Album: Final Fantasy VIII: SeeDs of Pandora

22 hours ago, Xaleph said:

Categories - initially (when I first read the project announcement years ago), I wasn't sure how much I liked the Calm | Crazy | Goofy categories but I thought it was unique and interesting but it felt like a gimmick. I now stand corrected, it adds so much to the album and I really really love these categories. Seeing how each genre fits perfectly in the category interpretation... it's BRILLIANT and I really hope to see this concept used again in future albums.

Listening Party - I know it's kind of a new thing we were playing with but it's definitely the way to go. Not sure how to best market it but it definitely built up the hype. Great decision here.

Collaborations - the amount of collaborations (as was mentioned by @Liontamer and others last night) is truly amazing. It further improves the community and honestly makes the quality of the songs fantastic.

Categories - This was my idea. I wanted the album to be different than previous large-scale albums which seemed to just follow 'whatever works in whatever order' sort of direction. I wanted a more cohesive flow that was separated by disc. Something you can't get on a single or perhaps a two-disc album, in terms of variety. With 4 discs (not counting the bonus) to work with, there was plenty of room to arrange tracks to best fit together and flow smoothly for a cohesive listening experience. I feel every album should have a focused theme or goal in mind before starting instead of just: "we'll take whatever is submitted." Some may not agree with me, but I can think of several awesome orchestral-only, metal-only, rock-only, dance edm-only albums which have had STRONG outings because of these realized visions. So I'm very happy you enjoyed how it came out, even if the initial impression wasn't favorable! ❤️ I just now need to convince everyone for the Star Fox album the new vision there too. haha....

Listening Party - Also another idea I pushed months in advance. OC ReMix had never done these sorts of things before for any of its albums and I was inspired by the one done for a Final Fantasy IX album (not done by OCR) whose name escapes me. I was like: That's an awesome idea. So, I took it upon myself to create all the videos and push the agenda in making the party happen. Unfortunately, we had settled on a hard release date of 5/8/2023 and we were crunching to make that deadline. So, we couldn't advertise the premiere party launch until almost the last minute, because we weren't sure if we were going to make 5/8/2023 and we needed the final assurances of DJPretzel and Liontamer before we could announce the listening party or if we needed to push it back. Despite this, it was a successful premiere and everyone enjoyed themselves! Maybe next time we'll have more!

Collaborations - Another thing I strongly pushed for. I promoted it up front as people were claiming tracks to collab with each other. We even made it a point to make a separate role on the collaboration server for collab-only contributors. So you could easily identify and reach out to those who could do live instruments you were seeking. It was a fantastic mix of talent that if I go on to direct the Star Fox album, I'm going to continue to push for collaborations among musicians/artists. For example: So what if most of the 'theming' might be too fast-paced or rock/metal based for some remixers to participate, doesn't mean you can't collaborate and add in your own flair to it. I can see it now: Metal Star Wolf with some Oud mixed in for good measure (as a weird example, but hey! Anything can happen with creativity!)! So, I'm happy to hear this struck a lovely chord with you.

Thank you so much for these comments and I hope you enjoy the album many times over! We're all very proud of it!

1 hour ago, Black_Doom said:

I believe that track 1-10 has incorrect data. It's specified as a remix of Force Your Way while I'm pretty sure the source track is Find Your Way.

Really great album so far! I'm very far from done though haha.

Yeah the website also says Find Your Way, must be a typo https://ff8.ocremix.org/

I believe that track 1-10 has incorrect data. It's specified as a remix of Force Your Way while I'm pretty sure the source track is Find Your Way.

Really great album so far! I'm very far from done though haha.

@Subz1987 Actually, @Liontamer found out what the real issue is - special characters in filenames that aren't encoded right, which are causing issues on Apple devices. We will be updating the zip shortly to address this.

UPDATE: zip files on all three mirrors updated with filenames that should no longer causes issues on Apple, etc. devices!

@Subz1987 I just double-checked from mirror 2, and did not have the same issue - all files were there. If the zip downloaded partially, you should have gotten errors when unzipping. Another possibility is that, depending on where you unzipped, certain filenames may have been too long? At any rate, I don't think there's an issue with the zip itself, based on my test.

I downloaded the album from Mirror 2, and it looks like some tracks are missing from the zip file after I extracted it. Anyone else notice this?

Amazing job everyone.

Quick POSITIVE feedback.

Categories - initially (when I first read the project announcement years ago), I wasn't sure how much I liked the Calm | Crazy | Goofy categories but I thought it was unique and interesting but it felt like a gimmick. I now stand corrected, it adds so much to the album and I really really love these categories. Seeing how each genre fits perfectly in the category interpretation... it's BRILLIANT and I really hope to see this concept used again in future albums.

Listening Party - I know it's kind of a new thing we were playing with but it's definitely the way to go. Not sure how to best market it but it definitely built up the hype. Great decision here.

Collaborations - the amount of collaborations (as was mentioned by @Liontamer and others last night) is truly amazing. It further improves the community and honestly makes the quality of the songs fantastic.

In no way am I criticizing previous albums (which I'm an artist in many) when I say that this album is easily a 10/10

This is particularly impressive given the number of songs on the album.

Again, great job everyone!

• Preview Final Fantasy VIII: SeeDs of Pandora: https://youtu.be/WVx6a1JHaDk
• Download Final Fantasy VIII: SeeDs of Pandora: https://ff8.ocremix.org
• Torrent: https://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Final_Fantasy_VIII_-_SeeDs_of_Pandora.torrent

To talk about SeeDs of Pandora, I feel I should start with Secret of Mana. It was my first RPG that I have ever played and it sparked the flame to play more in this genre. It ultimately led me to playing Final Fantasy VI (III at the time) for the SNES. I was hooked on the RPG genre and I wanted more Final Fantasy. Sadly, Sony had moved on from Nintendo at this point and all the cool new games, VII, VIII, IX, and more, were released on PlayStation systems - systems I was too young to have money for with parents who weren't willing to shell out more for additional consoles. So it would be near a decade before I had a chance to play Final Fantasy again and this time it was on the PC with the PC ports of Final Fantasy VII and VIII (strangely, IX never got one). And of course, my first Final Fantasy played was VIII. Coming back to the series after being gone from it for so long was like coming home and Final Fantasy VIII just seemed to be this perfect welcoming party of a game for me. I loved its characters, its world, and its music - the battle/junction system and card game would grow on me later.

Fast-forward to now and I was given the opportunity to direct a defunct FFVIII OC ReMix album project. It was attempted once, but for reasons, it fell through. I was offered, due to my experience in directing Arcadia Legends and Mizar Attacks!, the chance to direct and revive this album - being the last Final Fantasy of the PlayStation era not to have an OC ReMix album. Directing an album isn't easy, especially one of this magnitude that could easily reach 40 tracks or more. I mean, it took us 3 years to finish Arcadia Legends and that was 36 tracks! Enter Jorito, my co-director and essentially my lifeline throughout this entire process. If it weren't for him, I highly doubt this project would have gotten off the ground, let alone finished in record time. It was his insistence and push to give the entire album a year's timeline to complete all claimed tracks - a decision that paid off well and gave incentive to remixers to strive to complete their claims in record time! Jorito is just as much a director as I was on this project and is truly the star MVP of the album.

Despite having a solid directing team and the backing of OC ReMix to revive this project as an official album straight out of the starting gate, we still needed a solid vision for the project. We could have gone the traditional route and just do a chronological ordering of tracks from the beginning of the game to the end and let remixers decide what theming and genre is best for their claimed tracks - or we could go a more unique route and create special, themed groupings of tracks. Taking inspiration from the Spectrum of Mana album, directed by Nate Horsfall, I divided up FFVIII's soundtrack into three distinct styles:

CALM - Chill and slow remixes that had a cultural bent either via arrangement or unique instrument use that gave visions of a specific culture.
CRAZY - Toe-tapping, floor-thumping, heart-pounding beats and fast, frenetic energy in remix form.
GOOFY - Songs that are remixed in ways you would not expect, for example taking a waltz and making it death metal. Constantly surprise the listener and betray their expectations.

With the vision set, we recruited far and wide for remixers and artists. The unique flavoring of the three discs drew interested creatives to the project and helped nurture fantastic remixes and artwork. It was around this time, as musicians flooded in to claim tracks, that we might have more finished tracks by the end than the planned three discs could handle and thus the further theming of the album began to revolve around the three Gardens in the game: Balamb, Galbadia, and Trabia. However, the need for that fourth disc loomed and the only other option left which made the most sense was the Lunatic Pandora (or the Pandora) disc. With these themes locked in, the artists went to work straight away and created some fantastic pieces that matched the original vision. With the help of Jorito, it was an amazingly smooth experience and we managed to get a complete album finished in just over a year's time with a whopping 69 tracks!

But wait, there's more! In the 11th hour, weeks before we were to submit the album to OC ReMix, ZackParrish, among others, spearheaded a crazy last-minute bonus disc with 11 more tracks (get it, 11th hour?!) to cover any last, remaining songs on the OST the core album couldn't. It was a fun, insane rush to the finish line and with a final tally of 80 tracks in total, we have officially broken the record as of 2023 as being the biggest album ever produced out of OC ReMix! We are kings (and queens)! Kudos to all the talented people who helped make this album a reality! It was a joy working on this and seeing it come together.

Finally, one final note to you, the listener: If you are expecting these remixes to adhere close to their original inspirations or to have faithful adaptations of well-known and beloved tracks, then this album might not be for you. The intent with this album was to embrace the remix aspect of OC ReMix fully and to interpret the original melodies in ways you might not have heard before. Our goal is to provide something new and transformative with these songs. So go in with an open mind and know that this listening experience was carefully crafted to take you on a journey (I should know! I ordered the tracks specifically to flow in a way that felt natural). We hope you enjoy this album and may it always rekindle your fond memories of your time playing Final Fantasy VIII.

From the SeeDs of Pandora team to you: Happy listening!

- Darkflamewolf

I've been hooked on JRPGs and Final Fantasy in particular since discovering SNES emulators back in the late 90s, and that hasn't changed since. The very first console I owned was the original PlayStation (PSX), and the starter game I bought with it was Final Fantasy 7. And of course two years later I also made sure to get myself a copy of Final Fantasy 8. To this day I still distinctly remember the "WTF is going on" near the end of the game and, whatever the story was trying to tell me, it flew right over my head.

Fast-forward about fifteen years, and I got into VGM remixing and became an active member of the OC ReMix community. So when an album project got started to remix the Final Fantasy 8 music, I of course had to join and make a track for it. Unfortunately that album initiative got stranded early on in the process, something that always left me feeling a bit sad. At the time I was just wrapping up the OCR Secret of Mana album and was in need of a break, but I always kept the FF8 album in mind to potentially pick up as a (co-)director later. Given the sheer size of the OST I didn't want to do it alone though. So the idea got shelved for a few years.

That is, until Darkflamewolf randomly brought up the comatose FF8 album on the OC ReMix Discord in August 2021. We started talking about the album, djpretzel pointed out that I had expressed interest in helping out a few years before, and after a few chats we decided to team up and rejuvenate the Final Fantasy 8 album and make sure that the only missing OCR Final Fantasy PSX game album got the tribute it deserved. I did have one specific aim though: I wanted to get it done in about a year, because I know how much work these album projects can be and how hard it can be to keep people motivated long enough to create and deliver their tracks. All set and done, we outlined a rough planning, Darkflamewolf sketched out a compelling vision and tracklist suggestion for each disc and came up with a title, I started recruiting far and wide (apparently being in the VGM community for a while and doing lots of collaborations is a good way to build a network), and we were off to the races.

And boy, what a journey it was! We managed to interest a lot of people from the VGM community, with a good mix of OC ReMix veterans, people from other communities, and newcomers. We created a Discord server for the album to help coordinate things (not a small feat with I think in total some 70+ people), many fun conversations were had there, and the setup overall led to a positive, supportive environment that made the whole experience very enjoyable. And of course I would be amiss if I didn't mention the collaboration with Darkflamewolf; we worked really well together as a directing team, each of us with their own areas of expertise and roles yet always united to get the album done and cheering all the artists that joined us on this journey. All in all it was a very smooth experience, and I think all everyone involved should be very proud of what we've achieved together.

I hope all the fun and joy we had while creating this album for you shines through, and that you, dear listener, enjoy this fresh new take on the music of Final Fantasy 8 as much as we enjoyed making it.

- Jorrith Schaap (Jorito)