Even if you haven’t played Final Fantasy 14 Online, it’s hard to avoid the influence its composer, Masayoshi Soken, has had on the gaming landscape.
Be it his diverse back catalog the encompassies everything from bossa nova to speed metal, or his infectiously optimistic personality, Soken has become a beloved figure among 14’s player base - and it is fair to say his work keeps plenty of fans coming back to the game each and every patch.
Outside of the popular MMORPG, Soken was also the lead composer of Final Fantasy 16, as well as some Nintendo DS favorites including Mario Hoops 3-on-3 and the Japan-exclusive horror title Nanashi no Game. I recently sat down with Soken for an interview about his work, inspirations, and some chat on why he’d love to return to the horror genre in the future.
In the studio
Soken begins by explaining that when it comes to composing new music, he prefers a hands-on approach to the game he’s writing soundtracks for.
“When creating I try, if possible, to be able to play the game beforehand,” he says. “I’m a very lived-in gamer, and I think that there are a lot of hints that I can pick up from actually playing the game and understanding the experience.”
That hands-on experience isn’t something that Soken always has the privilege of getting, however. And in such cases, he finds he has to get creative.
“There are quite a lot of occasions where I’m unable to play the game. So I use the power of my imagination to try and understand how the gameplay will be, then create the songs. But thankfully, there haven’t been any occasions where I’m completely lost on what I should do and what kind of song it should be.”
A new record
Final Fantasy 14 Online has been active for almost 12 years now since its A Realm Reborn relaunch back in 2013, and Soken has been composing for the game for just as long. During that time, he's had plenty to work with in terms of environmental design and the themes of certain dungeon and raid encounters.
Soken’s work on both Final Fantasy 14 and Final Fantasy 16 encompasses a broad range of music genres. We’ve heard everything from classical and jazz to metal and electronic dance music. To that end, I wondered how Soken is planning to broaden his musical horizons even further. Though given the breadth of his work so far, such a thing may be quite a challenge.
“For [Final Fantasy] 14, I would say that it’s actually harder to find a genre that we haven’t touched on,” he explains. “Even the current Arcadion raid series, we’ve made a sort-of hip-hop style with rap songs, and we’re always challenging ourselves with new genres. We’ve done big band sounds as well, but at this point, I’m wondering what it is that we haven’t done yet.”
An eikonic effort
One strength of Soken’s work is that you often don’t know what to expect from his compositions. One example that stands out to me is the track that accompanies the Titan Lost boss fight in Final Fantasy 16. The game features a largely classical composition, but this particular fight throws a curveball by leaning into an industrial rock sound.
“The order for that fight was actually classical,” says Soken about the Titan Lost fight. “But when I actually got to play the game, I thought if we were to go with the classical songs we had done up until then - if we were to keep doing the same genre - I thought that something was off.
“I thought this song will have to be rock and roll,” he continued. “So I thought, why don’t I go ahead and just make it, put it into the game, and then we’ll talk. And the person who ordered that was actually [Final Fantasy 16 producer] Naoki Yoshida.
“The people that reacted first were the development team, so I thought this should be fine to implement and I didn’t say anything to Yoshida. Eventually, I went to him and said I think this is perfect in terms of game experience. I assumed he was wondering what kind of classical piece I had come up with, then he must’ve been blown away by the rock song that came up… but he just said it was well made, and it made itself into [the game].”
Getting spooky
It’s true that Soken has plenty of creative freedom especially when composing for Final Fantasy 14 Online. But I was curious whether he - if given the chance - would like to compose music for another game genre entirely, and the answer I got was quite surprising.
“I have actually composed for horror games in the past, but if I can, I probably would do that again,” he explains.
“Horror games have a lot of elements which go into the fear of what you can’t see. Horror has a lot to do with the sense of hearing, and it’s much more about hearing the sound instead of what you see on the screen. So it’s a genre where the skills of the creators are being put to the test, and so I do have the desire to face that challenge.”
There may just be one slight issue here, as Soken explains candidly: “There is a disadvantage to that as well, and that’s that I’m very bad with horror. So even though I want to make it, I might not be able to!”
A lasting legacy
It doesn’t appear that Soken is going to hang up his hat on Final Fantasy anytime soon, though. His compositions still garner millions of listens on platforms like Spotify and YouTube Music, where his work is officially available to stream.
On top of that, he still tours with The Primals - a rock band made up of members of the Final Fantasy 14 Online development team - and makes appearances at the official Final Fantasy Distant Worlds concerts worldwide.
In talking about regular inspirations for his work, Soken cited American rock band Rage Against the Machine as well as legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu.
“Sometimes when I get stuck on what I should do, I’m frequently thinking about what would Uematsu-san do?” says Soken, humorously adding: “When you’re led astray, I think the best thing is to ask God what to do!”
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