ANYONE at the Esplanade last Saturday evening would know a different sort of concert was lined up for the night by looking at the crowd attending it.

The place was filled with teenagers and young adults, mostly male, with a few less appropriately dressed in shorts and sandals, and many looking as if it was their first time in the building.

Like my fellow fanboys and geeks, I was there to see Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy, a celebration of music composed by Nobuo Uematsu for what is now the fifth best-selling video game franchise in commercial history.

The Singapore leg of the series, its Asian premiere, saw an overwhelming response with tickets sold out within days, prompting organisers to arrange for an additional performance on top of the two originally planned. It was also one of just five Arts Festival events  to sell out before the festival opened on May 15.

The evening's programme was performed by the Singapore Festival Orchestra and conducted by Arnie Roth, with a chorus and guest vocalists, and featured vocal and instrumental compositions from all 12 instalments of the game.

A video screen was also added so that images and clips from the relevant games could be seen during each item.

Things got off to a rousing start with the anthemic Liberi Fatali from Final Fantasy VIII, complete with backing vocals and haunting images onscreen.

This was followed by quieter, more understated pieces like fan favourite To Zanarkand (Final Fantasy X) and Aerith's Theme (VII), and of course Final Fantasy staples like the Main Theme and Swing de Chocobo.

Musically, I thought the orchestra was fine, and played competently. Final Fantasy music is rare among video game themes in that it lends itself well to an orchestra.

Many of the pieces, having been freed of the constraints of tinny MIDI sequences, sounded lovely; a testament to Uematsu's talent for melodically strong and moving compositions.

This, coupled with the mini-movies onscreen allowed one to see how far the series has come from its early days on Nintendo-sprite, and brought back many wonderful memories.

I felt it was also a nice touch to have Roth as the evening's emcee. It gave the event a more informal feel and made fans more comfortable about being in a space usually reserved for performances their parents enjoy.

There were some problems that bear mentioning: the vocals were sometimes drowned out, the guitar solo lost its pulse at points, and the brass section was sometimes a little out of tune.

I also found myself paying rather too much attention to the screen images  instead of the music. (Why did they have to sanitise the show by censoring Aeris' death scene? I thought you couldn't use that spell so early in the game!?)

But really, these things didn't really matter because the night was all about pleasing the fans, who lapped up every minute of the proceedings. Witness the screams and cheers when Nobu-san (Uematsu) himself appeared on stage to sing in the encore.

I guess what Arnie Roth said at the post-concert dialogue session really sums it up best: "When we first wanted to start this series nobody thought video game music would make a good concert — but we know better, don't we?"

Well, sir, if by "we" you mean us fans, then yes, I can say you're absolutely right.