Sony let the cat out of the bag on Square Enix’s new MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV. The press sheet released alongside the announcement later that day (Tuesday, June 2), listed Nobuo Uematsu as the composer.
However, many people we spoke to on the show floor were skeptical. “Oh, he probably just wrote the theme song, or a small portion of the soundtrack.” Nope, nope, nope! For the first time since Final Fantasy IX (which came out nearly a decade ago), Uematsu is writing the entire score of a Final Fantasy.
This information was not revealed at Wednesday’s press conference (June 3rd, noon PST). The information came from a reliable source at Square Enix. In a complete coincidence, Mike Tidwell (of RPGamer) and I met up with a member of the FFXI team (now on the FFXIV team), and we picked his brain for information. We asked about the Uematsu listing on the press release. Apparently, Uematsu was offered the opportunity to score the Final Fantasy XIV soundtrack, and he happily agreed to write the full score. No, Uematsu is not back under Square Enix: he’s still an independent artist under his own “SMILEPLEASE” company. And there’s no guarantee that other composers won’t contribute additional music. But at this point, Uematsu is the sole composer, and the plan is for him to score the entirety of Final Fantasy XIV, at least for time of release (as for expansions, that’s too far in the future for anyone to predict).
The only music you can hear from the game presently can be found on the game’s official site, as well as the trailer. We look forward to hearing more Uematsu music as he makes his glorious return to the series that he helped to define so many years ago.
Tags: E3 2009, Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XIV, News, Nobuo Uematsu, Previews, Square Enix, Uematsu, Videogame
Uematsu lost his inspiration some time ago.. He’s not the great FF VII composer anymore.
Listen to lost odyssey soundtrack: it’s good, but not even close to his old works.
Or listen to the smash bros brawl main theme (which was written by Uematsu) it is good but not great.
Yeah thanks for stealing the news I put up in the tips of N4G way before you. http://www.reager.no/?p=265
Right. First, I can’t read that. Second, everyone knew he was working on the game based on the press release, but it hadn’t been confirmed he was scoring the entire game. Get over yourself!
Anyway, I’m really excited that Uematsu is back on the series. I can’t say the track on the website is the most exciting, but I’m sure it’ll meet my expectations when more music is available.
LOL, yeah, we “stole” your news. In a language I don’t understand, on a site I’ve never heard of, I went and stole it from you. Yes, you were the true source, not a member of the FFXIV production team.
And besides, hours after our confirmation on the showfloor, the Dog Ear Records blog posted the same news. SO since it’s public, I guess it wouldn’t matter if I said it, the confirmation came from Michael Fox (also known as “MC Koji Fox”). He did localization for XI and is now on for XIV. Star Onions fans might remember that he did the English lyrics for the vocal Jeuno theme. So Marius, get over your sweet self. 🙂
[…] in the park feel. Tracks like this definitely make me look forward to what Uematsu has planned for Final Fantasy XIV. ” Istavan’s Theme – Where is the Light?” is another minimalistic piece featuring a solo […]