Final Fantasy: 10 Incredible Statistics You Won't Believe
7. The Franchise's Iconic Theme Was a Last Minute Addition
Speaking of music, this is something where Final Fantasy has largely always excelled.
Nobuo Uematsu scored every Final Fantasy game from the first up to 10, with some compositions for titles thereafter. He’s one of the most important names in the history of the series, helping to craft its musical identity.
Each Final Fantasy game tends to have a soundtrack that a lot of composers can only dream of; enough gold star tracks to make a career off, let alone that Uematsu came back time and time again to craft another round of brilliance. He’s been credited with inspiring so many soundtracks to follow and having an immense impact on classical music in general.
Several recurring themes have permeated through the series. The Chocobo melody, which started in FF2, is reworked into a new genre with every game. The original Final Fantasy gave us our first renditions of the immortal Victory Fanfare jingle, the sweeping majesty of the Opening Theme and, of course, the simple but effective arpeggio of the Prelude theme that opens most of the games in the series.
However, despite its importance to the franchise, it came together in incredibly short order.
In an email exchange archived on the composer’s website between Uematsu and Final Fantasy writer Nojima during the development of FF10, the topic of the track came up with Nobuo-san revealing:
I remember during the final stages of development of FF1, there was a sudden last minute request by Sakaguchi. "Hey, I want some music to go in HERE. It’s of Utmost URGENCY!" which upon given that order, I hurriedly conjured something in 10 minutes. Actually, it’s quite embarrassing as I NEVER expect that tune to span over 10 sequels!
10 minutes of work has permeated a series that has now run for over 35 years.