We sat down with Final Fantasy XIV’s Composer, Masayoshi Soken, for a 25 minute interview!
You might have seen a bit of this on yesterday’s video of Soken reacting to the FFXIV Endwalker Boss Theme Intepretation I did with @Husky by the Geek .
This right here is the whole thing, where we talk about Soken’s experiences as a composer, his favorite Final Fantasy games & more!
00:00 – Introduction
01:19 – Soken’s Favorite Final Fantasy
03:04 – How Soken developed his unique style
04:15 – Funk in Final Fantasy XIV
05:03 – Soken’s favorite Jobs in FFXIV (& in real life)
06:58 – Soken’s favorite Final Fantasy character
08:22 – Soken & Nobuo Uematsu
09:20 – How Soken became a composer for games
13:04 – How THE PRIMALS Band was created
14:38 – Soken’s favorite instruments
15:30 – The role of Orchestras in Final Fantasy XIV
17:50 – On FFXIV songs that go viral
19:27 – FFXIV’s Composer Reacts to our Endwalker Cover
21:05 – Huskybythegeek & Alex’s Opinions on FFXIV Endwalker’s Main Theme
22:54 – Soken’s thoughts on my Music Reaction videos
24:14 – Outro
——– ▼LINKS ▼——-
⭐ MASAYOSHI SOKEN: https://twitter.com/SOKENsquareenix
💿 FFXIV SCIONS & SINNERS ALBUM: https://www.jp.square-enix.com/music/sem/page/ff14/ScionsSinners/en/
🎼 FFXIV ENDWALKER COVER: https://youtu.be/Z0xRn33p6rU
🔥 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/alexmoukalamusic
🎻 SPOTIFY (Orchestra): https://spoti.fi/2T3rUxk
🎧 SPOTIFY (LoFi): https://spoti.fi/30QhepP
🎸 BASS COVERS: https://www.youtube.com/user/silentedge92
✔️ PROFESSIONAL CREDITS: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12531452/
——– ▼FOLLOW ME▼——-
– TWITTER: http://twitter.com/alex_moukala
– TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@alex_moukala
– TWITCH: https://twitch.tv/alexmoukala/
– INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/alex_moukala/
– DISCORD: https://discord.gg/auGU6Wc
——– ▼CREDITS▼——-
– Composer: Masayoshi Soken
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Soken is so wholesome, I can't wait to meet him at a Fanfest with you my friend !
Now that I have seen this amazing interview, i would love to see him try to talk with yoko shimomura. that would be godlike
Likes FFVI and finds being the tank in an alliance raid unnerving? This man is relatable.
I bet you're already working hard on a new video with the release of Shadowbringer's full theme now. I can't wait to hear what you think about it all.
I think Soken loved your music a lot guys! The song played during the Reaper job reveal sounded so similar to your style you played for him!
Im back here after the emotional bomb at the end of Fan Festival 2021. I hope Soken gets better
Sympathizing with Lyna for hiding her sadness and appearing strong… knowing about his cancer now… wow.
I just realized he was wrecked with cancer at the time of this
Soken saying he resembles Lyna really hits different now after it was revealed he has been battling cancer. Supposedly he told almost noone on the team as to not make them worry and continued to make music for the game during treatment. Soken is an absolute legend and I feel absolutely blessed to be able to continue to enjoy his music in the future.
Watching this after the announcement that Soken was struggling with cancer…..no wonder he related so much to Lyna
Watching this again after the news about Soken battling cancer. He is really such a ray of sunshine, and despite being sick, he's been fighting so hard for us. I'm really grateful to him.
Soken is so cute and adorable omg.. when I saw the video from the fan festival where he told us with what he was fighting the last months I was shocked. It gave me goosebumbs and it was kinda sad but refreshing at the same time to see all the love from his team and the community. When Yoshi started crying my tears started running too coz it was such an emotional moment. I really really wish all the best for Soken and to stay healthy and positive coz he deserves it. He is an amazing guy. You just can love him, no matter what. ♥
I got to see the timestop tick he's talking about with the orchestra at the hollywood dolby theatre in california! I believe it was 2018 maybe?
It was one of the coolest experiences of my life (the whole concert). Here's the Orchestra doing a song then suddenly all movement and sound freezes, then here comes Yoshida and Soken with a zylaphone and drum, acting as moogles, going across the front of the stage from the right side all the way to the left, and upon vanishing behind the side curtains the orchestra explodes back into continuing the song.
Watching again after crying my eyes out at the event yesterday, love that you got to talk to this legend.
The part when he talks about Lyna take another meaning now… This guy is a living jewel!
I know this video was edited so we’d skip the time it’d take the translator to, well, translate things back and forth but I think I could tell Soken could understand some, if not most, of the English spoken to him. Would that be a safe assumption? That he understands way more than what he can speak?
Great interview. Thanks!
I've broken 3 controllers playing FFXIV… so far. >.>
And it's always the L1 button.
Soken saying that he prefers to play healer really hits hard considering he in a way healed Yoshi-P with the Guts pose during his announcement of ARR
22:54 this is so goddamn cute I love this video, thank you Soken for the opportunity.
Fabulous interview! <3 Definitely great to see the interaction and hear the conversation.
I never saw tanking as everyone watching me and be like "follow me" but more like… "Go wild guys, I'm here to protect y'all" 🤣
Soken is SO SWEET. After learning about his cancer… Damn, he's the best 😭
That Favourite Character answer really hit me hard again after the Fanfest Closing message from Soken. To be going through everything he was and still working hard and giving one of the best interviews I've seen from anyone before. Thank you so much for being such a hero. Welcome back Soken!
Damn, you got to interview him?!!
I would be grateful if you could distribute a version with the voice of an interpreter to Japanese fans!
I'm back here after the emotional rollercoaster that is the FFXIV Digital Fan Fest. #WelcomeBackSoken
There's only 2 ways to watch this interview. Before you find out Soken was battling cancer last year, and after. This interview hits very different with the latter…
When you realise that Soken could very well have still been in the hospital during this interview.
Now hearing him talk about relating to Lyna holding in her sadness is just…… I'm tearing up again.
That was entertaining and informative! Thanks for interviewing Soken and sharing it. That man really is a treasure and we're lucky to have him.
Soken: My favourite in the series is VI.
HE IS ONE OF US!!!
Do you know Lahee/??!?!?!???????
Dude crazy taxi is indeed is a stressing game
White Mage huh? He's got good taste in classes as well
Yeah fuck Fandaniel
Wow Game Theory isn't that popular? It's been playing on a loop in my player home for months lol.
When I listen to his music…I have a dream…
One day, I will buy Soken a drink (alkoholic or non-alkoholic), just drink it and chat about nothing and everything…
And then I will have a story to tell my grandchildren:
"I meet a man…. no a Hero…a legend…."
I was smiling the whole video.
I wonder how he feels about the Harpsichord. I’ve always loved the Karazhan theme song in WoW and I’ve always been a big fan of the harpsichord. It’s got that uncanny sort of buzz to it.
dude u managed to make the translator lol
Him liking Lyna takes on a whole new meaning now
It just struck me how him saying that he related to Lyna due to her resolve while holding back her sadness is EXACTLY what he must have felt while working with cancer for so many months. All my love to this man.
This is why I love FF14 , the team behind it genuinely seems to enjoy interacting with the community. So happy you got this opportunity!
So Yoshida play Black Mage and Soken White Mage, demn they have to be together to work on this game, the complete each other so much (and to be honest I really like to see them together on a raid, we already know the fact Yoshida is a very good player, Soken must be hell good too°
But his statement on tanking I feeled it, I began on Paladin until 50, after that I was a Red Mage (I really enjoyed it and still on of my favorite job, even if Viera can't wear their iconic hat) and switched on Gunbreaker from 60 to 80 but I was only off tanking rather than main tanking, really you don't have so many eyes on you xD and I changed a last time to Dancer who is still my favorite job today
I’ve been waiting for the day I can finally watch this interview (aka ’till I finally catch up the msq and can check the Endwalker trailer and so on) and the wait is FINALLY over. And Oh Boy it was definitely worth it!!
This was one wholesome video to watch and I’m so happy for you guys you got this opportunity. Soken is such a wonderfull person and without his work (without one my friends accidentally playing one song from FFXIV via discord song bot few months ago), I don’t think I would have ever picked up the game in the first place. Gameplay is important, of course, but his pieces bring the story and the whole world of 14 to life.