Report on the game music talk event between Masayoshi Soken, Naohisa Takato, and Crystal Noda: What would happen to the sound effects if the judoka job was implemented in FF14? | Gamer

“GAME MUSIC DUNGEON supported by SQUARE ENIX MUSIC”, which was aired as a monthly corner on TOKYO FM’s “THE TRAD” from January to July 2022, will be revived as a special talk show at TOKYO FM Listener Appreciation Festival 2024. did. Here we report on the situation. We will introduce the most popular topics.

The footage from that day will be released on TOKYO FM’s audio service AuDee and YouTube at a later date, so if you’re interested after reading this report, be sure to check it out.

Gold medalist judoka Naohisa Takato is a serious gamer

Crystal Noda, who is in charge of the bokeh of the comedian “Magical Lovely”, Masayoshi Soken, who is the sound director of “Final Fantasy This event featured a cross talk by Naohisa Takato, a judoka who won a gold medal in his class. It seems that they have never worked together before, but the program was very exciting because they share a common hobby of loving games.

Mr. Noda introduces Mr. Soken as the sound director of “FF14″, but Mr. Soken introduces himself as “Today I’m just a gamer” and says bluntly, “I’ve been playing all Sega games,” giving him a relaxed mood. It progressed. However, when he talked about his profession as a sound detector, he was very sincere, and when he talked about how to create the sound effects for FF14, he talked about his inner passion, which must have made fans happy.

What surprised me was how much of a gamer Takato is. At the beginning of the program, each person talked about their favorite games, with Mr. Soken introducing old arcade games and Mr. Noda introducing the “Dragon Quest” series and “Final Fantasy” series, while Mr. Takato answered a questionnaire. started with consumer RPGs and action games, but also mobile games and smartphone apps. He talked about how he plays games in all genres. According to Takato, there are many gamers among judoka, and Takato himself revealed that he plays games to improve his concentration before important tournaments.

Mr. Soken, who discovered “Dance Dance Revolution” as a game that Mr. Takato was addicted to, deduced that Mr. Takato’s house must be a detached house, since people would get scolded for using the special mat in an apartment. Takato admitted that there are no apartments in his hometown of Tochigi. Mr. Noda couldn’t help but quipped that there was an apartment.

In addition, in response to an email from a listener, Takato explained how his gaming experience has been useful for judo. Before the match, he prepared a strategy guide and boasted that if he played the game according to the guide, he would definitely win. Mr. Soken, who was interested in this word, sometimes loses his cool when he is provoked by other players when playing his favorite game “Overwatch”, but this is a judo match. But I wonder if it’s the same thing. Mr. Takato says that judo is also an interpersonal sport, and mental control is important, so he regularly practices to control his mental state.

Mr. Takato’s favorite sound effect is the sound that plays during the “This is amazing!” sound effect in the “Pokémon” series. Hopefully, it will be played during his own matches as well.

Mr. Noda talked about his memories of his father playing “Dragon Quest VI: Phantom Earth” in the living room. He happened to see his father challenge the secret boss, and the next day he told his classmates at school, but no one believed him. Also, while talking about the difficulties he had with the last dungeon in Final Fantasy III, where there was no save point, Mr. Soken said that the creator who decided on the specifications was currently working as a planner for Final Fantasy XIV. was revealed.

Sound creator’s troubles

We were able to hear from Mr. Soken the behind-the-scenes details of the production of the game’s BGM and sound effects, which we usually don’t get to hear. Mr. Noda, the MC, also produces games himself, so it was characteristic that he went into more in-depth discussions such as actual programming. This part is something I would like everyone to listen to, not only game lovers, but also game creators and those who aspire to become creators.

If you pick up something that caught your attention, it’s about the profession of sound. Since modern games are photorealistic, all the sounds that appear in reality must be produced in the game, and in addition to the work of creating such sounds, there is also work involved in synthesizing sounds to implement sounds in games and creating game sounds. It seems that there is a wide variety of things involved, such as creating specifications for authoring tools for creating. Also, the planner plans what kind of game will be created, and the sound is added after the motion designer has put things into motion, so it seems to be at the lowest level of work. Sound comes before the debugging process called QA, and projects are often delayed midway through, so it’s a race against deadlines.

When it comes to creating sound, the basic idea these days is that the way it’s heard changes depending on the location and distance of the character, and games like FPS are especially created using this method. When Mr. Soken plays his hobby games, he sometimes notices that the boundaries where the sound changes are not set properly, and while he is checking his mistakes, he sometimes gets shot.

In FF14, which Soken is involved in, a lot of attention is paid to the sound of footsteps, and the sound changes not only depending on the material of the ground the feet are placed on, but also the size of the character and the shoes he is wearing. I was surprised to hear that there are 10,000 files of footsteps alone.

In addition, when humans actually walk, it is normal for the rhythm to be unbalanced rather than constant, so a randomly selected sound from among 10 types of footsteps is played.

Furthermore, most sounds do not have the power of real sounds, so they are processed or other materials are used. For example, in TV commercials for Yakiniku, the sound of meat grilling doesn’t make that much of a sound even when the meat is actually grilled, but by pressing a sponge soaked in water against the iron plate, it is revealed that the sound can be made to resemble that sound. It was done.

In the midst of all this, I decided to listen to the sound of a video of Mr. Takato actually performing a judo throwing technique. As if the previous buzz that “realistic sound is not powerful” had come to an end, the performers and venue were surprised by the powerful sound that was played. Mr. Takato also explained that in the video, the sound is more powerful because the hands are not passive. Mr. Soken said that if a judoka job was added to FF14, he would like to use the sound of Mr. Takato’s matches as is, and Mr. Takato readily agreed.

Towards the end of the recording, e-sports was officially recognized as a sports competition, and the topic also developed that Saudi Arabia will hold the first e-sports Olympics in 2025. Mr. Takato used to be negative about treating sports and e-sports as the same, but as he interacted with professional e-sports players, he came to realize that the two are the same. That’s right. Although Mr. Noda thought that whether e-sports is a sport will be an ongoing topic, he encouraged Mr. Takato to be a bridge between them. Although Takato lamented the decline in judo’s popularity, he vowed to further promote the sport through games.

Mr. Soken frequently performs overseas as a member of FF14’s official band THE PRIMALS, so he feels firsthand the popularity of Japanese games. He said that Japanese games are wonderful and that they should be even more proud of them, and that he will continue to push forward to create things that he himself can be proud of.

This event featured a variety of talks about game music. Please look forward to the audio that will be uploaded to AuDee and YouTube at a later date.