“I have a lot of thoughts, but I’m very happy that many players liked the music of Octopath Traveler,” says Nishiki. What was particularly fascinating were Nishiki’s final thoughts on the soundtrack and the impact that similar works had on her own life and career. With the HD-2D considerations and repeated rewrites, creating the Octopath Traveler soundtrack was clearly a complex, layered journey. Among Stately Peaks, this is certainly not the only emotionally evocative song either, as tracks like Enveloped In Kindness and Sorrow both have a strong sentimental core. “The middle part of the music is so moving that it seems overkill for a song in a city, but I especially like doing moving tracks like this,” he explains. While composing this, Nishiki found joy in the complex emotions of the tale. The main theme isn’t Nishiki’s favorite though – that would be Among the Majestic Peaks. The result is proof: The Octopath Traveler soundtrack has always marked me as the highest score of any game I’ve played, and Nishiki’s ability to adapt clearly played into the masterpiece. Video games are a collaborative art form, and Nishiki’s experience in composing the main theme underscores the importance of this approach.
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You write the main theme of Octopath Traveler the same way you come to Carnegie Hall – practice, practice, practice. Related: Octopath Traveler Tips You Should Know Before You Begin
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I remember telling him on the phone, “If you don’t like it, I’ll quit the project.” But now I really like that main theme, and I’m very grateful to the music director for his tenacity. “Square Enix’s music director didn’t like it, so I rewrote the theme three times. “I remember composing the main theme was very, very difficult,” he admits. Although he liked the whole experience, there were parts of the process that were still frustrating. While Nishiki may have drawn inspiration from her experiences since childhood, that doesn’t mean that composing Octopath Traveler was without challenge. It was my first experience of composition. Then I started to make my own songs with original melodies and chords. I got so excited that I finished playing all the songs on the band’s score.
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Once I learned the chords, I realized that if I knew these melodies, I could play whatever song I wanted with my original accompaniment. “My teacher taught me the chords when I took the group’s sheet music to a piano lesson. “When I was about 12, I fell in love with the music of a Japanese band called Spitz,” Nishiki recalls. Although he started learning the piano at the age of five, he didn’t care much about it back then – but things changed as he got older. Nishiki’s belief turned out to be correct – the soundtrack was universally praised by fans and was nominated for Best Score / Music at the Game Awards in 2018.įittingly for a game that draws inspiration from the past, Nishiki drew much of the inspiration for Octopath Traveler from his childhood. I love old RPGs, so I wrote music that wouldn’t disappoint me, and I thought the game players would enjoy it too. “My childhood play experience is deeply linked to the basis of this effort. “It was necessary to evolve the music of the old RPGs,” explains Nishiki. Related: Octopath Traveler: Alfyn’s Story Was Actually Better Than Primrose’s If You Break It Down It’s easy to see what Nishiki means when discussing the challenge. The result is a combination of retro pixel art and modern environments detailed with sparkling water, sparkling snow, thick shadows, swaying trees and much more.
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HD-2D is a term coined by the developers of Octopath Traveler to describe its unique visual style, which sees the graphics engine combine 2D sprite work with 3D visual effects. The challenge with Octopath Traveler’s music is that just as HD-2D gave the player that feeling, the music had to do the same. “I thought the graphics were a wonderful mix of nostalgia and novelty. “I think the most distinctive feature of Octopath Traveler is the amazing graphics created by HD-2D”, composer of Octopath Traveler Yasunori Nishiki tell me.