Music & Lyrics

Nobuo Uematsu's music, remixes, lyrics and scores.

The music played in Final Fantasy VIII is composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Since there is no spoken dialogue, his songs carry the emotion for all the scenes. Without his music, the player has no idea how the scene was supposed to feel. For the opening song Liberi Fatali, he wrote the song and translated it into Latin with a chorus. It turned out to be a very powerful piece.

Name: 植松伸夫
Birthdate: March 21, 1959
Inspiration: Elton John
Instruments: piano & violin
Hobby: beer, movies, prowresu

Nobuo Uematsu during a Final Fantasy VIII interview

Nobuo explained during an interview that he attempted to innovate and experiment with FF8's compositions. As a result, the Prelude song almost disappeared and each hero didn't clearly have their own theme. The music was made to revolve around Rinoa and Squall, and so most of the tracks became variations of Eyes On Me – a theme he says he will never forget. The harmony of FF8's ending graphics and music left him in tears.

While working on FF8, Nobuo realized that the game's music direction was becoming more orchestrated. Finding a balance for the type of music in the game became a challenge, and as a result Nobuo later formed The Black Mages. He knew the rock music he wanted to create wouldn't fit in with a world where there is ballroom dancing and waltz.

Final Fantasy VIII Sound Tracks

Final Fantasy VIII Original Sound Track
Released just after the game itself, this contains only the music used in the game. It includes both versions of Eyes On Me. All tracks in this album were composed, arranged and produced by Nobuo Uematsu.
Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec
A selection of orchestrated tracks arranged by Shiro Hamaguchi. All of the newly arranged tracks take on agreeable themes yet keep personalities of each song intact. It contains both versions of Eyes On Me as well.
Piano Collections: Final Fantasy VIII
A selection of songs arranged by Shiro Hamaguchi and performed by Shinko Ogata. Few of the songs are outstanding but each one is a peaceful listen. As a bonus, the album also included piano scores.
Eyes On Me
The Eyes On Me single is a small-sized 15 minute CD containing the original version of Eyes On Me and an instrumental version with back-up vocals for karaoke. Also included is one of Faye's successful Mandarin ballads titled Red Bean, however it is titled Acacia Fruit on this Japanese single.

Rare Downloads

This is a selection of songs or files that weren't widely available on the internet. There are several other remixes hosted at OCR and VGMix. For the zipped files, please right click the link to download and save them.

Lyrics & Scores

Full song credits are included along with the lyrics transcribed. The Julia and Eyes On Me piano scores were generated images by Alpha Omega. Waltz for the Moon and An FF8 Journey were fan arrangements by Arnold Morrison. For the zipped files, please right click the link to download and save them.