Final Fantasy VII : Reunion Tracks Final Fantasy VII Reunion Tracks is a " best of " type album for " Final Fantasy VII " . The first sixteen tracks are taken directly from the . The last three are arranged by Shirō Hamaguchi and performed by an orchestra , as well as a chorus for the Latin vocals of " One - Winged Angel " . Hidden on the CD is an instrumental version of " One - Winged Angel " . To access it , one must rewind from the beginning of track 1 . The liner notes to the original pressing have the tracklist in Japanese , a message from composer Nobuo Uematsu , a transcript of a dialogue between Nobuo Uematsu and interviewer Shibuya Youichi titled " The accidental dialogue " ; profiles of Uematsu and Youichi , and pictures of the recording sessions and equipment . The reprint of the album no longer includes the " accidental dialogue " , but does contain the hidden track of instrumental " One - Winged Angel " . Liner notes ( translated from the original Japanese ) . Message from Nobuo Uematsu . I have always had a passion for Irish Fiddles . Technically , fiddles are violins but the name is only used in European traditional musics . Well , I finally decided to go and learn it . Now , I ' m under a Canadian teacher , Jim Edigar , along with eight other students . Most of the eight have never played a violin ; some haven ' t even touched an instrument . The sound , of course , is pretty awful . Still , I don ' t see any one not enjoying the class . Everyone is ringing out crocked tones joyfully . I think that is the most important thing in music . It seems that music in Japan is only reserved for a small minority . That ' s why music as a culture doesn ' t originate in this land . Musics are characteristics of any culture , which every culture has . It should never be enforced in schools ( every student in Japan is enforced to learn music including reading staff , playing recorders , singing , etc . ) or be " graded . " There ' s no need to become a professional , nor any need to become better . If one doing music is happy , isn ' t that good enough ? I get so happy looking at my buddies playing off - pitch violins with me , smiling . There ' s even a man who started violin at 38 . Why don ' t you try an instrument , too ? Well , let me introduce Shirō Hamaguchi finally . There ' s no need to question his talents if you listen to the songs , but I am disappointed that those songs don ' t tell his great personality . I wish to present you even more fantastic sound with him in the future . Good job to everybody in IMAGINE , including Mr . Hamaguchi . I am grateful from the bottom of my heart . Nobuo Uematsu 8 / 28 / 1997 The Accidental Dialogue . The " Final Fantasy " series had established a stable reputation of RPGs . Nobuo Uematsu had been in charge of this game ' s music from the beginning . His melody creations can no longer be ignored in the musical aspect of Japan . This important interview will reveal much of his views about the game . The interviewer is Yoichi Shibuya , who created a music magazine " Rocking On " at age 20 , being an elite music journalist until now . His questions hit the core , while some even say , " He speaks too much for an interviewer . " The future of " Final Fantasy " music and the reality of game music ; what would this interview reveal ? Mr . Shibuya ( " S " ) : I see that you seem to like progressive rock very much . Do you like such kinds of rock compared to others ? Mr . Uematsu ( " U " ) : Well , despite all the variety of music that emerged in the ' 70s , progressive rock had died out back then . I didn ' t " prefer " prog . rock out of others like " Genesis " and " Yes " ; I like them all . I ' m a really big fan of Elton John , too . S : You seem to like songs with steady melody , like Elton John ' s . U : Yep . S : So can I infer that you liked hard rock to prog . rock singers to composers but you only defend prog . rock because they had died out ? U : Yes , yes . ( LOL ) S : Are there any connections between prog . rock and FF ? U : I used to play instruments and prog . rock was the most fun to play . It ' s not only prog . rock incorporated in FF . S : So . . . you like many different types of music ? U : Maybe so . S : What kind of music do you listen now ? U : Mostly Irish fiddles . Now I buy only Irish fiddles . S : Wow . Why ? U : Uh . . . It ' s fun . S : ( LOL ) Since when ? U : About six years ago , when I went to Dublin to record songs for the FF arrange album " Celtic Moon . " I started to become a big fan back then , and I ' m in the zenith right now . The lonely style of Irish music have some similarities with prog . rock , don ' t they ? S : Hmmm . I have always thought that your " lonely " style of music was trying to contrast to the " Dragon Quest " series , just like the games themselves focus on different areas like story and graphics . U : Maybe a little , but the " lonely " style is my preference . S : I really think the style fits the game really well , though . Many fans probably think so , too . U : It wasn ' t intentional , although I was told , " Please make a contrast to the " Dragon Quest " series , " in the first game . I only replied , " Don ' t worry . I never can do as well as Mr . Sugiyama . " ( LOL ) . S : Yeah , the DQ series started the boom towards RPGs , and you wanted to change the " reputation " of RPGs , right ? U : Well , it was the first time SQUARE created a RPG , so we were like , " Oh , we call these games RPGs ? " ( LOL ) S : Hahaha . U : I told Mr . Sakaguchi that I can ' t really understand what style of music he demands , when we first started . He told me to play " Dragon Quest " and I played for 2 - 3 hours . S : You don ' t play games so often ? U : Nah . RPGs take too much time . S : I happen to like such parts of RPGs . The situation and stuff . I see that it takes a lot of time to develop RPGs , but isn ' t composing music for them a tough job ? U : Maybe . I need to write all sorts of songs for fields , battles , happy songs , sad songs , and uplifting songs . It ' s really fun , though . I never get bored , although I might be if I were told to make 30 sad songs . . . S : Hmm . . . sounds like movie soundtracks . U : That ' s right . S : I think the originality of FF was that it contrasted to DQ , creating a totally different type of RPG . U : Mr . Sakaguchi had thought that it was his last chance in " Final Fantasy . " He named it so , as a last hope for him and SQUARE . Well , it happened that the game sold well somehow , and now there are seven " last hopes . " S : I thought that the making of " Prelude " would make the creators jump up and say " You have done it ! ! This is what we were looking for ! " but I heard that you made it very simply in few minutes . U : Hahaha . Well , it was like crushing a dream , but that ' s true . S : I really think more than 1 , 000 , 000 people will become your fans just by hearing the prelude , though . U : Um . . . S : The FF is not a happy story . Many people die . U : Really many . S : There are a lot of places that irritate the players . That is why FF succeeded and established its reputation . Does the " taste " of the FF series affect your music at all ? U : Hmmmm . I never had that in mind . I ' m rather opposed to all those deaths and tragedies . I often argue with Mr . Sakaguchi about it , but they still die a lot . S : Right . U : It might be sang - froid , but I still think there must be other ways to get sympathy . S : I know . We can still endure sub - characters dying , but in FF ' s case , many main characters we have learned to love suddenly die without warning . U : Yes . . . S : Still , your music that come in as we say , " What ! ? " just hit the point . It soothes the player ' s feelings , as well as bringing up sympathy . U : Yes , yes . I ' m really good at that . S : Hahaha . U : ( LOL ) To say the truth . S : Hey . . . You don ' t seem to be opposed to sudden death : ) U : Um . . . I just think that if there are such scenes , I will do my best to fit such scenes . I really put in my effort to such songs , such as Aerith ' s theme . S : So you don ' t like sudden death ? U : Uhhh . . . Well . . . If I consider from the creator ' s point of view , it ' s my duty to create climax music in climax scenes . ( LOL ) S : Haha . You become a craftsman , don ' t you ? U : Oh , I AM a craftsman . I ' m not an artist . S : Does the staff discuss those gloomy tastes in FF ? Do they listen to you ? U : Sometimes . S : They won ' t listen to you ? U : Nope . S : You still think the contrast to other games makes FF stand alone , don ' t you ? As if DQ : FF = Light : Darkness . U : Sure . They are totally different things now . S : Now , the DQ series seems to be trying to imitate FF in dramatic story line and visuals . U : Is it ? S : I think so . Now , FF is apparently going beyond DQ . DQ hasn ' t yet tried their multimedia abilities in PSX , so they seem to be the one to make the next move . I ' m friends with Tatsuro Yamashita , but he ' s really a game maniac . U : Oh , I never knew that . S : What he always complains to me is that when games moved from NES to SNES , the job of the music producers got really hard . He says , " Shibuya , you don ' t understand . No one can , except for the producers . Bla bla bla , " about 20 to 30 minutes . I listened for only five minutes . U : Hahaha . S : I think he wants to say that when graphical presentation of a game improves , the sounds , too , must improve . Did you have that in mind ? U : I did , when I moved from NES to SNES . Tracks jumped up from 3 to 8 . Still , that wasn ' t even a fraction of the change from SNES to PSX . This time . . . everything changed so much . Pictures can now " express " things . I really thought that if I continue writing songs that all have standing melodies , it would just be annoying to the player . The change of the mind was really important this time . S : So , the relation of graphics and sound must be big . U : Yes , it ' s big . S : Why didn ' t you think that if graphics improve , sounds should , too ? Didn ' t you think so when you moved to SNES ? U : Yes , but I really didn ' t think graphics improved so much by moving to SNES from NES . Of course it did , but there was nothing as dramatic as moving into PSX . Movies , CGs . . . we never even imagined . S : So you as a composer , you were . . . U : Excited . S : Oh . You were ? U : Of course . I could do a lot more things . S : Well , didn ' t you have the frustration that your expression in music is going to fade a little ? U : Well , there might be fading parts but standing parts will stand even more . S : I see . U : When I was young , I really had the temptation to make every song expressive and standing , but I think I got a little old . ( LOL ) Like , " Let ' s put a hard blow in this scene , and put in some easy ones here . Oh , it ' ll really be good if I play Aerith ' s theme here . . " S : When FF was first created , it was nothing but a last hope without any directions . Now that it ' s a huge hit , even the music is being criticized , while many CDs come into the market . What do you think about that ? U : Ah . . . it ' s . . . S : Weird ? U : Sure . " Why ? " ( LOL ) More than that , I really started to get e - mails from fans all over the world . That was the most fantastic thing for me . Shocking . I can somehow get why we Japanese can like my Japanese music , but when Americans say , " That song was good , I felt in such a way , " I really feel strange . Well , we are all humans anyway ( LOL ) . S : I remembered you called yourself a craftsman rather than an artist , but I really think you have some elements of an artist . Doesn ' t your pride as an artist get satisfied as your works go all around the world ? U : Well , the OSV sells well but the arranges and solos don ' t . ( LOL ) S : Haha . That ' s the same with everything . Even if the Southern All Stars released an original and arranged album at the same time , the original sells better . Everyone tends to like the fresh first step . U : Still , I really never dreamed of having my creations become the number - one seller in Japan . I AM happy , but I really can ' t understand the reality . S : I think I know what you feel like . I recently did the liner notes for Miss Hisaichi , but I think I felt that she has something common with you . Without Miyazaki , there is no Hisaichi . Without FF , there is no Uematsu . I think you both have the desire to work as yourselves in your names , rather than behind games or singers . You get discouraged by finding that originals sell better than arranged , because of the pride as a musician . U : Well , I only started working behind " Final Fantasy , " whether arranged or original . That ' s why I have something in me that makes me satisfied when even one of the songs in a game makes me content . I really think my pride as a musician is not so great . S : No , I think THAT is your artistic characteristic . It ' s common in composers for movies and stuff , too . You purposely don ' t try to make most music stand , because the music is only a factor of the game . U : I see . S : I think making soundtracks for movies and games are very similar . If everything fails , the listener must listen to the same music a hundred times in a game . If a sad melody were to be the main theme of a melody , it cannot be repeated so many times . It ' s really hard to determine the happy medium . I think you ' re very good at adjusting that . Even the very best emotional melodies get boring after 10 times , but your repetition themes can be heard any number of times . U : Sure . S : Your job must be well balanced by your craftsmanship AND musicianship . I think that is your creativity . U : Maybe this job was a mandate from heaven . ( LOL ) S : Really . U : For instance , I really suck at playing instruments , but I love playing them . In such ways , I ' ve already convinced myself that everything else I do in music are just my hobbies . If I create an ambition , I can ' t concentrate on others . I have clearly set up a distinction ; job for game music , hobby for other music . S : I really like how you can organize fields in your heart . U : Yeah , I ' m really satisfied right now . My job is really fun . S : That ' s why I don ' t see much of " I ' m the hero ! " kind of expression in your music . I feel that because you are such an established being , your music is established , too . I felt the same way in Hisaishi ' s music . Same thing with my editor job , because it ' s not me that sells ; it ' s the books . U : Haha . S : It ' s really hard to determine " whose " game that is being made . Everyone should just satisfy themselves by just having fun . U : I agree . S : FF is supposed to be Mr . Sakaguchi ' s game but it ' s not , really . U : It ' s everyone ' s . S : That is the interesting part . I think only people who can work in a group form this developer ' s job . U : Oh , that ' s a valid point . If I were to start a game , I would look for people who can determine the individual scenes and act accordingly . S : So . . . is it because it ' s the newest game that you like FF7 the most ? U : Yes , yes . S : That ' s really easy to understand . U : Hahaha . Well , I really think that FF7 came near to completion , although it was pretty incomplete . I really find the unpolished " core " of a mineral rock that is about to be transformed into a diamond . It ' s still rocky without the looks of a diamond , but I believe if it were to be polished more and more , it has the capability to create a whole new entertainment style . S : To say the truth , I stopped FF7 in the middle . U : I can see that . S : I really like classic RPGs from the past , because I really can ' t determine if I ' m playing or being forced to play . U : That is the biggest problem in SQUARE . Nobody knows if they ' re playing or being forced to . S : Yeah . I really think that FF7 crossed over the river . U : Since nobody has crossed the boundary before , we must find our own way from now on . S : Still , the completeness for a game that crossed the river is great . It IS great , but people who didn ' t want to cross the river were left behind . U : There has to be someone to cross the river for the first time , though .