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Masayoshi Soken

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Masayoshi Soken
Soken in 2016
Born (1975-01-10) January 10, 1975 (age 49)
Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Other names
  • Sorbonne Soken
  • Luis Noma
Alma materTokyo University of Science
Occupations
  • Composer
  • sound designer
Years active1998–present
Employers
Musical career
Genres
Instruments
  • Piano
  • guitar
  • Otamatone

Masayoshi Soken (祖堅 正慶, Soken Masayoshi, born January 10, 1975) is a Japanese video game composer and sound editor who has worked for Square Enix since 1998. Soken is best known for being the lead composer and sound director of Final Fantasy XIV and its expansions and lead composer of Final Fantasy XVI.

Biography

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Born in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, Soken and his family later moved to Tokyo, where he attended the Tokyo University of Science, majoring in chemistry.[1][2] He was exposed to music at a young age—his father was a professional trumpet player and his mother taught piano.[2] Rather than pursue a career in science, he was hired as a sound editor and designer at Konami.[2][3] At Konami, he worked on the arcade rail shooting game Evil Night. He joined Square in 1998 and his early work at the company primarily focused on sound effect design, rather than composition.[3] He assisted Kenji Ito on sports video games such as Gekikuukan Pro Baseball: The End of the Century 1999.[2] His debut as a composer came with the Japan-exclusive sports games Nichibeikan Pro Baseball: Final League, in which he was the sole composer, and World Fantasista with synthesizer programmer Takeharu Ishimoto.

In 2005, Soken worked on Drakengard 2 and Front Mission 5: Scars of the War.[1] The following year, Soken made his debut as a lead composer in Mario Hoops 3-on-3[4] where he composed and arranged the score with Koji Kondo and Yukio Kaneoka.[5][6] Along with Kenji Ito and Tsuyoshi Sekito, he created the soundtrack to Dawn of Mana (known as "Seiken Densetsu 4" in Japan), with Academy Award-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto providing the main theme.[7] Soken also arranged a few tracks from previous Mana games, and performed the electric guitar for his arrangements. In 2007, he scored the online game Elebest with Ai Yamashita.[1]

Soken has also contributed to Square Enix advertisements; Front Mission 5: Scars of the War (2005) featured the sports commercial song "Blue Stream",[8] Soken's only composition in the game.[9] He also participated in a Square Enix advertisement for pencils where he got beaten up by two robots; the commercial featured music composed by him.[citation needed] Soken created the fanfare for Square Enix Music TV, a monthly video feature where new album releases are discussed and interviews with Square Enix composers are conducted.[1] For the iTunes-exclusive Square Enix Music Official Bootleg collection, Soken contributed the piece "Dog Street" for the first volume in 2006,[10] and "Languid Afternoon" for the third volume in 2007; he went under the alias "Sorbonne Soken" on the third volume.[11] In 2008, he composed the Japan-exclusive Nanashi no Game, this time under the pseudonym "Luis Noma".[12] In 2010, he composed another sports game for the Wii, Mario Sports Mix.

Since the 2010 development team reshuffling, he has been sound director for Final Fantasy XIV. Soken became primary composer for the title with the launch of A Realm Reborn and the expansions that followed. He formed a rock band called The Primals with members of the sound team to play at Final Fantasy XIV events such as Fan Festival.[3][13] The Primals have since released several albums starting with Final Fantasy XIV: From Astral to Umbral.[2] Nobuo Uematsu's illness in 2018 prevented him from contributing the main theme to Shadowbringers as he had for every previous expansion;[14] Soken was tasked with the composition. Shadowbringers was the first expansion in the Final Fantasy XIV series to be written without Uematsu's direct involvement.

In May 2021, during the Final Fantasy XIV Digital Fan Festival, Soken announced that he had been receiving chemotherapy for cancer treatment throughout most of 2020, adding that the cancer was in remission. Soken kept the treatment hidden from most of the development team, doing some of his work for Final Fantasy XIV from hospital.[15]

In September 2020, Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy XVI was in development for PlayStation 5. Though not detailed initially, in June 2022, further information was revealed, including that Soken would be the game's lead composer.[16] For his work on Final Fantasy XVI, Soken and his team would be nominated and then win the Game Award for Best Score and Music in 2023.[17]

Musical style and influences

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Soken primarily approaches his game composing with the player's experience in mind.[18] When tasked with arranging Final Fantasy music originally composed by Nobuo Uematsu, he takes extra care to achieve this goal.[19][20] Soken credits his experience as a sound designer, sound editor, and voice editor for helping him handle the pressure of the Final Fantasy XIV remake.[2] He primarily composes using piano and keyboard but prefers playing guitar in live performances.[3]

Soken's favorite bands are Rage Against the Machine and Pennywise.[18][21]

Works

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Year Game Note(s)
1998 Evil Night with Yasuhiro Ichihashi and Yuichi Takamine
2000 Gekikuukan Pro Baseball: The End of the Century 1999 with Kenji Ito
2002 Nichibeikan Pro Baseball: Final League
World Fantasista with Takeharu Ishimoto
Kamaitachi no Yoru 2
2005 Drakengard 2 sound designer
Front Mission 5: Scars of the War composed "Blue Stream"; also sound designer
2006 Mario Hoops 3-on-3 with Koji Kondo and Yukio Kaneoka[6][5]
Dawn of Mana with Kenji Ito, Tsuyoshi Sekito, and Ryuichi Sakamoto
2007 Elebest with Ai Yamashita
2008 Nanashi no Game
Lord of Vermilion sound designer
2009 Lord of Vermilion II
Nanashi no Game: Me
Noroi no Game: Chi
Noroi no Game: Oku
Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chuu anime; composed ending theme "Otome no Junjo"
2010 Final Fantasy XIV with Nobuo Uematsu, Ryo Yamazaki, Tsuyoshi Sekito, and Naoshi Mizuta
Lord of Arcana sound designer
Mario Sports Mix with Kumi Tanioka
2011 Ikenie no Yoru with Ai Yamashita
2013 Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
2014 Drakengard 3 sound editor
2015 Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward expansion; with Nobuo Uematsu and Yukiko Takada
2017 Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood expansion
2019 Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers expansion
2021 Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker expansion
2023 Final Fantasy XVI additional music by Takafumi Imamura, Daiki Ishikawa, Saya Yasaki and Justin Frieden
2024 Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail expansion

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Masayoshi Soken Profile". Game Music Online. December 30, 2012. Retrieved September 21, 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Masayoshi Soken Interview: From Astral to Umbral". VGMO -Video Game Music Online-. February 18, 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d "Talking with Masayoshi Soken - Final Fantasy XIV's Composer". March 26, 2021. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021 – via www.youtube.com.
  4. ^ "SQUARE ENIX MUSIC". June 9, 2017. Archived from the original on June 9, 2017.
  5. ^ a b Masayoshi Soken - Mario Basketball 3on3 Original Soundtrack, October 18, 2006, retrieved December 6, 2023
  6. ^ a b "SQEX-10079 | Mario Basketball 3on3 Original Soundtrack - VGMdb". vgmdb.net. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
  7. ^ "Seiken Densetsu 4 Original Soundtrack -Sanctuary-". Square Enix Music Online. Archived from the original on April 17, 2012. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  8. ^ Harry. "Front Mission 5 ~Scars of the War~ Original Soundtrack :: Review by Harry". Square Enix Music Online. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  9. ^ "Front Mission 5 ~Scars of the War~ Original Soundtrack". Square Enix Music Online. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  10. ^ Don. "Square Enix Music Official Bootleg Vol. 1 :: Review by Don". Square Enix Music Online. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  11. ^ Don. "Square Enix Music Official Bootleg Vol. 3 :: Review by Don". Square Enix Music Online. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  12. ^ Chris (July 23, 2008). "Nanashi no Game EP Released". Square Enix Music Online. Archived from the original on September 13, 2012. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  13. ^ "Announcing the Fan Festival 2019 in Tokyo Stage Schedule". Final Fantasy XIV, The Lodestone. Square Enix.
  14. ^ Final Fantasy Composer Nobuo Uematsu Stopping Work Due to Health Problems - IGN, September 20, 2018, retrieved September 6, 2019
  15. ^ "'Final Fantasy XIV' composer Masayoshi Soken reveals cancer battle". NME. May 17, 2021. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  16. ^ "New Final Fantasy XVI trailer revealed, launches on PS5 Summer 2023". PlayStation.Blog. June 2, 2022. Retrieved June 3, 2022.
  17. ^ "All The Game Awards 2023 Winners Revealed". GameSpot. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  18. ^ a b "FF XIV Composer Masayoshi Soken on the Eorzean Symphony, Rage Against the Machine, and Mercy". GAMING.
  19. ^ Williams, Mike (June 6, 2018). "Final Fantasy XIV's Composer Was "Literally Shaking" Listening to an Orchestra Performing His Music".
  20. ^ Plante, Corey (November 14, 2017). "Why 'Final Fantasy XIV' Is in the Guinness Book of World Records". Inverse.
  21. ^ Salbato, Mike (July 5, 2018). "Masayoshi Soken E3 2018 Interview". RPGFan. Archived from the original on July 2, 2020.
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