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Nobuo Uematsu: Modern video game music is not interesting | LevelUp

The artist believes that creating music like in movies limits creativity

www.levelup.com

This is from a japanese interview on the NewsPicks youtube channel.

The artist mentioned that music was like oxygen for 8-bit games, bringing stories and characters to life in an era where there were no other elements to convey that, such as voice acting, aside from the challenges related to limited memory resources.

directors and producers are "satisfied with music similar to film soundtracks in games"

when video game composers strive to adhere to the style of movie music, they limit their creativity, causing "game music to not be able to develop further."

Uematsu encourages modern video game composers to question themselves about what only they can do and to use their "knowledge and experience to be truly creative." Then, "game music will be more interesting."

 

[Elbereth]

He…is right.

 

[AMSCD]

 

[Klosshufvud]

He is completely right. The older FF games were expressed through music. It was a vital part of the game. Now music is just background filler.

Unfortunately it's not just music. Pretty much every creative aspect of video games is inferior today compared to years ago. Art direction, storytelling, innovative gameplay etc etc...

 

[GeeseGoose]

I'm not really familiar with most any soundtracks these days, but Masayoshi Soken's work on FF14 is spectacular and has placed him above Uematsu in my mental rankings of video game music composers.

Whoever does the Elder Scrolls is pretty good too.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

This guy is the king of melodies and evoking a powerfulemotional feel

Game soundtracks aren’t the same without him

There are some great composers still, but vast majority of gaming has generic music with no melody

 

[Puscifer]

This guy is the king of melodies and evoking a powerfulemotional feel

Game soundtracks aren’t the same without him

There are some great composers still, but vast majority of gaming has generic music with no melody

I literally haven't played a single second of Chrono Cross (oddly enough, I love trigger) but I mentioned that it's soundtrack is so good it stands on it's own.




Also this guy covered the ENTIRE soundtrack acoustically. Not relevant at all, but I'm going to throw it in.

 

[bitbydeath]

I disagree.
Helldivers 2, From Games, God of War, just to name a few recent ones absolutely nail the music.

 

[MagiusNecros]

My favorite performance of Scars of Time. They don't make music like this anymore.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

I love Uematsu, I think he is the greatest video game composer of all time, but he is wrong about this one. There is still mind-blowing compositions being made for games, but the biggest budget titles are ones that want safe orchestral music.

Games like Persona 5, Shin Megami Tensei 5, Doom Eternal, Elden Ring, Hi-Fi Rush, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Splatoon 3, and many more are still taking us on a journey as strongly as Final Fantasy 4 did back then.

 

[ByWatterson]

He's talking like Doom and Tears of the Kingdom and Tetris Effect don't exist.

 

[Klosshufvud]

He's talking like Doom and Tears of the Kingdom and Tetris Effect don't exist.

A select few games released in the course of 8 years hardly debunks his statement. Even then I'd say ToTK soundtrack was very underwhelming, just like BoTW.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

I'm not really familiar with most any soundtracks these days, but Masayoshi Soken's work on FF14 is spectacular and has placed him above Uematsu in my mental rankings of video game music composers.

Whoever does the Elder Scrolls is pretty good too.

While I wouldn't go so far and say that Soken is better than Uematsu, I will say that "Flow" is only video game song that I got teary-eyed over:



So yeah, we are still getting works of art in the modern gaming scene, if you know where to look.

 

[March Climber]

The loss of a strong melody has been a huge factor in what he is talking about. I also don’t think that ‘movie music’ is the issue either, considering people like John Williams. It’s simply that too many people are intentionally making background music and music without a strong direction.

Also, as I’ve brought up with recent remake soundtracks, too many instruments are trying to overpower one another and causing general noise and a lack of clarity. It’s almost like there can’t be one instrument that holds the spotlight, so everyone must play all at once.

Whoever does the Elder Scrolls is pretty good too.

Skyrim’s soundtrack is iconic. Others here who are a fan, be sure to check out the composer’s work on Guild Wars 1. You’ll find some legendary tracks in GW 1 that sort of set the foundation for what we eventually got with Skyrim.

 

[Pejo]

There's a few artists/composers out there still telling stories with their soundtracks, but I agree with him for the most part. Western games seem like they just cut a check to the local orchestra and ask for lots of heavy horns with small sections of woodwinds in between for levity.

I can literally visualize the entire Ifrit fight with my eyes closed from this song though:


Surprisingly, a lot of the good music these days is relegated to mobile games, for better or (most certainly) worse. I'm looking forward to Stellar Blade's soundtrack because ShiftUp are masters of soundtracks in their mobile titles.

 

[Lorianus]

He is a legend but man that sentence reeks of him too high up his own ass, Trails Games have beatiful litemotifs all through out so do all the Xenoblades and dozens and dozens of other games, the man is not the second coming of christ of video game music.

The interview is in essence the videogame music version of old man yelling at clouds.

 

[Shut0wen]

I get what hes saying, i mean a majority of japanese games have top tier scores while a majority of western game scores are mostly shit

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I just finished Persona 3 Reload and the man is right

There was an era in video games where even the average game's music was just fire which roughly correlates with the PS2's glory days

 

[SJRB]

Listen to more soundtracks then, old man. Casually dismissing the work of thousands is ridiculous. There are plenty beautiful soundtracks out there.

 

[Robb]

I kind of agree although I do play less games than I used to so I’m not sure if I’m biased just for that reason. But even stuff like the latest Zelda and Mario have less memorable tunes than past installments imo.

The last game I played where the soundtrack was a highlight through and through was probably DKC: Tropical Freeze. Took me back to the days of OOT where pretty much every new track you heard throughout the game was an absolute banger.

 

[Guilty_AI]

I'll echo the same sentiment i expressed in the other thread. The guy just doesn't have the opportunity to listen many modern tracks anymore, otherwise he wouldn't be saying this kind of thing so casually - unless he is one of those far-up-his-own-ass musicians, which i don't want to believe to be the case.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

There are some great composers still, but vast majority of gaming has generic music with no melody

I think that describes music in film and TV at least some of the time, in productions that you'd think would be have a giant budget and the chance to hire the best of the best, yet sometimes you end up with melody free vamping.

I'm not sure why, but perhaps because there's a tendency for sound design to be as important in a score now.

I also wonder if we are all slightly numb to giant orchestral scores, in the past hiring an orchestra was prohibitive for a lot of productions, but now it's just part of the palette thanks to sampled instruments that put good enough tools in the hands of everyone from enthusiastic amateurs upwards.

I also wonder, honestly, if people care about music as much as people used to.

I also wonder if perhaps it's always been a bit like this, people still refer to John Williams as the king of film scores - but they always talk about the same few works. Maybe it's just not possible to expect everything to be as memorable or even and close to memorable as those landmarks, which are all from the last century.

 

[KXVXII9X]

I love Uematsu, I think he is the greatest video game composer of all time, but he is wrong about this one. There is still mind-blowing compositions being made for games, but the biggest budget titles are ones that want safe orchestral music.

Games like Persona 5, Shin Megami Tensei 5, Doom Eternal, Elden Ring, Hi-Fi Rush, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Splatoon 3, and many more are still taking us on a journey as strongly as Final Fantasy 4 did back then.

I think he is saying on average. It seems Asian studios are still more likely to use great compositions to tell stories than Western AAA games, but they still have their some too. I noticed the music less and less these days in a lot of Western AAA games though. Even TLOU Part 2 soundtrack felt more subdued than the first.

I think Chinese games are starting to be impressive on the music front. Genshin and Honkai Star Rail has some of the best soundtracks that set the mood and tone for key parts of their game. The upcoming Wukong: Black Myth seems full of great music too.

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

Yup, I mean:


Chills.

 

[Moonjt9]

Amen. I can’t hum or even remember any music from a recent game but I can still remember those godtier melodies from Uematsu or Mitsuda or any number of great composers of the past.

He is so spot on. Modern game music is just background noise.

 

[bbeach123]

I just realized I dont remember a fucking things about the gow and ragnarok ost , even though I thought that Its was pretty good when I played it .

 

[Naked Lunch]

I love that these legendary devs from the past are out calling out the new generation of game makers.
The medium has had a major slide in all areas.
Someone needs to interview Itagaki.

 

[The Pleasure]

Western games seem like they just cut a check to the local orchestra and ask for lots of heavy horns.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

I think there’s truth to what he says. Admittedly there are still great composers out there from all over, but music from past games was just so memorable and amazing. You could literally feel the stories being told just from the soundtrack. Most of the melodies and compositions were nearly unparalleled, really stood out and had an identity.

I feel the majority of Japanese games still have good to great music while it seems like a good amount of Western games typically adopt more generic, Hollywood style orchestral music especially AAA games. Not necessarily bad or anything, but the music is just kind of “there” most of the times.

Could be me, but how can I remember music from games especially Japanese games from many years ago, but can’t hardly remember a track from most modern games that I literally finished hours ago?

 

[nkarafo]

Fully agree. 80's/90's chiptunes are far more interesting and catchy than silence, stock movie music or the same epic choir in boss fights. Not to mention most of the audio in modern games is characters talking and talking and then talking some more.

Voice actors have almost completely replaced music composers in terms of importance. You don't hear about the next David Wise, Grand Kirkhope, Michiru Yamane, Koji Kondo, Tim Follin, Yuzo Koshiro, etc anymore. All you hear about in terms of audio is who is voicing who and wether or not they can do a minority, person of color, LFGBTQ, etc. Nobody gives a shit about music anymore. Unless it's about Mick Gordon, which really shows how low the standards are now IMO but that's a different topic.

 

[peish]

reposting old school music

 

[Skifi28]

I was playing some nier automata and replicant yesterday and boy, they really don't make them how they used to.

 

[jm89]

It's amazing what they did with what little they had to work with in the 90s.

 

[nkarafo]

I disagree.
Helldivers 2, From Games, God of War, just to name a few recent ones absolutely nail the music.

I haven't played the others but what about From games?

I played every single Soulsborne game and they are all silent. The only music you hear is during boss fights. And i'm sure there are a couple of those that are memoreble but most of them sound the same to me. I can't tell which music is for what boss, all i hear is the same instruments, same bombastic style and same choir.

Think about the Castlevania games, somewhat close to what From games look like but also actually have memorable music as well. Are they even comparable?

I get that Souls being silent is a design choice. They are meant to be this way because of atmosphere, dread, etc, i get it. But that also makes them a not so great example for good games music. The fact that they are mentioned at all shows how we desperately reach to find good music in video games.

 

[Fake]

Modern game sucks. Modern OST sucks.

I feel sorry for people that like Battlefield 2042 OST because no human can like that piece of shit OST. No fucking way.

 

[Clear]

Honestly think its more about instrumentation/arrangement than composition most of the time. Conventional classically inspired orchestral music played by the same contemporary orchestras is going to sound similar unless the compositions are radical.

I'd also say that unless a game director specifically asks for something to stand out, the tendency for any composer would be to create something complementary but unobtrusive. The obvious counter-example being Yoko Taro, where pretty much every game he's directed has a soundtrack that is front and centre "speaking" as part of its core identity; Be it psychopathic classical loops in Drakengard, or the emotional vocalizations and electronica of the Nier games.

 

[Ozzie666]

Fully agree. 80's/90's chiptunes are far more interesting and catchy than silence, stock movie music or the same epic choir in boss fights. Not to mention most of the audio in modern games is characters talking and talking and then talking some more.

Voice actors have almost completely replaced music composers in terms of importance. You don't hear about the next David Wise, Grand Kirkhope, Michiru Yamane, Koji Kondo, Tim Follin, Yuzo Koshiro, etc anymore. All you hear about in terms of audio is who is voicing who and wether or not they can do a minority, person of color, LFGBTQ, etc. Nobody gives a shit about music anymore. Unless it's about Mick Gordon, which really shows how low the standards are now IMO but that's a different topic.

Just loading up Super Castlevania 4 is a prime example of doing so much with music from that era.

 

[Physiognomonics]

He is sadly 100% right. I thought it was nostalgia speaking (when playing some SNES or others old games) but then when I played FF16 (also Bloodborne and From Software games!) I realized music could be as good as before...when done properly. Music in 95% of current games is shit.

 

[Toots]

Something tells me Nobuo thinks AI generated music is an insult to life itself

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Something tells me Nobuo thinks AI generated music is an insult to life itself

He does indeed

The artist dismisses AI as a tool for composing music, emphasizing the role of music in conveying empathy between composer and listener. He states that composing good music is a difficult art that can only be realized by “reaching deep down inside yourself to find aspects unique to you and then expressing them.”

Anyway, dunno why KàIRóS has reposted this interview since it's already been discussed last week.

Opinion - Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu finds recent game music “boring” – here’s why

In an extended NewsPicks interview with Nobuo Uematsu by Japanese academic Yoichi Ochiai, the veteran Final Fantasy series composer gave his thoughts on current and future game music. As well as discussing the limitations he had to work around when composing game soundtracks in the 1980s and...

www.neogaf.com

 

[Sophist]

Video games are better paced, more realistic and more cinematographic than before, with longer soundtracks. In the past, the music was much more repetitive because there were not enough soundtracks, or because you played the same level twenty times in a row, or because you visited the same area again and again... of course you still remember those.

 

[Lambogenie]

Slight old man vibes.

But one thing I hate about many game music now is everything emulates this basic Hollywood score. It sounds generic.

Even praised Soken for FFXVI I wasn't amazed. Just variations of one or two themes, and better choir work done by....Uematsu. Hamauzu is better than Soken.

I do like Hamauzu. His stuff feels like it follows Uematsu's logic but also being his own.

 

[Unknown?]

These composers who are boring clearly haven't consulted Sweet Baby Inc!

 

[Myths]

He is a legend but man that sentence reeks of him too high up his own ass, Trails Games have beatiful litemotifs all through out so do all the Xenoblades and dozens and dozens of other games, the man is not the second coming of christ of video game music.

The interview is in essence the videogame music version of old man yelling at clouds.

Yeah, normally I would honor what he’s saying but this is a bit of an unhinged take.

 

[sigmaZ]

There's something lost in the summary of the video. He is not condemning ALL modern music, but is saying that a lot of modern developers are satisfied with generic movie soundtrack-like music. He also mentions that to compared to in the past, that games don't always need the music to help keep the player invested and ambient sound fx can fill that role.
He's not condemning all composers. It's funny to see people get so defensive though.

Playing Infinite Wealth right now and the emotional music in the key emotions scenes hits so well. I've had multiple points where it got me. The music wasn't Uematsu level stuff, but it served what was going on the screen perfectly.

 

[cireza]

Music was very often narrative, back in the days, and it is something that we rarely hear nowadays.

Obviously, there are still composers doing an awesome work with very melodic music.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Clickbaity title. Uematsu is specifically talking about scores going for movie OST style, and he’s perfectly right about that. Game music sounds best when the composer can accept it’s music for a game, not for a movie-wannabe game or a way of promoting yourself for Hollywood.

I understand. Some games absolutely need to ape cinema to get what they’re going for. And there’s a vast audience that wants exactly that. That audience doesn’t want to listen to catchy, “gamey” music while playing a game that has “feeling just like playing a movie“ as its selling point. But that way, the music hardly gets a chance to make a statement, or to get burned into your mind like those chiptune compositions. Games getting easier, allowing players to get on to the next part and new music without lots of repetition, is another reason why music is less important, and composers see no reason to make it particularly memorable.

Classic Megaman music is etched into my brain with fire. I could hardly hum a three-second segment of a random track from any game I’ve played these last years, except maybe for Mario Wonder.

 

[SCB3]

Kinda, some games have done it well recently God of War, Last of Us, Helldivers and From Soft games for example

But then again is he overlooking Nintendo games completely?

 

[StueyDuck]

He's not wrong

 

[Saber]

He is absolutelly right.

Look at Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Who the heck like that music? The game is a sound polution to my ears.
And this is just an example of bad music, there are alot that while not as bad, are rather bland and pretty generic.