Nobuo Uematsu

[PizzaSHARK]

I would be remiss if I didn't bring up Yoko Shimomura, composer of Mario RPG, the Kingdom Hearts games, most of the Mana series games from Legend of Mana on, and a hell of a lot more.

Smithy Battle 2 still has one of the most fantastic bass lines I've heard in a long, long time. Forest Song was awesome, too.

[Wishblade]

He is indeed quite amazing, some of the best music has been by his hand. =)

[pickley]

Who else considers this man a genius?

I owe a lot to this man. His ability to capture the emotion of a scene or scenario in his music is unmatched in my opinion. I consider him the height of game music achievement in mankind's history to date.

I would disagree. Koji Kondo is hands down the best.
Nobuo is probally 2nd though.

[Beet]

Yeah Uematsu is just amazing. There is really no other video game music that moves me like his specifically in the FF games. Whoever posted Road to Zanarkland I thank you. I haven't heard that since I first played FF10 in like 2002 and man it has taken me back. FF 7, 9, and 10 will always be in my top 5 most enjoyed games. The music being a huge part of it.

[Skizzit]

You did kind of make me mad saying 8 was anything but the best of the FF series. 8/9/tactics/4 > rest.

I think you made a typo there. It should be 6/9/Tactics/4 > rest.

[Kaeleena]

Hironobu Sakaguchi, the father of Final Fantasy. Square will never be the same without him.

[Gandrake]

His ability to capture the emotion of a scene or scenario in his music is unmatched in my opinion.

Shoji Meguro, Motoi Sakuraba.

[Migey]

Nobuo Uematsu is amazing indeed, however the FF with my favourate music was X, which I understand he collaborated alot with other composers with.

For me however, the composer who has made the best music to me is Tomohito Nishiura, who made the soundtrack for the games Dark Cloud and Dark Chronicle (or Dark Cloud 2 for you annoying americans). That stuff was AMAZING. I can't be the only person who loves him?

Then again, those two games were sadly underplayed. Dark Chronicle in particular is a title that didn't get half as much attention as it deserved. Or maybe I wasn't the only one put off by the fubar ending dungeon (ie, the identity of big bad).

[Suikoden]

Yoko Shimomura <3

[Viertel]

From one fan to another, does Sugiyama really compare to Uematsu? I've never listened to his music, and I know I would have to play the games to get the full impact of his music.

Sugiyama is to Back/Beethoven/Mozart like Uematsu is to John Williams. Especially Bach; if there's anything of his (or Handel now that I think on it) you like, his music should appeal to you.

Sugiyama's done musicals, television, movies, and well over a hundred of his own compositions, of which at least three I believe are symphonies.

Both composers are pretty genius in what they do, but Uematsu himself looks up to Sugiyama as do the rest of the Japanese: he's considered the big boss of the video game composer world. Considering the majority of the world (especially western, sadly) are utterly horrific when it comes to composing video game music, and I've heard a lot of Sugiyama's works (video game and not) I'm inclined to agree. Both use leitmotifs and motifs throughout their work but while Uematsu confines his within a single game Sugiyama usually spreads his throughout an entire series (like Dragon Quest) so that there's a cohesiveness and single unity throughout the series.

Each is an incredible composer and it's always good to see their name on a list. They've not had any real duds, though Uematsu's come really close lately (FFXIV's is a prime example of someone not stepping out of his roots to try to expand further).

My gripe with Sugiyama has nothing to do with his music: it's his political views. And frankly, they're disgusting as shit.

Shoji Meguro, Motoi Sakuraba.

I can't recall a game from the first, but the second has no emotional grasp of music. That's also not to mention that his music has not evolved, at all, since he first started. He has good music, don't get me all, but sadly once you've heard a theme from him they *all* sound the same. He doesn't try to distinguish X game from Y game at all: you can just as easily take the soundtrack from a Tales of game and put it into a Star Ocean and virtually no one would know the difference.

Doesn't mean he's terrible, his music is good, but he's sadly a case of "If you've heard one game, then the rest won't sound too different". Just about anyone else tries to give each game a different element, different feel. Sakuraba doesn't even bother.