I agree that his work on the PS1 and before was better that his work at Mistwalker, in part because you had to tell more of the story through the music. However, you can still do that these days, and I believe it is a weakness of either the composers or the directors who give the briefs, that that quality is not reached. And I do include Uematsu's more recent work in that. Final Fantasy X was still full of iconic pieces despite using voice overs, but those heights haven't really been reached since then, and I don't think there's any good reason for that.