As broadcasted and boasted about, I have decided to pen my thoughts on the recent Distant World concert I have so much looked forward to and enjoyed over the weekend.

This is not so much a review, but rather, an observation I made during the concert itself.

The concert started with an impactful and resounding piece from FF8 called Liberi Fatali, accompanied by a whole choir and a huge screen displaying the beautiful opening sequences from the game itself.

It later showed a stark contrast when the FFI-III Medley was played, alongside the 16 bit graphics.

The immediate reaction from the audience was laughter. It figures that it was not because the music played was funny, especially when you are playing something as serious as Dear Friends (FFVI), or the sadder parts in FFI-III Medley. It was more of because the graphics looked ludicrous amongst all the graphics we have seen from FF thus far. When FF7 was released, it was a revolutionary step up in graphics, and was considered one of the best games at that time. Looking at it now, Aerith dying in her cute, pixelated form seems unreal and almost funny. i remembered there was not even a drop of blood spilled as Sephiroth struck her.

In contrast, when Zack died later on in Crisis Core, there was a lot more blood and you feel almost sorry for Cloud who had to keep watching people die.

But of cos, my point is not that you should feel sorry only because the person appears to be much lifelike and beautiful later on, but there is only so much emotions we can invoke with 16 bit characters. I can only draw the reference for the former as using a knife to stab your stuffed dolls and the later as a katana through a real person.

This is the same as how we draw attention with the relevant graphics nowadays. Whether in games, movies, websites or just pictures, how you target your audience highly depends on the nature of graphics used. Like how technology rapidly evolves nowadays, users are no longer satisfied with worded websites, or even static images. We want dynamism, realism and relativism. That, of cos, applies many other marketing techniques nowadays.

Ultimately, it is a question of whether you want to remain in the 16 bit era, or continue to improve. However, I believe that while we embrace the newer technologies, we must still not forget the old. You never know when 16 bit graphics may actually help in your concept one day.