{"id":51922,"date":"2025-09-12T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=51922"},"modified":"2025-09-11T18:37:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T09:37:37","slug":"game-directors-and-producers-have-too-much-power-in-their-hands-final-fantasy-composer-says-theres-less-creative-freedom-in-game-music-nowadays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/game-directors-and-producers-have-too-much-power-in-their-hands-final-fantasy-composer-says-theres-less-creative-freedom-in-game-music-nowadays\/","title":{"rendered":"“Game directors and producers have too much power in their hands.” Final Fantasy composer says there\u2019s less creative freedom in game music nowadays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While he has recently taken a step back from making full game OSTs and is happily working on his own passion-projects, legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu is still paying close attention to what\u2019s happening in the game industry. In a recent interview with Real Sound<\/a>, Uematsu spoke about the current state of game music, which is, according to him, \u201cgetting less weird.\u201d He also shared advice for up-and-coming composers on how to overcome this slump. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Final<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the past couple of years, Uematsu has made numerous statements<\/a> about how game music is growing \u201cboring,\u201d but when asked whether this \u201csense of crisis\u201d comes from the stagnation of the game industry as a whole \u2013 he says that\u2019s not quite the case. Instead, he suggests game musicians are losing their creative freedom under the rising pressure of game directors and producers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI won\u2019t go as far as to call it stagnation, but I believe directors and producers hold too much power in their hands even when it comes to the music. Even now, game composers aren\u2019t in a position to speak their opinion freely, and no matter how much musical knowledge or technical skills they possess, they\u2019re still in a position where it\u2019s difficult to speak their mind. There are almost no game producers who are well versed in worldwide entertainment and are familiar with a wide variety of musical genres, so anything goes for them as long as you make it sound like a John Williams movie soundtrack.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Final<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While a soundtrack is usually made to fit the image of a game, with the composer being required to completely conform to the game\u2019s existing creative framework, Uematsu says that shouldn\u2019t be the case. He brings up one of his favorite artists, Elton John, who \u201cdespite having to be mindful of commercial success, still continued making good music even after releasing his masterpieces in the 70s. In that sense, I think there\u2019s still many things we can do.\u201d Despite the overwhelming circumstances, Uematsu suggests musicians should always be seeking new forms of expression, as that is precisely what keeps music interesting and engaging. \u201cIf you make the same stuff as John Williams and grow complacent with that, you\u2019ll get nothing more from it. Now, what if someone put a bit of techno in there \u2013 what kind of sound would it become then? I believe that would be a good way to approach music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uematsu notes that this reluctancy to go a step further is also reflected in modern sounds themselves. \u201cThe mainstream approach is to use soothing digital synth sounds with a sequencer, without ever letting it break that mold,\u201d he said. \u201cFrankly speaking, there\u2019s less \u2018weird things\u2019 now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a related note, Uematsu\u2019s pursuit of unique sounds had him completely reinvent the way he composed when he was tasked with creating Final Fantasy VII\u2019s iconic final battle theme. Apparently, his colleagues weren\u2019t that impressed<\/a> with the final result, which was made over three challenging weeks of rearranging and combining separate musical segments into a full piece. However, Uematsu did not want to change his artistic vision, and luckily, he managed to convince his team members to keep the battle theme as-is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Final Fantasy composer talks about the current state of game music, commenting on how composers nowadays have less creative freedom. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":51927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,3],"tags":[36,17],"class_list":["post-51922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-final-fantasy","category-news","tag-final-fantasy","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\n"Game directors and producers have too much power in their hands." 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