Nobuo Uematsu Splitting With Square Enix

FreyarHunter writes "According to Gamespot, Nobuo Uematsu and Square will be separating. Nobuo was the person responsible for the mostly awe-inspiring music for the Final Fantasy games. The report indicates that he will be moving to a company called "Smile Please". While this was first thought to be a rumor it was later announced on Uematsu 's fansite that it is true. He states that it isn't "quitting", but more of a graduation. There are hints in this article saying he will still do work for Square, but at his own pace. The good news is that he still plans to write more music for video games, perform more concerts, and produce the second Black Mages Album."

Comments

Say What Now?

[Anonymous Coward]

I ran the usual suspects (Google, etc.) but I can't find any good info on Black Mages. I mean, WITHOUT it being a video_game_walkthrough.txt.

So what is this "First Black Mages Album?" Anyone have a link to a site with some samples? I know _I_ love the music, and would be interested in hearing more.

-theGreaterUninformedPublic.

Re:Say What Now?

[IkuZe]

Fix: http://www.altpop.com/stc/reviews/ffbm.htm

Re:Say What Now?

[_xeno_]

I'm surprised no one's given a link to his (English) homepage yet. He's popular enough that Square-Enix's homepage contains it as one of nine navigational links on the top of their page! (His Japanese site is, not surprisingly, far more up to date.)

His site includes an English webpage for the Black Mages with more information, including two official samples (requires Flash).

If you're interested in purchasing the disc, I would highly suggest using Froogle. You can get it for quite a bit cheaper than the $20 people have been linking to.

Now for my brief review:

If you aren't into Final Fantasy and Nobuo Uematsu's music, the disc is nothing special. It sounds like "80's synth" music. Most of the music has no meaning unless you can tie it in with the game when it played, so if you haven't played the games that go along with the music it's nothing special. If you are into Final Fantasy music, though, this disc is excellent.

If you have the complete Final Fantasy soundtrack for every Final Fantasy from I to XI (guilty, excluding X-2), then you should go get this disc. It's worth the money, and you'll enjoy every track. (Except, possibly, Dancing Mad. It's long and practically straight from the game.)

If not - then it's probably not worth it.

(Also, there are previews for the second disc on his Japanese site. Thankfully the site is half-English. :) Note that they're webpage doesn't return proper MIME types for the Windows Media files if you're using Firefox.)

Video Game Music - Remixed

[dostert]

Hope this isn't offtopic, but it is on my mind (since I'm listening to it at work). This website: http://www.ocremix.org/ posts remixes of classic titles. I especially like the Chronotrigger remixes, but it has A LOT of Final Fantasy remixes as well. Most of them are a big salute to Nubuo Uematsu's original mixes. Hope the people who care enough to read this article enjoy the remixes as much as I do.

Re:Video Game Music - Remixed

[isd_glory]

Additionally, if you're new to the whole ocremix scene, I'd recommend checking out this remix.

Jeremy Soule, the man behind other notable game soundtracks such as Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, and Morrowind, put together a very nice arrangement of one of Nobuo Uematsu's works. In a geeky sort of way, its pretty cool to see one good composer pay this sort of homage to another.

Re:Remembrance

[lav-chan]

There are several albums that 'regroup' the various music, although most of them are arranged or orchestrated.

'20020220 music from FINAL FANTASY' is a two-disc recording of the February 2002 concert performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. It's got music from all the FF games from the first to the tenth, although the later ones (especially like FF8) get more play time than the earlier ones.

'Final Fantasy 1987-1994' is a collection of songs taken from various arrange albums (like Celtic Moon and Dear Friends) during that period.

There are also 'N Generation' and 'S Generation', which are North-American collections of FF songs broken into two periods (the 'N Generation' being the Nintendo period and the 'S Generation' being the Sony one). I think some of the songs on these are arranged, but i'm not sure.

'FINAL FANTASY SONG BOOK mahoroba' is a vocal album with songs from different Final Fantasy games being sung by Manami Kiyota.

If Vocal Collections count, there are two or three of those, and, while they're entirely arranged and have added lyrics, they're probably my favourite albums out of all the ones i've mentioned so far. They're pretty rad.

And then the only other ones i know of are the 'POTION' albums (there's two of them), which i think are just compilations of arranged versions of the most relaxing songs from Final Fantasy.

Re:Remembrance

[Aash]

Is there a soundtrack of some sort regrouping the most popular FF themes? I find it to be very relaxing...

Final Fantasy: The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Perform The Music of Nobuo Uematsu

There's also a bunch of other soundtracks for the individual games at Amazon, though they're mostly imports.

Japanese Jobs

[AviLazar]

One thing to note for Japanese jobs - people in Japan do not job jump as much as we do in the US. In Japan - moving around too much (company to company) is bad for the resume. So when someone leaves a company - it tends to be a big deal.
Ahh FF1 - still my favorite all time...Though FFX is tied or a close second...have yet to play FFX-2, and I won't play FF online due to the monthly membership costs and the fact that they delete your account if you neglect to pay for one month.

Sad to see him go, but ...

[isolationism]

... You can't say there wasn't warning. In the past few games he's been passing off more and more of the music to other artists. The argument that this is so only because the games are becoming bigger isn't particularly true since you've been seeing four-disc Final Fantasy soundtracks since FF VII and three-disc soundtracks before that.

Frankly, I love Uematsu's work but I'm happy to see him move on to other things and pursue his own interests and goals; I think he's earned the ability to do it. Besides, I see him doing for Square Enix' Final Fantasy music what Amano has been doing all along for their character design: Inspirational pieces from which the main themes are based (particularly those melodies that recur throughout the game, like the Zanarkand theme from FFX or Melodies of Life from FFIX).

Here's to more "inspired by" or arranged albums like The Black Mages, Pray, Love Will Grow, and Celtic Moon, too (I was disappointed at the offering in this department for Final Fantasy X; maybe now it will come out of the woodwork). It sounds to me like Mr. Uematsu retains some rights -- or still has very good relationships with Square Enix -- to continue re-recording those old works, which suits me plenty fine.

Uematsu is founding Smile Please.

[Webapprentice]

Uematsu has basically decided to go freelance.

Many ex-Square composers are now freelance.

Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Xenosaga, etc.)

Hitoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy Tactics, Breath of Fire V, Gradius V, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, etc.)

Yoko Shiminoura (Legend of Mana, Parasite Eve, Kingom Hearts, etc.)

Kenji Ito (Romancing Saga, Saga Frontier, etc.)

Can't blame him for leaving

[rfunches]

Over the past few years Uematsu has been "phased out," if you will, from the Final Fantasy series. He didn't do much for FFX (there were two other composers on the game as well) and IIRC had no involvement on FFX-2. Other than the "Memory" song and the harp prelude in FFXI, Uematsu was only listed as producer. For FFXII I don't even think he's involved (please correct me if I'm wrong). He obviously wants to do other projects -- a few years ago, the CD "Phantasmagoria," and now the Black Mages album -- and is probably taking a hint from other high-profile game industry names (composers, producers, the head artistic people) leaving the large corporations like Square Enix and forming their own small, independent companies, and working on a freelance basis. Uematsu gets more time to produce what he wants with his name on it when he wants, and Square Enix still gets their Uematsu music, just on a freelance basis.

80's synth music indeed

[bani]

reminds me of the vacuous big hair metal bands of the 80's.

For something different, Machinae Supremacy instead. Nothing beats screaming guitars backed by a SID6581...

Not only that, MS have free downloads in ogg format...