Nobuo Uematsu’s had a long history in gaming that any composer would be proud of. I’ve worked on most of them Final Fantasy games in some capacity, he’s covered a wide variety of RPG hits, such as Chrono Trigger Lost Odyssey and The last story
Recently, he teamed up again with Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and worked on exclusive Apple Arcade Fantasian to create a 60-piece orchestrated soundtrack.
In an interview with Mobile Syrup, Sakaguchi revealed that this may be Uematsu’s last fully scored game, saying:
Before we approached him to work on Fantasian, he had a number of health issues, and there were concerns about whether he would be able to compose everything or even work on this.
I think he kind of hinted that Fantasian might be the last game he plays from start to finish in terms of scoring an entire soundtrack.
Uematsu never disclosed what specific illness he was suffering from, previously he confirmed in September 2018 that he would take the rest of 2018 off to recover. Since then he has composed individual songs such as Final Fantasy VII Remake’s main theme, so this doesn’t necessarily mean he’s retiring.
Sakaguchi confirmed that Uematsu gave everything for Fantasian. Speaking further about the soundtrack, he said that the composer “put his heart and soul into the game” and revealed that it “almost tore me up a bit”.
It’s just a shame that Fantasian isn’t coming to Switch (at least at the time of writing), as we’re eager to see what these two legendary figures have put together for this upcoming RPG. No matter what happens in his career, we will pray for Nobuo Uematsu’s health and success.