Each FFXIV Dawntrail Area Soundtrack Had Different Composers

In a recent interview with Famitsu, the FFXIV sound team talked about the Dawntrail expansion soundtrack featuring different composers for each area of the game, and how was the process for working on the music for the expansion. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

FFXIV Sound Director and Composer Masayoshi Soken worked on the music for the Living Memory area, with composer Takafumi Imamura taking care of the music for Shaaloani, Daiki Ishikawa being responsible for composing the soundtrack for Yak T’el woodlands, and Saya Yasaki doing the music for Urqopacha and Kozama’uka.

When asked about the different composers for each area in the Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail soundtrack, Soken said having various different composers instead of himself alone helped convey the theme of a continent with a wide variety of cultures.

Soken added that the thematic flow in the FFXIV soundtrack that started with A Realm Reborn concluded with Endwalker. Because of this, Soken thought that employing the help of young composers as the main focus for the score of Dawntrail would give the new expansion a breath of fresh air.

The sound team said that they usually start working on the music for an expansion roughly a year before its release. However, Soken added that the team didn’t start working properly on the FFXIV Dawntrail soundtrack until the start of 2024. Furthermore, due to the graphical update in FFXIV, the composers revealed that they were unable to work while having access to the backgrounds and scenery of the game for the creation of the Dawntrail soundtrack.

Final Fantasy XIV is readily available for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.