Final Fantasy music legend Nobuo Uematsu doesn’t think he’ll ever compose a whole game again

Developers happy to mimic the style of Hollywood blockbusters in their video game soundtracks are stopping video game music from advancing, one of the best to ever do it - Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu - has said.

We’ll say this up front for those of you still exploring Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s vast world: there are no late-game story spoilers here. As seen in its pre-release debut via a new trailer late last year, the action RPG’s theme song “No Promises to Keep” is performed in-game by Aerith. Behind the scenes though, the track was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, the legendary composer behind the iconic soundtracks for much of the Final Fantasy series, including Final Fantasy VII Remake. The song’s vocals were performed by American singer Loren Allred, who brought her spellbinding singing voice to the track, augmenting the beautiful—yet tragic—world of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and the epic story told within it.

Legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu has revealed he struggled with composing Sephiroth's now-iconic theme tune, One Winged Angel.

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.

Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu believes game music has become too similar to film and «cannot develop further» if continuing in this direction.

Zanarkand is, arguably, one of the most haunting pieces of music ever composed for a Final Fantasy game. However, in a recent interview with Japanese outlet Weekly Ochiai, accomplished Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu revealed that the legendary theme from Final Fantasy 10 had an unlikely origin. 

Legendary video game music composer Nobuo Uematsu says he doesn’t think some modern video game soundtracks are as interesting as those in older games.

Development on 's PC release is progressing, so much so that its launch may be a lot closer than fans originally suspected. After the latest mainline entry in Square Enix's long-running franchise managed to divide the fanbase due to its PlayStation 5 exclusivity, those who lacked Sony's consoles have been forced to wait it out. Fortunately, Clive's adventure in Valisthea will soon be available on PC, presumably with a host of performance tweaks and graphical improvements.

Bringing the once-doomed MMO Final Fantasy XIV back to life and directing the latest mainline title of the long-running franchise isn’t enough for Square Enix superstar Naoki Yoshida. In a new interview with Famitsu, Yoshida chatted at length about his desire to direct yet another major game for Square Enix.

We've said it once and we'll say it again: direct sequels are a harder sell than most people realise. The latest Japanese sales numbers are in, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the big talking point. Unsurprisingly, the RPG has immediately topped the charts with 263,000 copies sold — but that total, which may seem fairly impressive at first, puts the game well behind the opening figures of its predecessor, Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Among its many highlights, FinalFantasy VII Rebirth makes simple sidequests a lot more engaging than I had expected. Take an early-game sidequest called When Words Won’t Do. On a surface level, it’s a simple escort mission where players must get a dog from Under Junon to Crow’s Nest unscathed. I did not initially have high hopes for this sidequest due to the poor reputation of escort missions; thankfully, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth defied that fate. To make this optional content more worthwhile, Square Enix gave it a strong narrative backbone.

The full release of Final Fantasy XIV on Xbox Series X|S is coming later this month on 21st March, with a Starter Edition of the game being bundled in as an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate perk until 19th April.