about Eruyt Village… that would sound AMAZING on piano!
#4 Comment By Josh Barron On August 18, 2011 @ 11:11 pm
I happen to have arranged that track for strings AND piano ;). If anyone is interested I could share it with everyone
#5 Comment By Matthew Boone On August 19, 2011 @ 2:51 am
I’ve been wanting a Piano Collections since 2006. I would love to see Hamauzu compose a Piano Collections album. I think Sakimoto could pull it off though.
#6 Comment By Nikolas Broman On August 19, 2011 @ 3:35 am
Yes, I would LOVE a piano arrangement of Final Fantasy XII. It’s one of favourite FF soundtracks and I would be extremely happy with any kind of arrangements, to be honest. I really enjoyed the arrangement album by Magical Trick Society.
Never listened to any of the Valkyria Chronicles music. Maybe I should…
#7 Comment By Wumpy On August 19, 2011 @ 5:43 pm
Valkyria Chronicles’ music is one of Sakimoto’s weaker scores, I think. He’s trying to hard to emulate a “cinematic” flavor with the battle-/militaristic-oriented tracks (of which there are many), and the results overwhelm his own musical language.
The near-absence of any official musical interpretations of Sakimoto’s music is disappointing. I wonder if it has to do with perceived number of appreciators — or with the fact that adapting Sakimoto’s compositions to something like the piano would probably be more challenging than doing so for other past Square employees, such as Uematsu or Mitsuda. That’s not a dig against them and others; it’s just that Sakimoto’s music doesn’t tend to stress melodic lyricism like many other Japanese game composers (which is probably why many listeners find his stuff unmemorable). With that in mind, the task of creatively arranging Sakimoto’s work perhaps has a more intimidating and — dare I say it? ;_; — complex factor to it. I’d be too excited if a FFTactics, Vagrant Story, or FF12 piano collection were released, provided the performances were considerate and non-literal.
#8 Comment By Patrick Gann On August 19, 2011 @ 5:48 pm
I’ve wanted this forever. I’m hoping 2012 will give us that I-III collection. Here’s hoping for FFXII Piano!
#9 Comment By nitro322 On August 19, 2011 @ 7:21 pm
Oh heck yeah I want a XII piano album. Been hoping for one for years, but I basically gave up hope after the XIII piano album came out. I love the XII OST, though, and would love to see it revisited.
There’s an unofficial collection of piano arrangements from the FF XII OST here:
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The site appears to be down at the moment, but you can find the music on lastfm and other places by searching for ‘delldongo ff12’. Very good stuff, and great quality, though I think it’s only a taste of what an official album could be.
#10 Comment By Casey Ormond On August 19, 2011 @ 10:04 pm
Arranging Sakimoto for piano is challenging, but not for lack of melodic development. I think his melodies are a big part of his signature style – but that said, there are only a few songs where you can build an entire arrangement around just the melody. The other half of a Sakimoto arrangement is capturing the song’s ‘energy’ – which usually means distilling a busy and exciting harmonic and/or percussive part to just one hand.
It can be tricky to know what to do when the ‘energy’ of the song is in a triangle or snare pattern – getting that onto the piano can lead to some ‘creative’ results 🙂
#11 Comment By Stephen On August 27, 2011 @ 7:28 pm
I think it’s unlikely that Sakimoto himself would arrange it, but I think that could be the best case scenario. He relatively rarely uses piano in his works, but when he does, it is very often magical. Check “Sky Ray” from the Stella Deus BGM ReArrange album or “Lost Forest” from Legaia Duel Saga and “Salikawood” from FFXII itself. “Remembrance” from Vagrant Story also has a beautiful piano part.
It’d be interesting and potentially great to hear Hamauzu arrange. I’ve wondered in the past what a mix of those two might sound like. The Basiscape composers would be likely choices as arrangers and I expect most any of them could cook up some creative interpretations. But, of course, Casey Ormond already gave us his fantastic take on “The Skycity of Bhujerba”, so as far as I’m concerned that’s one track done right there.