In a dark and often soulless world, the Square Enix Music Channel is a total oasis — like an instant-action antidepressant. Want to see the Osaka sound team play with a sushi piano? Want to hear composer Yoko Sihomura talk about figure skating? Want to tune into an hours-long stream of Final Fantasy III music? They’re here for you. I guarantee you it’s better than anything else you could possibly be watching.
Here, let’s set the tone with today’s FFIII stream:
I’m pretty sure that’s what YouTube was really invented for. But if that’s not enough, there’s more:
Okay, first: about that sushi piano. Conamon Beats is an ongoing series from Square Enix, a variety show produced internally, and yes, it’s got its own theme song. Running for about three years now, the program is hosted by Tsuyoshi Sekito, Hidenori Miyanaga from the Osaka sound team, and voice actress Yoshino Nanjo. It can turn into an extended discussion of what to name their binaural microphone head, a DIY project. They talk about instruments and instrument design. They play music games. And there’s a SUSHI-OKE PIANO — a totally ingenious homebrewed toy piano that sounds terrific. Here it is in action:
You can find all the episodes by searching “conamon” on the channel. They do serious sound work, but if you’re also thinking it really needs cooking, it has that, too.
Building instruments is a thing:
In addition to a sumptuous feast of soundtracks from the Square Enix games catalog, the channel has also featured the full roster of sound and composition staff, including some serious legends. And they get to talk to an animated fox/cat alien named Mr. SEM, which is how all interviews should be conducted.
There are new faces, like Octapath Traveler composer Yasunori Nishiki:
Food is going to keep coming up, but “composing is like cooking”:
And there’s Yoko Shimomura, who deserves to stand with soundtrack composers across media, and is perhaps the only(?) composer I can think of to have major credits with Capcom, Nintendo, and Square Enix. (Kingdom Hearts, Street Fighter II, Super Mario RPG, Live A Live, Final Fantasy XV, Legend of Mana, and the list goes on.
How does she deal with tough deadlines and stuck inspiration? She finds melodies while picking up ingredients at the supermarket:
She’s as engaging in an interview as her music; you could easily listen to either on endless loop:
And she is a Dragon Quest fan!
From the Mana series, there’s the epic composer Hiroki Kikuta:
Kenji Ito has been all over soundtracks from the past 30-plus years, including SaGa and Mana and Final Fantasy:
Square Enix has turned its rich library of compositions into concert form, for which it turns to Natsumi Kameoka for arrangements (known for her work on the Xeno series). And look out, players, it may be “brutally difficult” to play (now that’s always someone I can respect!):
Every team member is represented — like sound department Nao Ooe:
By the way, if all this has left you itching for an RPG, I can’t recommend Octapath Traveler highly enough. “Ah, but I don’t have a console to play it on!” Ah, but you do — it runs so well under Parallels [affiliate link] on Apple Silicon on macOS, that my M1 feels like a PC. I’ve been slowly playing through it there, especially as a Live A Live fan (the title that inspired it). You just install Windows ARM under Parallels and go. [affiliate link — If you buy something from a CDM link, we may earn a commission.]
Sorry, I’m thinking of the Live A Live score again, and wondering if this happened in the produce section:
Here, have what may be one of the greatest bangers in all of video game history:
This is not a paid placement. You’d probably have to pay me to not talk about this set of topics, and even then, you don’t have the budget. Enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/@squareenixmusicchannel9893