Ranking Every Final Fantasy Composer
2. Masashi Hamauzu
Works: VII: Dirge Of Cerberus, X, XIII, XIII-2, Lightning Returns: XIII, World Of
Final Fantasy XIII ranks quite lowly in any list of the main series games, but in terms of soundtracks, it’s amongst the best of the last couple of decades. The sole creation of Masashi Hamauzu, it and its two sequels, where he played a more secondary role, cover a multitude of genres, from classical to heavy metal, highly effectively.
Hamauzu began his career on the series with Final Fantasy X. He composed 20 of the game’s 91 tracks, including the high octane ‘Assault’ and ‘Challenge’, before having a solo outing on Dirge of Cerberus.
Though a valid criticism of his work on XIII is that he opted for far too many vocal tracks, which can be distracting and detracting from the gameplay experience, these are offset by some of the best battle and character themes in the series. ‘Blinded By Light’ is an absolute belter of an ordinary battle theme, whilst the assortment of pieces that Serah and Lightning get in particular are wondrously crafted representations of the characters and their emotions.
Hamauzu hasn’t
worked for Square Enix directly since 2010, but having been brought back to
freelance on X & X-2 HD, World Of Final Fantasy and VII Remake as well as
the aforementioned XIII sequels since his departure, he’s clearly still held in
high regard. Rightfully so.