@guan_yu: I definitely see music as art and not just a part of the IP/brand. But not all developers see music the same way, so I was just trying to appeal to their business sense--if not to their artistic sense too.
Music is part of the game, not a window dressing. But some of that music would never have been known without the game too--there's so many orchestral composers in the world, what are the odds that we'd really get to know one guy from Japan if it wasn't for Final Fantasy? And didn't he create the 'sound' of FF while at it? That's probably why I never really liked the FF series after Uematsu went over to Mistwalker.
I loved the movie too. I never played the game, but the game soundtrack by Anamanaguchi was awesome.
Your description of Scott Pilgrim is pretty much my thoughts on Anamanaguchi in general--a combining of the old (chiuptune) sounds with something modern.
In some ways, both! The music definitely did have to work with the limitations of the SNES, but that audio chip (at the time) blew everything Sega had out of the water. I agree with asianexpress- Nobuo Uematsu is just awesome. But the sound of the trumpets on FFVI sounds so unique to the SNES too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BPGle3hTWk&feature=relat...
So true. The SNES audio chip just had such a distinct sound, and at the time it was better than the midi on my PC! Oh the hours I spent in FF III (or FF VI as we know it now)...