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Trying to emulate Hollywood movie soundtracks is holding video game music back, says Final Fantasy composerAnd surprise, surprise, he doesn’t think soulless AI can write a decent score, either
And surprise, surprise, he doesn’t think soulless AI can write a decent score, either
Image credit:Square Enix
Image credit:Square Enix
Developers happy to mimic the style of Hollywood blockbusters in their video game soundtracks are stopping video game music from advancing, one of the best to ever do it -Final Fantasycomposer Nobuo Uematsu - has said.
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The veteran composer reflected on how hardware limitations had inspired creativity in his early career, with the rudimentary memory limits of the NES and SNES - the latter of which was restricted to using eight sounds simultaneously - and even the loading time of CD-ROMs on the first PlayStation influencing his approach to composing tracks with compressed samples that wouldn’t result in longer loading times when, say, encountering a random battle.
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It’s this freedom and willingness to experiment that has led to music to stagnate, Uematsu implied, stressing that “people need to have more freedom when creating [video game music]” and try to produce something new.
“Game music will become more interesting if composers consider ‘What is something only I can do?’ and use their own knowledge and experience to be truly creative.”
Unsurprisingly, the composer doesn’t think that using AI to spaff out a load of soulless crap (as is the AI way) is the answer, either, as creating music that connects with players requires “reaching deep down inside yourself to find aspects unique to you and then expressing them”. He would know, after all, because he’s Nobuo-friggin’-Uematsu.
Image credit:Square Enix
