The Final Fantasy series’ iconic victory fanfare has been a staple feature for the majority of the long-running RPG franchise since the very first entry in 1987. However, series composer Nobuo Uematsu recently revealed that a music programmer’s accidental discovery was what enabled him to give Final Fantasy’s battle themes and fanfare a truly punchy, driving drumbeat for the very first time.
At a recent sold-out event reported on by GameWatch, Uematsu talked in detail about Final Fantasy III's score and its development. With a soundtrack that incorporated a wider variety of tunes including comical pieces, Uematsu credits Final Fantasy III as a turning point in which he established his approach to composing music for RPGs.
Uematsu emphasized that there was a stark difference in Final Fantasy III’s music quality compared to Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy II, even though they were composed using the same equipment and for the same console (the Famicom / NES). Although most games only used four of the NES’s audio channels, Uematsu revealed that Final Fantasy III made heavy use of a particular drum sound on the fifth channel, which was discovered completely by accident during development.
Uematsu recalls that the game’s music programmer Hiroshi Nakamura came to him one day with a kick drum-like sound he had discovered. Uematsu was very excited to make use of this. Although the NES’s “white noise” channel could be used for hi-hat and snare drum-like percussion effects, this kick drum sound provided exactly what Uematsu had been looking for to add a more driving rhythm to battle themes.
However, Nakamura expressed misgivings, concerned that it may cause issues with the game. Uematsu explained: "The programmers back then were afraid of bugs and so they didn't want to play that kick drum sound," adding that he reassured them that he would stop using the kick drum sound if it caused problems.
Fortunately, no such issues occurred. Uematsu successfully used this drum sound to create a punchier version of the fanfare, as well as to add a driving drum beat to battle themes. He particularly highlighted how important Nakamura’s kick drum was to Final Fantasy III’s ‘This is the Last Battle,’ and proudly observed that the first four bars “still have a rich sound even today.”
Even 35 years on, Uematsu said that he still really wants to know exactly how Nakamura came across the drum sound, but apparently the music programmer no longer remembers. Uematsu joked that "he must have had his memory erased by aliens."
The NES had only five audio channels. The “pulse wave” channels 1 and 2 were the main ones used for melodies, “triangle wave” channel 3 was often used for basslines, and channel 4 was for “white noise." Channel 5 was for PCM samples (which could be used for comparatively higher quality sounds, such as voice samples). "I didn't know about that fifth channel (at the time)," revealed Uematsu, adding that such samples took up a lot of memory so "hardly anyone used it."
According to Uematsu, he asked a younger colleague for their opinion on how the sound was created. “I wasn’t an engineer back then so I don’t know the details, but I think they were definitely doing something with the PCM channel,” they supplied, surmising that if Final Fantasy III’s devs were able to produce the drum sound without using imported waveform data, they may have cleverly utilized the PCM channel's on/off function. The act of switching the channel on and off might have been used to produce this sound without using up limited memory. However, this will remain a mystery until someone who actually worked on the game reveals exactly how it was done (if anyone remembers).
Uematsu credits Hiroshi Nakamura’s involvement in Final Fantasy III for helping him to shape his ideas into music and convincing him that incorporating varied types of music (such as comical pieces) made RPG soundtracks more interesting.
Photo by David Wolff - Patrick/Redferns via Getty Images.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
