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Nobuo Uematsu explains vocals added to Final Fantasy 6 Pixel Remaster’s opera scene
FINAL FANTASY FINAL FANTASY VI, which received a pixel remake, was released on February 23rd. Many things remain the way they were in the original game, including the fact that you can ride the train (which is not a sure thing, as tweets two weeks before launch showed a version of Phantom Train that wasn’t flipped). One thing that has changed is the famous opera scene, which has had a visual overhaul, with 2D characters in front of a 3D background, like Octopath Traveler, and vocals in seven languages.
In a recent promotional video (thanks role-playing game website For the translation), original composer Nobuo Uematsu explained that he came up with the idea of adding vocals to Square Enix “half-jokingly” and didn’t expect it to actually happen. “I think it’s going to be impossible or difficult,” he said.
After hearing this suggestion, the producers of the remake went to Kaden Kitase, the co-director of the original, to ask what to do. As Kitase explains in the video, “So I replied ‘You should listen and do everything Uematsu says.’ I was the key person behind the scenes!”
Celes, the party member who sang at the scene, was a former general who was caught in the show, not an opera singer. With that in mind, the singer was chosen, Uematsu said, “whose voice doesn’t look like an opera singer, but more like a music singer.”
Uematsu also explained that the lyrics were written by Kitase, who wrote them as “a love letter to the woman he was dating. But he didn’t lie, he ended up marrying her and they had a child.”
When the publisher sent him audio versions in seven different languages, Uematsu discovered that Square Enix had taken his advice. “Whatever the language,” he said, “even if I don’t understand [the language], I still couldn’t hold back the tears. “