Heard he left SE and all that. Sad, really. Truely the greatest and most prolific VG composer there ever was.
I love his music. I have pletny of his CDs, too.
Anyone else love his music?
Isn’t he like, freelance or something now?
That was a while ago 
While I like Yasunori Mitsuda better in almost every field (Admittedly, he should stay the hell away from battle music), Uematsu is my second favorite, especially in battle music.
My favorite themes from him are the obvious like Dancing Mad, One Winged Angel, Liberi Fatali and Eyes On Me. I’m going to get lynched for this but my favorite Uematsu soundtrack is FFIX (Particularly Melodies of Life and The Dark Messenger).
He is with the Black Mages now; a group formed by him, I think. Makes CDs of some of his old music, but makes it better.
His best game scores, in my opinion, were final fantasy 6 and Final fantasy 9. He made alot of great hits. His music sells in Japan like Rap and country music in the USA. FF made him world famous. Heard a rumor that he might be composing an actual musical score, like a symphony or an opera. An opera based on FF6 would be a great hit.
Uematsu is indeed freelancing now. He does have a rock band, The Black Mages, on which he plays keyboard. They have two CDs, both of which are revamps of FF battle themes. He’s also been doing tons of concerts in the US, part of the Dear Friends and More Friends tours.
He’s composed quite a few symphonic scores, in use in those and other concerts, but they’re all based on FF stuff.
I guess I was right. Love his new renditions of Dancin Mad and One Winged Angel.
BTW, love the FFCompendium, Cid. Good work. Lots of good behind the sceens information. Might like to see more of the interviews with the Square Team.
Listen to some Zuntata(Bubble Bobble, Darius, Metal Black, Rastan, etc…) Then try to say Uematsu is still King. Not to say I don’t enjoy his music, I truly do and respect him for what he has done from the industry, but he will never be considered “King” in my eyes. And Mitsuda has alot of catching up to do. Magic Pengel 2 and Moonlit Shadow were only so-so compared to Chrono Trigger and Tsugunai.
Other composers to consider :
Yoshitaka Hirota (Shadow Hearts)
Hayato Matsuo (Dragon Force II)
Masaharu Iwata (Baroque)
Hitoshi Sakimoto (Vagrant Story)
Yoko Shimomura (Parasite Eve)
Noriko Matsueda (Bahamut Lagoon)
Motoi Sakuraba (Baten Kaitos)
Masashi Hamauzu (SaGa Frontier II)
Junya Nakano (Threads of Fate)
Kenji Ito (SaGa Frontier)
Hidenori Iwasaki (Front Mission 4)
Koichi Sugiyama (Dragon Warrior)
Koji Hayama (Cho Aniki) (Yes, I’m serious on this one, it’s good music ! :D)
Shinji Hosoe (Ridge Racer)
Takayuki Aihara (Drakengard)
Nobuyoshi Sano (Tekken Tag Tournament)
Noriyuki Iwadare (Grandia)
Jeremy Soule (Morrowind)
Miki Higashino (Suikoden)
Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill)
Falcom JDK (Ys)
Konami Kukeiha Club (Castlevania)
Super Sonic Team (After Burner)
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (Incredible Crisis!)
Chris Vrenna (American McGee’s Alice)
Masashi Yano (The Nightmare of Druaga)
Tsuyoshi Sekito (Brave Fencer Musashi)
Kenichiro Fukui (Einhander)
Hiroki Kikuta (Secret of Mana)
Ok… I’m done
Please try these, you’re bound to find something good, probably as good as Uematsu’s works.
I love Nobuo’s works too, particularily for the soundtracks to FF6-9, but he’ll never be king, because in my eyes, the true ruler of the VGM Kingdom is a queen: Michiko Naruke.
I really hate it when people always try to top me in things. Of course I know about alot of those VG composers. I simply like Nobuo’s style and form.
And, please, do not call me ‘son.’ I hate that, too. Think I am older, anyways.
Edited. But hey, it’s just my opinion. I’m one who thinks Uematsu is extremely overrated. You don’t have to agree with me on this, it’s what I think after I’ve been into VGM for nearly 10 years.
sigh There you go again. I have been doing this just as long, as well.
I guess we have something in common: VGM is now being looked on as a real form of art. People no longer look at VG composers like musicians that are wasting their time. Music in games continues to rise, because it really is good music.
Awesome !! Another person who thinks like me =D
We can agree on this, it has evolved over time and gotten better for the most part. Have you heard Uematsu’s Hanjuku Hero vs 3D ST ? Care to share your thoughts if you have ?
lol
Cannot say I have heard it, but now that you metnion it, I have to go out and find it for myself. :mwahaha:
I wanted to be a VG composer when I was little. Always thought it would be the neatest thing.
Why am I not surprised that DG came in here to state the over-ratedness of Uematsu? Although I’m glad that love is being given to more than just him, the fact is Uematsu has extreme mainstream appeal, which isn’t something that can be said about many VG composers. Maybe Koji Kondo, but a lot of that is just because Mario and Zelda’s music are so recognized.
Although my favorite video game soundtrack is probably Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Michiru Yamane totally did an awesome job with that.
My favourite song from any video game is Battle With Gilgamesh, from FFV. I’ve even been trying to learn the bassline… man is it ever tricky.
DG tends to be the VGM version of an otaku. -_-
Might like to see more of the interviews with the Square Team.
So would I. Unfortunately they’re no longer returning any of my e-mails.
I’d rather use the terms “heavily open-minded” And I don’t see what so bad to enjoy such variety of music.
And still, while I do think Uematsu is overrated, my enjoyment of FFI~VI OSV and FFIX OST are still present. But there’s more to him than just FF, Chrono Trigger and Gun Hazard to name a couple.
It simply irks me that he’s getting all the attention and some composers who have been around as long as he has gets squat from most people.
Lol, ain’t that right, Cid…
Anyways, hold up. Seriously, DG. Saying that the music of Final Fantasy can’t hold a candle to music from the Darius games is…well…wow. If Darius Twin or that other Darius game on SNES are any indication, the music of that series is actually pretty damn bland. While Uematsu is not my favorite composer (If anyone must know, it’d be Ito, Iwadare, and Sakimoto), it’s ridiculous to say that he’s overrated, or doesn’t deserve the credit he gets. Not only are his scores simply amazing to hear, but they’re amazing from a theoretical standpoint. If you have knowledge of music theory, you can tell that this guy knows EXACTLY what he’s doing when it comes to music. And seriously, quite a few of the more memorable (dare I say, best) songs in VGMusic came from Uematsu.
In short, while he’s not my favorite, Nobuo Uematsu, in my opinion, deserves every last bit of respect. He’s definitely the most talented VGM composer around, and I think plenty of people are keen on this. No, I don’t think he’s slipping in his old age.
Trivia time : These two games weren’t developped by Taito(they’ve only given the licence to the Darius name) and therefore have no relation to the real series, so that explains their blandness.
And about Uematsu getting respect, ain’t he getting enough as it is ? I mean come on… there’s like 10 FF Concerts happening so far… Virtually everyone is super-excited about those… and everyone else in the composing field is pretty much pushed aside… At least I can say it’s a better approach to showing the greatness of VGM than Tallarico & Wall’s western-focused “Video Games Live”…
Orchestral Concerts are nice and all… but having witnessed some live footage of the Game Music Festival in 1990 featuring classic bands like Sega SST Band, Taito’s Zuntata, Capcom’s Alpha-Lyra, Data East’s Gamadelic, etc… makes me feel so ripped off by what we’re getting today… Game Concerts aren’t as awesome today as they were in the '90s. I must the only one here who pines for a World Tour featuring a revival of these classic bands (Let’s not forget Falcom JDK, for one) -_-
You know, you’re talking about fun more than music If you want to have fun, go to an old school punk rock concert. Just, don’t expect the music to be good.
Seriously, VG Music is just starting to get recognition over here. What do we have, Koji Kondo (Most people don’t even know him by name) and Uematsu over here. You can say whatever you want, but this is the start of something big. Just cos he’s more known over here doesn’t mean he’s overrated. It’s finally starting to get accepted, and he happens to be the first one to be noticed. Not like that’s a bad thing, anyways. He’s damn good. As much as I hate to say it, I really haven’t seen a composer in VG Music that matches his talent in composition.