Most known for his work on the Final Fantasy series, iconic video game composer Nobuo Uematsu has worked on dozens of video games, films and more since the 1980s. The legendary composer has crafted some of the most beautiful pieces of game music ever made, and they’re not very happy with the state of the industry right now.

In a recent interview with Japanese outlet Real Sound, Uematsu explained that video game music is “getting less weird” as composers are given less control over what a game sounds like. Early Final Fantasy has Uematsu’s signature all over it, Dragon Quest has Sugiyama’s, Silent Hill has Yamaoka’s, and Halo has O’Donnell and Salvatori’s.

Uematsu explained that the direction of a game’s sound is now more in control by a game’s director or its producer than it used to be, and game music has become “boring” as a result. In fact, most games with iconic soundtracks nowadays are either made by indie devs—such as Toby Fox’s Undertale—or smaller teams like Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

“I won’t go as far as to call it stagnation, but I believe directors and producers hold too much power in their hands even when it comes to the music,” the Final Fantasy composer explained. “Even now, game composers aren’t in a position to speak their opinion freely, and no matter how much musical knowledge or technical skills they possess, they’re still in a position where it’s difficult to speak their mind.

“There are almost no game producers who are well versed in worldwide entertainment and are familiar with a wide variety of musical genres, so anything goes for them as long as you make it sound like a John Williams movie soundtrack.”

The iconic game composer explained that modern studios aren’t willing to “break the mold”, instead relying on replicating a cinematic, Hollywood sound that ends up failing to cut through the countless other games doing the same thing.

“The mainstream approach is to use soothing digital synth sounds with a sequencer, without ever letting it break that mold. Frankly speaking, there’s less ‘weird things’ now.”