Nobuo Uematsu
 

Absolute genius songwriter. The version of one-winged angel that plays during the Advent Children movie really helps to add to the suspense and tension and is a major part of the reason why I consider that to be the best fight scene ever :p

Also cloud's theme (particularly the orchestral version) is a work of art. It's so soothing and relaxing. Plus it really gives a sense of nostalgia when you listen to it :)

him and joe hisaishi are my favourite japanese composers =D

the "beyond the wasteland" song is one of the most amazing things to listen to when you have any sort of sub woofer...feels like a giant is coming after you at the start haha...me and my friends were out for a drive when the weather for foggy at like 4 o clock in the morning last year and that song came on and I was just waiting for some iron giant had to appear out of the fog and grab the car we were in haha

Nobuo is a great composer
my favorite songs are slepless city(IX), celes theme(VI), prelude, prologue, search for the princess(IX), cosmo canyon theme (VII), all battle musics of FFIV. This is what I remember now

ahhh and his work in black mages, simply fantastic!

This is a cool thread. I used to love all those games when I was younger. I too loved a lot of video game music that I heard back then. There are a lot of games that have music that is on par with Nobuo Uematsu's work in Final Fantasy, but he seems to have the most information filmed/written about him.

I have some questions that I wanna ask some of the more hardcore fans out there...

1. Does anyone remember a video of him in his like office/studio where he was interviewed? He was using a computer and a keyboard and what looked like an m-audio interface (I remember it looked like my Firewire 410 that I had at the time I watched it). I'd love to see that video again. I've been looking for it but haven't come across it. I saw this video before the days of youtube, so it could be on some old fan-site or something. I've done lots of searching with no avail though.

2. Does anyone know the kinds of programs and hardware he used? I'm especially curious about the Super Nintendo/Playstation days. I'm guessing he had some kind of midi sound generator and sampled it for the SNES... for the playstation I know he used hardware sound for FFVII, but I don't know about VIII and IX.

As far as his music goes, I like a lot of it, but FFVII was the turning point for me. It's so moody... it really captures a lot of emotions and makes that game what it is. I especially love some of the early themes in the game and Tifa's theme and Arith's theme. I like most of them to be honest. I also really enjoy FFV's opening as well.

Back in the day (SNES era) I used to like his music a lot, but I seemed to enjoy the Mana series and games like Chrono Trigger a little more music wise. I also really liked Earthbound's music. Again though, FFVII blew everything away when it came out. (Although Earthbound still has some of the coolest music).

He seems like a really cool guy though. If I ever get the chance to meet him I'd love to talk to him about all of his experience.