Summary
Final Fantasy 14has had such consistently great music for so long that it makes me wonder how composer Masayoshi Soken actually manages it.Combat, story, characters, and writing have all peaked and dippedat points during the game’s almost fifteen-year-long runtime, but the music has remained great, and Soken has established himself as not only one of the bestFinal Fantasycomposers, but one of the best in the industry right now.
It would make sense that Square Enix would want to utilize Soken’s talents outside of Final Fantasy 14 too, which is exactly what it did during the development ofFinal Fantasy 16. It was a sensible decision to have Soken compose for the game, especially sinceFinal Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida was directing. Those two are practically inseparable.
Final Fantasy 14’s Composer Says It Was “Hell” Working On FF16 At The Same Time
However, just because something sounds like a sensible idea, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is one, as it seems Soken’s workload composing for both Final Fantasy 14’s Dawntrail expansion and Final Fantasy 16 at the same time was far too great.In a recent interview with PCGamesN, Soken claimed that working on both games was “a really horrible hell”.
As for exactly why, it sounds as though the differing tones of both Final Fantasy 14 and Final Fantasy 16 are what contributed to Soken’s struggles working on both at the same time, explaining that “14 has variety and 16 requires stories”.
“I can’t really come up with a specific example, mainly because of the sheer amount of work that was needed, but in terms of the spirit that went into the creation of 14 and 16, I would say that it was very different,” says Soken. “Every day was a really horrible hell – really something beyond your imagination of hell.”
Thankfully, Soken was able to use his experience of working on Final Fantasy 14 1.0 and A Realm Reborn simultaneously to get the job done,and his efforts did get him a Best Music award at The Game Awards, but admits it’s going to be the last time he has two massive projects on the go at once. When asked whether he’d do it again for Final Fantasy 17, Soken claims he’d have to have “two bodies” for him to attempt the feat again.
