VGMdb
Discuss | Edit

Final Fantasy VIII: SeeDs of Pandora

SeeDs of Pandora
Catalog Number OCRA-0078
Release Date May 08, 2023
Publish Format Doujin/Indie
Release Price Free
Media Format 5 Digital
Classification Arrangement
PublisherOverClocked ReMix / /

Credits

Director / Darkflamewolf, Jorito
Arranger / APZX, Audio Mocha, Blake Inc., bLiNd, Bluelighter, Capt'n Shred, Carlos Piano, Chris Kohler, Clément Panchout, CNDR, colorado weeks, Cyril the Wolf, Deedubs, Dj Orange, djpretzel, donut, Drakeld, Earth Kid, feraldreams., Fishy, Flake, Gario, GlacialSpoon, GuitarSVD, HeavenWraith, HeavyViper, Hemophiliac, Ian Martyn, Ivan Hakštok, J Damashii, Jean Of mArc, Jorito, KaS, Lucas Guimaraes, Mel Decision, McVaffe, Pixel Pirates, RebeccaETripp, Rockos, Siolfor the Jackal, SirCorn, Sirenstar, Sorven, The Vodoú Queen, Treyt, Tuberz McGee, Vylent, ZackParrish
Composer / Nobuo Uematsu / , Shiro Hamaguchi /
Performer / Andrew Steffen, Anna Hanabi, Audio Mocha, Becky Reid, Blake Inc., Bonnie Bogovich, Bullicann, Calem Destiny, Capt'n Shred, Carlos Piano, Carrie Wood, Chris | Amaterasu, Chris Kohler, Chromatic Apparatus, CNDR, colorado weeks, Cyril the Wolf, Daphne F., Darby Cupit, Dewey Newt, Dionté George, Dj Orange, dpMusicman, E. Jesús Chic Acevedo, Earth Kid, Éder Grangeiro, Facemelting Solos, Fishy, Flake, Gamer of the Winds, GuitarSVD, HeavenWraith, Hemophiliac, Ian Cowell, Ian Martyn, Ivan Hakštok, J Damashii, Jabo, James Perretta, Jean Of mArc, John Bishop, Jordi Storm, Jorito, JoyDreamer, Juan Medrano, KestrelGirl, Khoo Sze Ning, Leo Martyn, Lucas Guimaraes, Marcel Balciunas, Masikus, MegadudeXD, metamoogle, Numoon, optimizasean, Pearl Pixel, RebeccaETripp, Ron Wikso, SableProvidence, Serrin's Toes, Shea's Violin, Siolfor the Jackal, Sir Telias, SirCorn, Sirenstar, Sorven, The Vodoú Queen, thebitterroost, Travis Kindred, Treyt, TSori, Tuberz McGee, Viking Guitar, Warp Whistles Music, William Sandberg, Wurtzel, ZackParrish
Lyrics / Blake Inc., CNDR, Cyril the Wolf, Ian Martyn, J Damashii, JoyDreamer, Mel Decision, Numoon, Sirenstar, The Vodoú Queen, Treyt
Artwork / Azurelly, EdgeKagami, MDVillareal, WhittGraphics
Audio Engineer / James C. Hoffman, ZackParrish

Tracklist

Disc 1

01 The Jellyfish (Fisherman's Horizon) 3:07
02 Aroma of Sugary Warmth (Balamb Garden) 3:40
03 Moonlit Night on a Calm Lake (Waltz for the Moon) 3:05
04 Where Is My Fault? (Tell Me) 4:19
05 Garden's Destiny (The Oath) 5:31
06 I Belong (Where I Belong) 4:03
07 Roses, Wine, and Gentle Smiles (Roses and Wine) 3:57
08 Gaofar (Breezy) 3:48
09 The Annals of Truth (Junction) 3:35
10 Find Your Way to the East (Find Your Way) 4:15
11 Take My Squall Away (Love Grows) 4:57
12 Tears in Rain (Silence and Motion) 5:03
13 The Infested Arena (Fear, Unrest) 3:21
14 Longing for the Horizon (Blue Fields) 4:09
15 Moments (Fragments of Memories) 3:51
16 Your Smile (Julia) 4:00
17 Friends Under Different Stars (Ami) 3:52
18 Lost in Time (The Successor) 3:49
Disc length 72:22
Disc 2

01 The Galbadian National Anthem (Cactus Jack) 2:09
02 Two Scars Matching (Don't Be Afraid) 3:45
03 Dancefloorphans (Truth) 3:41
04 Skadooshin' (Movin') 3:24
05 Filthy Lies / Wasted Virtue (Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec) 6:38
06 Queen of Cards (Shuffle or Boogie) 4:34
07 Dead End Blitz (Dead End) 3:15
08 Turn Those UP (Starting Up) 4:28
09 Downtown Run (Never Look Back) 5:46
10 Stuck in My Mind (My Mind, Eyes on Me) 5:52
11 Theme of the White Hole Prevention Agency (Ride On) 5:18
12 The Marshall (Martial Law) 4:15
13 Final Force (Force Your Way) 3:51
14 Witch Hunter (The Man with the Machine Gun, Succession of Witches) 5:07
15 Warheads (Retaliation) 4:22
16 Only a Hot Dog Between One and the Sickness (Only a Plank Between One and Perdition) 3:04
17 You Got Me Dancing (Dance with the Balamb-fish) 3:09
Disc length 72:38
Disc 3

01 Even Ill Omens Need a Break (Premonition) 5:27
02 Swagger de Chocobo (Mods de Chocobo) 3:51
03 El Vuelo de los Búhos (Timber Owls) 4:16
04 Proposition and Clamor (Overture) 4:36
05 Willing Sacrifice (A Sacrifice) 3:43
06 El Gran Salar (The Salt Flats) 2:56
07 A Scar to Match (Rivals) 3:15
08 The Oscar Goes to Laguna Loire (Slide Show Part 1, Slide Show Part 2) 3:43
09 Night Shift (Jailed) 5:18
10 OH!! DEKA-DE-JAZZ-DE-CHOCOBO ~ Dirty Contacts Mix (Odeka ke Chocobo) 2:24
11 For a Few Draws More (The Mission) 4:56
12 Still Under Her Control, But with New Management (Under Her Control) 3:53
13 Weary Waltz (Unrest) 1:38
14 Into the Singularity (Compression of Time) 4:18
15 Concédeme Un Momento (Eyes on Me) 3:16
16 Deling City Nights (Galbadia Garden) 2:25
17 A Wounded Spy (The Spy, Wounded) 2:23
18 Succession of Magical Girls (Succession of Witches) 2:38
19 Smooth Heretic (Heresy) 2:17
20 We Are the Winners (The Winner) 3:20
Disc length 70:33
Disc 4

01 Voces Maledictionis et Spei: Children Fated to Lead (Libari Fatali) 5:05
02 If Time Stood Still (Eyes on Me) 5:01
03 Set the Stage on Fire (The Stage Is Set) 4:22
04 The Sorceress's Knight (Force Your Way) 4:54
05 Heavy Residents (Residents) 5:49
06 The Tolls of Stringent Obligation (The Landing) 4:18
07 High Tides and Lunar Cries (Lunatic Pandora) 4:05
08 In Horto Dormit Nuntius (The Castle) 4:15
09 SeeDs of Pandora (SeeD) 5:50
10 Make Them Bleed (The Legendary Beast) 4:51
11 Maybe I'm a Lion or Maybe I'm Not (Maybe I'm a Lion) 4:14
12 All Existence Denied (The Extreme) 9:46
13 Succession of Power (The Successor) 3:53
14 And That's the End (Ending Theme) 6:03
Disc length 72:26
Disc 5

01 Net Fish and Chill (Fisherman's Horizon) 3:15
02 No Shuffle, No Boogie (Shuffle or Boogie) 2:57
03 The Definition of Lunacy (Tears of the Moon, Intruders, Blue Sky) 5:00
04 Time Will Compress (Compression of Time) 5:27
05 Untethered (Drifting) 3:51
06 Song of the Desperado (Man with the Machine Gun) 4:24
07 Witches Be Witches (Succession of Witches) 3:39
08 As One Closes, Another Opens (The Loser) 3:26
09 Moments (Synthwave Mix) [Fragments of Memories] 4:35
10 The Definition of Insanity (Tears of the Moon) 3:29
11 Existence Still Denied (Medley) 9:49
Disc length 49:52

  Total tracks 80   Total length 5:37:51

Notes

Final Fantasy VIII: SeeDs of Pandora
Comments from album director Darkflamewolf, co-director Jorrith Schaap (Jorito), and ReMixers
Album freely available at https://ocremix.org

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)

Album Stats

Contained in 4 collections
Contained in 0 wish lists
Category
Game
Platforms represented
Sony PlayStation

Available at


Websites


Related Albums



Added
May 6, 2023 05:23 PM
Edited
May 9, 2023 05:47 PM
Page traffic
1383 visitors
-/-/-/-/- freedb
Page built in
0.16 seconds