Ranking Every Final Fantasy Composer
11. Tetsuya Shibata
Works: XV, Justice Monsters Five
Yoshino Aoki’s partner in both life and music was given a broader spectrum of themes to cover with his contributions to XV, giving him a greater musical range and allowing him to slightly usurp her, despite their almost equal contributions from a quantity standpoint.
A seasoned sound director as well as composer, Shibata was given a number of locations and scenarios to work with. The pieces that score all of the game’s major settlements bar Altissia (‘Hammerhead’, ‘Lestallum’, ‘Galdin Quay’ and ‘Cape Caen’) are all his, as is the regularly-heard campfire music ‘Safe Haven’.
His heavier hitters come towards the end of the game and in its DLC packages, however. ‘Homecoming’ is a fitting accompaniment to the scene that sees Noctis emerge and learn about the World of Ruin for the first time, whilst Episode Gladiolus’ ‘The Spirits Converge’ and ‘The Trials Of The Shield’ are great heavy rock tracks that suit the rugged hack-and-slash nature of the episode and its star.
He and Aoki are a
great fit for the series either on their own or together. Square-Enix have kept
them on board for arrangement and composition jobs on smaller musical projects,
so it seems likely that they’ll be seen again in the future despite being left off
of VII Remake.