Ranking Every Final Fantasy Composer

Works: X-2

Though X-2 attracted criticism for the fact that it reused almost every visual asset from X, it boasted a completely new soundtrack, neglecting to repurpose or even remix any of the tracks from its predecessor.

Responsibility for this was given to Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi, who joined Square-Enix in 1994 and 1998 respectively. It was the first Final Fantasy title that either had worked on, having previously been tasked with scoring some of the company’s more niche releases such as Bahamut Lagoon, Racing Lagoon and The Bouncer.

With just 61 tracks, X-2’s soundtrack was considerably smaller than X’s (which had 94). It contains some beautiful pieces, including the emotional ‘Memories Of Wave & Light’ that plays on the menu screen and the majestic ‘Zanarkand Ruins’, but the majority are either very short, repetitive (looping is prevalent) or outright forgettable.

There is also the small matter of the infamous ‘Real Emotion’ vocal track that opens the game, widely considered to be most drivelous piece of music to ever grace the series.

Both composers left Square-Enix shortly after the game's release. Neither have returned to the company as freelancers since, leaving X-2 as their sole contribution to the franchise aside from Matsueda’s creation of the soundtracks for the much-maligned PlayOnline menus in XI.