The Square Enix Music Channel remains a gift to the Internet. So in this dire summer for the gaming industry (layoffs, the end of physical media, console price hikes), let’s keep the faith and listen to NieR played on hammered dulcimer. This, too, shall pass.
Basically, at any moment in time, you can pipe Square Enix music into your home, including an ongoing chillout mix. The game house’s contributions to electronic music and gaming soundtracks are legendary across multiple decades, and truly, no one does game content better. (That’s even including the recently updated Nintendo Music app.)
I enjoy that their acoustic covers all start with “I really tried playing –,” which is how I should describe every recording of every live set, ever. But there are some challenging numbers here.
It’s summer. You deserve this. I’ll pick a few favorites:
My fingers hurt. (This is a gorgeous studio, though.)
Flamenco FF9!
And yes, there is an entire album full of piano fantasies:
If that was all a little too fluffy, there’s an extended interview with the team behind the soundtrack for FFVII Rebirth.
Back to reality: for their part, Square Enix has come under public scrutiny for its aggressive AI plans. Late last year, the company promised that 70% of its QA and debugging would be replaced by AI by 2027, and announced joint research on integrating more AI with Matsu Laboratory at the University of Tokyo. Microsoft touted Square Enix’s use of AI and the Azure platform in game development.
But since then, it’s been complicated. Amidst layoffs, the company has onshored development jobs back to Japan and said it wants to focus on quality. See breakdowns from TheGamersJoint and Vara Dark — the latter at least optimistic that they’ll “drop the slop.”
There’s a big difference between machine learning automating testing tasks in development — which is a task at which it ecels — and “slop” in the game art and design. And there’s a big difference between research and application. I’m staying out of this particular story.
I’ll just keep the long view on this one, especially as I need a soundtrack to drown out all the dystopian news this year. Stay strong and play old FF scores (and some of the nice newer ones).
Previously, as part of this ongoing obsession (but really, this is great inspiration):