![]() To help him with his new responsibilities for 2.0, Soken had the help of a duo credited as FILM SCORE, consisting of Nobuko Toda and Yoshitaka Suzuki, helping for about a third of the soundtrack. Yoshitaka Suzukiīy the time of A Realm Reborn Soken had become the lead composer, though he had already been composing and arranging some of his own material for 1.x releases in addition to being sound director. Uematsu’s older Final Fantasy melodies also make appearances in later expansions, but they are handled by the new arrangers. Narita’s arrangements focus on bringing these themes to life and making sure the emotions are communicated, rather than providing variations or development, as will be the case with arrangers later on. Uematsu’s strength has always been memorable melodies, which is reflected here. These are the three themes performed by Susan Calloway: “ Answers,” “ Dragonsong,” and “ Revolutions.” These would become motifs for tracks handled by Soken and other arrangers, even through to Endwalker. There is also the lovely “ Behind Closed Doors” for inns, the dungeon track “ Pitfire,” and the first Primal battle theme, Ifrit’s “ Primal Judgment.” But the most significant of the duo’s contributions are the game’s first major vocal themes, two of which came even after Soken took over the lead composing role. Thus even players who only played from A Realm Reborn onwards will likely be familiar with cutscene tracks by this duo such as the beautiful “ Tranquility,” the sentimental “ Fragments of Forever” (which accompanied a famous scene in 5.3), the grand “ Twilight over Thanalan,” the warm “ Where the Heart Is,” the spiritual “ Canticle,” the tense “ Inner Recess,” as well as the mournful “ Sacred Bonds” and “ Unspoken,” to name just a few. Although many of these tracks have not been used since (especially the area and battle themes), a portion of them are still used regularly in later content, and occasionally show up again on later soundtrack releases. The vast majority of the 1.x music, contained in the Before Meteor soundtrack, is composed by Uematsu and arranged by Narita. ![]() For this project, he had the help of Tsutomu Narita. Although Uematsu mostly arranged his own work for the earlier Final Fantasy titles, he began to collaborate with other arrangers as time went on. Legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu, who composed the music of all the early mainline entries for Final Fantasy, returned to compose for the first release of Final Fantasy XIV, which is the 1.x content. No story spoilers appear in this article, though video links to songs from Death Unto Dawn and Endwalker show gameplay and may include boss names. Both factors are likely present for a project as large as Final Fantasy XIV, and with the conclusion of the first major story arc in Endwalker, it’s worth taking a glance at some of the important players in the game’s soundtrack up to this point who have helped to shape its award-winning sound. Many composers can arrange their own material, as indeed Soken still does for much of the soundtrack, but having other arrangers can be very helpful for genres or styles in which a composer has only surface-level experience, or else they are helpful simply for dividing up an immense amount of work. In some cases these arrangements will be more like remixes or even entirely new tracks. ![]() As lead composer, Soken is responsible for the melodies, basic underlying harmony, as well as the general direction and idea of the music arrangers will then develop these ideas, choose the instrumentation and textures, add counterpoint and accompaniment, perhaps vary the harmony, and put it all together. But in addition to Soken, there has been a shifting team of arrangers involved in large portions of the soundtrack, and even other composers for a handful of tracks, each leaving their own fingerprint on the soundtrack. The name most associated with the game is Masayoshi Soken, the sound director for the game from the beginning, and lead composer of the game since A Realm Reborn. Since its early days, the music of Final Fantasy XIV has been handled by a team of people, rather than just one single composer. Our Song of Hope: A Look at the Arrangers of the Final Fantasy XIV Soundtracks
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