Remake Interviews: Catch-all Thread

[Shademp]

A person on Twitter claims that there is a recent interview where Kitase reveals that Nobuo Uematsu is involved with the remake.

The source is apparently "当サイトコメ欄" but I have no idea what that is.

 

[ChipNoir]

A person on Twitter claims that there is a recent interview where Kitase reveals that Nobuo Uematsu is involved with the remake.

The source is apparently "当サイトコメ欄" but I have no idea what that is.

Aaaah! You beat me to it by minutes!

But damn, this is a printed article.

Two interviews and that announcement page texture is way too much VII-Reminders for Square not to be planning something for E3.

 

[Ryuman]

It's interesting since I recall Uematsu not planning to work on Remake some time ago.
With this I assume he's one of a few different people contributing arrangements for the soundtrack.

I've long thought Takeharu Ishimoto would be one of them.

 

[hian]

Okay guys - Speed translation at the request of Chip :

北瀬：
現在私は『FINAL FANASY VII REMAKE』を
制作中なのですが、植松さんは色々なタイトル
に関わられているけれど、僕が植松さんと直接
仕事したのは『FINAL FANTASY X』以来なんです。
最初に植松さんにリメイクの音楽のお仕事
を頼みに行った時、
もうすでに植松さんはスクエニを離れて活躍してらっしゃったから、
冷たくあしらわれるんじゃないかと……

一同: (&#31505

北瀬:思っていたんですが、VIIってワードがよ

Kitase :
Currently, I am working on the FFVII Remake, and although Uematsu-san has been working
on various titles, I haven't worked directly with him since FFX.
When I first went to ask Uematsu-san to work on the music for the remake,
he had already distanced himself from SE to work on other projects, so I was thinking
(worried) I might be treated coldly....

Everybody present :
(laughs)

Kitase :
Or so I thought, but the words "FFVII"
stylistically speaking,
Or so I thought, but the power of the words FFII man,


This seems to heavily imply Uematsu is indeed involved with the remake.
The way it's phrased, and the choice of terms seems to suggest that what Uematsu is being asked to do isn't just a few tracks or something, but as the primary composer and director for the music.

 

[Shademp]

Thanks hian!


retro*dream said the following about "当サイトコメ欄"

“From the comments column of our/my site”
Sounds like a user took a picture from an unknown source and posted it to his site

I've asked aibo_ac7/FF-Reunion.net on Twitter what magazine the interview excerpt might be from, but since I don't speak Japanese they might not reply.

 

[hian]

Also, I just want to fly this by you people, as I shared this with Chip earlier on discord -

- Around the period shortly prior to Kitase and Hashimoto being raised to management, Sakaguchi and Nomura made an interview with Famitsu where they discussed their history and expressed a desire to work together again.
- In this period, Sakaguchi went to SE for frequent meetings.
- Uematsu is Sakaguchi's primary composer, and hardly ever works extensively on projects not tied to Sakaguchi (a few, but not many).
- SE has since their PR students with FFXV made ardent strides to improve their relationships and optics with Sakaguchi.
- In this period, despite having three games on his plate (Terra Battle 1, 2 and Terra Wars), Sakaguchi has being doing less and less active work with Mistwalker the last 6 months.

Taken together, I speculate, and this is very tentative speculation, that SE might be planning to tie Sakaguchi to the remake in some capacity. This might be SE's ace in the hole for FFVIIR - If they can put Nomura, Kitase, Uematsu and Sakaguchi on the box, the game will explode.
Keep your eyes peeled for the next reveal, because it might be heavy.

 

[Radigar]

I found more info about the original source:

Source: http://openworldnews.net/archives/1071153691.html

 

[Shademp]

Nice work Radigar! The magazine is somehow related to BRA★BRA Final Fantasy. They recently had FFVII-themed music events.

In a twitter post from April 28 we can see the magazine pictures on a giant poster.

Spoiler

My bet is that the magazine, with the interview, was on sale at one of the recent BRA★BRA events.

EDIT: It was indeed on sale at the event.
パンフレット
イべント価格 : 2,500円

[TRANSLATION]
Pamphlet
Event price : 2500 yen

 

[hian]

Man, I'm happy about this. I felt that Uematsu had a bit of a dip after the PS2 era trying to adjust to modern HD equipment, mastering and production, but he's been absolutely killing it with his new OST works on Terra Battle 1 and 2, and if they're anything to go by, the remake's soundtrack will be great indeed.

Cait Sith theme anyone?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cUSPc2oGgE

Cloud's freakout moments?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klHmY1I8DSo

This literally has the FFVII intro theme leitmotif in it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLx5Bs5BBhw

Materia Cave?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OClZZiNYfyE

Mixing of synths and traditional instruments, and blending them really well - the hallmark of the FFVII soundtrack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4fTyuVhzPo


You could almost be forgiven for thinking Uematsu was using this soundtrack to prep for the remake, or that he was already working on the remake and it was impacting his other work.
If the remake has this kind of mastering/production, instrument use etc. it will be fetching amazing. Like seriously.

 

[Radigar]

Yesterday Nobuo Uematsu appeared in "Untitled Concert" (題名のない音楽&#20250 a music japanese show on TV, some BSO pieces of BRA ★ BRA Final Fantasy was played:

♪1："Opening - Bombing Mission"
♪2："Cait Sith's Theme"
♪3："Words Drowned by Fireworks"
♪4："Cosmo Canyon"
♪5："One-Winged Angel"

Full video here: http://dai.ly/x6jcnyg

 

[Lex]

This is huge news. Are we 100% sure it's accurate?

 

[Shademp]

Although it seems to be accurate, I'm gonna take the bullet and admit that I'm not fond of how vague the interview blurb sounds, at least given the current translation. I feel like there's LOADS of implication, but zero confirmation.

 

[Lex]

I'll put an article up as speculative for now

 

[ForceStealer]

AAAAAAA

I wasn't of the mind that the remake OST was "Uematsu or Bust" or anything, but that is spectacular news if true, nonetheless.

 

[cold_spirit]

This is a very interesting turn of events. I'll be quite pleased if true. Personally, remixes of VII's soundtrack by other members of SE's sound team haven't left memorable impressions on me. I'm indifferent towards the remixed songs found in Dissidia and Crisis Core's soundtrack by Takeharu Ishimoto, despite loving his original compositions for the latter game. However, I think Nobuo Uematsu's work on Advent Children was amazing.

Dammit guys, don't get me pumped for E3. I remember feeling pretty burnt after 2016's no-show. Less so with 2017's no-show, I became wiser.

 

[ChipNoir]

This is a very interesting turn of events. I'll be quite pleased if true. Personally, remixes of VII's soundtrack by other members of SE's sound team haven't left memorable impressions on me. I'm indifferent towards the remixed songs found in Dissidia and Crisis Core's soundtrack by Takeharu Ishimoto, despite loving his original compositions for the latter game. However, I think Nobuo Uematsu's work on Advent Children was amazing.

Dammit guys, don't get me pumped for E3. I remember feeling pretty burnt after 2016's no-show. Less so with 2017's no-show, I became wiser.

I'm the opposite. I found Uematsu's work for AC really phoned in except for Cloud's Smile, which does actually make me happy. But everything else is either too understated or too metal.

 

[Channy]

Urgh, that music. As a band nerd I was fully engrossed and relived my little report I did on Nobuo for music class, and how I played parts of Cosmo Canyon. The song selection was really interesting, I feel like Interrupted by Fireworks doesn't get enough love. Though I need to know what Nobuo is saying about it, canonizing Clerith since they used clips.

Also, colour me overjoyed if he will come back to remix his own music. I've truly felt this was the only way the remake could be done but tried to hide my disappointment.

That guy guest playing for Cosmo Canyon gave it all, was so into it, and was totally rad. XD

 

[Lex]

This is a very interesting turn of events. I'll be quite pleased if true. Personally, remixes of VII's soundtrack by other members of SE's sound team haven't left memorable impressions on me. I'm indifferent towards the remixed songs found in Dissidia and Crisis Core's soundtrack by Takeharu Ishimoto, despite loving his original compositions for the latter game. However, I think Nobuo Uematsu's work on Advent Children was amazing.

Dammit guys, don't get me pumped for E3. I remember feeling pretty burnt after 2016's no-show. Less so with 2017's no-show, I became wiser.

I'm the opposite. I found Uematsu's work for AC really phoned in except for Cloud's Smile, which does actually make me happy. But everything else is either too understated or too metal.

When someone mentions Cloud's smile I can't help but think of this de-make of the song which makes it sound like it was in FFVII (it uses the psx soundfonts):

 

[ChipNoir]

Man, now I wanna recut Advent Children using original tracks from the game, and then just this because it DOES work.

Though hearing it in this style also makes me feel like it has some reminiscence to the Chrono Trigger sound track.

 

[Cloud_S]

I might be able to get a copy of that BRA★BRA magazine.

 

[Channy]

Omg that is the best thank you for showing us that <3

 

[ForceStealer]

I'm the opposite. I found Uematsu's work for AC really phoned in except for Cloud's Smile, which does actually make me happy. But everything else is either too understated or too metal.

While I think "phoned in" is strong, I do wonder sometimes when people are afraid of VIIR's OST being too "rock" if Uematsu wouldn't me MORE likely to rock it up.

But really I love Beyond the Wasteland and Battle in the Forgotten City.

I have no idea if he was involved in anyway with the rearrangements for AC Complete, but that lengthened version of Sign might be favorite.

Amazing.

 

[hian]

I don't think the remake soundtrack will sound anything like Advent Children. As far as I can tell, and piece together from my conversations with the guy, Advent Children was worked on with the Black Mages musicians, and was directed specifically that way to suite the more fast-paced action style of that movie.

I don't think we're remotely at risk of seeing tracks like the Mako Reactor theme being "rockefied".
Most likely it will combine traditional orchestra sections/standard instruments, combined with rock and synth elements like the original soundtracks was - that is to say the real world equivalence of the instruments the various midi tracks stood in for.
(For those who've never opened a midi file before in a sequencer, each track of a piece has an instrument assigned to it by name, so it's fairly easy to tell what instruments were intended with each piece even if pretty much everything sounded fairly synthesque on the ps1 soundchip).

As I pointed out earlier, I think it's reasonable to expect the remake soundtrack to sound similar to the Terra Battle 2 soundtrack if Uematsu is to be the primary composer/producer/director for the music.
TB2's music shows almost the exact same ratio of orchestra/rock/synth that was commonplace in FF7 snd the rest of his ps1 era work.
It's also testament to how much Uematsu has grown both as a producer and arranger over the years, as he has now finally found an amazing and rich sound that captures the punch, harmonies and melodies of his classic work whilst maintaining the heavier ambience and bass of modern AAA productions and the nuances of the more complex arrangements that have been done by other composers to his work over the years with initiatives like the FF concert tours.

All in all, I think this is the best possible outcome for the remake sountrack.

 

[Lestat]

Congratulations folks someone here is a source

https://www.facebook.com/UNILADGaming/videos/2130480600309139/

 

[ForceStealer]

Surprise surprise, someone ran with the joke