The Legend That Defined the Music of ‘Final Fantasy’ Is Getting the Biography He Deserves

Gizmodo · Feb 21, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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The music of Nobuo Uematsu has been all over Square Enix games, including the Final Fantasy series, and an upcoming book will chart his tenured career. On Friday, Viz Media announced Nobuo Uematsu: On the Record, an “intimate biography” by author James Mielke. Like the publisher’s other biographies—which focused on Hideo Kojima, Hayao Miyazaki, and the late Satoru Iwata—readers can expect Mielke’s chronicle of Uematsu to feature insight on his starting point and big moments of his work as a composer for the aforementioned JRPG series, along with Chrono Trigger, Blue Dragon, and more. For fans of the former, series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi will contribute a foreword about his longtime friend and collaborator. Announcement: The legendary Final Fantasy composer goes on the record in this intimate biography! Featuring a foreword by Hironobu Sakaguchi and written by James Mielke, Nobuo Uematsu: On the Record releases Fall 2026. pic.twitter.com/mj1zd5dFsG — VIZ Media (@VIZMedia) February 20, 2026 As Mielke tells it, the book will be “the definitive chronicle on Uematsu. [It’s] jam-packed with amazing revelations about the Final Fantasy composer that the public has never heard about, as shared by himself and those closest to him.” On the Record is one of a few biographies about the artist himself rather than his music: before this, the only other book to cover his life was 2020’s Smile Please by authors Denys Fontanarosa and Jérémie Kermarrec, and that’s only in French. Nobuo Uematsu: On the Record will be available in stores sometime this fall. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.