Music of Final Fantasy IV - Concept and Creation

Concept and Creation

Uematsu has noted that the process of composing was excruciating, involving trial and error and requiring the sound staff to spend several nights in sleeping bags at Square Co. headquarters. He blamed much of the problem on the fact that this was his first soundtrack to use the new Super Famicom hardware, as opposed to his previous soundtracks composed for the Famicom. The liner notes for the Final Fantasy IV OSV album were humorously signed as being written at 1:30 AM "in the office, naturally." Uematsu has stated that, beginning with the soundtrack to Final Fantasy IV, he started to move away from the idea that the soundtrack had to be solely an orchestral score. In June 2007, Square Enix held a casting for a vocalist to sing a version of Final Fantasy IV's "Theme of Love" rearranged by Nobuo Uematsu. Megumi Ida was selected from approximately 800 applicants to perform the song, which was featured on the Japanese Nintendo DS remake of the game, as well as the accompanying soundtrack album.