https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJzfBs-wiek
As you all know by now, Final Fantasy VIII is my favorite game of all time. Despite, yes, an ordinary storyline and a frustrating junction system at first, the excellent graphics and music more than made up for it. And as is usually the case for most Final Fantasy games, some of the tracks were “remixed” with the piano. How do they stand next to the original tracks?
Pretty well actually, especially when you consider the number of tracks that originally had piano arrangements. Ami sounds softer and has a slower tempo, which in my view reflects the mood where you heard the track much better – unable-to-express-his-feelings Squall sees his friends who infiltrated the missile base once more. “Real” piano therefore better shows Squall’s hesitation to express any sort of feeling. The Successor DEFINITELY sounds better on the real piano. The intro is much softer and slow, but then the pianist is able to create the perfect drama for a witch transferring her powers to another that the original track lacked. And all through the rest of the track the pianist is also able to create a better dramatic feeling. Slide Show Part 2 also sounds better because it is more realistic. The tempo is slower and the pianist doesn’t “smash the keys” as the original track did. And yet he is able to keep that 1920s movie feel.
And even tracks that were not originally arranged with piano sound better with one. Find your Way, after a quiet intro, is able to create a better mysterious ambiance than the original track. There is only piano instead of bells and violins, which would have been perfect for a dungeon. There is even a more dramatic feel in the middle of the loop with louder notes playing, which is still excellent. Shuffle or Boogie, while not being as interesting as the original track, still sounds pretty good with its interesting “bar ambiance” that is superior to Dark City Treno. You can almost smell the cigarette smoke and the hard liquor from around the table where you are playing a high-stake game. The tempo is slower than the original, but still very enjoyable. And Succession of Witches, while sounding less dramatic than the original track, is more enjoyable on a real piano. The notes are low and at the right tempo and there isn’t that annoying Fithos Lusec Vicos Vinosec.
However, not having lyrics played against Eyes on Me. It’s not the kind of music I would listen to all day long, but it was enjoyable. The piano version sounds like the original but simply doesn’t carry the love ambiance Faye Wong carried, and trying to smash the keys doesn’t do it. In a similar way, The Castle too got downgraded from being played on the piano. The original organ sounded MUCH more dramatic; the piano version is much too slow and quiet to even remotely sound like a final dungeon. Only the staccato part in the middle of the track was done well, with the right tone and tempo. Ditto for the Ending Theme. The original track had it fully “orchestrated” for the first time and it sounded magnificent. The piano arrangements just can not live up to it. Not only is it just a single instrument, which can’t reproduce all the ambiance from a full orchestra, but its tempo is just too slow to be an enjoyable ending theme. Plus it sounds a bit far from the actual ending theme starting about midway.
Nevertheless, I warmly recommend the Final Fantasy VIII piano collection. It is one of the best such album ever composed, with most tracks at par or better than the original tracks.