In the video game world, few composers are as renowned as Nobuo Uematsu, the musical genius behind not just one Final Fantasy game, but most of them. It’s been a good run, with the legendary figure sharing that he’ll unlikely score an entire game’s soundtrack again.
“As far as Final Fantasy is concerned, I’m still involved by writing the main themes for the games,” he said in an interview with Zeit Online (via VGC). “But I don’t think I’ll compose music for a whole game again. “You would have to give it full throttle for two or three years. And I don’t think I have the physical and mental strength to do it anymore.”
This doesn’t mark Uematsu’s retirement, only that he’ll be directing his focus to his other non-gaming projects, such as new narrative orchestral performance Merregnon: Heart of Ice, and his band.
“I think I’d rather use the time I have left to work on other projects that I love. Such as compositions like Merregnon or my band Uematsu Nobuo conTIKI,” he added.
Uematsu’s last full game soundtrack was for Fantasian, the mobile-exclusive RPG developed by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. Previously, he served as the sole composer for the first nine games in the series, scoring iconic songs like the recurring main theme, Final Fantasy VII‘s “One-Winged Angel”, and Final Fantasy VIII‘s “Liberi Fatali”.
Following Final Fantasy IX, Uematsu took on the role of a contributor, and most recently, returned to score “No Promises to Keep”, the theme song for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. The auteur also worked on “Hollow”, the main soundtrack for 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake.
In an interview for Fantasian, Sakaguchi said its soundtrack would likely be Uematsu’s swansong due to health issues. The latter ultimately pulled through to compose a 60-piece soundtrack for the game, which the director described as “a very big moment in both of our careers.”
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
