Masayoshi Soken, the composer for Final Fantasy XIV, very clearly loves his work, to the point that he was still creating music for the MMORPG while he was battling cancer. Players of the game very clearly love him, with the outpouring of support for him and the rest of the game’s devs after the reveal. This is further evidenced by a recent video created by fans to welcome back Soken in the best way possible: with song.
The song, arranged by guitarist Husky by the Geek and featuring 40 different musicians performing both in real life and in-game, puts together a medley of themes that range across the entire span of FFXIV’s history to date, from A Realm Reborn to the upcoming Endwalker expansion. A huge variety of instruments are at use here. At one point there’s someone playing piano with a moogle plushie; the talent on display is off the charts.
Just in case anyone is curious, Soken has indeed seen the medley and is certainly touched. “So many musicians of light involved, so many phrases present, this is the Grammy of the gaming world,” writes the composer on Twitter. “The FFXIV gaming community is the best in the woooorld! I will listen to this over and over again.”
Welcome back, Soken.
