Ranking Every Final Fantasy Composer

Works: XII, Tactics

Much like in any profession, in the world of Final Fantasy soundtrack composing, some are destined to lead and some are destined to only play supporting roles. Masaharu Iwata falls into the latter camp, supporting Hitoshi Sakimoto on his two largest contributions to the series – Tactics and XII.

Iwata created just over a third of the soundtrack for the former, though his contribution to the latter was far more minimal, with only ‘The Sochen Cave Palace’ and the ‘Feywood’ directly credited to him. The fact that these are two of the more frustrating areas of the game to navigate means that neither are fondly recalled by association as a result, though they both have dramatic kicks.

His contributions to Tactics are more well regarded. Regularly heard themes such as the character select (‘Attack Team’) and ‘World Map’ are his, as is the dastardly ‘Argath’s Theme’ and the manic ‘Run Through Past The Plain’.

Though Iwata’s overall contributions to the series as a whole are small, every piece of the jigsaw has to come together to make the finished product. Two of the series’ best games bear his name and he has consistently worked outside of Square-Enix, evidencing his reliability.