“I wanted the soundtrack to have a different atmosphere from the games I’ve worked on up to now, and that’s why I asked Shimomura to be our main contributor. Once development began to gather steam, we got to a point where we had to pick a title from a list of candidates. In the end, we decided to include ‘Xeno’ as a sort of symbol for the game. I wanted it to have some sort of aspect in common with the Xeno games of the past, and around that time I also realized that the ending wouldn’t work without a vocal song. All that combined meant that Mitsuda was the only person I could really ask.” – game producer Tetsuya Takahashi
“It definitely feels like high fantasy, what with all the pristine nature and clear blue skies. Yet, at the same time, you look at the tentative list of track names and there’s titles lke ‘Shoulder Map’ and ‘Shin Meadow,’ and I thought someone was joking with me at first! I remember how odd it all seemed when I learned about how the game takes place atop the bodies of giant gods.” – Yoko Shimomura, composer
“The game was mostly complete by the time I came along. The feel of the game was already set in stone, of course, but I still asked if I could read the script first, which turned out to be absolutely huge — I didn’t know if I could get myself to read through all of it, but I managed it anyway. It’s a really epic tale, very much a Takahashi production.” – Yasunori Mitsuda, composer
“The game’s structured around this clash between man and machine, so I’m putting in a lot of sounds I don’t normally use alongside electric guitars to give the music a confrontational nuance. I had a request from Takahashi for this incredibly long track — long for me, anyway; around nine minutes. It had to match up with a movie, too, so I was all ‘No way I can do nine minutes!’ Then his request changed; he said to me ‘I still need nine minutes, but change it up in the middle,’ so now he was basically requesting two songs from me!” – Yoko Shimomura, composer
– 90 tracks
– Shimomura in charge of the composers
– Mitsuda worked on the ending music
– Ending music sung by Sarah Lim
I’ve been incredibly impressed with the music we’ve heard so far for Xenoblade. I highly suggest taking a peek at the game’s teaser site if you already haven’t. The compositions on there are worth listening to!
