Uematsu's two accounts
① Composed for Aerith waiting for Zack (this publication is unofficial)
— Aerith's Theme ranked first in a fan popularity poll of Final Fantasy music (held when FFX was released) and was sung by RIKKI, the singer of 《素敵だね》 in FFX.
[Uematsu]: Yes, that's right. But honestly, when I composed it, I didn't expect it to become so popular. You know the scene where Aerith keeps waiting for Zack at the station?
— Yes, Aerith's Theme also plays there.
[Uematsu]: Right. I imagined it playing in that scene. In the original, there is a description of "Aerith waiting, every day, always waiting"; I composed it to fit that scene。
— So it wasn't composed for that scene in the Forgotten Capital...!?
[Uematsu]: I didn't think of that at all! (Laughs.) First came the scene of Aerith waiting for Zack at the station. It was "a piece for a poor woman waiting for someone who never comes"... This may be the first time I've talked about it, too. (Laughs.)
Official account:
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② Composed for a mother waiting at a railway station
[Kitase]: When you composed Aerith's Theme, did you already know that a tragedy would happen in the story?
[Uematsu]: No. There is a scene in the game where a mother waits for a train at the station, and I think that is where I wrote the music. I wrote the piece based on that scene and the information provided by Mr. Toriyama, who created the event.
③ Expressing the theme of being unable to resist fate; depicting the mother's death at the station
The account opens with Aerith's Theme. He reportedly felt it was a wonderful piece immediately upon completing it. He reportedly tried to express the theme of being unable to resist a predetermined fate, particularly in the scene depicting the mother's death at the station, putting special care into the music.
When Zack was conceived
① The initial concept did not include Zack
[Nomura]: Yes. Sephiroth and Aerith were originally conceived as siblings, so I gave them similar bangs. Although this idea was abandoned early in development, it remains in their bangs. (Laughs.) I remember that at first they were siblings, and then Sephiroth became Aerith's first love; only when Mr. Nojima created the character Zack did their complicated relationship come to an end.
② Zack's design was requested near the end of development
[Nomura]:”Originally, we considered Sephiroth for the idea of a first love overlapping with Cloud. I was asked to draw Zack near the end of development, in a great hurry. Looking now, he isn't even colored; the request was extremely sudden and urgent。
③ Zack was added very late in development
— How was Zack, a key character central to the entire story, created? That is also very intriguing.
[Nojima]: There was a concept that Aerith once had a first love, and I couldn't get it out of my mind. It could develop in many ways, such as that first love actually being Cloud. Later, to describe Cloud's true identity, we needed a real SOLDIER to appear in the story, and Zack was born. Cloud's true identity was determined near the end of scriptwriting. So Zack was probably a character whose addition was finalized very late in development。
④ Zack did not exist in the initial script
— Mr. Kitase, which scenes have stayed with you the most?
[Kitase]: Like Nomura, the dark-mark section of the mental world, where the mysteries surrounding Sephiroth and Cloud are resolved. Until late in development, I didn't know that Cloud's memories were Zack's. And when I checked the initial script, Zack did not exist. Mr. Nojima created Zack as he constructed the mystery. Until that part was finished, I wondered what finishing touch they would give this character. I worked without knowing the truth.
[Nojima]: Zack was not introduced simply because he was necessary to solve the mystery. When I joined development, the relationship concept of Aerith's first love overlapping with Cloud already existed, so his appearance related to resolving the mystery.
⑤ The development team knew little about Zack
[Kitase]: Mr. Nojima handled many actual event scenes besides the main story. Since the scenes revealing all the mysteries, such as the past in Nibelheim, existed only in his mind and were not detailed in the script, even our development team did not know how the story would unfold until playing through and seeing the revelations for the first time. Especially the part involving Zack: for that reason, we initially thought he was merely one of Mr. Nojima's characters used to create suspense and never expected him to be such an important key character. (Laughs.)
