Changes in Uematsu's style

I wouldn't say that Uematsu's style has changed per se; one of the things about him (and, indeed, about many VGM composers) is that he is able to cross many genre lines in composition.

No, I'd say that the style is the same, but the quality has decreased, as has the quantity.

Let me elaborate: for the most recent generations of Final Fantasy games (Uematsu's best-known franchise work), he composed anywhere from 2 to 5 discs worth of music. Even taking looping into account, that's a huge volume of work. The best OSTs of the bunch had near-continuous good music, with little or no filler material, while the worst featured excellent highlights counterbalanced with significant filler (in the form of reprises of dull melodies like Oeilvert).

Compare this to Uematsu's recent work on that same series. He wrote roughly a third of FFX and a fourth of FFXI, with single-track-only contributions to FFXII and FFTA. While many of his songs in these lower-volume efforts remains stellar, there are also significant amounts of filler.

So, in my view, Uematsu's work since 2000 has been characterized by 1) fewer tracks composed overall and 2) a higher ratio of poor/boring "filler" to high-quality material. He's still capable of producing stunning music that fits both musically and stylistically with earlier work, but at a much slower pace and with more misfires.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Cellius

Personally I would like to know how much experience he has in arranging and orchestration. I love a lot of his music, but I don't know if that's more due to his orchestrators' effort than his own.

I hate it when people give orchestrators/arrangers all the credit. It's essentially like saying a composer has no talent and does no work but takes all the credit.

Uematsu hardly ever uses an orchestrator since he hardly ever uses an orchestra; that said, he could have used a better one to help match his music to the action in "Advent Children."

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Cellius

Proof please.

It's not really a question of proof, more a question of semantics. To orchestrate, you need an orchestra.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.