Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children Complete will be releasing exclusively on Blu-ray in the March of this year in Japan. Included in all First Press copies will be the 2-hour Final Fantasy 13 demo. We'll let you know when a Western release date is announced.
My New Obsession: katethegreat19 [Youtube] If you visit our site, I am very sure that you love at least one of the many Final Fantasy soundtracks that Square Enix has released over all these years. I am the same as you guys... and I found this gem during my free time while browsing around YouTube.
Although her online nick is a typical YouTube nick, do not let that fool you, she is extremely talented. You all know tracks like "You're Not Alone", "Aeris' Theme" and "Rose of May / Loss of Me"? Have you ever imagined how these tracks would sound if someone with a beautiful voice was singing them? katethegreat19 is that beautiful voice, and not only that, but she also re-arranges all her own songs, performs all the instrumentals, and occasionally writes lyrics too! Her works will leave you wanting more. I liked her work so much that I decided to conduct this interview immediately on the same day that I found her channel (Thanks to Michael G for coming up with the questions :P).
Please check out her YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/katethegreat19 and subscribe! If you like her songs, she offers mp3 downloads of every video that she has on her channel for your listening pleasure. You will like her work, I give you my word! There are around 12,000 to 13,000 of you that visit this site everyday, so if half of you subscribe, that will be around 6,000 new subscribers for her! Please spread the word about her around too, she deserves more exposure, she is that good! :D
Below is the interview that I conducted with Michael's questions.
1. Firstly, the easier questions. How many languages are you able to speak? Your Japanese annunciation works very well. Sadly, English is the only language I can speak! But I pick up things like accents really easily, so if I’m going to sing in Japanese, Latin, or any other language, I try to really do my homework and listen a lot to the original if there is one.
2. Final Fantasy. Where did it begin for you? What does it mean to you now? When you play a game like Final Fantasy in your formative years, I think the games take on an importance that may be lost on someone who plays it when they’re much older. To me, the characters of the games, and the feelings that go with them, became the figureheads of various human traits that I truly understood for the first time while being so emotionally immersed in the stories. Sephiroth, became my first real look at just what the ‘descent into madness’ was; Tifa represented Devotion; Beatrix, Chivalry; Zidane, Optimism; Aerith, the fragility and preciousness of life. When I cover a character’s theme from one of the FFs, I am not only trying to capture the character in the lyrics, I also try to capture what the character represents to me.
3. You're obviously very multi-talented, judging by the amount of instruments you are able to integrate so flawlessly. Where did this talent originate? I started playing the violin when I was two years old! My mother taught private violin lessons in our home, and I picked up a lot before she even began teaching me. I played intensively all my childhood and early adulthood. Any musician will tell you that when you know one instrument very well, picking up another is a sort of ‘half battle’ because there are certain things you don’t need to learn twice. I picked up piano, recorder, drums and the harp on my own, and had two years of lessons in guitar. I hope to acquire more instruments in time to learn and use in my songs!
4. How long have you been a fan of videogame-based music? From the very first game I ever played, which was a little gameboy game called Final Fantasy Adventure. I marveled at the ‘loop’, a melody that was so catchy and revolved endlessly. I thought the way a simple little tune could shape a scene and make you feel things that just the game alone wouldn’t, was amazing. When Aerith died, and that gentle piano strain started playing, we were all lost in the power of the game and of its music. We all cried. And vice versa, when a game’s music is bad or emotionless, the game simply doesn’t move people the way it might under the work of someone like Nobuo Uematsu or Yasunori Mitsuda.
5. What inspires you the most in the creative procedure? Simple things. With my lyrics, it might be a feeling I had while playing, or a memory of my own that I want to express, the exquisite beauty of the melody line, or the beauty of the character. Once I start jotting down the very first verses, I find the fun of writing them to be self-fueling for the project. I really love words, finding the beauty in them and using them to their best advantage in the flow of the melodies.
6. You seem to have covered a few Final Fantasy IX pieces. Is this your favorite? If so, why? It’s the game I consider to be the best across all the boards, yes! Even when compared to games outside the series in a very broad way, this game is tops. The music was some of Uematsu’s best, and the melodies were some of the most singer-friendly. I will be moving on to the other FFs now, and try to give their soundtracks the same attention.
7. Where do you draw your lyrics from? Do you attempt to meld it into the already established lyrical style that the FF songs have, or do you just follow your own style? I definitely have my own style of writing. But I do try to keep with the game’s own style, whatever that may be. When writing for one of the more medieval games, I try to stay away from modern speech as much as I can, to hopefully reflect the game’s timelessness. It’s easier to write songs in that style for me. If I write lyrics for FFVIII in the future, I will have to integrate more of a modern feel into the lyrics to match, which will be harder to do and still keep the timeless quality that the game manages to still have.
As you can see above, her full name is Oerba Dia Vanille. Note that 'Vanille' is still pronounced 'vanilla' at this point.
This occurred because the original scan that we had received only featured the Japanese katakana, which dictates the pronunciation of the name. This specifically called her 'Vanilla'. However, now we have the official English spelling, and so we can confirm this.
Be prepared for a lot more Final Fantasy 13 videos in the coming months, as the demo will be released alongside the Japanese Blu-ray release of Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children Complete. The demo will reportedly be longer than the movie itself, so expect a lot of media!
We here at Final Fantasy Insider would like to thank you all for yet another great and eventful year. We'd also like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays, and the best of luck for a safe New Year.
Best wishes, The Final Fantasy Insider Team 2008-12-25
25 Dec 2008
Dissidia: Final Fantasy release statistics Wondering why we haven't been reporting on Dissidia over the last few days? Well, that would be because the game is out now in Japan!
How well is it selling, you ask? Well, Square and Enterbrain are reporting massive sales of 350,000 units shipped on its first day alone. In other words, the game is a rather significant success.
In related new, we can confirm that Dissida: Final Fantasy will be released in the United States in mid-2009.
Besides revealing Vanilla's name, new scans featuring Final Fantasy 13 have also revealed the game's battle system in a little more detail. Check the pics below!
Final Fanatsy 13 will be releasing in Japan sometime in 2009. It will be released first on PlayStation 3, then ported to the Xbox 360.
This one in particular looks (and sounds) incredible. Its quite obvious between the two trailers which of the two teams is the most experienced, with Versus 13's team being comprised of personelle involved in the two Kingdom Hearts games as well as Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8!
The mind-blowing visuals go hand in hand with Yoko Shimomura's stellar soundtrack, accompanied an ever-famous Shakespeare quote. Although we still haven't seen any gameplay, its quite possible that we already have a new masterpiece here.
Final Fantasy Versus 13 will be releasing sometime within the next two years, and will be available exclusively on Sony's PlayStation 3.
There's nothing else to say really. The game is looking incredible, we hear a beautiful new track from Masashi Hamauzu and at last see more of the title's intricate story in action.
Final Fantasy 13 will be releasing on Sony's PlayStation 3 across North America and Japan in 2009. A North American port of the game will then proceed for the Xbox 360.
Also, for anyone that has pre-ordered the Japanese edition of Final Fanatsy 7: Advent Children Complete, a Blu-ray demo of the game will be included for those who receive the First Press Edition.
The above battle appears to be some sort of boss encounter or story-based battle; Tidus does battle with his father, Jecht, in an arena that is based around one of their encounters in Final Fantasy 10. Also, note that the battle music is the theme composed by Uematsu for the afformentioned original!
Dissidia: Final Fantasy is releasing in Japan on December 18, 2008. No word yet on Western release schedueles, we'll keep you informed.
Obviously, as it runs in at only 14 seconds, there isn't much to tell here. The game's looking great, Famitsu enjoyed it, and its been in the works for at least two years. It has 'hit maker' written all over it!
Dissidia: Final Fantasy releases in Japan on the 18th of December. Stay tuned for a Western release date when we have one.
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