A demo of upcoming video game Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was released this week, and players are using it to perform covers of My Chemical Romance megahit Welcome To The Black Parade.
The preview of the much-hyped Final Fantasy entry, which will come out in full on February 29, features a minigame where protagonist Cloud Strife plays the piano. So, naturally, it didn’t take devout MCR fans long to try and perform the instantly recognisable Welcome To The Black Parade part.
Some successful attempts are now being shared on social media.
X (formerly Twitter) user Egaz__ posted footage of their performance on February 7. Along with the video (embedded below), they shared, “WHEN I WAS, A YOUNG BOY, MY FATHER, TOOK ME INTO THE CITY”, referencing Welcome To The Black Parade’s first verse.
User Reaper_guitar also uploaded footage of their performance yesterday (February 8).
They wrote: “I finally get around to starting the FF7 Rebirth demo and what’s the first thing I do? Find the piano and spend 5-10 minutes figuring out how to play the piano part from Welcome To The Black Parade by MCR 😅”
This is far from the first time gamers have got musical in big-name titles. 2020’s The Last Of Us Part II featured a minigame where protagonist Ellie plays an acoustic guitar, and footage was posted shortly after release showing users performing the introductions to Metallica songs One and Nothing Else Matters.
MCR released Welcome To The Black Parade as a single on September 12, 2006: a month before the release of their third album, The Black Parade. The song topped the UK singles chart, as well as the US Billboard Alternative Airplay chart.
Welcome To The Black Parade is currently MCR’s second-most popular song on Spotify, boasting 724,000,000 streams. Only Teenagers, also from The Black Parade, outranks it, with 869,000,000 streams.
I finally get around to starting the FF7 Rebirth demo and what’s the first thing I do? Find the piano and spend 5-10 minutes figuring out how to play the piano part from Welcome to the Black Parade by MCR 😅 pic.twitter.com/o53JSvZ0YvFebruary 8, 2024
WHEN I WAS, A YOUNG BOY, MY FATHER, TOOK ME INTO THE CITY pic.twitter.com/0MvHSD08VxFebruary 7, 2024