Symphonic Fantasies: Music from Square Enix was an award-winning symphonic tribute concert originally held in Cologne, Germany on September 12, 2009, at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall featuring video game music from Japanese game developer Square Enix.

It was produced and directed by Thomas Böcker, with arrangements provided by Finnish composer and musician Jonne Valtonen with assistance by Roger Wanamo.

[1] As their ideas and plans materialized, three projects were set in motion to determine the interest of a younger audience in classical music performance and the aptitude of the WDR orchestra in focusing on a new source of compositions.

[2] This company was later confirmed to be Square Enix when Fechner announced Symphonic Fantasies as a video game music concert to take place on September 12, 2009.

[4] Böcker later explained that the decision to focus on Square Enix was made due to the large library of games to choose from, all of which he felt had a distinct sound, and many of which were very well known in Germany.

[6] On March 9, 2009, it was also announced that Valtonen had additionally been commissioned to compose an original fanfare to be played at the start of the concert, and with a video preview of his composition was released.

[7] The arrangement made use of notable unique techniques in order to replicate the atmosphere found in the original game; for example, the choir was used to create "sound effects" such as floor vibration by foot stomping and simulating distant rain with their voices.

[4] The concert was preceded by a Meet and Greet session that included the original composers as well as the arrangement team and guest artists for the show.

[8] No video screens or other form of tools were used during the concert, with only minimal lighting effects at certain parts for atmosphere being employed.

The event was broadcast live on the WDR4 radio station, as well as through an online video stream, enabling a worldwide audience to watch the concert.

They also announced that Benyamin Nuss, Rony Barrak, Jonne Valtonen, Roger Wanamo and Thomas Böcker would be in attendance.

[13] Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo was the first all-European video game concert production to take place in Japan.

[14][15] The arrangements and tempo were slightly modified from the original concert, and the encore was changed by Wanamo to add elements from an additional Final Fantasy song.

On March 26, 2012, Merregnon Studios announced that Symphonic Fantasies would also be performed at the Stockholm Concert Hall on June 9, 2012.

[16] The album, produced by Merregnon Studios and mixed by a team of sound engineers from Japan and Germany, was released on June 11, 2012.

[34] The initial event received widespread critical acclaim, with much praise given to the focused presentation, deeply developed arrangements and evolution of the concept.

Audun Sorlie of Original Sound Version stated that the concert "exceeded all expectations" and further added that the event was "absolutely amazing".

"[7] Polish site GameMusic.net's Kamil Rojek said in his report that "Symphonic Fantasies is a significant turning point in the history of video game music concerts.

It was a remarkable event that made great progress in breaking the boundaries between game music and traditional classical works.

Yoko Shimomura noted she was extremely pleased with Valtonen's arrangement of Kingdom Hearts, feeling it "very colorful and beautiful, just superb really".

[36] Hiroki Kikuta stated that Valtonen's arrangement "defied the framework of regular orchestra and was a very experimental attempt," resulting in "free and unbound expression".

"[41] Benjamin Schmädig of the German site 4players.de said of the album "Symphonic Fantasies represents memories of great emotional moments.

[16] Audun Sorlie of Original Sound Version also praised the changes, not only in the tempo but also in the arrangements, noting the more integrated piano in the Kingdom Hearts suite and the more impressive brass section in the opening fanfare.

He also noted that, unlike the original performance and album, the recording of live audience did not include any laughter when the chocobo theme interrupted "One Winged Angel" in the Final Fantasy suite.