Development Staff of Crisis Core -FinalFantasy VII- ● PART 4
I want the music to be oppressive and hard to ignore
——Ishimoto, how did you get this job?
Ishimoto
About two and a half years ago, Tabata, the director, talked to me about it. At that time, I heard that they were going to make a Compilation of FFVII work for the PSP, but I didn’t know what exactly the game was about. But I also liked FFVII, and I had written songs for BC and LO in the Compilation, so I said, “I’ll do it”.
——Do you have a special attachment to FFVII?
Ishimoto
I was very shocked when I played it myself at the time. Since the work had strong individuality in its worldview and characters, it was easy for me to grasp the image when composing the music for this project. However, FFVII was made with a small amount of memory due to hardware limitations, and so was a little unwieldy in that respect. CC was initially designed to play songs from a small amount of memory, but I said that it sounded like karaoke background music, which would not fit the serious scenarios and characters, and that it should be streamed playback (playing music straight from the UMD). As a result, we were given enough memory to implement streamed playback, and we managed to do that with the songs and sound effects.
Fujita
With the sound effects, we were always thinking of ways to save memory. Because of this, there is no conflict between sound effects and songs in memory, such as parts of a song disappearing when a sound effect is played.
——This time, the songs can be largely divided into those composed by Ishimoto and those adapted from FFVII songs.
Ishimoto
The reason I included songs from FFVII was not because I was ordered to do so, but because I chose the songs I wanted to include. About a quarter of the songs were arranged, and I was prepared to receive harsh criticism from people who liked the original FFVII songs when I actually started working on them, because I wanted the music to feel right in my own way.
——So, what kind of image did you have in mind when you were writing the original music for CC?
Ishimoto
Nomura (Tetsuya Nomura: Creative Producer & Character Designer) asked us to put a song in the trailer for the 2006 E3 exhibition. It was a very interesting experience for me. At that time, I was told, “I want the song to start slowly with acoustic guitar and build up later.” In LO, a song with an acoustic guitar plays on the car radio, and he said that kind of song is good.
——Did the songs from LO serve as a reference for this project?
Ishimoto
Yes, they did. I also wanted to incorporate plenty of other types of music, such as rock and string quartets. The result of this process was a series of songs that were played at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show. It started with a slow acoustic guitar, followed by some intense rock, and ended quietly with piano music. Those three types of music are the basis for the songs in CC. No matter which song I hear, I usually overlap those three types of music.
——Indeed, the game [music] has an ambitious composition with rock and orchestral elements.
Ishimoto
I’m a bit unorthodox, so I wanted to do something more avant-garde, something that no one else was doing. This time, we included a lot of rock music, and I don’t think there has ever been a title with the name FF in it that has so much rock music in it. Listening to it myself, I thought it might be a little opressive (laughs), but for me, music that has a distinct presence is better than music that makes people ask, “Was there any music playing?”
The sound effects are almost on the same level as on a console
——How did you create the sound effects this time?
Fujita
We began by solidifying the appearance of the world of the original version and trying not to destroy that image. It’s hard to be specific about that image because it’s so vague. I’m sure that everyone has various feelings about FFVII, but based on my own image of FFVII, I tried to preserve what I thought “FFVII is all about” while inserting new things into it. We were especially careful with the sound effects in the main menu, which users hear most often, and made them exactly the same as in FFVII.
——How many different types of sound effects did you create for CC altogether?
Fujita
I don’t know exactly because I didn’t keep count, but the number of types is already in the tens of thousands. However, I didn’t create all of the sound effects from scratch, but rather selected the base sounds from my library and changed them to suit the scene, so it is not necessarily a matter of numbers.
Inakura
For example, in the FFVII series, if a character wears the same clothing as in AC, we can use the same sound materials as in AC for things like footsteps and accessory sounds, so the work can be completed surprisingly quickly.
Fujita
Instead, I spend most of my time setting up the sound to match the timing of the video. Since work would begin after the images, events, effects, etc. had been finished, the density of work at the end of the development period was frightening.
——I guess it was hard to decide whether or not to add as many sound effects to a handheld game as to a console game.
Fujita
Because of issues with things like polyphony and memory, at first I thought it would be okay to have fewer sound effects. But as I saw the beautiful images being finished, I became less and less conscious of the difference between the consoles. As a result, we added sound effects at almost the same level as on a console, and we always played some kind of sound in the background, and tried to make it possible to hear as many different sounds as possible.
——Are there any particular sound effects that you would like people to listen to?
Fujita
I like the sound effects of the events at the Nibel Mako Reactor myself. Especially the scene where Cloud stabs Sephiroth, I was very careful to make it “as realistic as possible while still being dramatic”. The sound when Cloud stabs his sword, the sound when Jenova’s capsule is broken by the sword, and other such sounds were carefully designed to make it easier for the player to become emotionally involved with Cloud and Sephiroth, so I hope you will listen to them.
Inakura
I also set up the sound effects and voices for the movies, and I was quite particular about the sound in the scene where Zack hands Cloud the Buster Sword in the rain. I made it so that only the sound of the rain and the voices created the mood until Ayaka’s song played, so I hope you will listen to that in a quiet place.
The scene where Aerith reads the letter brought tears to my eyes in the recording studio
——Did you take into consideration the fact that it is on a portable device in terms of voice?
Suga
I am often involved in voice recording, and when I looked at the finished script, the amount of dialogue was so large that I was very worried about whether it would fit on a portable device (laughs).
Inakura
It’s not that we did anything different from what we did with the console, but I was really happy that such a large amount of voice [lines] could fit on the UMD.
——Many of the voice actors who appeared in the game have played the same role several times already.
Suga
Yes. However, since all the characters have different ages compared to previous productions, the sound director had a lot of trouble directing them. This was also the first time in FF that Aerith would speak while alive. But when Maaya Sakamoto, who plays Aerith, did the voice, I easily thought, “Oh, it feels like this”. In particular, the scene where she reads the letter to Zack was so touching that I was moved to tears when I was there at the recording site, so please listen carefully.
——Some characters appeared for the first time in CC. How was the casting decided?
Suga
Beginning with Kazuhiko Inoue as Angeal, the decision was basically made according to Nomura’s image. As for Cissnei, she is a younger character, so we decided on a young voice actor who would be suitable for her, after listening to demo tapes and other works in which she has appeared.
——Gackt as Genesis was very impactful.
Suga
Gackt also played Genesis in DC, so we asked him to join us again in that vein. Genesis has a lot of lines, so it was difficult to record, but it turned out very well, partly because the actor himself was so enthusiastic about the role.
Inakura
He acted like a normal voice actor, so people around me didn’t recognize him as Gackt. I have had people ask me if he was really the one talking.
——Everyone on the development staff, including the voice actors, had a desire to make CC a great work.
Ishimoto
For example, Oka (Masaru Oka: Event Planning Director) did most of the work this time, including setting the timing of the music. With that kind of collaboration with the event staff, I feel that the voices and music are becoming a way to control the user’s emotions, thanks to such cooperation with the event staff. In order to create a singular work of art called CC, we couldn’t have anything lacking. It is not good if the music quality is low, if the characters look bad, or if the scenario is not good enough. I think that each of these elements, each of which has something outstanding, came together to produce a good work of art…… I guess that’s a little too much praise for a title we created ourselves (laughs).
“I have a strong desire to do something more avant-garde, something that other people aren’t doing.”
“I think that voice and music has become a way to control the user’s emotions.”
Composer
石元丈晴 — Takeharo Ishimoto
Story secrets only I know
Hirokazu Ogura, who played the slide guitar part in “Aerith’s Theme,” is the guitarist behind Keisuke Kuwata. It was a coincidental reunion after 15 years, and we were both surprised to see each other at this time.
Chief Sound Editor
藤田宜敬 — Yoshitaka Fujita
Story secrets only I know
This time, I didn’t record many actual sounds to be used as sound effects, but in one event scene, I used my throat to produce a sound that was then processed and played. If you know which scene it is, you are a fanatic.
Dialogue Editor
須賀麻子 — Asako Suga
Story secrets only I know
Shinra soldiers and the others are voiced by development staff. Producer Imaizumi also voiced [someone]. He said, “Don’t use it because it’s embarrassing,” but I secretly used it (laughs).
Sound & Dialogue Editor
福倉遼 — Ryo Inakura
Story secrets only I know
Zack’s battle voice was originally supposed to switch between the first and second tracks, and we recorded them. However, due to [UMD] capacity limitations, I was only able to include one of them, and the second voice track went unused.