Final Fantasy X - Fight With Seymour | Reacting To Video Game Music! 

I swear, something about this song just _encapsulates_ the essence of video game music. It's not something you'd hear on the radio, and you could hardly put a genre on it. Just something about the sounds and melody...

This is a straight up FF8 song. I can see Laguna fighting to this.

I feel like this is the most standout track in the whole OST because it has the chaotic MIDI-esque energy that one would expect from older titles in the series and not X. The seeming lack of a chorus adds to the frantic feeling.

Even now, over 20 years later, this remains an absolute bop. Take note that this plays during the fourth (and final) time you fight Seymour in the game, so the sense of escalation is prominent in the mind of the player (as this is a unique boss track that only plays in this fight and none other). A shame that his HP wasn't higher, because most players are tough enough by this point that they kill him before the whole song has time to play. :V

In regards your comment regarding Nobuo Uematsu and prog rock, he's mentioned many times how Deep Purple is one of his absolute favorite bands, and how they've been a huge inspiration to him musically. FFVIII's "Maybe I'm a Lion" is a reference to "Maybe I'm a Leo."

Uematsu has cited 70s bands such as Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, and Deep Purple as major influences. So, classic prog rock and hard rock sounds can be heard in many of the battle themes, for sure. :)

7th grader me against Seymour.. this theme is so mind blowing specially when you know the story

A track no one ever talks about on this OST “Challenge”, I would imagine you’d love

FFX OST was the first Final Fantasy game in which Uematsu got some help from other composers By the way, Masashi Hamauzu is the guy who composed FFXIII OST (and some tracks from the other games in the XIII trilogy). He also worked on VII Remake. I love his work. Wandering Flame might be my favorite FFX track and it was made by him About Dream Theater, I don't think Uematsu ever mentioned them. He did mention some prog rock bands though such as Emerson, Lake and Palmer

Congrats on the Distant Worlds concert, you are in for a treat! FFX is actually the first FF OST that is not exclusively Uematsu. The battle themes definitely carry a lot of the FF8 sound. This song is this games equivalent of Jenova Absolute. We fight this guy many times but the last fight has this song so you know it's about to get real.

Thanks for listening to the song! There is a Black Mages version, of course, so if you wonder what this would sound live, there's that. Anyways, I love this song so much because of the percussion, playing this song has to be so much fun. The main reason 10 isn't requested as much, is actually because its known (in my opinion) for the more relaxed songs, like hymm of faith, to zanarkand, suteki da ne, ect. But the songs that do go hard, go HARD. FF10 was heavily focused on the soundtrack, (budget wise) compared to all the FF games before, and it was planned to be Noubu's last mainline game.(Actually all the more artistic stuff was big budget, as this was the advent of 3D graphics that were proportionately correct) Also distant worlds is the best, since they have such a large range of songs to pick from, each concert feels unique and different. I hope you enjoy it! Seeing FF music played by an orchestra is just special.

To this day I still can hear his Quartet Cast in this music... Especially that Quartet cast Firaga sound effect...

This is pretty incredible to see, I played the game in 2001 when it realised but don’t really remember the song, I think I was overpowered at that point. But hearing you repeat phrases like “it keeps changing” and “it’s unpredictable” it shows it’s perfectly designed for the battle as you fight Seymour with four rotating elemental wheels behind him that effectively decide his attacks and are constantly changing without obvious pattern. It’s amazing that that comes through just the music if you have the musical awareness to pick up on that!

Yeeees!! This is one of my favorite tracks from FFX and Seymour is hands down one of my favorite characters from the whole FF franchise. I don't wanna spoil anything in case you play the game, but man, this song had me SHOOK when I first played, lol. And as you say, pretty experimental lol.

You're right with this track being experimental. What's interesting is that Uematsu typically integrates the antagonist's theme/leitmotif with the boss fight of that character's final form similar to what he did with Kefka/Dancing Mad and Sephiroth/One-Winged Angel to name a few. On "Fight with Seymour", he totally went a different route by not using any elements of Seymour's Theme which was used in multiple tracks throughout the game. Uematsu must've enjoyed so much when he wrote this given this is his last prog rock he composed for the series if I'm not mistaken. One thing about this fight is that it's too easy since your party is now really OP by the time you fight Seymour for the last time. This must've been a giveaway from the previous Seymour fight that's known to be one of the hardest boss fights in FF. I know many players that intentionally prolong the last battle with Seymour just to bop with the music longer. I guess the title is made that way since it is THE Fight with Seymour. Imagine a villain who never seems to give up despite beating him multiple times already and then you fight him for the last time in his final form while you hear this music, you know it's about to get real. It's now or never. FFX was the first FF to feature voice acting which meant Uematsu had to approach the music differently and make it more ambient to balance everything out. The melodies had to be subdued a bit for it to not get in the way too much. This is in contrast to the previous FFs which relied mostly on the music/melodies to drive the storytelling. I hope you react to "To Zanarkand" which is FFX's most popular track and not to mention considered one of the best tracks in the entire series or even in video games in general. I also highly recommend "Dark Messenger/The Darkness of Eternity" from FFIX, another prog rock banger from Uematsu.

Finally!!! Best boss theme ever. I remember when the original video had 9m views :(

It has always been my longheld belief, that Nobuo was coked out of his damn mind when he composed this. The Tempo is all over the place and it just plays out like the fever dream of a musical genius.

All this over steamed hams! Supernintendo Chalmers needs to lighten up!

This is the greatest boss battle theme of all time, full stop. This song still gives me goosebumps to this day, all these years later.

IX was Nobuo's last solo Final Fantasy outing. He worked collaboratively on both X and XI, produced the main theme song of XII, and then worked collaboratively with Soken and others on XIV.

So glad this is the original version and not the hd remix. The song just isn't the same without the gongs.

"Did Nobuo invent Synthwave?".... honestly, if he did, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. There's several other absolutely fantastic tracks on FFX's soundtrack that have strong synthwave vibes. This song is by far my favorite battle track of X and as you guessed, it is a big boss battle. I hope your Distant Worlds experience is a memorable one.

Also you're in for a treat. I've been to two Distant World concerts and it's just heaven. Live music always hits different. I wanna hear your opinion of the experience when it's over. ❤

FFX soundtrack is insane, you definitely need to hear the Zanarkand theme (Return To Zanarkand?) and DEFINITELY need to hear Otherworld! Edit: Will be hunting down the Otherworld reaction!

Im so jealous of you getting to go to the concert! Have fun man!

Distant Worlds is an incredible orchestral experience and I'm sure you'll love it. Hearing the strings and choir and everything else live, it definitely hits you. Not afraid to admit a couple songs moved me to tears. Susan Calloway is a treat to hear live if she's there, and I was lucky enough to be in attendance when Nobuo himself attended and played the synth the first time they came to St. Louis. And it seems more often than not, there's a special surprise song they play at the end that's not on the given concert's set list. Not gonna spoil it outright, but it shouldn't take too many guesses to figure out which one.

Hello, Nobuo affirmed that his favorite band was PFM - Premiata Forneria Marconi, an italian prog band of the '70

"By all means, try (to defeat me)!" that kicks this battle to start is probably my favorite line in the game, and this is probably my favorite song in the soundtrack. (This song is a bit weird and goofy - similarly to FFVI's "Fierce Battle" - but is somehow also really awesome.)

One of my favorite tracks in FFX! I only got into the Final Fantasy franchise in 2019 with FFX being the first I played, and as a lifelong Castlevania fan, this track gives me Castlevania Curse of Darkness vibes

Fight with Seymour definately had FFVIII vibes and also Necron from FFIX. So good!

Heck yeah! LETS GOOOO! Hands down one of the most hype songs in the game. (Game honestly has some of the best and most memorable songs for me.) I have memories of getting the CD back when portable CD players were a thing and listening to it in the car haha.

One of my favourite tracks from FFX, even from the very start you can feel that this is very distinctly an Uematsu track. It’s so chaotic yet flows at the same time.

If you’re into crazy time signatures.. chrono cross- gale is a crazy intricate song for how short it is.

I'm also attending my first Distant Worlds in October - can't wait! Zidane is indeed FF9, and at least now you won't wake up in the middle of the night shouting, "Tidus!"

Oh yeah, I've been looking forward to see you react to this one. IMO, it's one of Uematsu's all-time best battle themes, and The Black Mages' version more than does it justice. FFX also has fantastic boss themes by the game's other composers - "Challenge" and "Decisive Battle" by Masashi Hamauzu are in his trademark classical inspired style with jazzy chord progressions, and "A Contest of Aeons" (aka "Summoned Beast Battle") by Junya Nakano is... a little hard to describe, but it's one of my personal favorites and definitely among the most unique battle themes in gaming.

Massive favorite! love the ff8 vibes you can feel in some of the tracks especially this one. From what I remember 10, 8, and 9 were all developed really close together and the font of Uematsu's muse was certainly still carrying over into other themes. Have fun at Distant worlds!!!

ah yes you got the old version with the synth choir at the start, so good! The Remaster of FFX has a Re-done version of Fight with Seymour aswell as all the other tracks in the game. which can themselves be really good, but i prefer the choir opener for the old version

That song always makes me wanna dance like a maniac

As far as I know there are 3 main composers on FFX. Nobuo Uematsu, Junya Nakano and Masashi Hamauzu. A lot of the songs in X sounds like the XIII soundtrack (especially when it comes to piano) and that's because Hamauzu is the main composer of XIII!

Bring your mask and have an amazing time! I got engaged at a Distant Worlds concert, so I will always have fond memories of them, even if I veer more toward the more intimate sound from the New World concerts. There actually is a version of this song in the NW's lineup that I find absolutely fantastic as it's performed with basically just a string quartet and various instrument duos and trios--I literally watched a cellist shred so many bowstrings for this track 😂

To me FFX soundtrack sounds overall like an evolution of FF8 soundtrack, it's like a step further in terms of what they could do in a technical stand point. Also the mix of different composers added a lot of diversity to it, like Junya Nakano's ambient/spacey tracks, Masashi Hamauzu's piano hooks, and the awkward instruments and sounds Nobuo loves mixed with the traditional Japanese music he was into when writing for FFX. And it's very fun to see how they influence each others works. There are some song I thought for sure was from Nakano but was actually from Nobuo, while others I thought it was from Nobuo but was from Hamauzu. There are so many songs I love and listen almost daily in this OST, probably rivaling FFVIII and XIII. I hope someday you get to listen to Luca, A Calm Before the Storm, Via Purifico, The Sending, Sight of Spira, To Zanarkand, and my three absolute favorites: A Contest of Aeons, Wandering Flame and Besaid.

More of FFX! I tought when playing ff7 on the ps1 it "wouldnt get any better from this' ff8 and 9 were great aswel but not as inspiring as 7. And then came 10..With the ps2. Everything stuck to me. Every character (exept khimari). The voice acting the world of spira...and the MUSIC! Oh god the MUSIC. My personal favorite would be... yuna's theme.

I've been waiting for you to listen to this one for a while, good to finally see it.

If you want to hear a cool different version of this piece, They performed it at the New World concert with a string quartet and it's amazing! It's on one of the concert CDs.

My exact feeling was always that this song felt like FF8 exploded out into FF10. It really sticks out in a game filled with good tunes.

Distant Worlds is an AMAZING experience! You're going to have (by the time of this writing, had) an amazing time! It's a WHOLE MOOD!

This always felt tout of place in X, but was also one of my favorite form it. It felt like an unused song from VIII thrown on the X soundtrack.

Glad to see you reacting to FF X, Jesse! Especially this song, Seymour is the main villain in FF X, so yeah lol One fun fact or curious, is that there is a song theme in Granblue Fantasy called 'Dancing Windstorm' or Grimnir Theme, and the beginning of the song sounds kind of similar to this song, maybe Nobou take it as a reference? But yeah, hope someone can request you Grimnir Theme from GBF so you can heart it, I would love to see your reaction on that theme.😉

There's a podcast I like that dives in deep into games like a videogame book club Resonant Arc - with Mike and Cayson They recently did a great podcast series on FFX, and it's absolutely great for people with no interest in playing the game, but who are interested in seeing what it's all about.

Now FFIX and X, you might actually be able to play on stream lol. Shame you couldn't keep doing VIII but we'd still be here for IX and X lol.

In my most recent playthrough of this game, I had broken it pretty thoroughly (not realizing exactly how summons work) and unfortunately at this boss I had leaned into it so much I one or two shot him and didn't even hear this song for a minute

The song you’re thinking of from FFVIII is “The Man With the Machine Gun” I believe

Ayy probably my favourite track from 10. Well, actually I prefer the Black Mages version. But even the original version is very unique with this sense of mysticism. And as others said, I think FFIX OST is the last FF Uematsu wrote exclusively. He worked really, really hard on it. Also enjoy Distant Worlds! I'm going in October when they're in London :) As far as I know, this music isn't a track on its own but it might feature in a battle medley. So, something to listen out for!

This song, this song... As someone who played FFX for the first time a mere...month ago? At this point, anyways - You can't imagine just how good this game's OST is! (though I'm sure that applies to pretty much all the FF games...I've only played this, and FF7 + FF7R. Needless to say, my journey as a FF fan still needs much progress). When it comes to iconic tracks, it's honestly difficult to discern which are my favourites - but man, this one really was an unexpected banger! Even when I...kind of wrecked the boss this theme belonged to. Hard... ..I uh, at least head bopped....a little before they got beat at least...? Haha.. ... *...Hahhhh...*

FFX - MY favorite OST in the series and easily my favorite game.

On the Square Enix Music channel, there were recently an interview between Soken and Uematsu where Uematsu is talking about a vinyl record he's producing that will soon be out where he goes back and revisits some of his older work. He talks a lot about how Prog Rock inspired him in the interview, but it's worth checking out. Also, could you make a video talking about how your experience with Distant Worlds? Interested to hear what you think. Also fun fact... Tom Kenny, who voices SpongeBob Squarepants voices Rin in FF10, but you wound NEVER know it's him unless you're familiar with his more normal voice.

I've been to Distant World's twice (Toronto, Montreal) and A New World twice (Quebec City). Always worth it.

Ur going to the Microsoft theater? I was wanting to go but I couldn't find the tickets of the seats I wanted

Yes this has been played live. If I remember correctly in 2019 distant worlds played it too. :)

How much times do we have to teach you this lesson old man!

Fun fact: someone made a remix of it in the style of FFVIII which you can find if you search "FFX - Seymour Battle - FFVIII Version". Also, very glad the requesters gave you the original version and not the version from the "Remastered" release of the game. Personally, I think that the "Remastered" soundtrack is basically inferior to the original and that version of this song is no exception. This song and "Otherworld" were the songs on my first playthrough of this game that made me stop what I was doing and go "Woah" and just listen.

X is, in my opinion, objectively the best Final Fantasy game yet. It is not my favorite, but it is the best.

re: prog, he apparently cited Emerson, Lake and Palmer as a big influence. I can hear it the most in the Thunder Plains theme. FFX is just a great game overall. This is... I'd say one of the two climactic boss-fight themes, with "Otherworld" serving as the other one. (Neither of those is the *final* boss theme, since the final boss isn't quite the emotional-catharsis climax of the story.)

Ayyy going to a FF or Atlus concert is my dream man. Enjoy.

Nobuo's progressive rock is the best of the World. Seymours song is one of the best creations on ff songs. He is a master and i miss him.

You certainly already heard some Masashi Hamauzu's compositions as he worked on FFVII Remake. He has a quite recognizable style. But this one clearly bears the signature of Nobuo Uematsu.

Uematsu loves going experimental and prog/synth whenever he can and this one goes hard.

I had this song on my mp3 player and it pumped me up

Yo hype! This song slaps.

Definitely check out the Black Mages version, it's so good.

It's not played at DW on its own but if I recall it was part of a battle medley they played mostly between 2013-2015 :)

I can't remember where, but Nobuo has come out and said he is a huge fan of prog rock and likes queen. The start of the sephiroth song was also based on Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze lmao

This is an amazing track!

Nobuo Uematsu has a hardrock band The Black Mages. They are doing Hardrock versions of his game music opus and possibly beyond. But Nobuo isn't a very young man anymore( physically ) , so I dunno if they are still together .

The boss fight does actually involve changing elements and it might take some time, so you had a hunch there!

So glad you did the original. The Remastered version of FFX sounded different enough that I wouldn't recommend it.

The ff8 song you're thinking of but can't place is Laguna's battle theme, The Man With the Machine Gun

How did you like the concert

0:38 Where's the fight!? I came here to see Jesse deck that principal from the Simpsons! But seriously, thank you for reacting to this! This whole comment section is about to gush over FFX and I can't even blame them.

This one is legendary

Distant Worlds is such a fantastic experience. To my knowledge, they haven't done Fight With Seymour... But the Black Mages have lol

There are full live orchestra versions on RU-vid of many FF and not FF songs

Seymour is literally Mr. Steal yo girl, and Tidus was having none of it.

Challenge from FFX is also really good and I think you would enjoy it

I just wish this fight wasnt so damn easy because this song is a banger

Ohh its the "Ohh nooo u again didnt i kill u 3 fuing time....hold up that a banger DAMN" Theme

Its just pure joy to me.

The last boss theme from The Last Story Is very much Nobuo showing he loves prog rock 😂 That needs to be a recommendation

there is LIVE version of this song.

Nobuo is more inspired by the old school bands, so Yes, Pink Floyd, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Genesis, King Crimson and Deep Purple

Fun fact, in a recent interview with Uematsu and his fellow band mates they acknowledged to bring the full power out of him they had to get him drunk.

I wish they’d do an orchestral version but have never heard one :(

I remembered yelling at Seymour like "come on man!" But the battle theme is slaps so i forgive him... Just a little bit lol

Magnificent piece. I wonder though... Why people keep NOT sending Ff9 requests? It's even Nobuo Uematsu personal favorite score with FF6

Great ost

The Uematsu themes are definitely hard hitting, aggressive in this game, especially the intro, but this is an outlier in the ost. Most of the rest tends to actually be the most atmospheric FF by far actually. You can also actually tell this one is definitely Nobuo, because the main melody used in this piece is also used in FF9 "Assault of the Silver Dragons". He likes doing this with a lot of melodies

I beat him for the first time two days ago. The spoilers because of this track kinda suck, but whatever. I'm excited I'll get to fight him again.

Tidus (pronouced tea-dus cause a lot of people get that wrong lol) may be "the laughing guy" to outsiders, but the laugh is taken out of context and goodness when you know the context of the laugh you can't help but feel heartbroken and a bit guilty lol Trying to force yourself to laugh when you're at your lowest because your friend tells you to despite not knowing the context of his sadness either isn't going to sound great to outsiders

my first thought was it sounds like billie jean by michael jackson.

FFXIV Scream/Silent Scream