Replying to Hellacia's and Secret Squirrel's ages-old posts. Sekito's work on Final Fantasy II was actually brought over and rearranged from the Wonderswan version which he also did. Here's a bit of a musical analysis of what he worked on:
Tracks newly added by Sekito to FF2:
- 2.01 "Opening Movie" and 2.02 "Opening Movie + SE" (Quotes "Rebel Army Theme" repeatedly. Added for the FMV which obviously wasn't in the Famicom and Wonderswan versions.)
- 2.03 "Opening" (Quotes "Prelude" at the end. Added for the in-game opening cutscene which the Famicom version didn't have. The Wonderswan version had it, though.)
- 2.25 "Inn" (Arranged from FF1's "Save Music". Added for sleeping at an inn which had no jingle in the Famicom version. The Wonderswan version also has this.)
- 2.26 "Battle Scene A" (Quotes "Battle Scene 1", the regular battle theme, sort of at the beginning. The Wonderswan version also has this. This is the new boss battle theme for the second half of the game, with "Battle Scene 2" being saved for the final battle.)
- 2.27 "Battle Scene B" (I can't hear which phrase by Uematsu this is supposed to use. I could imagine it very loosely quoting "Battle Scene 2", but it's a stretch. The Wonderswan version also has this. This is the new boss battle theme for the first half of the game. I really don't like it to the point of thinking I stopped playing the game because of it.)
Tracks expanded by Sekito for FF2:
- 2.06 "Revivification" (Added an introduction without a bassline that is exclusive to the PlayStation version, the Wonderswan version doesn't have it.)
- 2.08 "Rebel Army Theme" (Added the guitar part at the end that is exclusive to the PlayStation version, the Wonderswan version doesn't have it.)
- 2.10 "Main Theme" (Added the breathtakingly beautiful second half of the piece with the key change and the guitar. The Wonderswan version also has it.)
- 2.12 "Imperial Army Theme" (Doubled the length with new instrumentation in the second part. The Wonderswan version also has this.)
- 2.15 "Run!" (Added the second part which might be quoting "Imperial Army Theme". The Wonderswan version also has it.)
- 2.16 "Ancient Castle" (Added the second part with the strings and the third part with the percussion. Both exclusive to the PlayStation version, the Wonderswan version doesn't have them.)
- 2.18 "The Emperor Revives" (Doubled the length with a new loop end. The Wonderswan version also has this.)
- 2.21 "Temptation of the Princess" (Added the second part which is also lifted from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. The Wonderswan version has it too.)
- 2.29 "Finale" (Added repeated and new parts starting from 2:45, again quoting "Prelude" at the end. The Wonderswan version also has them.)
And a comparison of the boss "Battle Scene" music used in the Famicom / PlayStation (and pretty much all remake) versions of FF2. It really changes the game's atmosphere a lot!
Oh, the "All Sounds of Final Fantasy I & II" album also has a never used and never arranged "
Battle Scene 3" by Uematsu for the Famicom version. I would have preferred an arrangement of this as the regular boss battle theme for the remake versions... Given that there's a second FF2 "
Dungeon" theme which Uematsu kept in stock for six years and rearranged as "The Magic House" for FF6! And two more unused compositions ("
Shop" and "
Airship") that were neither included in any version of FF2 nor arranged.
Now, here's what got me wondering about the Wonderswan and PlayStation versions of FF1. It's sort of cryptic with its arranger credits. Comparing the
Wonderswan credits of FF1...
...to the
Wonderswan credits of FF2...
...we can see that Nobuo Uematsu is music supervisor for both the Wonderswan versions of FF1 and FF2. I find it unlikely Uematsu had to supervise FF1's music when he did the arrangements himself. Also note how FF2 credits Tsuyoshi Sekito as music composer and how the porting company changed from Tose to Kan Navi from FF1 to FF2. Could it be that one or several composers from Tose did the Wonderswan arrangements for FF1? Not a single staff member from Tose is listed by name in the credits.
This album's booklet credits Sekito for the FF2 arrangements of the PlayStation version, but
fails to specifically credit any arranger for FF1.
The Wonderswan version of FF1 is almost a direct arrangement of the Famicom music. There are no newly added sections like in FF2, and the first few notes of "Dead Music" and "Ending Theme" were cut, as was the real, non-looping ending of "Ending Theme". Other than that, only the tempo and the instrumentation of the music is slightly changed, with "Dungeon" gaining that snazzy percussion, for example. Newly composed tracks for the Wonderswan version are:
- 1.03 "Opening Demo" (Quotes "Prelude" at the end. The Famicom version didn't have this cutscene.)
- 1.23 "Church" (Quotes "Opening Theme" and "Prelude". Played where you can revive party members. The Famicom version just played "Shop".)
- 1.25 "Lute" (Basically "Prelude" with different instrumentation. The Famicom version just played "Getting an Important Item".)
- 1.26 "Bridge Building" (An arrangement of "Cornelia Castle". Played when the northern bridge is built and when playing the secret sliding puzzle on the ship. The Famicom version didn't have the cutscene and played "Opening Theme" during the sliding puzzle instead.)
- 1.27 "Deep Place" (An original composition. Played when traveling to the Sunken Shrine. The Famicom version didn't have this cutscene.)
- 1.28 "Fanfare" (The beginning of "Victory" with slightly different instrumentation. Played when the king of Cornelia announces that the northern bridge will be built. The Famicom version just played "Getting an Important Item".)
- 1.32 "Mid-Boss Battle" (Quotes "Battle Scene". Regular boss battle theme. The Famicom version just played "Battle Scene".)
- 1.33 "Boss Battle A" (Quotes "Battle Scene". Lich and Kraken boss battle theme. The Famicom version just played "Battle Scene".)
- 1.34 "Boss Battle B" (Quotes "Battle Scene" and "Prelude". Marilith and Tiamat boss battle theme. The Famicom version just played "Battle Scene".)
- 1.35 "Last Battle" (Quotes "Battle Scene" and sounds a suspicious lot like "The Extreme" from FF8. Chaos boss battle theme. The Famicom version just played "Battle Scene".)
The bulk of FF1's arrangement work really only started with the PlayStation version. In addition to including the Wonderswan compositions, it also added some new tracks:
- 1.01 "Opening Movie" and 1.02 "Opening Movie + SE" (Quotes "Prelude" and the battle part reminds me a bit of "Liberi Fatali" from FF8 and "Battle 1" from FF9. Previous versions didn't have this FMV.)
- 1.24 "Ruined Castle" (An arrangement of "Cornelia Castle". Previous versions just played "Cornelia Castle".)
- 1.29 "Crystal Revival" (An arrangement of "Prelude". Played when touching a crystal after beating an elemental fiend. The Famicom version didn't have these cutscenes, the Wonderswan version didn't play any music.)
- 1.31 "Inn" (Basically "Shop" with different instrumentation. Previous versions just played "Shop".)
Tracks expanded and changed by the arranger(s) for the PlayStation version of FF1:
- 1.03 "Opening Demo" (Slightly expanded and arranged. It sounds very different in places.)
- 1.05 "Opening Theme" (The previous versions had an A-B-A-B... loop. The PlayStation version is A1-A2-B-A3-A1..., where the A part is arranged with more and more pomp each time.)
- 1.06 "Cornelia Castle" (Thrice as long as previous versions. Also does the A1-A2-A3 thing with more pomp on each repetition.)
- 1.07 "Main Theme" (Almost thrice as long. An intro was added. The main part is repeated with more pomp once, then the intro is repeated twice with a slight arrangement as an interlude.)
- 1.08 "Chaos Temple" (More than twice as long. An intro and an interlude before the loop was added.)
- 1.09 "Matoya's Cave" (More than twice as long. The second half of the song is arranged to be a bit quieter and sounds like an interlude at first.)
- 1.10 "Town" (More than twice as long. An intro was added and the second half of the song has more elaborate instrumentation. You can tell they wanted the guitar to sound like a live performance.)
- 1.13 "Underwater Temple" (Almost twice as long. An intro was added that is also played in the loop.)
- 1.14 "Dungeon" (Slightly expanded with an interlude. The snazzy percussion from the Wonderswan version returns. Other than that, the song feels completely different from the Famicom version, but it's less annoying and rather more enjoyable now.)
- 1.15 "Airship" (Doubled the length with slightly different instrumentation in the second half.)
- 1.17 "Gurgu Volcano" (More than twice as long. Added an intro and an interlude, both of which are played in the loop.)
- 1.18 "Floating Castle" (More than twice as long. Added an intro and a second half with percussion.)
- 1.23 "Church" (The key is changed and the second half is completely different. The PlayStation version also gets rid of the "Prelude" quote, probably to avoid overusing it.)
- 1.27 "Deep Place" (Some water bubble sound effects were added.)
- 1.28 "Fanfare" (Instrumentation changed more to set it apart from the beginning of "Victory".)
- 1.33 "Boss Battle A" (An intro was added and another, very fitting "Battle Scene" quote was woven into the melody before the Wonderswan version's sets in.)
- 1.36 "Ending Theme" (Technically, this is about twice as long because a second half in the loop with more pomp was added. Still, the original Famicom piece is more than 4 minutes long despite containing 6 loops of which only the sixth is unique with an ending. The Wonderswan and PlayStation arranger(s) probably worked from the "All Sounds of Final Fantasy I & II" album as that version also lacks the first few notes and the true ending from the Famicom version, recording only 2 complete loops.)
So, who did the PlayStation version of FF1? Comparing its
credits...
...to
FF2's PlayStation credits...
...we can see that they bothered enough to change Sekito's FF2 remake credit from "music composer" to just "music" (probably because he arranged more than he composed?) and Uematsu's FF1 remake credit from "music supervisor" to "original music composed by". Which could mean anything from Uematsu having composed only the original Famicom music to having composed and arranged new, original music for the PlayStation version (which, except for "Opening Movie", doesn't really apply as all the new music is either arranged or lifted from the Wonderswan version). And again, Tose involved with FF1's PlayStation version without any names listed. Maybe it was really arranged by Tose staff.
Some Tose composers are listed for the first time in the Game Boy Advance version credits of
FF1 and
FF2 (same music credits for both games):
The fact that Sekito and Kan Navi are not mentioned probably means that Tose handled the Game Boy Advance versions and the composers listed programmed the music data. The music for both games generally follows the PlayStation versions, but not without some noticeable changes to tracks such as FF1's "Opening Demo" (shortened) and "Boss Battle A" (the additional "Battle Scene" quote was removed again because the sound hardware didn't allow for this many voices). No such changes were made to FF2, the music was just adjusted to the hardware, as far as I can hear. One new track was added to the Game Boy Advance compilation:
- "Prelude" (A shorter arrangement probably closest to those from FF4 and FF5. Played at the FF1/FF2 title select screen after booting the game up.
The PlayStation Portable version of FF1 keeps the short version of "Opening Demo" from the Game Boy Advance version and the water bubble sounds in "Deep Place" were revised. Other than that, it is a port of the PlayStation version in terms of the arrangements, albeit with inferior sound quality. Although it is streamed audio, basses and heights are crippled and everything sounds more compressed than it should. Five arrangements were added to the game for the newly added boss battles:
- "Battle 2" (From FF3. Cerberus, Echidna, Two-Headed Dragon and Ahriman boss battle theme.)
- "Fight 2" (From FF4. Scarmiglione, Cagnazzo, Barbariccia and Rubicante boss battle theme.)
- "Battle 2" (From FF5. Atomos, Omega and Shinryu boss battle theme.)
- "Battle at the Big Bridge" (From FF5. Gilgamesh boss battle theme.)
- "The Decisive Battle" (From FF6. Typhon, Orthros, Phantom Train and Death Gaze boss battle theme.)
The arrangements for FF2 didn't change at all (not counting the same sound quality downgrade as in FF1) and no new tracks were added. Just to make this complete, here's
FF1's PlayStation Portable credits...
...and
FF2's PlayStation Portable credits:
The Pixel Remaster version includes Sekito's new tracks for FF2 (except for "Opening Movie") but its merry band of arrangers omitted many of his expanded sections in other tracks, doing their own thing. Sekito himself had to play the guitar this time around but not in the "Main Theme" as that part was booted too. Sheesh! Here's the credits for the Pixel Remaster version as there's no other place to stuff it yet (FF1-4 Pixel Remasters all have almost the same music credits with only the "Remote Recording" sections being different):
Long story short, I think the PlayStation credits for FF1 can mean two things: Either Uematsu arranged the PlayStation version but the tracks added to the Wonderswan version were originally by Tose employees, or Tose employees did all composition and arrangements for the remake versions of FF1 (with the exception of Pixel Remaster). The stylistic similarities to Uematsu's earlier works would imply the former, but it could still be Tose employees mimicking his style or straight up lifting the passages in question from Uematsu's pieces.