Final Fantasy XII Piano Collections Finally Announced!!

[49410enrique]

x

"...Completionists rejoice! The Final Fantasy series' sole holdout for a piano covers collection will soon be making its way to music stores in Japan.
 
Piano Collections Final Fantasy XII will contain new renditions of music by Basiscape composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, also of Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre. As of today, the following tracks from the PlayStation 2 role-playing game by Square Enix have been confirmed for inclusion:
 
Opening movie (theme of Final Fantasy XII)
The Dream to be a Sky Pirate
The Royal City of Rabanastre / Town Ward Upper Stratum
The Dalmasca Eastersand
Theme of the Empire
The Skycity of Bhujerba
..."

I'm super glad. I don't think people gave this one the credit it deserved (original score wise).  Now  i need to start saving, usually the score hits 1-3 months after the audio CD debuts....

[davidjosepha]

Glad to hear it finally happened, for your sake! So, was the piano collection for XIII released before XII then? If so, why?

[zezhyrule]

Haha wut. A little late, are we? Not that I'm complaining.

Then again I didn't really like FFXII that much and am not familiar with its music... Guess I have time to get familiar  


A little off-topic but, I just beat NIER last night, so I'm incredibly pumped up to try out a piece from its piano collections   

[49410enrique]

 

Glad to hear it finally happened, for your sake! So, was the piano collection for XIII released before XII then? If so, why?

yes xiii (which is among my top 3 of the whole lot) was released some time ago, and there has been crying and screaming from the ff pianists about why square is dragging their heels with a collection for xiii-2, perhaps hamauzu and the company decision makers need to iron out some differences...that seems to be the similar reason for the delay w xii. there's been a bit of speculation about it in the past...the most probable was reports of deterioration in the relationship between the composer and square enix...at least it's the most believable from what i've read. be that as it may, this is a big year with the 25 anniverssary of FF, the 10th anniverssary fro FFXI (and I believe X), so i think they may surprise us still

there's supposed to be a big event they ve been hesitant to release any deets about coming later in august, the rumor mill is a buzz with what might come out of it, so as usual all we can do is stay tuned.

i'm hoping for them to do something with xiv. it marked uematsu's return as lead composer for the franchise so i really hope that's at least part of the vision for the near future...

PS
forgot to link leaked picture

[perfect_pitch]

HOW THE HELL does one get a job doing Piano arrangements like this???

Damnit... I could do this for a living... I LOVE doing this.

[49410enrique]

HOW THE HELL does one get a job doing Piano arrangements like this???

Damnit... I could do this for a living... I LOVE doing this.

i'd write/reach out to Casey Ormond and ask him,he seems nice and sincere enough and looks like he loves what he does, he's one of the best 'new talents' on this side of the deal and has seen success with collaborating with the some of the big Japanese composers on this stuff.  Basically though, make sure you're very good at this, get some grassroots recognition, and NETWORK, you pretty much have get in front of these people.

see this video where he discusses some of this work for te Valkyria Chronicles Piano Pieces album he did (he's also rumored to possible be on board as arranger or perfomer for some of the FF XII PC)

[perfect_pitch]

Hey Enrique...

Thanks for the advice. I'll try and get in contact with him. Seems like a decent bloke.

Believe me... I'm good at this stuff, I just want to try and do it professionally now. You should see some of my arrangements.

[49410enrique]

Hey Enrique...

Thanks for the advice. I'll try and get in contact with him. Seems like a decent bloke.

Believe me... I'm good at this stuff, I just want to try and do it professionally now. You should see some of my arrangements.

no worries! and good luck!

about those arrangements. you should put a non commercial copyright on them like vincent lo and maybe put them up on a webstie/blog for free, get your name out, at first it seems these guys build buzz by word of mouth/going viral. might help get some eyes on your stuff

check his blog ant YT channel, might even want to reach out to him too for some advice. nice guy. i've pigned a few things off him before and he was quck to respond and quite kind.

http://audiomuse.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/zeryx28?feature=watch

when you land a contract and score/PC deal, i expect a singed CD and first press/printing score  

[perfect_pitch]

Well... My Max Payne theme I arranged is already free - I did it for the LOL's (and I personally hate using that term)... I was just bored.

Thanks for the info regarding these people... It's hard trying to get your stuff out there. I've already submitted one of my arrangements (the Pirates of the Caribbean Medley) to Hal Leonard, and I'm just waiting to hear back from them.

[farrah1129]

This is really exciting news  =]

I've always enjoyed Final Fantasy Piano Collections (though I admit some of the earlier CDs weren't arranged that impressively).  I actually like FFXII, though the characters did seem flat at times and the plot sort of fizzled at the end.  Of course I missed Uematsu's music, but Sakimoto made some exciting and refreshing music that I enjoyed overall.  I'm looking forward to seeing how his work will be translated to piano. 

On a side note, I'm still really pleased with the FF I-III Piano "Opera" cd released earlier this year.  That was another thing fans had to wait a long time for, and I think it was also released as part of the 25th anniversary celebration. 

[49410enrique]

This is really exciting news  =]

I've always enjoyed Final Fantasy Piano Collections (though I admit some of the earlier CDs weren't arranged that impressively).  I actually like FFXII, though the characters did seem flat at times and the plot sort of fizzled at the end.  Of course I missed Uematsu's music, but Sakimoto made some exciting and refreshing music that I enjoyed overall.  I'm looking forward to seeing how his work will be translated to piano.  

On a side note, I'm still really pleased with the FF I-III Piano "Opera" cd released earlier this year.  That was another thing fans had to wait a long time for, and I think it was also released as part of the 25th anniversary celebration.  

i agree. the good news is that nobuo came back for FFxiv. piano opera is great i love my two score books and the audio from the CD taht accompany these great arragnements.

(also just in case a google hit brings more eyes on this, if you register just to PM me to ask me to scan my scores and send them to you, i will ignore the request from hence fourth. but we welcome new members that love piano so join up and play with us!).

this is a big year for SE and FF with the 25th anniverssary still having launches and releases. they failed launch in 2010 of the original ff xiv got a new team to go in literally break up the old world and build a new one with fixes for the games many flaws. it looks to launch later this year and i'm excited. hopeuflly this means that uematsu's origianl xiv score will be complimeted with new music (you have to admit the music for the new trailer is great if you like his stuff). so i am not ruling out a possibility of something more coming for xiv in the future (i have the current two piano books for field tracks and battle tracks, but they are pretty sparse so fas as shiori aoyamas arrangements here go but there are some good ones in there).

sweet new trailer.

edit.
ps the other teaser

[49410enrique]

in normal SE fashion, the new 'teaser' site is up and will be , bit by bit, updated with more materials leading up to the big launch/release!

so far it sounds like it will be a super great collection (who am i kidding, i love them all!) but yeah this composer is 'unique' to the franchise and this collection is many years overdue!

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/music/sem/page/ff12piano/#!/top

sample tracks
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/music/sem/page/ff12piano/#!/tracklist

i love that the background of this listing has what appears to be casey ormond's own scores with his markings on it as he prepped for the recordings. which gives me great hope that in normal piano collections timeline traditions, the book should follow within a few months...i hope its before christmas though. i really do....