WhenFinal Fantasy 14first launched it was heavily criticized by fans critics before being rebuilt from the ground up. There were many details that theFinal Fantasy 14developers reworked, from new gameplay to an intricate orchestral soundtrack. In fact, it wasFinal Fantasy 14’s focus on music that helped it set a record for most original pieces of music in a video game.
Composer Masayoshi Soken accepted the award on behalf of Square Enix. He was the game’s sound director in its first development cycle, but took over the official soundtrack duties from Nobuo Uematsu when the game was rebranded asFinal Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn. It’s worth noting that this award was given before theStormbloodexpansionwas released, meaning that Soken-san and company have now cemented their grip on the world record even further.
The game had 384 original songs at the time of the record, with Masayoshi insisting that he was never directly told to amass so many original pieces for the game. He states that when he was working with new content he simply composed a piece that fit what was happening and inserted it into the production without asking. After several cycles of this,Final Fantasy 14eventually had more unique tracks than any other title around the globe.
The game also won a Guinness World Record for the longest end credits in a video game, with the game’s final staff roll call clocking in at an astounding one hour and thirty-eight minutes. The series itself was also given an award for being the Most Prolific RPG series, an award that few could argue against. Given how successful theStormbloodexpansion has been forFinal Fantasy 14, it’s easy to envision Soken-san creating quite a few more original pieces for the game in the future.
