Square Enix Have Destroyed Final Fantasy Tradition

Today is a day of mixed emotions. Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy XIII would be seeing its Western release on the 9th of March, 2010 (good news), but they also announced that pop sensation Leona Lewis would be lending her song 'My Hands' to the Western version as its theme song (bad news).

Why is this bad news? Well, it's the first time in the franchise's history that Western gamers won't be able to hear any music composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu. He was only hired by Square Enix to do the theme tune for Final Fantasy XIII and the Japanese theme, called Kimi Ga Iru Kara, is unlikely to be present in the Western version.

Progression is one thing, but in this case it's not something that many will have wanted. Leona Lewis' inclusion has blatantly been done to try and promote the game in the West, but if she was performing the vocals for a Nobuo Uematsu track, as many have done in the past including Faye Wong and Jade Villalon, then there wouldn't really be much of a problem. The problem is that Leona Lewis is singing her own song which wasn't even written for the game. It's associated with other brands, such as the movie Precious, so there is no connection with Final Fantasy XIII at all, it's not unique.

The music of Final Fantasy is a big deal and it's easily one of the things that put video game music on the map. The fans are very passionate about it, and this move is just another faux pas by Square Enix. It shows that they perhaps undervalued the opinion of their fans because for many, it will seriously devalue the game. The only redeeming thing is that Nobuo Uematsu will at least be composing the score to Final Fantasy XIV, but it's  not quite the same. 

Is it true that Nobuo Uematsu's theme song will be removed? Why not have both as an option?

Updated with the song in question. Thanks The_vagabound7

Updated again with the original song thanks Ptm for finding an upload that hasn't been removed.

I was planning to get the JP version anyway.
Sayonara suckers.

I think this articles making too big a deal out of it, but at the same time I agree.

It's not the fact that its not Nobuo Uematsu that bothers me, but that it's already used in Precious, according to the article. If a song is in FF it should not be linked to anything but FF.

Wow, the FFXIII song gets a lot of hate...I didn't know it wasn't written specifically for FFXIII, sounds stupid imo, atleast if it's used in a scene other than the credits.

どほほほほほほ

???

Could you decrypt that?

What are you trying to say?

Wait...hahahahahahaha.

That was funny. I think.

With a little brushing up, I may be able to handle reading the hiragana and katakana, though I probably wouldn't know half the vocabulary used, lol.

How much Kanji is used in games?  I don't have many of those memorized; I can only handle the syllabaries.

Sudeki de ne didn't stop FFX from selling well.

Well I'm getting JP version anyway so it doesn't matter. But will they really remove "kimi ga iru kara" for the US version? Or maybe my "my hands" will be the ending theme only when the credit rolls...