Director, Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
EXCLUSIVE! FINAL FANTASY VII Legends Reunion || Hironobu Sakaguchi, Nobuo Uematsu, Yoshinori Kitase
© 1997 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.
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The creator of the FINAL FANTASY series Hironobu Sakaguchi, the composer of the music Nobuo Uematsu, and the producer of the up coming FINAL FANTASY VII Remake sit down with us to discuss how FINAL FANTASY VII came to be, the music, the story, and more much.
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Transcript (58 segments)
I
Interviewer0:00
Well, this year... We're waiting for Uematsu-san. Uematsu-san! Uematsu-san! We have a lot of guests this time. The three of them getting together—I've heard that's very rare. How is it actually? How long has it been since the three of you gathered like this?
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi0:57
Not really. Individually, yes, but the three of us... Really, how many years has it been? It feels like that, right? About 10 years?
Ebisu... Oh right, Kitase didn't come to that one, did he?
Y
Yoshinori Kitase1:16
I wasn't there.
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi1:24
Ah, he wasn't there. Kitase wasn't there. Then it was before that. That's right—if so, it's been over 10 years. Even if the three of us gather...
Well, individually of course. We meet all the time.
I
Interviewer1:46
Well, the three of you gathered for BRA BRA this time, and at the Hiroshima show, the three of you were on stage... And Shibuya-san too. That was a flute duo, right?
N
Nobuo Uematsu1:59
That's right. Three people—Shibuya-san, Kitachi, and Sakaguchi-san—all with flutes.
Right, well... Kitase has been fully participating in BRA BRA from the start. Shibuya-san has been around for quite a while—about two years. Yeah, she'd come visit from time to time.
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi2:26
I've only rarely been able to participate, but I really wanted to eat Hiroshima okonomiyaki, so when I said I wanted to go... Since it was my first time participating in BRA BRA this year, I was told to do something. So about a week before the first show, around March, I rushed to a music store in Ginza. Since it's a tour, I asked for the instrument with the smallest footprint, and they said flute is the smallest—it can even be taken apart.
N
Nobuo Uematsu3:10
But still—I didn't tell you to play flute, you know.
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi3:14
It's hard! I didn't even know how difficult it was.
I
Interviewer3:18
Did you actually practice a lot?
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi3:21
I did.
N
Nobuo Uematsu3:23
Let me tell you—Kitachi and Shibuya-san, those two learned directly from flute players in the Siena Wind Orchestra! And in Square Enix's recording studio! A truly luxurious lesson.
Y
Yoshinori Kitase3:44
Since I had said I bought a flute, Sakaguchi-san on a live broadcast—I happened to be with Shibuya-san and Sakaguchi-san, and it was a broadcast where we were going to play FF6. At that point, on the live broadcast, Sakaguchi-san enthusiastically said, 'Let's play flute together, the three of us!'
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi4:11
About last week... I sent emails to everyone. An email saying 'sorry' went out. 'Sorry, flute is impossible.' Even though I was the one who started it, I was told it was no good, so after that I practiced.
I
Interviewer4:30
So this BRA BRA is FF7 music only—what about that?
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi4:42
Well, this year... Something I said at a concert ended up as internet news. If video got out it would be a problem. So yes, because we're currently making FF7 Remake, that's the connection.
N
Nobuo Uematsu5:09
Well, but with FF7—I say this at the venue too—usually, songs that don't make it into best-of FF compilations... There are some pretty plain songs. They're minor songs, but these really touch the heart, you know.
I
Interviewer5:32
It's wonderful. I cried at the venue in Tokyo. Three of us staff were together, and we were like, 'Wow...'
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi5:46
And Uematsu's narration at the concerts—it's irresistible. The way the instrument sounds blend together... When he says 'please feel it,' it hits you even more.
N
Nobuo Uematsu5:58
I'm getting better with each performance. I don't decide exactly what to say beforehand. For the first show I talk like this, and for the second show I think maybe this phrasing would expand on it more. Just like the Siena Orchestra's performances improve with each show, my MC talks and banter with the female MC gradually evolve too. So the later shows are better in every way than the early ones.
I
Interviewer6:48
The level of completion keeps rising. Sorry to go back to old stories—Uematsu-san created the FF7 music. What was your impression when you first heard it? That's the question.
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi7:03
Very good.
N
Nobuo Uematsu7:09
This is a true story. The opening video was about 80% done, and I had to match music to it. The composition was already finished when Sakaguchi-san happened to come back from Hawaii to Japan. Kitase and he came to my music studio, and they said, 'Let us hear it.' So I played it for them. The two of them listened with serious faces, and when all the music finished playing... 'Very good.' And with just that one word, they left.
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi7:58
I'd just come back from Hawaii, so I figured we should talk about things...
N
Nobuo Uematsu8:03
They left with just that one word. But since he said 'very good,' he can't be in a bad mood, right? So I thought it was probably okay. I was also a bit confident in this work—the approach was different from what I'd done for FF6. It was orchestral, but with a synth-music flavor mixed in. I wondered how the other staff would feel about this direction. But that wasn't a problem at all. When you have a phrase like 'very good,' things go quite smoothly—once you know this direction is fine.
Y
Yoshinori Kitase8:33
Once you know this direction works, things go smoothly. 'Very good' really helped.
I
Interviewer8:40
How about you, Kitase-san?
Y
Yoshinori Kitase8:42
I don't really remember that specific moment, but when the visuals were done and the music was attached, and Midgar spread out before you and the title appeared—that's when it really hit us. It was only when both the art and music came together that we thought, 'So this is what we're making with FF7.' There are things that don't come through with just visuals. The tone, the feel of the game—once the art and music combined, the game world became concrete. Having that synth sound in there... we realized, 'Oh, so this is the image.' That's where it all came together.
I
Interviewer9:37
Is adding music after the visuals are done the standard workflow?
Y
Yoshinori Kitase9:42
For the movies, yes. The movie is rendered, we watch it, and then we add music. Especially that opening is a bit special—the train running through, all of those elements were already in place.
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi9:56
I really like that opening. That's good, right? It's perfect. Very good.
I
Interviewer10:06
There are different ways to look at it, but going from FF6's fantasy style to a completely different cyberpunk-like tone—that was a big shift.
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi10:21
Well, since the hardware changed from PlayStation, it was a good timing. The sound source changed too.
N
Nobuo Uematsu10:27
If anything was going to change, it would be then. On the other hand, I've told Sakaguchi-san many times—I wanted to try the FF6 fantasy route one more time. Actually, I still feel that way. After making FF1 through FF6, I'd finally started to understand, in my own way, what RPGs should be. And right when I felt I'd figured out the direction... it all changed. I thought, 'Well, whatever.'
I
Interviewer11:06
Actually going from 2D to 3D, increasing the number of discs—there were various changes. Do you have anything to say about that?
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi11:17
It's a very minor thing, but with Dragon Quest and FF—when maps were 2D, there was no perspective, so tiles extended infinitely. In old Dragon Quest, you could reach the edge of a town thinking there was nothing, but if you kept scrolling—oh, there's a treasure chest here! Hidden passages! It's still going! But when it becomes 3D, perspective kicks in, and the edge of the map becomes the hard limit. Is it okay to throw away the fun of treasure chests? That kind of dilemma. I worried about that sometimes.
Y
Yoshinori Kitase12:11
That's right, things you have to discard naturally come up. You have to let go of the fun of 2D. Also, if battle animations become too verbose, the tempo gets bad—looks better but plays worse. What to do about that... And with CDs, loading speed—times when it can't load.
N
Nobuo Uematsu12:31
Please, let me say one thing. I think having load times in games is absolutely terrible. I still think so. Especially when you're charging into the final boss—'Loading...' Isn't that the worst? What about my excitement? I thought that was unacceptable, so I stopped music from loading. Basically, by keeping it as internal sound memory, the music data is loaded from CD at the very start, so you don't need to load instrument sounds each time a song plays. So for FF7, no matter where the music changed, there was no loading time. I thought battle-to-town and field transitions were perfect—then the graphics team went all out... 'One-Winged Angel!' and the screen goes dark, and it just keeps loading, forever staying dark. That was disappointing. The sound quality is bad because they thought compression was fine. FF7's sound quality... even though we worked so hard on our end.
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi13:58
Even so, no loading is quite difficult. The programmers—Nariken and the others—worked until the very end on where to place data on the CD. The disc head moves to read data, so it's better if the next piece is nearby. Even 0.1 seconds faster—they placed data meticulously, right down to the end.
Y
Yoshinori Kitase14:34
For battle scenes, when returning from battle to the field—we used the result screen, where experience points appear, to load data in the background. That way, players don't notice the loading time. That trick worked quite well.
I
Interviewer14:59
When the three of you first met—approximately when, and what was your impression? Are there things you couldn't say back then that you can say now, 20 years later?
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi15:23
Things you couldn't say back then, you still can't say after 20 years.
Y
Yoshinori Kitase15:31
I wanted to ask Sakaguchi-san—I've never given negative feedback on Uematsu-san's music, but did you ever give him feedback on his music?
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi15:45
FF1 and FF2, quite a bit—'Put music here' and things like that.
N
Nobuo Uematsu15:51
I wasn't really told 'make it sound like this.' I did receive a table saying 'put music in this scene,' but from around the third game, it became more like handing over the entire scenario. His scenarios are thick—RPG scenarios inevitably become that way with branching paths. When you print it all out, it's remarkably thick. Reading through it, deciding 'maybe here, maybe here,' checking as I go.
Y
Yoshinori Kitase16:28
I joined from FF5, and since I joined, I've never seen a music request form. That's true.
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi16:36
There was no request form.
N
Nobuo Uematsu16:40
Reading his scenarios and writing what's needed—that's about it. Also, 'this time the theme is this'... Trust. In a good way, it's trust. 'I trust you.' And that's where 'Very good' comes in.
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi16:49
Trust—in a good way. 'I trust you.' That's where 'Very good' fits in.
I
Interviewer17:02
We were just talking about themes. Getting back to FF7—what direction were you given for the music's theme?
N
Nobuo Uematsu17:11
The music theme, well... The concept of 'life' came up. 'The life of the planet.' It was a very philosophical theme. That was really the first time I felt, 'So games like this are possible.'
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi17:37
But that style hasn't been done since. I feel like there should be more games with themes that make both players and creators think deeply. It might not sell, though.
I
Interviewer17:58
Saying 'it might not sell' while you're in the middle of making the remake... Speaking of FF7, there are probably lots of Easter eggs. Were there any personal memories or scenes you especially wanted fans to find?
H
Hironobu Sakaguchi18:24
We probably put in a lot—we do it every time, but we don't remember. Taxi drivers often say, 'I'm an FF fan! The summon something...' 'Uh, I think it's in 3?' '...It's 5.' That happens a lot. Even playing FF6 together, they don't remember.
I
Interviewer18:50
We wanted to hear more, but unfortunately time is up. Thank you all for today! Please subscribe to the channel! Bye bye!