1up conducted an interview with one of the most famous video game composers of our generation: Nobuo Uematsu. This dude needs no introduction. He is kick arse. I can’t even diss his socks and Crocs combo in the image above, because he’s just that kick arse. The interview is probably one of the most in depth I’ve read. Nobuo seems at complete ease, enjoys answering the questions and recalling his life at Square. He also doesn’t seem to hold anything back and is incredibly candid. Highlights for me are Nobuo speaking on:

• How he feels Square are taking advantage of him by milking his compositions even though he no longer works for the company.
• Square Enix releasing too many Final Fantasy games.
• The reason he left Square.
• That Square shouldn’t have continued to make Final Fantasy games after Sakaguchi left the company.

He is never bitter though and seems fully contented and happy with his earlier days at Square.

The interview is incredibly long, but very insightful and worth checking out from start to finish. If you’re into video game music, an aspiring composer or just a fan of Uematsu’s in general – you’ll thoroughly enjoy this. I have to confess to having caught onto Uemtasu and the Final Fantasy bandwagon late with game VII, but I immediately latched onto the music, loved it to pieces and quickly became a fan of Uematsu’s work from there on out.

Check it out: James Mielke’s interview with Nobuo Uemtasu

Because of gamevideo.com’s terrible movie players, none of the videos can play for more than 10 seconds without freezing and re-buffering. The whole interview has been transcribed so you can read it all if the the videos mess up on you. But if your not a big fan of reading through 8 pages of text and would prefer to see Uematsu-san kicking it in all his awesomeness, the videos are after the jump.

A day in the life of Nobuo Uematsu [Part 1]

A day in the life of Nobuo Uematsu [Part 2]

A day in the life of Nobuo Uematsu [Part 3]