https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9G2HA86r6M

To my knowledge, the Final Fantasy IV piano collection was the first (or at least, among the firsts) such albums ever composed. And as is usually the case for “firsts” the result is not up to what it could have been (compared to more modern games like Final Fantasy VIII for example). There are some excellent tracks, but the overall result is not so good.

This is mainly due to the “limitations” of the piano. It is a single instrument; it therefore can hardly reproduce all the arrangements that the original sound version tried to reproduce. Prologue is such an example. Despite the pianist’s faithfulness to the classical Final Fantasy theme, a piano just cannot have the same epicness as even the NES versions of the theme. He is trying his best by playing the notes loudly, but it just doesn’t quite do it. The same thing goes for the Epilogue. The first and third part sounds terribly empty (you know, when you see the full Legend of Mysidia and when Cecil gets crowned), and the rest just has too slow a tempo. It doesn’t sound like the conclusion of a great saga as the original track did. Into the Darkness also suffers from piano limitations. The tempo is so slow that one can barely recognize the track. The Celtic Moon version was a much better remix.

But even for tracks that didn’t have many instruments, having them played on the piano doesn’t do the track justice. Take the Prelude as an example. Since you have to hit the keys rather than pinch the strings (for the harp of the original track), the notes flow much less well and spoils the track. Plus, the low “key smashing” simply can’t carry the feelings of magic and mystery the original harp did – hell he doesn’t even loop completely. The Main Theme suffers from the same problem. Not only don’t the notes flow well, half the track is not even recognizable; it’s like the player tried to create an echo effect that didn’t work at all. The “key smashing” was slightly better than the Prelude, but not by much – it played the original theme a little better than the first part.

Fortunately, there were so very good tracks too. Theme of Love is played slower and softer than the original version, which I believe makes for a more romantic atmosphere. It gets even better when the pianist starts using both hands and the same time. Chocobo-Chocobo was also done nicely. It sounds very jolly and even better than the original track (and the Celtic Moon version) – it reminds me of the Final Fantasy III DS version of the Chocobo theme. Melody of the Lute was also another track better than the original. The notes sound less staccato than the original, and it’s played much softer, showing Edward’s fragile nature much better. And that’s even including the “key smashing” towards the end; could it be when he finally stops mourning Anna?

But the best track of them all was Rydia. Like Melody, Rydia was able to capture the character’s light-hearted theme much better with the piano than with the SNES arrangements. It’s slow, it’s soft and very relaxing – there is no “key smashing” in this one.

Speaking of relaxing, a special mention for Troian Beauty. The tempo is much slower than the original, but the piano is still faithful to the original track. There is even an “extended loop” that sounds very nice and relaxing too; its slightly accelerated tempo even creates more “beauty.”

In conclusion, you will probably like this album if you’re already a fan of piano. Otherwise, most of the tracks don’t quite live up to the originals. They either suffer from the piano’s limitation of being the only instrument of they simply don’t play the track well. There is one notable exception: the Battle. It starts with the regular battle theme, which is much too slow, then quickly follows with the boss battle theme. This was a very interesting integration; it had an interesting grove to it and the tone was accordingly low and the tempo, quick. But the Dreadful Fight, like the regular battle theme, was too slow.

"In conclusion, you will probably like this album if you’re already a fan of piano. Otherwise, most of the tracks don’t quite live up to the originals. They either suffer from the piano’s limitation of being the only instrument of they simply don’t play the track well."

I've got the piano versions for basically every Final Fantasy game and I agree with this statement fully. A single instrument can't live up to the multiple instruments you can put even into a video game. They do their best to write the various instruments into it but it's still 1 piano playing any of these songs and they can only do so much.

However, I do think there is a simplistic beauty to having one instrument play a lot of these songs. I almost like the clean feel that just hearing a piano play these songs rather than hearing the artificial sounds that the NES and SNES made a lot of the time. That's me being a big piano fan more than me being a big FF music fan.

Take Theme of Love - on the piano it totally tugs at my heart string but on the original game it is actually quite annoying to me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uA12gAaTiA). Again, that's just 1 case and just my opinion. I feel like the piano does this song WAY more justice than the SNES ever could. Now that I re-read your review again to find where you talked about this track you seem to agree with me on that one.

Even the sonds you seem to think are overplayed or don't fit as well as the original I think are quite good still.

geeogree : I guess it all depends on the track. Johnny C Bad (Final Fantasy VI) and JENOVA (Final Fantasy VII) sounded much better on the piano despite their original tracks having "complex" arrangements.

For the longest time I have been an "originalist", i.e. preferring the original track to any kind of remix. As the Internet grew I got to find more versions of the tracks I so loved when I played the original consoles. Maybe that is why I did not like FF IV on the piano that much. But we do agree that the original Theme of Love was a good adaptation, mainly because 1991 was just the beginning of the 16-bits era. Hell, just compare the (original) battle themes between IV and VI; it is night and day.

yeah, and I've always been a sucker for piano arrangements in music (almost regardless of genre or origin of the song) so getting to listen to all the Final Fantasy tracks done on the piano was like heaven to me.

And really, I think most of us love the full orchestra treatment that a lot of the songs have gotten over the years. Not much compares to hearing your favorite song done properly by a fully trained orchestra. Makes even the most epic of songs even better.