Final Fantasy XIII Piano Collections, music by Masashi Hamauzu, played by Richard Yang.
I would’ve imagined that after recording the Final Fantasy Piano Opera, everything else would be a walk in the park. Not so with the FFXIII Piano Collections. These pieces are quite difficult to learn mainly due to the unusual rhythm (for me anyway), tightly-packed chords, and the fact that these are too different from the classical repertoire. Up until FFXI and the Piano Opera, if you’re trained in classical music, you shouldn’t have any issue learning the pieces where the flow of music just makes sense. To put it in perspective, Final Fantasy XII (12) makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. The XIII (13) is somewhere in between. In this case, I just had to tough it out.
As much as this album requires an acquired taste, once you get to know the pieces, this album is the most addictive one to listen to among all the FF PC’s. I recorded the Piano Collections (FFV…X-2) back in the 2020 December COVID lockdown. Then the Piano Opera from late January to late March. FFXI and FFXIII were recorded right after, from April to early May. FFXIII took about 3 weeks from learning to recording. Note that FFXIII specifically, was recorded during the 3rd wave lockdown, so the kids were studying from home. As such, when you hear strange non-piano noises, you now know why.
** below = my top 3 favorites
00:00 Lightning's Theme ~ Blinded by Light** 03:12 The Promise ~ The Sunleth Waterscape** 07:15 March of the Dreadnoughts 10:24 The Gapra Whitewood 14:21 Nautilus** 19:18 Vanille's Theme ~ Memories of Happier Days ~ The Road Home** 23:15 Nascent Requiem** 27:01 Fang's Theme** 30:35 Reminiscence - Sulyya Springs Motif 35:24 Prelude to Final Fantasy XIII
Click here to go to the master index page for the Final Fantasy Piano Collections.
