Music of Final Fantasy VIII - Legacy

Legacy

The music of Final Fantasy VIII has appeared in various official Final Fantasy concerts. These include 2002's 20020220 Music from FINAL FANTASY, in which the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra played "Liberi Fatali", "Don't Be Afraid", "Love Grows", and "The Man with the Machine Gun", the 2004 Tour de Japon series, which featured "The Oath", the Dear Friends series that began that same year and included "Liberi Fatali" and "Love Grows", and the 2005 More Friends concert, which included "Maybe I'm a Lion". More recent concerts include the Voices - Music from Final Fantasy 2006 concert showcasing "Liberi Fatali", "Fisherman's Horizon", and "Eyes on Me" and the international Distant Worlds concert tour that continues to date, which includes "Liberi Fatali", "Fisherman's Horizon", "Man with the Machine Gun", and "Love Grows". Several of these concerts have produced live albums as well. Music from the game has also been played in non Final Fantasy-specific concerts such as the Play! A Video Game Symphony world tour from 2006 onwards, for which Nobuo Uematsu composed the opening fanfare that accompanies each performance. "Eyes on Me" was played at the Fantasy Comes Alive concert in Singapore on April 30, 2010.

Music from the original soundtrack has been arranged for the piano and published by DOREMI Music Publishing. All of the pieces in the book have been rewritten by Asako Niwa as beginning to intermediate-level piano solos, though they are meant to sound as much like the originals as possible. "Best of" collections from the series including Final Fantasy VIII and arrangements for guitar solos and piano duets are also available. Additionally, the actual piano sheet music from the Piano Collections Final Fantasy VIII album has been published as a corresponding music book by Yamaha Music Media. The book contains the original music, exactly as arranged and performed on the albums. Unlike the Original Score arrangements, these pieces are intended only for advanced players as they are generally more difficult.

The Black Mages, a band that arranges music from Final Fantasy video games into a rock music style, has arranged five pieces from Final Fantasy VIII. These are "Force Your Way" from The Black Mages, published in 2003, "The Man with the Machine Gun" and "Maybe I'm a Lion", from The Black Mages II: The Skies Above, published in 2004, and "The Extreme" and "Premonition" from The Black Mages III: Darkness and Starlight. The Black Mages performed "Maybe I'm a Lion" at the Extra: Hyper Game Music Event 2007 concert in Tokyo on July 7, 2007. In the 2004 Summer Olympics, the American synchronized swimming duo consisting of Alison Bartosik and Anna Kozlova were awarded the bronze medal for their performance to the pieces "Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec" and "Liberi Fatali".