Ranking Every Final Fantasy Composer
9. Junya Nakano
Works: X, IV: The After Years
Final Fantasy X was the first game in the main series that wasn’t scored solely by one individual. Having three separate composers leave their own imprints on a game’s musical style was unheard of in the series at that point, though we’re used to it now.
With 18 tracks overall, Junya Nakano’s contribution was the smallest and his career within Square-Enix post-X was the least high profile, though his full re-arrangement of the score of IV for its enhanced Nintendo DS remake and his creation of 13 original tracks for its sequel, The After Years, including the catchy ‘Mysterious Girl’, shouldn’t be brushed aside.
Amongst Nakano’s contributions to X were the tense boss battle theme ‘Enemy Attack’, menu theme ‘The Summoning’, intense chase theme ‘Pursuit’ and the grandiose ‘A Contest Of Aeons’, all of which were solid parts of an almost universally brilliant soundtrack.
Why he wasn’t
given a larger showcase than a mobile sequel afterwards is anyone’s guess,
particularly given that he’d been with Square-Enix since 1995. He contributed
freelance arrangements for XIII, X and X-2 HD, but hasn’t been engaged on
anything else inside the company or within the wider gaming community since his
departure at the end of 2009.