Want to sing in the FFIV remake? Square Enix is waiting to hear from you...

[Kionae]

For their upcoming remake of Final Fantasy IV for Nintendo DS, Square Enix is looking for a vocalist to perform the game's "Theme of Love" track for the western release.

The twist here is that they're not just looking for a professional vocalist this time around... they're holding a contest. The only condition is that you cannot already have a recording contract.

Details can (unfortunately) be found only on the Japanese FFIV site right now (click the orange-ish pink button in the lower right corner).

Here's my best effort at translation:

The excellent piece of music "Theme of Love" from FINAL FANTASY IV is being vocalized. The vocal track work is by Nobuo Uematsu, and he himself is working hard. As the theme song of the story, it is born again with more presence.

Vocalists who express the lyrical view of the world dramatically are invited. Applicants must be 18 years or older. Gender does not matter.

Applicants may not be under contract already, such as by a record company or music production company.

Please include:
- a profile: name with furigana (note: furigana is a reading aid for kanji characters), date of birth, age, address and communication telephone number, mailing address
- a self-PR statement.
- photograph (one each of full body and headshot)
- demonstration of vocal work (cassette, CD, or MD)

Mail to "FFIVヴォーカリスト募集事務局" (FFIV Volcalist Collection Secretary)

Contest is open June 1 (Fri.), 2007 to July 31 (Tue.)

We will only confirm whether or not an application has been receive. We will not disclose information about staff opinions of the application.

Submitted material will not be returned. Please see this page for our privacy policy.

Application collection begins Fri., June 1, 2007. This site will announce the secretary's mailing address for applications June 1.

Source: Kotaku

[Spira]

lol i was reading about it on the site itself.. they're pretty lenient cos they arent looking for any particular gender even

but i dont have a demo tape to send in lol

[Zezlar]

FF REMAKE!!!! they really need to remake V

[Luna Lovegood]

It's a pity I can't sing, or this would be the chance of a lifetime.
Either way, I hope this doesn't turn into some ****ty popularity contest to decide the winner. They should base it on actual talent.

[Garland]

Its bad enough that their remaking ff IV right after a remake was made for it alrready. But now their holding a "so you think you can sing a vocal track in a ****ty remake, show" now? ****, i wanna send in an audio tape with a 3500 kg square wave, with me shouting "ESCAFLOWNE!!!>..... ESCAFLOWNE!!!!!!!111111"

its like the game makers over there have fing ADD!uke:

[Kionae]

Originally Posted by Garland

Its bad enough that their remaking ff IV right after a remake was made for it alrready. But now their holding a "so you think you can sing a vocal track in a ****ty remake, show" now? ****, i wanna send in an audio tape with a 3500 kg square wave, with me shouting "ESCAFLOWNE!!!>..... ESCAFLOWNE!!!!!!!111111"

its like the game makers over there have fing ADD!uke:

Yeah, I don't totally get it either. They just did FFIV for GBA back in... what... 2005? But then again, this version is apparently going to be a true remake, rather than a port, with full 3D graphics (a la FFIII for DS).

Of course, it could be worse. They could be doing FFVI in that chibi-3D style. *shudders* (Then again, FFVI got the GBA treatment earlier this year... the DS might be it's next stop, too... )

[Garland]

ugh, ive seen scans of the remake, it looks as bad as III for the ds. They will probably make a game remake from IV, to V, to VI every year, like they did for the gba remakes. I dont understand why they gotta ruin perfectly good snes sprite games, but if they are going to make a "True remake" i want to see them for the PS3 with HD graphics, and non of that chibi stuff, cause they WILL do the same make over for VI! Ive seen scans for it to!

[TriggerRedd]

Don't be haters. Even if it is a remake on the heels of a re-release, I'm always just glad to re-play some of my favorite stories, including FF4. It's like a book you can re-read over and over again, and each time get something new out of it. And it looks like this time, even if it is somewhat chibi, they're adding some significant stuff. Oh what? CG movies of the attack on the Tower of Babel? Voice acting? For FFIV? That's been a dream since I played it on the SNES...

But if that's not enough for you guys, hey, nobody is grabbing your wallet and taking money out for this title.

And on topic, I've won a contest from Square before, (See FFXII Day) and they treat their winners with the utmost respect and courtesy. I'm glad to hear their opening this up to the fans with vocal talents to be in on this - someone already set it, but that's living the dream for anyone who grew up on the SNES.

[Garland]

There is a big difference between discovering new things out of good classics, and having crappy remade versions of the original, starwars a new hope is a perfect example of this, who honestly liked the crappy CG add ons in it!?

Still arn't convinced? than behold your precious game, in the horrors of the future! O.o


Lost Levels Online

[TriggerRedd]

Originally Posted by Garland

There is a big difference between discovering new things out of good classics, and having crappy remade versions of the original, starwars a new hope is a perfect example of this, who honestly liked the crappy CG add ons in it!?

Still arn't convinced? than behold your precious game, in the horrors of the future! O.o


Lost Levels Online

Uh...These don't look like "crappy CG add-ons." Not to me anyway.

And on those scans....note that the first one of Locke has a big logo that reads "Square?" Haven't they been Square-Enix now since oh, something like 2002? When was the last time they used THAT logo?

Whatever that is, it isn't the future - it's the past. (Lost Levels is apparently a site about games that were never made.) Maybe what FF6 would have looked like on an N64, or early PSX.

[Kionae]

Originally Posted by Garland

There is a big difference between discovering new things out of good classics, and having crappy remade versions of the original, starwars a new hope is a perfect example of this, who honestly liked the crappy CG add ons in it!?

Still arn't convinced? than behold your precious game, in the horrors of the future! O.o


Lost Levels Online

Yeah.... maybe if the "future" is around 1996. Those are for a demo for the Nintendo 64 (similar to the FF7 demo for the PS3).

Final Fantasy VI: The Interactive CG Game: Information from Answers.com

[Garland]

Yea, yea, they are scans from "Final fantasy 64" where originaly they were to release ff VI for the n64, until they heard that that game would be the last ff game nintendo would produce, so they squeezed it into the snes, making a lovely game, and allowing sony to make VII+ afterwords.

But, The message is still the same, the ds will make VI look like that, so in away it is the future, being the fact that the ds has the same graphics as an N64:bootyshake:

[Spira]

eh.. thats wrong..
the "Final Fantasy 64" mentioned there was simply a demo to showcase what FF6 could have been like if it was made on the N64. It was a tech demo. FF6 was released WAYYY before that tech demo (hence the fact people could identify with the characters from the game).

It is the equivalent of the PS2 "Squall & Rinoa ballroom dance" tech demo, as well as the infamous PS3 "FF7 opening" tech demo. They were never meant to be games.. Just there to showcase the power of the system...

Anyways, FF7 didn't ever turn out the way the N64 tech demo looked because the developers at Square did not agree with Nintendo's console strategy. (Square wanted to use CD-rom cos it was cheaper and could essentially hold more data) and that was the main reason they went to PS initially. (Good business decision imo)

back to FFIV.. the remake isn't really a new thing.. it was announced weeks ago. I'm still disappointed that Matrix is handling it because their production values aren't as high as an in-house team would be imo. but that said, giving FFIV a graphical facelife (hopefully a musical one too) and adding in alot of stuff that was omitted due to the SNES carts lack of space would be a welcome addition.

I read in some report that only a very small % of the original scenario made it into the game... then this was watered down even further for NA release.. And a ton of people have been complaining that FFIVs story sucked. well it wasn't fully fleshed out due to technological limitations, so this time it'll be better. Also, i don't think these changes were corrected in the GBA version...

[Garland]

How can the story in a game be a part of technical restraints? The fact is that the gba, remade the old snes version only a few years ago, and already there delving into a NEW remake. The "tech demo" for the n64, like i said earlier, will probably look like the remake of VI will look like, when it is inevitably made. IV already looks cheap looking " maybe not as bad as III, but seriously".

The main problem which is being spoken of, is not the remake itself, but the fact that a year or two ago, i heard that over 10 ff titles would be released and were in the works, and less than 50% of the titles were completed, and the rest are still in the back shelves, collecting dust, as Square Enix, replaces those already released titles, with twice as much "in the works" titles, and their gonna go in the back shelf, and im thinkin " hey! i was psyched for Ring of fates like a year ago!" "Put down those old games nintendo and sony, and stop trying to make them perfect, you live with flaws and u fix them in new titles, its called evolution, not fixing up an old volvo over and over again!"

[shuyin_zer0]

DAMMIT!!!! Im only 16!!!! and I thought this was my big break!!!:censored::censored::cens ored:out::tape2:

[Kionae]

Originally Posted by Garland

How can the story in a game be a part of technical restraints? The fact is that the gba, remade the old snes version only a few years ago, and already there delving into a NEW remake. The "tech demo" for the n64, like i said earlier, will probably look like the remake of VI will look like, when it is inevitably made. IV already looks cheap looking " maybe not as bad as III, but seriously".

Well... for one thing, less physical storage space means less time to tell the story. As far as I know, the GBA release was a port with slightly update graphics and a few extras, not a remake. Remake implies that they're starting from the ground up.

And somehow I doubt that if they redo FF6 in the same style as 3 and 4 it will look anything at all like that tech demo you seem so obsessed with. That thing was made back in the early 90s. When 3D graphics were just starting to take off in video games. Square's had more than 10 years to improve their techniques, and even with system limitations like that of the DS, they're going to be able to do a lot more than they could 10 years ago with the same system specs.

It's called learning through experience. Look at FF8's graphics compared to FF7's, for example. HUGE difference on the same hardware.

The main problem which is being spoken of, is not the remake itself, but the fact that a year or two ago, i heard that over 10 ff titles would be released and were in the works, and less than 50% of the titles were completed, and the rest are still in the back shelves, collecting dust, as Square Enix, replaces those already released titles, with twice as much "in the works" titles, and their gonna go in the back shelf, and im thinkin " hey! i was psyched for Ring of fates like a year ago!" "Put down those old games nintendo and sony, and stop trying to make them perfect, you live with flaws and u fix them in new titles, its called evolution, not fixing up an old volvo over and over again!"

Well, let's see. In the last year or two, Square Enix has release FF7 Advent Children, FF7 Before Crisis, FF7 Dirge of Cerberus, FF12, FF12 Revenant Wings, Chocobo Tales, FF3 DS, FF11: Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion pak.... that's 8 right there, and this year is expecting several more for multiple consoles and handhelds. That's in addition to all of their other franchises and newer IP, like Kingdom Hearts, radiata stories and last remnant. And that's NOT counting all the ported rereleases (like 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, Tactics, etc....).

Exactly how many games do you expect one company to churn out per year?

Also, not quite sure why you say "Put down those old games nintendo and sony, and stop trying to make them perfect". While Sony owns a part of Square Enix, they are by no means a majority shareholder last I checked, and I don't recall Nintendo being afficatied with Square Enix at all. The companies who make the consoles aren't the ones calling the shots. They don't care what SE releases, so long as it sells their consoles.

[Spira]

Originally Posted by Garland

How can the story in a game be a part of technical restraints? The fact is that the gba, remade the old snes version only a few years ago, and already there delving into a NEW remake. The "tech demo" for the n64, like i said earlier, will probably look like the remake of VI will look like, when it is inevitably made. IV already looks cheap looking " maybe not as bad as III, but seriously".

a simple term like Poison can be expressed with 1 character in kanji, 2 characters in japanese if kanji isnt supported, and 6 english letters. To what i remember, I don' think the original FFIV supported kanji, so it wouldn't have been able to minimize scenario script to squeeze in more text. If you want a more exaggerated concept of story being part of technical restraints, look at FF1s original English story and compare it with the latest version. It will knock you down.

Cheap looking is a subjective term. I'm not fond of the graphics style of the FFIV DS remake from what I've seen but think it will suit the game nonetheless. I can assure you if FF6 gets remade, it will look nothing like the SGI demo of FF6. Square Enix has come a long way since then and technology has also progressed a hell lot. I would think FF6 would adapt a more realistic artistic style too.

Originally Posted by Garland

The main problem which is being spoken of, is not the remake itself, but the fact that a year or two ago, i heard that over 10 ff titles would be released and were in the works, and less than 50% of the titles were completed, and the rest are still in the back shelves, collecting dust, as Square Enix, replaces those already released titles, with twice as much "in the works" titles, and their gonna go in the back shelf, and im thinkin " hey! i was psyched for Ring of fates like a year ago!" "Put down those old games nintendo and sony, and stop trying to make them perfect, you live with flaws and u fix them in new titles, its called evolution, not fixing up an old volvo over and over again!"

Eh.. SE is definitely producing alot of new stuff. The remake of FFIV can be considered new too because they're actually working from scratch, unlike the GBA ports, which work with old technology (sprites, music files, animations etc). The PSP FF1 is a hybrid of both, they took the old and gave it a clever facelift thru graphical tools for pretty good effect. Already in the works are new titles like Dissidia, Last Remnant, Wings of the Goddess, and Fabula Nova Crystalis, none of which are exactly small projects. And yet with so much new stuff, people seem to still clamor for the classic,s which is why SE has taken the effort to go back and remake them..

I should probably warn you now, prepare to see every single FF from 1-9 be remade at least once in the near future. FF1 and 2, I'd rule them out since the Anniversary editions seem as complete as they wanted it to be.. 3-4 for the DS.. I wouldn't be surprised if they were given facelifts and ported to the PSP. 5 and 6.. probably another handheld remake - system would depend on the graphics direction that they take. Look forward to an FF7 remake. It will happen. FF8 and 9 will probably be given graphical facelifts.. but content-wise they were pretty complete to begin with. FFX and beyond shouldn't have much need for remakes because they were made in a different era of gaming (the DVD era... at which point the bar for technical limitations were raised so high up. Only FF12 came close to reaching that bar, but in no way did it look limited) also because they all have had revisions made on them - that being the International versions...

[Garland]

Kioneh, how could you not know that the ds, practically has the exact same graphic capabilities as the 64? Maybe one of its launch titles, which was a direct port of Mario 64, wasn't enough to convince you. Nintendo, AND Sony has been buying square enix's titles for a while now, the ds and the game cube and the wii and the GBA/SP are all Nintendo products and all have atleast one title for their console. Ive seen CC: Ring of fates, Revenant wings, Crisis core, XIII fabula nova and a bunch more, on the square enix site list, for like a year now! and their whining saying there working hard on them, and i rarely see any news on those games and their release dates, yet i always see some chocobo and the magic picture book, or another VII title, or spin off like dissidia popping out of the news, and im just saying, maybe we would get a continuous stream of games every year like we used to, if they bothered to finish and release these previous games before they start making DS ports for old games theyve already ported! I understand theres some anniversary coming up, but id rather see the lion war come to the psp faster than have another title labled in the works with it. Maybe if they cut down on the games hmmm?

[Exodus]

Uematsu is going to pick the hottest Japanese chick for the part.

[Garland]

Of course hes not going to choose some short jewish guy named Clarance Finkelstein