Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu is now confirmed to be working on the development team for Kickstarter project Penny Blood. Penny Blood, along with its partner project Armed Fantasia, launched its Kickstarter campaign nearly one month ago. The campaign is now coming to a close, with over 15,000 backers pledging over $2.1 million to make Penny Blood a reality. Uematsu's involvement is now being confirmed in celebration of the Kickstarter's success.
Penny Blood is a gothic horror JRPG from Shadow Hearts writer and Shadow Hearts: Covenant director Matsuzo Machida. It's set in the 1920s and will have players traveling across the USA, Europe, and Asia as nations struggle to recover from the first World War. In the wake of the conflict, unnatural turmoil is growing. A private detective named Matthew Farrell starts the game by investigating a situation in a mental hospital full of strange creatures in New York. The game takes off from there.
Oddly enough, two composers had already been announced for Penny Blood, Shadow Heart's Yoshitaka Hirota and Capcom's Akari Kaida. It seems that Penny Blood will feature the talents of many composers, each of which will focus on different regional music. Uematsu, for instance, is going to be focusing on "authentic Irish music" planned for American locations in Penny Blood. It isn't actually clear if Uematsu will compose any music himself, as it's said he's currently only assisting with "research and insight."
Another composer has also been announced for Penny Blood alongside Uematsu. It's Kenji Ito, composer for the SaGa franchise, who has also worked with Uematsu on multiple Final Fantasy projects. Ito will be responsible for creating the "authentic sounds of Japanese locales."
As for what brings this group of industry veterans together, Hirota, Uematsu, and Ito all have a history of past work together at Square Enix. Hirota is also a part of Uematsu's band Earthbound Papas, which plays arrangements of SaGa songs originally composed by Ito. In other words, these are co-workers, if not friends, who have a long history with one another taking the opportunity to work together on something fun.
Penny Blood's Kickstarter project will wrap up successfully in less than 24 hours and clearly there are high expectations for it and its partner project Armed Fantasia. This is just the starting point, however, as there are years yet before the games are planned to launch. Expect to hear much more about Penny Blood going forward.
Penny Blood tentatively releases in March 2025 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, as well as a potential next-gen Nintendo console.