“If we have to bring the old world crashing down in order to build us a new one,” says Cid, Final Fantasy XVI’s gravel-voiced deuteragonist in the first act of the game, “what say you? Are you with me?”
Cid delivers this dramatic line as a musical refrain that any Final Fantasy player will recognise ascends and descends ominously in the background. It’s the most recent interpretation of the series’ famous Prelude, originally played by a simple digital harp working its way up and down a scale. Legend has it that this number was a last-minute addition to the very first game in the series (more than 35 years ago) by composer Nobuo Uematsu. It took about 10 minutes to create, and has since been performed by orchestras all over the world, and used in the games bearing the indomitable Final Fantasy brand.
But Final Fantasy XVI composer, Masayoshi Soken, isn’t using it as reverentially as you might think. Here, for the first time, the Prelude is a minor arrangement. This scene – a pivotal moment in Square Enix’s Game Of Thrones-inspired RPG – is about giving the middle finger to legacy. Cid and protagonist Clive Rosfield, angst-ridden and traumatised, swear an oath together as they pledge to undermine the established world order. The men impale a crystal, the longstanding symbol of Final Fantasy, and a lingering shot shows it still, heavy, weighted down on the table, all pretence of subtext eliminated.
“In lots of past mainline entries in the Final Fantasy series, crystals have been an ally of the player, not their enemy,” reflects Soken. “But in Final Fantasy XVI, you go around smashing the crystals to pieces. So I needed to give this meaning in a musical sense, as well.”
To that end, Soken used some peculiar techniques to record this “minor Prelude”. “Each note of the arpeggios used in the Prelude is actually a sample played in reverse. By playing the melody with this timbre from the reversed sound samples, I’ve used music to represent that the meaning of the Prelude is also reversed, turning it into something altogether different.”
To me, this represents the spirit of Final Fantasy XVI: a game about burning tradition to the ground and building something new on the ashes (one of the main characters is the human embodiment of a phoenix). Soken did not want to rely on old themes, recognisable motifs and aural crutches the series has used for over three decades.
“My personal philosophy is that the sound aspect of a game is an essential seasoning to enhance the game experience and to get players excited,” he explains. “However, this seasoning has a direct impact on the heartstrings of the player. Using it incorrectly can cause major accidents. In other words, starting with musical theory causes accidents. You have to compose in a way that ensures the gameplay experience at each and every moment is the best it can be for the player.”
In order to achieve that, Soken says, you need to be able to “properly analyse things about the content, and what kind of effect different music would bring to it”. For him, this process was simple; he has been playing these games for decades. Like you, or me, or anyone that’s got a favourite Final Fantasy, Soken understood what he loved about the series, and how he could draw on those emotions for his work on XVI.
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Soken utilises leitmotif in subtle ways that work best for the game; it links up story beats and environments that you wouldn’t expect, and begins to make your brain subconsciously connect themes. As your fingers dance on the pad and work out the intricacies of this newfangled action-based Final Fantasy, your brain unpicks the music and starts gelling things together behind the scenes. The result is a Final Fantasy that feels cohesive.
Final Fantasy XVI represents the beginning of a new era for the series. And it’s a future that Soken will be a part of: he’s been working with Square Enix for 22 years, has provided music for MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV for more than a decade, and plays in a rock band, the Primals, who delight in playing Final Fantasy music live.
“Understanding sound and musical theory is, of course, important, but I think the most important thing in creating good and effective game sound and music is whether or not you love games,” he says, simply. “I believe that making great music for a game comes down to whether you can play lots of games and feel moved – get angry, laugh and cry.”
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Final Fantasy XVI is out now on PlayStation 5.