Final Fantasy X’s Theme Song ‘To Zanarkand’ Was Not Originally Intended For The Game

Nobuo Uematsu, the Japanese composer best known for his works in the Final Fantasy series, reveals that the Final Fantasy X theme song ‘To Zanarkand’ was not originally intended for the game.

Audrey, CEO of Aitai Japan Inc., and a massive Final Fantasy fan translated a recent interview between Weekly Ochiai and Nobuo Uematsu, where he revealed information on how he composed the songs for the series.

Nobuo Uematsu revealed that he never intended for FFX’s “To Zanarkand” to be the theme song for the game.

It was actually a song for a flute recital that was unused, but when Uematsu was falling behind deadline, he submitted this for FFX’s theme lol

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During the interview, the composer stated that ‘To Zanarkand’ was for a French flute player who asked him to write a song for them to play during a recital. But he set the piece aside because he thought the music he wrote was too sad for a recital.

He then goes on to say that the piece was submitted because he was falling behind progress when composing for Final Fantasy X, only for the producers to respond favorably.

“Sometime after, when I was making the score of Final Fantasy X, I was falling behind all the while the producers were hounding me,” Nobuo Uematsu said. “So since that flute piece was unused, I just kind of meekly handed it to them. They listened to it and said, ‘Yes! This is brilliant!'”

Despite not being originally made for the game, the piece ended up being one of the most iconic songs for Final Fantasy X, which truly speaks volumes about the caliber of Nobuo Uematsu’s composing abilities.

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