Longtime Final Fantasy Composer Says He’s Done Making Video Game Music

Ahead of the release of Fantasian: Neo Dimension on PC and consoles in December, legendary video game composer Nobuo Uematsu has announced that the game will feature his final video game soundtrack. “This is my final project as a composer of video game music,” Uematsu said in a brief video message.

A self-taught musician with a career spanning decades, Uematsu is well-known for his contributions to the Final Fantasy franchise. While he had worked on other games before Final Fantasy, his musical contributions to the 1987 JRPG saw his star rise and he’d compose more music for subsequent games in the series. Beyond the Final Fantasy series, Uematsu has also worked on other big JRPGs over the years like Romancing SaGa, Chrono Trigger, and Fairy Fencer F.

Final Fantasy 7 is considered to have one of his best soundtracks, and Uematsu returned to the series for the Remake and Rebirth chapters to score new themes based on his original work. With a vast body of work, Uematsu has also created soundtracks for anime feature films, and in 2004, he left Square Enix to form his own production company, Smile Please, and the record label Dog Ear Records in 2006. In 2018, Uematsu stepped away from the industry to focus on his mental and physical health.

A few years back, Final Fantasy creator and Fantasian producer Hironobu Sakaguchi mentioned that the RPG could be Uematsu’s final video game soundtrack, due to health concerns. “Before we approached him to work on Fantasian, he was going through some health issues, and there were concerns if he was going to be able to compose everything or if it was even possible for him to work on this,” Sakaguchi said to Mobile Syrup in 2021. “But ultimately, Uematsu pulled through to compose the game’s entire 60-piece orchestrated soundtrack.”

Since then, Uematsu has produced the main themes for Fairy Fencer F: Refrain Chord and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Fantasian: Neo Dimension–which was originally released in two parts on mobile devices–will launch on December 5 for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch. if you’re interested in checking out this game and all of its handcrafted visuals, you can preorder it now.