Final Fantasy XIII - Piano Collection [2010]

Square Enix has made a piano collections CD for nearly every Final Fantasy game they've made. Well, not XII. That soundtrack sucked, and didn't lend itself to piano treatments. But the other ones are amazing. They take your favorite songs and give them beautiful arrangements by top-notch performers. If you've somehow missed these CDs, know that they're definitely worth tracking down.

FFXIII soundtrack lends itself to the Piano Collections treatment nicely. This version released on July 21 in Japan.

Masashi Hamauzu composed the FF XIII's soundtrack. His previous work on the series was as a co-composer for Final Fantasy X and as the main composer for Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII. The game was the first main-series Final Fantasy game to not include any compositions by original series composer Nobuo Uematsu; although he was originally announced to compose the main theme of the game, this role was taken over by Hamauzu after Uematsu signed on to compose the soundtrack to Final Fantasy XIV. The score features some orchestral recordings by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, orchestrated by Yoshihisa Hirano, Toshiyuki Oomori and Kunihito Shiina. The song "My Hands", from British singer Leona Lewis' second album Echo, was chosen to replace Final Fantasy XIII's original theme song, "Kimi ga Iru Kara" by Sayuri Sugawara for the game's international release. Square Enix President Yoichi Wada has stated that it would have been better if the American branch of the company had produced a theme song from scratch, but the lack of staff led to the decision of licensing an existing song instead.

Music from the game has been released in several albums. The main soundtrack album, Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack, was released on four Compact Discs in 2010 by Square Enix. The album sold 16,000 copies the day of its release. Selections from the soundtrack have been released on two gramophone record albums, W/F: Music from Final Fantasy XIII and W/F: Music from Final Fantasy XIII Gentle Reveries, both in 2010 by Square Enix. An album of arranged pieces from the soundtrack, Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack -PLUS-, was also released by Square Enix in 2010, as was an album of piano arrangements. The theme song for the Japanese version of the game, "Kimi ga Iru Kara" (君がいるから?, "Because You're Here"), was released as a single by For Life Music in 2009.

Track list
1- Lightning's Theme ~ Blinded by Light
2- The Promise ~ The Sunleth Waterscape
3- March of the Dreadnoughts
4- The Gapra Whitewood
5- Nautilus
6- Vanille's Theme ~ Memories of Happier Days ~ The Road Home
7- Nascent Requiem
8- Fang's Theme
9- Reminiscence ~ Sulyya Springs Motif
10- Prelude to Final Fantasy XIII Full Version

Enjoy and have a nice day.