In the world of video game soundtracks, you can’t get much more iconic than Nobuo Uematsu. Most well-known for composing soundtracks for the first nine Final Fantasy games, the musician has gone on to write tracks for many subsequent entries to the franchise, most recently penning the tearjerking theme song for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, No Promises to Keep.
In a recent chat with NewsPicks, Uematsu voiced his displeasure with modern game soundtracks, explaining that composers should aspire to be more unique with their compositions.
“I think people need to have more freedom when creating (game music),” Uematsu said. “The problem lately is that directors and producers are satisfied with movie soundtrack-like music in gaming.” The legendary musician went on to explain that video game music can’t evolve if creators keep chasing a Hollywood-like sound.
Chatting about 8-bit games, Uematsu made the powerful claim that “music played the role of oxygen” for early titles, helping to bring characters and stories to life during a time when graphics were rudimentary and much was left up to players’ imaginations.
On the topic of the original Final Fantasy VII, the composer explained that because the PlayStation 1 utilized CD-ROMs, he finally had more memory to play with. However, compressed sound samples were still necessary to avoid issues.
“It was now possible to stream the music, as in take what I had made in the studio and reproduce it (in the game). However, if I did that it would take a very long time to load in. I think fans would complain if they charged into battle and then it went into a loading screen.”
With the advent of the PlayStation 2, the sky became the limit. “We could pretty much do anything then,” Uematsu explained. “As game consoles have advanced, it has been easier for me to express different genres of music (like rock and jazz, etc.) within game music.”
The newest Final Fantasy title, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is now available for PlayStation 5.
