While dancing mad is playing you ascend an almost biblical tower of flesh and machinery melded together by the twisting corrupted power of a long dead magic once again taken from it's source hidden away for thousands of years and now in the hands of a once lowly, traitorous jester turned and changed, descending from the heavens on rays of light, the God of Magic made flesh. This blew my 10 year old mind, I got into prog, metal, and classical because of this music, life changing.

There's a common saying that originated in a youtube comment somewhere, but someone said "Nobuo Uematsu composing Dancing Mad on the SNES sound chip would be like Michaelangelo making the Sistene Chapel out of crayon."

I was a child when I first faced this boss. My parents thought it was just a silly game for kids. I'm so grateful this composer decided to write and squeeze this absolute beast into something that's pretty much a floppy disk. He saw this pixel game with swords and decided the story deserves THIS. Nobuo LOVES prog rock and I'm always excited when I hear it in his songs because I know he's happy to write it ❤️.

The most amazing thing of all is Nobuo Uematsu never had any formal training in music. So for him to be able to compose masterpieces like this is astounding. Uematsu would most definitely be named among modern composers like John Williams if he were composing for movies and not video games.

Nobuo Uematsu is a true master of video game composition. I would always recommend his work to anyone interrested in game soundtracks.

Dancing Mad is a proper suite, each of the four sections corresponds to a different phase in Kefka's penultimate bossfight. All of his battle stages have their own gimmicks that you have to adjust to, and if you fail you start aaaaall over again! This was both game mechanically and compositionally mind-blowing back in the mid-90s, one of the most memorable video game encounters of all time!

Nobou Uematsu is a legend, and certainly one of the greatest modern composers.

13:27 Is perhaps my favorite moment ever. Hearing the full choir, orchestra, and organ come in on that absolutely gorgeous mournful melody, with the electric guitar wailing above just hits on a deep level. For the context of this boss battle, it is the final battle against Kefka, who is basically an insane clown due to the awful experiments performed upon him by the Gestahlian Empire. Earlier in the game Kefka had made himself into a god, and effectively destroyed the world (the game is split in half, with the first half being the World of Balance, and the second half the World of Ruin). Kefka is a deeply nihilistic individual, who at this point has grown jaded with even godhood, and has decided that he will end all of existence since your group still has hope, which he finds to be a horrible joke. Your party has, through the course of the World of Ruin, seen the hope that still springs even amongst the sorrow and suffering of that destroyed world, and is now fighting to give the world a chance to rebuild. Each segment of this song is a different phase of the boss battle, and each phase is inspired by "The Divine Comedy". You are scaling a tower in the fight, with the tower being the enemy for much of the fight. The first phase ( 2:52 - 6:19) is the battle against the first portion of the tower, representing "Inferno". The second phase (6:20 - 7:47) is the next portion of the tower, "Purgatorio". The third phase (7:48 - 10:30) is the final part of the tower, and represents "Paradiso". This version skips the transitional bridge between the 3rd phase and the final phase, which sees the party leave the tower, enter the golden sky of heaven, and Kefka's godly form descend to meet them. The final phase then goes from 10:31 to the end of the piece, and doesn't have a direct Divine Comedy segment, as it is meant to represent seeing the face of God Himself. There's a reason I consider "Dancing Mad" to be Nobuo Uematsu's finest work, even above the more well-known "One-Winged Angel" from Final Fantasy VII. The vivid musical imagery he uses throughout the piece is remarkable. And that he was able to make such a masterpiece with the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo's limited sound capabilities is nothing short of remarkable.

Dancing Mad is what happens when the composer sits down on a long flight, starts composing a final boss song, and never stops.

11:45 I love this moment. It's a little leitmotif from Kefka's personal theme song in the rest of the game. Kefka himself is basically a mad jester, trying to become a god, which I think comes through in his theme and Dancing Mad

The fact that they made this with a 16-bit sound chip and it is absolutely glorious in the game is mind-blowing.

The file size of FF6 is about 3 MB in total. That's equivalent to about 3 minutes of mp3 playback (128Kbps)

Never clicked so fast in my life. Edit: I love me some One Winged Angel, but Dancing Mad is definitely the best song Uematsu has ever written, and may well be the best video game piece of music ever written. Edit 2: If you want another one of Uematsu's best, look up "Answers" from Final Fantasy XIV. That one is definitely a journey of a song.

This is a good track, even more incredible when you consider it was on a Nintendo cartridge.

Honestly you missed out by not listening to the original version. Hearing what it accomplished with all the limitations it had on it from a technical perspective is really important for context.

I'm 43 just turned 43 on April 9th It took me 20+ years to beat FF6 Im excited to hear Doug's breakdown

Yeah, that Bach pastiche in the middle (which plays during the part of the fight where Kefka looks like a parody of an angelic being) was where I went from liking the song to loving it. And then that final prog-rock breakdown at the end solidified it. Uematsu was on fire for pretty much all of the 90's. The song also hits well at the end of the game because of how it weaves earlier motifs from the game (specifically Kefka's own theme). I've always said, video game soundtracks are often more like opera than film soundtracks because of the way in which character is associated so closely with music, and how much variation and reprise are used to contextualize scenes. It's also worth noting with this song that each movement would repeat until you finished that part of the fight, and then would transition to the next as you finished. And this is even more impressive when you hear what the limitations of the soundcard on the SNES were, in terms of how many channels could play at once, and the limited range of MIDI it could produce. The analogy has been used that Uematsu painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in crayon on this piece, and it's an apt one. The Black Mages version is spectacular as well. Much more rock/metal oriented but still contains all of those movements.

8-bit Music Theory has a detailed analysis of the piece that I'm sure will interest you, Doug.

Thank you for reacting to one of my all time fav Nobuo Uematsu songs, Doug!

Doug's rock-out pout always makes me smile.

This is part of the reason why a lot of video game fans consider Uematsu-san one of the greats, and if you want to hear more of his compositions in a more "metal" style, check him out with his band The Black Mages.

As a lifelong videogame nerd I enjoy Doug discovering some good music from games. For a game on the SNES with all its limitations FF 6 has some really great tracks.

FYI, this is the final battle (after a 50+ hour game!), where you are fighting Kefka, the court jester of the evil empire who went power mad and killed the emperor before infusing himself with magic by upsetting the balance of the old gods and destroying most of the planet in the process - to become a nihilistic self-proclaimed God. After fighting all the way up his tower, you meet him with all of your party members and after a dialogue where you try to show him there is value in life and love, he decides to fight you all and destroy everything. The fight itself is made up of 4 parts, as is the musical piece, where each one is distinct visually also we get some musical references to familiar tracks. All in all, along with Chrono Trigger, this is the best soundtrack for a video game ever - and all done on the extremely limited synthesizer of the SNES!!!!! You can also find many renditions of tracks from it: solo piano albums, string quartets, metal bands, up to full orchestral arrangements - the music really is that iconic and well written. I'd suggest going for a few short themes and contrasting the original SNES track to those modern full-bodied versions for the fun of it, they are only a couple of minutes each (looping, in the game).

It's worth seeing a recording of this final boss fight to get a sense of what each section of the song represents. In short the final battle mimics the journey of Dante through Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso, and finally meeting God. In the story Kefka has usurped the three goddesses of Magic and has taken their place as the God of Magic, and the final battle is meant to be Kefka's satire of God as he has descended into nihilism. The first part of the fight is against a Satan-like demon, similar to the depiction in the Inferno, trapped at the waist in a frozen lake at the center of hell; where the beating of his wings causes as he tries to escape causes the lake to only further freeze and harden. The second part depicts a group of humans including a crucified woman bound to machines, representing the punishments of purgatory. The third part depicts a scene inspired by the Michelangelo statue Madonna della Pietà, where Mary is holding the crucified Jesus. Finally, with the protagonists rising up through the clouds, Kefka, the villain turned God, descends to meet them and greets them with mocking laughter.

I saw this preformed live at the Symphony Center in Chicago. This guy was jamming on the huge pipe organ they have there and it was glorious.

Basically Dancing Mad is supposed to represent the Final Fantasy 6 main villain Kefka who is basically the very incarnation of chaos so this theme being so chaotic is very fitting.👍

Well new you know why we were so loud about this piece! 😂 That's not exactly a reaction request, but you should def listen to the original version of dancing mad from the snes when you got the time!

The boss has 4 stages with this theme playing, starting from hell, ascending to heaven. Nobuo is a genius

To fully get Dancing Mad, you have to know Kefka's main theme that plays whenever he is present. It uses his melodic themes throughout Dancing Mad. Like during the organ solo section, you can hear his melody in the bass, but in major instead of its usual minor before going back to minor. During the proggy section, another part of his theme is used. Also the intro is the same as the introduction to the game itself. It is a culmination as you said that's full effect comes with having experienced those motifs throughout the game.

He should do Liberi Fatali next!! Awesome video!

Incredible breakdown of a classic track. I'm amazed how this dude can just break down exactly what's being played the second he hears it.

Prog rock in videogame music? TIM FOLLIN is your man

We had the 3rd movement played at our wedding on church organ, really cool moment. Unfortunately divorved now but a nice memory lol.

In this part of Uematsu's career, he was probably the strongest in terms of melodic emphasis and near the top of leitmotif usage to build a coherent soundtrack across the entire gameplay experience. Good to mention the ELP influence 10:40 as you can definitely hear it in Uematsu's work, primarily battle themes and especially ELP's Tarkus. Prog was a big influence to the early Japanese VGM composers.

You'll have to do more of these, so cool, had everything a prog/classic/rock fan like me wants in a piece of music. I'm not a gamer but love the great tunes they come with!

It's even more impressive when you consider that this was composed in the 16-bit era. The Super Nintendo had a pretty advanced sound chip for its time, but it was still late 80s/early 90s tech.

So this is indeed the final boss music, but for a little more background, the main villain is an insane jester-like character with a painted face. A murderous mad clown capable of absolutely heinous atrocities, with a laugh that chilled to the bone even in 16-bit. Also, the fight with him has multiple stages, as he becomes an almost god-like being with multiple forms by the end of the game. The extreme shifts capture his ever-turbulent madness perfectly. Absolute chef's kiss to this!

I’d do anything to hear Doug react to anything from Shadow of the Colossus. The best video game OST ever in my opinion.

I saw them perform this arrangement at the Royal Albert Hall, and my word that organ hits so hard live

It brings me joy to see someone who has never heard this fantastic track before respond with so much enthusiasm. It certainly is one of my top favorite with or without game footage. Also, a big deal is how much the organ shines through on this one, its a lovely sound.

Nobuo Uematsu is such a brilliant composer!

My favourite video game song since the first time I heard it on my SNES back in 1994. Really happy that you react to it.

That shift in the music at 13:00 always brings tears to my eyes. You can just hear the pain in it. Kefka's pain, the pain his victims suffered, and the pain the heroes have endured in trying to stop him. So well done!

I love that on this recording, Uematsu himself is on the organ. As much as I enjoy One Winged Angel, it will never beat the utter brilliance that is Dancing Mad - the themes, the fight going on during the music... it will forever be my favorite. I genuinely think Dancing Mad is the greatest piece of music that Uematsu has ever created. As a lover of his work since the start, nothing in my life has ever compared to sitting in the audience and *hearing* this piece played. I loved it as 14-year-old girl playing Final Fantasy VI, sitting there gobsmacked, and as a 30-odd-year-old woman, sitting in the seats watching Arnie Roth conduct? I still get goosebumps and am moved to tears. My friends, who were never big on video games and came with me to humor me as I bought their tickets, became huge Uematsu fans after this concert. They always point to Dancing Mad as the linchpin of their entire change of opinion on video game music, and now will go out of their way to find it. There's a reason why many of us old-school Final Fantasy fans cite VI as our favorite, and the music is the icing on an incredibly beautiful, moving, and lore dense cake. There's even opera in there!

Hi Doug! So happy you reacted to this, as I was the one who initially suggested it (with a lot of people who supported the suggestion afterwards, lol) So, risking to repeat what other people already said: the battle has four parts, hence the four movement structure. The first three are a Tower of Babil-like structure, called Statue of the Gods, which has three tiers you have to ascend, to then get to Kefka on the fourth stage of the fight. The reason the original OST is 17 minutes is that it plays each "movement" twice before progressing to the next -- in the actual game, whenever you beat a tier of the statue, you go to the next and the music is (cleverly) cut wherever it is to progress to the next movement. Each movement is repeated how many times it is needed before going to the next one. The fight is an epic in a sense that it is 4 uninterrupted parts and you set up 3 teams for it -- whenever a team is wiped, the next one enters. All 3 teams wiped and it's game over and you have to restart from the beginning. About the choice of version: the original OST is amazing, but totally 8-bit (as expected for a SNES game). The Black Mages version is full prog/hard rock and also an amazing version and I was really split between that one and this, but I felt this had more layers to analyze because of all the symphonic orchestral parts. However, I 100% support a comeback/revisit to this one in the Black Mages version. I searched for a live Distant Worlds version, but the only one I found was full-orchestral (even the last movement) and recorded from a cell phone. Doesn't look like something that was allowed by the concert's production. Also, I laughed so much at the Emerson, Lake & Palmer reference, lmao Thank you so much for reacting to this. You made several Final Fantasy fans really happy!

Dancing Mad is top tier music. It's one of my absolute favorites.

Doug would LOVE the Music from Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Such HUGE Symphonic sounds.

I’ve said this many times, and I’ll say it again. Uematsu is a freaking GENIUS! To think he wrote one of gaming’s most iconic final boss themes ON THE SUPER FAMICOM is simply amazing! 🤩 Suggestions for you if you’re looking into Uematsu’s Final Fantasy works, I recommend either “Eyes on Me” from Final Fantasy VIII or “Melodies of Life” from Final Fantasy IX. Both pieces are fantastic!

This one... Playing this game back in the 90s as a teenager to this music was just mindblowing. Absolute classic. Thanks for this!

The section at the end as the boss realises he is about to be defeated, and especially the highly emotional guitar at 12:50 onwards, really gives me a sense of Kefka's narcissism and psychosis; I love it. It sounds to me as though he's crying out at the injustice of being killed by the heroes, when he is clearly the infallible and just God who deserves to rule forever. The Black Mages (a rock band with Uematsu and other musicians from the company who made the Final Fantasy games) have a great version of this song, and that end section in particular really evokes that feeling in me. Others have likely mentioned it, but the entire suite seems to be from his point of view - he sees himself as God - not in the usual "small G" way that a lot of Japanese anime and videogame antagonists are, but he sees himself as an omnipotent Big G God, hence the church organ and various Christian themes during the battle

Now if Liquid Tension Experiment can just cover this song, I can die a happy man... thanks for reviewing this childhood favorite!

Dude, you can literally be the first person to do what you are doing with FF and anime. You will most likely dominate this "little" niche. No one else has done quite what your doing and we all love it

6:52 Funnily enough, there is a rendition of this track that is included in one of the Final Fantasy XIV OST CDs, and it is split there into 4 movements with this one being the 2nd one.

The game makes use of leitmotifs throughout the soundtrack, and the intro to Dancing Mad calls back to the first track of the game! Kefka's personal leitmotif appears for a moment in Movement 4 but also acts as a sinister countermelody in Movement 3.

Nobou Uematsu composed a lot, and I mean a lot, of iconic pieces of video game music that still stick with me. I think Dancing Mad is probably his best track, it's up there with "Answers" from FFXIV and "To Zanarkand" from FFX. It's a mini-symphony, it's working in so many leitmotifs while playing with the entire structure, and he wrote a freaking *fugue* into Dancing Mad. A *fugue*. On a *SUPER NINTENDO CHIP*. It's astonishing just how much he worked into Dancing Mad, and almost every arrangement for symphony is phenomenal. It's one of my favorite pieces for someone to play on organ. The Distant Worlds version has my favorite version of the first 3 movements, and the Black Mages' version from 2003 has my favorite version of the final movement. Either way, it's an astonishing piece of music that still floors me to this day.

I wonder if the professor adds any of these songs to his playlists.. I sure can't get one day without hearing this masterpiece. Nobuo is a genius

The change of my man's face each time it goes into another section lmao

The Distant Worlds albums are some of my favorite to listen to. I absolutely love the Final Fantasy music.

Absolutely majestic piece of art by Uematsu, glad you got to it!

if you enjoyed that, continue to listen to Uematsu works ! he worked from the first to the tenth episode if i'm correct and few other games too, and there are at least one marvelous track in every games he worked on ! he had his own group of instrumental rock, The Black Mages (he was playing himself during concert) and made 3 albums covering his own composition from Final Fantasy with his band, if you want a playlist of final fantasy tracks to listen ( not necessarily these albums in particular) just use the track list of it ! The Black Mages I, II and III are probably the best track list for a final fantasy best of ! but don't forget to listen to other Squaresoft/SquareEnix composer, they are all very talented and made a bunch of very cool music for nearly 40 years now ! like Kenji Ito, Masayoshi Soken or Yoko Shimomura for exemple :)

I really hope to see you do more and more Final Fantasy Music. No matter where you go in the series it's incredible. The soft tones of 'To Zanarkand' from Final Fantasy 10, all of the different versions of 'Battle at the Big Bridge' that originated from Final Fantasy 5, the surreal music like "The Extreme" or 'Liberi Fatali' and even the powerful 'Maybe I'm A Lion' from Final Fantasy 8. You couldn't lose seeing all the amazing directions this series' music goes.

immediate like at 6 seconds !. edit: DISTANT WORLDS is the Orchestral version. The Black Mages is the rock version.

It's structured as a 4 movement movement symphony and the boss battle is a 4 phase fight so 1 movement per phase. Kefkas theme is the "regurgitation" as you said it pops up a few times. The story the music tells as you're fighting Kefka once he's become a god is really something and it seemed you were catching on to some of the themes even without having played the game nor knowing anything about the characters. It might be worth having a quick listen to the original just to hear how different it sounds.

You can't beat the original version of this track for me. It's incredible and written with technological limitations that are nigh impossible to parse in 2024.The soundfont is gorgeous too.

the "level" this plays on, is the Final Boss, whose a jester clown, That is also GOD. ALSO has DESTORYED THE WORLD. This fight is not to save the day, but for revenge. the movements are different stages of the boss fight, all representing something. i believe the order is, Anger, Madness, Making fun of The god he killed, The full blown Final Fight

This is a great version, although I still prefer The Black Mages' (Nobou Uematsu's Prog band) version of the song.

I never comment on KZfaq, but I was glad you finally encountered Nobuo Uematsu at his best. I know you got a great ear (which is nice to observe, btw) and Uematsus music just goes to so many places and splits up traditional harmony in so many ways... It was nice to see you encounter one of his best.

I cant wait! This is an all time favorite of mine

One of the best video game tracks in history for one of the best villains on video game history

I'm glad you did the distant worlds version. I love these albums.

He actually did it! Awesome.

I feel so lucky that our generation experienced the musical genius that is Nobuo. All that through measly SNES restricted cartridges..

as a band nerd and a video game nerd there is something especially gratifying about this

If you want proggy video game music, you gotta check out Tim Foillin. Pictionary Main Theme and Solstice Main Theme. also the Streets of Rage 2 Soundtrack from Yuzo Koshiro is good too. Not as proggy, but lots of cool harmonies and such. I'd be cool if Doug starts listening to the original works. I get the appeal of orchestra covers/renditins, but the beauty in some of these songs is the limitations back then and the things composers did to overcome them, like Tim Follin.

11:46 is a call back to Kefka's Theme that you hear throughout the game. It's a mischievous little ditty that always foreshadows some screwed up event. Hearing it peak through the chaos with it's much fuller than previous sound is quite scary. It adds a layer of gravity to the final battle. He is an insane clown that poisoned an entire castle full of innocent people and laughed about it earlier in the story. And now he has become a god.

A contender for best game ever made. If you haven’t played it, you definitely should.

I freakin love watching you work it out dude!!! THAT IS DOPE!!!!

Dancing Mad... I remember when Final Fantasy 6 (released as 3 in the US) came out. My friend and I played it together and it is honestly still one of the best games I have ever played. Hands down STILL my favorite FF game. So much of the OST is incredible. You mention how it's structured like a mini-symphony, which is interesting because the game is really structured like an opera/play. It's incredible. I would highly recommend Celes and Terras theme as well as the other monumental piece, Aria di mezzo Carattere. I was lucky enough to see it performed by Video Games Live with Jillian Averse about a decade ago; I was in tears. It's incredible seeing appreciation for game music like this, knowing it can hit without needing to have the background and nostalgia of the track. Also maybe check out some FF14 tracks, totally not because and old friend of mine got to sing on some of them :-D

This song, this moment, and the absolute atrositities committed drive this songs to a whole different level... This song has the pain and misery of an entire game wrapped up into this moment. It is my favorite song in the series by far...

the way uematsu paints feelings and pictures, from good to evil, from hope to despair, from godly to merely human... in just one coherent song? also fitting the circumstances when its played? "absolutely blows my mind" is a severe understatement

This piece becomes even better when you realize the composer wove in elements of music from earlier in the game-the third movement showed parts of The Decisive Battle and Kefka’s Theme mixed together from earlier key moments of gameplay. It’s a masterclass of using subtle elements of music to subconsciously make the listener remember why the struggle is so important.

Final Fantasy is just amazing I'm so glad you reacted to it! (Funny how you mentioned ELP as Nobuo himself has told they inspired his music)

There's a point around 9:10 where the song briefly goes into this jubilant, sunny major section, and right as Kefka's motif comes in it falls back into minor key. It's like Kefka himself can't stop himself from interjecting into the score and ruining everything. That whole middle section feels like a character moment for him.

I do feel that the ultimate vision the composer had in mind for this piece can be found in the lesser known Earthbound Papas version (his last prog metal band), which takes all the final flourishes added over time to the song, also adding lyrics and chorus on top of it.

One of my favorite parts of the piece is the baroque style of 8:35 because of the storytelling it does. At 9:14 it seamlessly shifts to minor, but the new melody played is actually Kefka's leit motif played throughout the game. In the game, Kefka, who is sort of like a jester, is obsessed with becoming a god of magic, but he's raging mad because of the damage done to his mind during a failed experiment. He's basically like the Joker in terms of personality. So, the transition between the baroque style major key melody at 8:35 contrasted with his leit motif slipping in at 9:14 helps emphasize that he's trying to be a god, a god like that worshiped in baroque music, but he can't hide his true, sinister self that's lurking underneath and his leit motif slips through.

This game and its music have always mesmerized me. There's quite a bit of depth to this piece to analyze in regards to Kefka and what he is/becomes and his worldview. I suggest maybe looking up Marco Meatball here on youtube, hes got a breakdown and it might be interesting to get the two of you to talk/colab.

Uematsu is a legend, imo not just among video game composers but all-time. And this song might be his opus.

There's a quote that goes, "The Super Nintendo sound font is the musical equivalent of a box of crayons, and Uematsu used those crayons to create the Cistine Chapel."

Loved your review of this track and glad to hear you liked it! It is a real journey.

Quite a lot of music from vidya gaems is really damn incredible.

When he said that was fun. I wish this was what my family thinks when they hear my line up of video game and classical mussic. From the mellow areas to the exciting movements but they cant imagine how good a non monotonous music feels like.

The fact that they were able to fit a Multi-Movement Orchestral piece in an SNES games at all blows my mind. Like if you were to ever listen to the original piece from the game you can tell it was made with an Orchestral style in mind, which is part of why lends itself so well to having been played at Distant Worlds. Also you were right when you said "Oh this would be a contrasting 2nd movement" as there are 4 movements to Dancing Mad, and you said that when the actual 2nd movement was playing. But also yeah you picking up on the different sections, you were picking up on all the different movements. It really is an incredible song, and an incredible feat for music in games when it was first released.

Though I never played FFVI (I need to fix that 😅), this song has become one of my absolute favorites. GaMetal’s Dancing Mad 2019 Remix was my introduction to this song and is just as beautiful as this.

Battle of the Big Bridge - Gilgamesh's Theme. This is another VERY famous song that a LOT of people absolutely adore and would love to hear, it's from Final Fantasy 5, 7Remake, FF11 and FF14.

Have you already or do you have plans to visit the Symphony of the Night soundtrack?? If you haven't already, I think you will IMMENSELY enjoy it, any track.

That finish is so grandiose. I just LOVE the sound of the electric guitar

Yay!!! Almost what I asked for😅👌 Still hoping for Jake Kaufman's Impressario

Simply incredible, every time a listen to this piece I appreciate it more

It would be pretty cool if you analyze any of Maestro Uematsu's personal favorite, Final Fantasy IX. Sword of Fury is the underrated hidden gem of that soundtrack but any one would do perfect because that game is absolutely a master piece. Final Fantasy, and Nobuo Uematsu are the reasons why I decided to major in music.

It's a song that really captures the feeling of grandiose narcissistic madness.