Nobuo Uematsu's Greatest Hits

If you like vgm, chances are you already know who Uematsu is. If not, what rock have you been living under? One of two composers, including Nintendo's very own Koji Kondo, that can lay claim to being the John Williams of vgm. He's definitely among the most popular and it's not difficult to figure out why. There's an intrinsic relatable quality to many of his tunes which grants it an emotional immediacy. Beautiful young girls have bawled their eyes out simply from having their ears subjected to a few bars of his melancholic pieces. Conversely, it takes a lot to extract the salt out of me, but I commend his efforts for doing so. In Japan, I think one composer who could rival him in that sort of arena is Yasunori Mitsuda.

I can't recall when was the first instance of me listening to his music. Final Fantasy VII is likely the first time I knew such a series even existed, which was through trailers of a Gamesmaster tape showcasing games from all platforms in 1997. I tend to throw away a lot of things, but I kept this tape as memorabilia, if not simply for nostalgia's sake, but also as a historical artefact to help me understand the console wars of the 90s. Cut-throat models of advertising was all the rage back then.

Out of all the games I've played, I was smitten by IV's soundtrack the most. It had no pretensions of grandeur, it's purely music that aims to be emotionally engaging and fit its context as much as possible. It had the least filler and duds. I think it's well-judged across the board and this is reflected in the best rendition of the iconic "Prelude" theme which is equal parts hopeful and tragic. I can say without any reservation, that it was a much better score overall than VI, the one often touted as his magnum opus. A large number of its tracks have become classics and reused in other games such as X and XII. One is even part of the Japanese school music curriculum and that's something VI can never boast about. To top it all off, the "Prelude" theme of VI wasn't even used in the beginning of the intro and was instead stuck at the end of the game, which defeats the purpose of it being named a prelude, so go figure. While it might be a little lacking in the amount of tracks available in comparison, the dedication put into every composition and their seamlessness makes it one of those soundtracks I can listen to all the way through.

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