Game Composer Breaks Down TO ZANARKAND from FINAL FANTASY X

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It’s time for some more Final Fantasy music, and this time we’re featuring a timeless classic, To Zanarkand from Final Fantasy X. I can never not be amazed at how masterfully Nobuo Uematsu creates such simple pieces.

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Game footage credit to Dork_Maule: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fp81GzKarQ

Shirrako: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUJXeg3tWuk

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47 thoughts on “Game Composer Breaks Down TO ZANARKAND from FINAL FANTASY X”

  9. Great video as always! Some of my friends keep saying that they want to play this at their weddings.XD It’s amazing how this piece is loved by many people.
    When I first heard this piece, I thought it was "so beautiful but too emotional”. Having this play during the opening felt overly sentimental to me, but now I can see how it is perfect for the game. This beautiful piece evokes a sense of sadness and loss that the game conveys. I think the players already feeling the pain early in the game is both effective and meaningful for understanding and connecting with the characters and the world-building of FFX. It’s hard to believe that this masterpiece wasn't originally written for the game! Thanks for the video, Davi. I really enjoyed it.

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  10. This is a song I fell in love from the first moment I started listening to it.
    I remember that moment. It was Christmas and I received my PS2 as a gift, with Final Fantasy X as my first PS2 game. I was so hyped that I just grab a small TV, place it on the floor and I sit down to use my new console. Then something I never expeted: a sad piano solo started to play. In that moment, everthing around me disapeared, I was alone with that TV and every other noise was filtered, I was fully immersed in that melody. I didn't know his name yet but in that moment Nobuo Uematsu changed my relationship with games and music.

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  17. I've always loved this song, thanks for showing some of the more technical aspects of it that add some punch the emotion of it. Have you heard the Black Mages version of the song? Nobuo Uematsu turned it into a rock opera with English lyrics.

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  26. Thank you so much for this analysis, Davi. Final Fantasy X is my favorite from the series, and this music always brings so many emotions anytime I hear it.

    I know this was just an analysis from the music part, but the line from the main character adds so much to it.

    "Listen to my story. This may be our last chance."

    This is the first thing you hear in the game, and it hits so hard, specially when you know later in the game as the story progresses. This is simply incredible! Love this game.

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  27. This is really awesome, Nobuo really is something else when it comes to composing music. Thank you so much for covering this track Davi, this game has a very special place in my childhood memories, it warms the heart to see such a great song being appreciated 2 decades later 🙂

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  28. FFX was my first proper time playing a Final Fantasy game and while there are things I dislike about the gameplay the story will forever be my favorite telling. I still remember bringing my PS2 home and mom got me this game to start off, and I plugged it in and this theme played… Such a great era of gaming overall, but I'll never forget that moment.

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  29. The beauty of Uematsu's mastery is that this track feels like it's telling you a story.
    And indeed it is. Beat for beat, this piece of aural beauty is like a big "This is my the story".
    More so because each and every part of the piece is turned into a leitmotif that then grows to be its own… tale.
    Or fragment of a bigger one.
    I like your videos about Uematsu, Mitsuda, and Shimomura, the three great composers of old Squaresoft. Those videos are few and far between, but they are so good. Especially when you explain why they are so good.
    Only a fan can properly explain why a master is great, and only a fan that was inspired by those masters can say it as it should be.

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  30. Thank you for explaining about counterpoint, Davi! Makes total sense and is such a beautiful result.
    It’s details like this that help me appreciate music even more.
    Love your enthusiasm.😊

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  35. Ive been loving the influx of Final Fantasy content lately. Truly a masterwork franchise for music. Are you planning to cover the Titan Lost theme from 16 at any time? Its one of my favorites! 🙂

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  40. This track is one of the best piano pieces ever created in my opinion. It is such an relatively simple piece but packs such a brutal punch in terms of invoking feelings into the listener.

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  45. Counter point…YES!!! I LOVE IT! Another YES FOR rubato! My mom was a wonderful concert violinist (she started playing when she was five–in 1928), who also played piano, accordion, organ, and in her later years, electronic keyboards, plus autoharp, ukelele, a bit of banjo, and some guitar. She was a MASTER (or I should say MISTRESS) of these methods, both in playing and writing music. I have her whole Christmas cantata that she wrote when she was about 70 years old. The church she was attending at the time, produced the play that year, but shortly after that, she started having health issues. When she passed away in 2014, she still hadn't published it. I inherited her case full of her cassette recordings and her "written" music and lyrics, but I have been totally lazy and not done anything with it. You have just given me an incentive to dig out that case and at least try to interpret and update it from her own personal method of writing music, and perhaps publish it in her name. It's very beautiful.

    Over the weekend just past, I purchased both of the Coromon sets through Bandcamp. My daughter and my grandkids are totally excited about the music, and finding the .pdf sheet music in the piano set was an extreme blessing! Thank you VERY much for the GORGEOUS music. I hope to be able to afford the game itself, soon (which will ALSO make the kids very happy–grin).

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