Masayoshi Soken’s career as a composer has spanned more than two decades, but the 50-year-old is most synonymous with his work on 2013’s Final Fantasy XIV and its subsequent expansion packs.
In 2021, Soken-san shocked fans by revealing he had been battling cancer while writing music for Shadowbringers (an FFXIV add on), but had continued to work on the game while receiving treatment in hospital.
Influenced by his father who was a professional trumpet player and his mother, who taught him how to play an electric organ, Soken-san has gone on to produce music for games like 2010’s Mario Sports Mix and 2023’s Final Fantasy XVI. His eclectic style often blends heavy guitar sounds with soft pianos.
Soken-san was in London last weekend to attend this year’s Distant Worlds, a concert dedicated to music from Final Fantasy games that has been running since 2007. I spoke with the musician about his life in video games, from the soundtrack that has inspired him the most to the one song he could listen to forever.
What was the first game you loved?
Super Mario Bros on the NES. That was the first console I owned; there were so many games on it and I used to make promises to my family that if they bought them for me, I’d study really hard.
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Which soundtrack has inspired you the most?
Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are the two games that have given me a lot of inspiration. Firstly, playing the games themselves inspired me, but my father was a member of the orchestra on Dragon Quest where he played the trumpet. Back then, we didn’t really have the concept of music in games, but Dragon Quest was one of the first times we had a game soundtrack released [separately]
. I think that’s what has led me to have quite a special set of emotions towards games music.
Is there a particular gaming memory from your life that stands out?
There are too many moments to count, but there’s one story that springs to mind. At around the same time as the PlayStation One was released, I owned a Sega Saturn because I wanted to play Virtua Fighter 2. I then found out that Final Fantasy VII was only going to come out on the PS1 – I was so disappointed. Now, that little boy who was sad has ended up working at Square Enix making music for Final Fantasy games. It’s weird how life works.
Is there a genre of video game that you’d like to write music for one day?
I don’t have a particular preference on what genre I write for, but I do have a desire to write for racing games. I think speed and music are a good match. I always loved the Crazy Taxi soundtrack where they pulled in a lot of other artists like The Offspring and Bad Religion.
Which games are you playing at the moment?
Overwatch 2 – when I’m really busy with work, I don’t have a lot of time to play games, but I’m trying my hardest to get more game time in.
If you could only listen to one piece of music for the rest of time, what would it be and why?
I’d love to choose a rock song for this, but if I was to listen to that on a loop, it’d be quite difficult after a while. So instead I’ll say the Brazilian artist Antônio Carlos Jobim who is a bossa noca artist and the song is The Girl From Ipanema. This one I could loop forever and it would be okay.
Distant Worlds will run until January 31 2026 and will next tour in the US on September 13 2025 at the Miller High Life Theatre in Milwaukee, WI.
