Is there anything Nobuo Uematsu can do wrong?

[starlet]

I'd be willing to bet that Nobuo is one of the most beloved composers in gaming history, much less the Final Fantasy franchise. There probably isn't anyone who can set tones and moods better than he can. With that said, I'm curious... Are there any Nobuo compositions that you don't like? Tell me what songs you don't look forward to hearing!

[Vyk]

I tolerate the existence of Final Fantasy IX's score, and while I've played Mistwalker games, I can't remember any of his music from them or any music from them in general

This is the worst I can say for him. Which basically translates to some of his work being meh to me, but certainly not failing in composition. Just didn't grab me or stick with me in any way

[Wolf Kanno]

His bad tracks are few and far between for me, more often his worst works are the more forgettable ones like Vyk mentioned.

[Fynn]

I’ve lost a lot of the enthusiasm I had for the guy over the years. While sure, most FF OSTs are awesome, I feel he peaked pretty early on and then just... never recaptured that. The OSTs to V, VI, VII and IX are incredible almost in their entireties, with IX’s standing out for not only its variety, but also use of actual medieval techniques to make the setting really feel old-timey.



Buuuuuuut you can tell that soundtrack burnt him out completely because by FFX, he is by far the least inspired contributor to that game’s soundtrack. All of his tracks from that game sound like they just regurgitate old motifs from other games in a way that just doesn’t work together at all. The battle theme is the prime example of it - it isn’t structured cohesively at all, is slow to the point that it loses any sense of urgency, and combined with the very poor instrument samples it just makes for an incredibly painful musical experience that gets repeated as nauseam throughout the game. It feels like Uematsu whispering “kill me” into my ear every time it comes up.

I think really the biggest problem is that by that time he’s just outgrown his signature FF style and all of his contributions in that old style just feel wrong. Compare his soundtrack to the Last Story - who may have less general appeal because of less focus on strong melodies and more general atmosphere and a cinematic style - which works well and feels like Uematsu doing what he wants to again, to the incredibly bad songs he’s written for FF later like Kiss Me Goodbye or that Godawful theme for FFXV: Comrades, or what I consider his absolute worst work and made me disillusioned towards him in the first place: the FFXIV 1.0 soundtrack. Much like the FFX battle theme, it just regurgitates everything people supposedly want out of an FF soundtrack, whether it works together at all or not.


Oh yeah and the entire FFVIII soundtrack requires a thorough rearrangement and I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that so many people consider it not just good but the best.

So yes, imo, Uematsu can and has done a lot of wrong. Don’t get me wrong - he’s still a good composer who’s the reason why I got into video game music so hard, but I kind of feel his legacy is dragging him down a bit and I wish he could just write more new stuff without the pressure of having to recapture what made people love his old music.

[maybee]

Nope ! Can't think if any right now, the man is a musical genius. Some songs are a bit eh and forgettable, but I don't think he's truly done a bad song.

[WarZidane]

Almost the entire Blue Dragon OST, for starters.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

I think really the biggest problem is that by that time he’s just outgrown his signature FF style and all of his contributions in that old style just feel wrong. Compare his soundtrack to the Last Story - who may have less general appeal because of less focus on strong melodies and more general atmosphere and a cinematic style - which works well and feels like Uematsu doing what he wants to again,

It's interesting because I remember reading an interview with him about that years ago and he said when he originally submitted work to Sakaguchi for the Last Story Sakaguchi felt that it didn't suit the project, so he changed his style substantially for that game.

[Loony BoB]

There are probably a couple to be honest, mostly because they were MIDI files and not because the compositions themselves were bad. But then again, I can say this about pretty much every composer in FF history. Hell, gaming history!

The ones that grated on me the most are the ones that repeated over and over and had some kind of shrill, high pitch noise in them. Cosmo Canyon, I think, had a theme which grated on me after a while for that reason. The daytime theme of Idyllshire is another that I got sick of because I felt it repeats too quickly. It needed something in it that changed things up a bit, but it didn't. RIP.

Uematsu is great, don't get me wrong, but he is great for his amazing and memorable pieces you can hear over and over. That doesn't mean most of the stuff he makes is amazing, though, any more than any other composer these days. I do wonder if he can still do it in the modern times where MIDIs are out and we have voices talking over the top of the music. Voice acting killed the OST star.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

For further information on this subject, you can refer to my old thread made many years ago.

[Wolf Kanno]

I think really the biggest problem is that by that time he’s just outgrown his signature FF style and all of his contributions in that old style just feel wrong. Compare his soundtrack to the Last Story - who may have less general appeal because of less focus on strong melodies and more general atmosphere and a cinematic style - which works well and feels like Uematsu doing what he wants to again, to the incredibly bad songs he’s written for FF later like Kiss Me Goodbye or that Godawful theme for FFXV: Comrades.

I'm going to disagree about the songs listed here. Now I can easily agree that Kiss Me Goodbye was ill fitted for an FF Soundtrack, but I would say it's still a pretty good pop song on it's own merits, it just doesn't fit with FF is all. Choosing Hope on the other hand, is actually a pretty groovy Blues/Gospel track, and while the lyrics could be less hokey, I honestly feel it would have served as a better main theme for FFXV than Stand By Me and *gasp* even Somnus which fitted the title better when it was still going to be a fantasy Yakuza movie called Versus XIII. Hilariously, the gospel aspect of the track fits better with the general OST for FFXV and Brotherhood, which had a more blues and country feel to it than the Italian opera influenced Somnus.

[Fynn]

I guess we’ll just have to disagree. But even though I did actually appreciate the Gospel aspects, the song just felt pretty tired for me. Not to mention it just really pales in comparison to all the other DLC main themes, well maybe aside from Episode Gladio. I do like Florence’s take on Stand by Me though, even if I will agree with you that Somnus will remain, to me, forever the actual vocal theme for XV