The music behind Japanese developer Square’s Final Fantasy series is legendary. Never more so than on Final Fantasy VII (1997), which was remade for a 2020 launch and had a score overhaul.
Nobuo Uematsu composed all the music for this iconic game, regularly regarded as one of the greatest of all time, and certainly in our top 10 games ever. The music is a huge part of that, taking in many neoclassical themes and expanding them as the game’s plot reaches surprisingly dramatic heft.
The Brilliance of the Original and Remake FFVII Score
The rearranged soundtrack is some eight hours long and has over 150 pieces. That means there’s a lot to choose from and some of the beautiful new piano pieces we couldn’t even find, lost amongst the mass of excellence compositions.
Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki were lead composers for the Square Enix FFVII Remake game update.
But the core of original composer Uematsu’s work is very much there, just expanded upon. Below you can hear how video game music often sounded back in the 1990s. Excellent work given the technological limitations of the day.
That’s the Mako Reactor music from the FFVII 1997 original, below is the same piece arranged on an orchestral front for the 2020 Remake.
Back in the early 1990s, Squaresoft (now Square Enix) had already worked out the importance of a great game soundtrack. You only have to listen to the Secret of Mana (1994) score to hear that.
FFVII ramped up the drama, focussing in on the sense of real urgency the story has.
Then there are the emotive pieces, many of them involving the ultimately tragic figure of Aerith. Big spoiler here, but quite early into the original game she’s killed by the antagonist Sephiroth.
But as much of the game has this sense of melancholia, the central characters in a desperate bid to save the planet from an destructive megacorporation, the music is frequently contemplative. The characters are locked in that battle, yet are frequently reminded of the beauty of the world they’re trying to protect.
The Remake is a sprawling work, but the incredible thing about Uematsu’s original 1997 soundtrack is it can still hold its own against a full orchestral reworking.
We’re sure there are plenty of FFVII fans who still prefer the PlayStation original. But there’s no denying the work across Remake is often fantastic, vast in its scope, and encompassing the very best of what video games have to offer the world.
FFVII Live in Concert
In February 2026, Square Enix uploaded to its official music channel a live concert of various FFVII pieces. The full orchestral treatment.
A lot of the musical themes surrounding the Aerith character are just excellent. She represents a character of hope and spiritual mystery, someone assured in herself and seemingly aware of her fate.
These themes are typically piano-driven, really getting to the core of FFVII’s emotional experience. As she does, ultimately, represent a figure of loss and grief.
Nobuo Uematsu’s score is undoubtedly one of the best from video game history. It’s one of those scores that makes the game what it is. FFVII just wouldn’t be anywhere near as good if the music wasn’t on this level.
This is why, for us, it’s possible to play the 1997 original with its blocky pre-rendered graphics and have no issue with that. It’s powered along by this music and the emotive, impressive depth of the story is represented so well by Uematsu’s feel for a cosmic sense of impending revolution.
FFVII Chillout Music Zone
Oh, hello! You made it to the bottom of the feature. Ambient Cinematics has kindly created a full chillout zone (three hours of it) for the FFVII score. If you need some sleep inspiration, or just want to relax a little, then this is what you want to listen to.
