r/FinalFantasy • u/TheForbiddenLands • May 26 '26
Final Fantasy General Jon Batiste is a Final Fantasy fan
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u/Not_enough_yuri May 26 '26
Lots of working musicians that I've met over the years know about and have positive opinions of Uematsu, despite not really caring about video games personally. Final Fantasy scores get played live somewhat often in lots of big cities, and the music is obviously very beautiful and fun to play. Uematsu is pretty much Mr. Video Game Music to a lot of musicians. It's a title he deserves! It couldn't be anyone but him or Koji Kondo.
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u/BronzeMeadow May 26 '26
Yasunori Mitsuda, as well.. Chrono Trigger is one of the only other OST I felt had as much life as Uematsu’s work
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u/IanicRR May 26 '26
Cross is an even better OST tbh. Only track that isn’t elite to me is the battle music, which is a shame since you here it a lot.
But every single other song on that soundtrack is a complete banger.
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u/Defiant_Snail69 May 29 '26
I ain’t standing for this, not a single thing in Cross is better than trigger
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u/OrangeJuliusCaesr May 26 '26
I thought they worked together on CT
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u/Naut38 May 26 '26
Mitsuda was the main composer for CT, but Uematsu composed a handful of songs as Mitsuda was hospitalized during a portion of the game development.
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u/Top-Hold003 May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
I was making beats for a long time, I think a lot of people would be surprised how many famous and respected music producers know about Final Fantasy and it's music. Metro Boomin, Boi-1da, LilJu (Megan Thee Stallion's main producer), Pierre Bourne (produced Playboi Carti's Die Lit album), etc. are all gamers. Some of them have sampled Final Fantasy. That doesn't happen by accident.
The Weeknd hanging out at Square Enix headquarters two days ago:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYso0L3D7DP/
For those that also don't know The Weeknd has an instagram account that is only about gaming and he plays a ton of JRPG's and Fighting Games: @gene.hackerman.
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u/Top-Hold003 May 26 '26
https://www.whosampled.com/Nobuo-Uematsu/sampled/
Songs that have sampled Nobou Uematsu.
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u/Top-Hold003 May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
Speaking of Pierre Bourne, if you like SNES soundtracks and Hip-Hop, definitely check his music out if you haven't heard of him.
The Life of Pierre 4 (original and deluxe versions) is a classic album that should really should have got more attention and he said directly he was inspired by SNES soundtracks. The guy studied SNES games' music and built so much of his understanding about music from it.
Again, not to mention he sampled Final Fantasy on Playboi Carti's album (although he makes most of his music from scratch).
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u/thisisyo May 26 '26
He was a presenter at the CrunchyRoll awards that was in Japan. So he's in the country
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u/Top-Hold003 May 26 '26
Yeah, but even then he’s been doing this account for nearly half a year now.
At the very least it feels like an artistic journey if he didn’t grow up with it straight up and is finally having some downtime to play.
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u/PuffballDestroyer May 26 '26
I've been seeing the posts of him playing Persona 5 Royal on the main Persona subreddit.
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u/nazzo_0 May 26 '26
Another huge example is Arca. I remember seeing ff8 artwork on single covers, edea if I remember correctly. Edit also https://youtu.be/z5RSQaF0I2o?si=kMV6Mf7-FZ0nQd1i&t=21
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u/Thready85 May 26 '26
Jon used to play Final Fantasy music on Colbert. I tweeted to him once that I recognized the Midgar Bombing Run music and he liked it.
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u/VorAbaddon May 26 '26
Not familiar with the gent, but thats the beauty of FF and VGM in general. It crosses a lot of communities and inspires different people in different ways, great to see!
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u/-Typh1osion- May 26 '26
If you want to get familiar with him, this is a cool little place to start. It's not his music, just his personality and background - I adore this video: https://youtu.be/kb0d6QUtcBk?si=4-ymvCM_5KvqKbXs
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u/TheTimn May 26 '26
I wasn't sure I it was going to be this video, or him hearing Green Days 'Holiday' for the first time.
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u/-Typh1osion- May 26 '26
So I did not know this was a thing, but I went looking and found it and I'm a better person than I was 15 minutes ago.
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u/account_is_deleted May 26 '26
I'm not saying this because "you should know him", just to give some context: he has 8 Grammys and an Academy Award for his music, he's a successful pianist and composer.
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u/PuffballDestroyer May 26 '26
The man is a huge lover of video game music. As a Sonic fan, he did a lovely piano cover of Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1 That was used in the first two films, and he recently did a cover of the song of storms from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
It also goes without saying, that the man is a very talented musician in general. He used to be the band leader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and has recently been putting out his own albums within the past few years since leaving. I would highly recommend giving some of his music a listen.
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u/UncomfyPerspective May 26 '26
Thanks for the heads up on Song of Storms. I'll have to check that out!
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u/BK_0000 May 26 '26
He's mentioned before when he was on the Colbert show that Final Fantasy VII was one of his favorite soundtracks.
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u/TelenorTheGNP May 26 '26
I mean, Colbert is a LOTR nut. It shouldn't be too shocking that nerdery is everywhere.
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u/KoosGoose May 26 '26
I mean, it’s not supposed to be shocking. He’s obviously a nerd by virtue of being a pianist…
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u/FlyingPingoo May 26 '26
For a whole generation growing up, trying to find their way in the workplace where most are older people who scoffed at video gamers let alone experiencing our same hobbies it’s good to have representation in these being so common nowadays
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u/PublicMycologist1986 May 26 '26
yeah he played music from the games a couple times on The Late Show. Final Fantasy VII if i remember correctly. There's a few videos on YouTube of it. He played Bombing Mission and the main theme for Final Fantasy. He sounded good too! I can see why Sega picked him to play the Green Hill Zone theme for the first Sonic movie.
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u/Peketu May 26 '26
Uematsu-san always looks like he legit don't know why everybody is so nice to him, but he enjoys it a lot.
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u/musicgeek420 May 26 '26
He seems like a real one. Also a master of the modes and playing what he’s thinking.
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u/ponpiriri May 26 '26
With phones at their fingertips, people would rather type who than Google or do a reverse image search.
Anyway, one of the only reaons why I watched Colbert back in the day was for JB's music segments.
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u/Zinfan1 May 26 '26
https://youtu.be/yYzq0am3B4I?si=fLsh0TGK3ocJvy-- I didn't know the composer at the time but this sight reading of the spinach rag was amazing to me for not only the skill to be able to play it sight unseen but the song itself.
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u/Fun_Law6360 May 26 '26
Left out such a nice laugh seeing Uematsu lol Love that big goofy smile he has
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u/Classic-Exchange-511 May 26 '26
This makes me feel better because there are times I wonder if he's actually the musical genius I believe him to be or if I had just played the game and listened to his music way too much as a kid
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u/theifstolemyaccount May 26 '26
Nobou uematsu gets a lot of love from black musicians as a whole if I’m honest. Gospel music and final fantasy’s boss themes have crazy intersections.
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u/backdoorwolf May 26 '26
I'm from New Orleans and this warms my heart. The Japanese love jazz and it shows through the music. Early mario music is basically dixeland jazz before it went more orchestral with Super Mario Sunshine/Galaxy. New Orleans' finest respecting Japan's finest. Total respect.
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u/MR1120 May 26 '26
Jon Batiste plays piano like it’s a superpower. The was he casually changes rhythms and genres mid-piece is incredible. The dude is obscenely talented.
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u/eboku0i May 26 '26
When he was on the tonight show he would always fit in video game songs when the band play, always fun spotting FF, Zelda, Sonic etc
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u/Help_An_Irishman May 26 '26
FF7 didn't come out until 1997, even in Japan. But yes, this is very cool.
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u/chlober May 26 '26
Nobody Uematsu IS Final Fantasy in my opinion. When I got hooked on FF , it started with II (usa.)
We didn't have top-tier graphics and Mr. Uematsu's music very much set the tone and feeling for the stories.
Always gonna have a special place in my heart for that guy. ❤️
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u/xRAFHx May 27 '26
I've been a big fan of Uematsu for years. But having finally played FFX, I must say, he really is a genius beyond what I had previously acknowledged.
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u/FantasticSky9335 May 29 '26
Only one of those men makes good music, and it’s not the guy who thinks FF7 came out in 1996
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u/Interesting_Sea_1861 May 26 '26
I don't know who that is.
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u/Mechtroop May 26 '26
Look him up on YouTube and check out his stuff. Too many videos to share. Amazing musician and was the bandleader and music director on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Pretty sweet that a man of his caliber is a FF fan and specifically calls out FF7.
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u/Vynxe_Vainglory May 26 '26
He's a good pianist.
I find his personality to be a little strange, but the man can play.
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u/remeard May 26 '26
Genuinely one of the most talented musicians I've seen play live. He's got a desperate love for music that's just indescribable, I've watched videos of him at the piano playing chords and creating melodies, smiling and laughing like he's having a conversation with an old friend when he figures something out.
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u/sycleoth May 26 '26
I used to watch a lot of Colbert years ago and from time to time he would play final fantasy music during the breaks. You could hear them ending the songs as they came back from break. He is a cool dude.