Last week's Friday and yesterday marked the first two in a series of six Final Fantasy concerts held across Japan. The first two concerts, performed in Yokohama and Shibuya's Bunakmura Concert Hall respectively, will be followed by four more performances in Sapporo, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Osaka. At yesterday's concert in Shibuya, the New Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Taizou Takemoto performed a total of eleven tracks taken from various series' installments: Opening (Final Fantasy VII), Zanarkand (Final Fantasy X), Ronfaure (Final Fantasy XI), Aeris' Theme (Final Fantasy VII), The Oath (Final Fantasy VIII), You Are Not Alone (Final Fantasy IX), Final Fantasy V Main Theme (Final Fantasy V), Final Fantasy VII Main Theme (Final Fantasy VII), Love's Theme (Final Fantasy IV), Final Fantasy I - III Medley 2004 (Final Fantasy I - III), Opera - Maria and Draco (Final Fantasy VI). In addition to those eleven tracks, the orchestra, this time conducted by Nobuo Uematsu himself performed an encore. Afterwards Uematsu and Rie Katayama of Square Enix's internet radio entered the stage to answer questions. Asked about how he selected the songs performed, Uematsu answered that above all he chose songs who he himself would like to hear being performed by an orchestra. The famous opera scene of Final Fantasy VI was later performed again, this time by three opera singers.

The first Final Fantasy concert outside Japan will be held in Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall on May 10th, prior to this year's edition of the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

• GameWatch