All your favorite VGM podcasters are doing a series called “Masters of VGM”, where we do episodes devoted to our four favorite video game composers. For my first entry into this series, I’m going through the greatest hits (and a few other songs) of my favorite VGM composer, Nobuo Uematsu.

Special thanks to Bedroth of Very Good Music and everyone else who’s set up the Masters of VGM project and all the podcasters who are participating. You can follow the project’s Twitter account @mastersofvgm or visit their website at mastersofvgm.com to see all the participating podcasts and episodes released to date.

If you like this episode and you want to hear some more obscure Nobuo Uematsu stuff, you should check out episode 3 of this show. It’s called “Before and Outside of Final” and it’s devoted to early songs he composed that are NOT from Final Fantasy games. 

I mentioned a few songs or alternate versions of songs during the show. Here are links so you can hear them:

Final Fantasy I (PS1) - Matoya’s Cave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IfOsnBDd1c 

The Black Mages - Matoya’s Cave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euRaT0V5bSk (I love the organ in this version!)

Love Will Grow (arranged version of Final Fantasy II’s “Ending”) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0wldsle-A0 

Have You Ever Seen Me (arranged version of Final Fantasy III’s “Cute Little Tozas”) -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxYH2TSU-eo 

The Black Mages - Clash on the Big Bridge - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KtKbcTSpp8 

Also, if you love the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack and want to hear an interesting take on it, you should check out Mega Ran’s album Black Materia: The Remake. You can find it on Spotify, or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moBMdS3ZaZQ. 

Thanks to BokiBokiPixelArt for the show logo. You can find him on Twitter @BokiPixelart. 

If you want to reach me, you can email me at [email protected]. You can find me on Twitter at @ShujinVGMClub, and on Instagram at ShujinAcademyVGMClub. Please leave me a five star rating on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you’re finding this episode.

Track Listing:

00:00 - Show Tagline

00:06 - Final Fantasy (NES) - Opening Theme

01:29 - Talk Segment 1

05:54 - Final Fantasy (NES) - Matoya’s Cave 

07:05 - Final Fantasy II (NES) - Finale

10:13 - Final Fantasy III (NES) - Cute Little Tozas

11:12 - Final Fantasy IV (SNES) - Into the Darkness

12:33 - Final Fantasy IV (SNES) - Illusionary World

13:46 - Final Fantasy V (SNES) - Battle on the Big Bridge

16:14 - Final Fantasy VI (SNES) - Devil’s Lab

18:47 - Talk Segment 2

22:07 - Final Fantasy VII - One Winged Angel

29:20 - Final Fantasy VIII - Man With The Machine Gun

32:10 - Final Fantasy IX - Secret Library Daguerreo

34:11 - Final Fantasy IX - Vamo’ alla Flamenco

36:04 - Final Fantasy X - Zanarkind

39:08 - Final Fantasy X - Prelude

42:51 - Final Fantasy XI - Ronfaure

47:45 - Final Fantasy XIV - Contention

51:57 - Talk Segment 3

52:41 - Cruise Chaser Blassty - Main Theme

54:36 - Nobuo Uematsu’s 10 Short Stories - Here Comes Conga Boy

59:55 - Fantasian - Main Theme

1:03:10 - Show Outro

1:04:09 - Final Fantasy III - Chocobos!