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Originally Posted by Special
Breath of Fire
Vandal Hearts
Wild Arms
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These are
fantastic suggestions.
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Not exactly sure how well some of these would translate to orchestra though... BoF3 being very jazzy, BoF4 Asian influenced, Bo5 dark, electronic and ambient
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I'd say they're all just perfect! The key to having something translate well to orchestra is in its original arrangement: what's the instrumentation? how are the harmonies voiced? where are countermelodies used? can rhythms be maintained without the traditional drum-bass section? how much "meat" do the compositions have?
BoF3/4/5 are all so expertly composed that an orchestral adaption would work exceptionally well for all of them--with the right selection. Even so, they're not scant in orchestratable (new word, thank you) material.
BoF1, of course, already has several brilliantly orchestrated tracks. I've dreamt about live performances of the three world map themes.
BoF2, on the other hand, doesn't match the criteria above very well: the original material is too meager for proper adaptation without significant embellishment. The more embellishment needed, the worse candidate for orchestration. A lot of FF material is like this, which is part of the reason so many live concert FF arrangements are so terrible. And basically anything from a Western game, unfortunately--they're just so sparse in content that there's only so much an orchestrator can do to make it interesting.
Wild Arms would be a winning formula, as well. WA3's soundtrack in particular is such a thick, layered masterpiece that it would need two volumes for proper representation. Naruke really outdid herself on that one.
Vandal Hearts II could just be handed to performers as is.
But I feel the only way to do VH1 justice is to have a wind ensemble, rather than orchestra, perform it. VH1 and VH2 are rare examples of orchestral/wind soundtracks that are already orchestrated to perfection, because the guy writing them actually knows how to orchestrate and composed the music with that expertise.